- Title: Underdog – Safe Waif
- IMDb: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to the misadventures of humble and lovable Shoeshine Boy, better known as everyone’s favorite rhyming canine super-hero Underdog. The first adventure (originally airing on October 3, 1964) features Underdog’s (Wally Cox) attempts to rescue a boy trapped in a bank vault. Setting ongoing themes which would follow throughout the show’s run, Underdog causes quite a bit of damage and panic with his heroics including first destroying the vault of the wrong bank and then setting another bank on fire only to put it out with super-breath which causes tornado-like force that levels most of the building. While none of the supporting characters appear in the first short, we do get the show’s humorous take on the famous crowd reaction to seeing Superman (along with Shoeshine transforming inside a telephone booth) and the show’s memorable theme song.