Whatever happened to Dum-Dum Demon?
Hanna-Barbera has imprinted its indelible mark on generations of children. It might be difficult to find anyone, at least in the western hemisphere, who has not been touched by one of the companies many animated works; Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, The Flinstones, just to name a few. But perhaps Hanna-Barbera’s most unusual effort was Dum-Dum Demon.
Development on Dum-Dum began in 1967 following the summer of love and the release of The Rolling Stones Their Satanic Majesties Request. The thought at Hanna-Barbera was that they needed to tap into young peoples new fascination with magic and the occult. Characters were developed and production moved forward to capitalize on this burgeoning area of the youth market. The end result was the story of Dum-Dum Demon, his side kick Impy and their on going search for souls. Standing in their demonic way was the irascible Father Finnegan. A sure fire hit, right?
By November of 1969 work had been completed on 9 episodes but, after the horrors of the Manson murders and fatal stabbing of Meredith Hunter by Hells Angel Alan Passaro at Altamont, the bloom was off the hippie/occult rose and NBC dropped Dum-Dum from it’s upcoming Saturday morning schedule before it had even aired.
Unable to make a deal with any other network Hanna-Barbera halted production and shelved the entire project. TV studio executives, and even some at Hanna-Barbera, voiced concerns that Dum-Dum Demon was a cursed project and that it’s failure was due to its Satanic subject manner. Dum-Dum Demon was relegated to Television Hell.
The only documented airings of Dum-Dum Demon occurred beginning in 1972 when the semi-independent TV station KCND somehow secured the rights to air Dum-Dum for a 2 year period. KCND’s 288,000 watt tower, standing 1450 feet high, located near the Canadian boarder in Pembina, North Dakota, served Grand Forks and its surrounding areas including north to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. If you were one of the lucky children alive in 1972-74 that lived within the broadcasting reach of KCND, then you probably viewed at least one episode of Dum-Dum Demon along with The New Adventures of Pinnochio, Tales of the Wizard of Oz and Rocket Robin Hood on Cartoon Cavalcade, airing 4 pm each weekday.
KCND would eventually be sold to Canadian company CanWest which moved the station to Winnipeg and began broadcasting as CKND on august 31 1975. No video recordings of KCND programming are known to exist. The search for any copies of Dum-Dum Demon continue.
Hanna-Barbera title card. Dum-Dum Demon “All Souls Picnic”
All Known Dum-Dum Demon episodes:
ALL SOULS PICNIC- Dum-Dum and Impy learn about a church picnic and attend in disguise so they can snack on delicious souls.
DUM DUM IN A PICKLE- Dum-Dum gets himself trapped in a VooDoo queens pickle jar.
THE PIES THE LIMIT- Dum-Dum uses his book of incantations to make a church lady die but instead casts a spell to make pie.
LLEH SI SSENISUB CISUM EHT- Dum-Dum and Impy start a band to entice teenagers to the dark side but there is a backward masking mix up. Impy is offended by Dum-Dums chastising and hatches a plan for a solo career.
THAT DOG WON’T HUNT- Dum-Dum needs Impy to inhabit the body of a dog but the dog is too lazy.
YUM YUM DUM DUM- Dum Dum works in a restaurant with a plan to steal souls using food.
THE ROAD TO DWELL- Dum Dum and Impy are tired of their squalid little apartment and decide to drive a family out of their mansion so they can live in it.
THE LAST DERAIL- Dum Dum and Impy do a favour for Satan and escort a soul to hell. In return, Satan will fix Dum-Dums Noggin.
GET TO THE BACK OF THE CEREBUS- Dum-Dum and Impy have to make a trip back to hell and they’re late for an appointment with Baphomet. But their car runs out of liquid sulphur and they have to take the Cerebus.