Heroes to the Rescue!

This week Secret Squirrel and his sidekick Morocco Mole

A Slice of History

Created by the illustrious duo of Hanna Barbera, Secret Squirrel made his debut originally in 1965 in the Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel Show but was given his show in 1966. A year later, he was once again reunited with Atom Ant.

The Secret Squirrel Show was a thirty-minute show consisting of three ten-minute cartoons that were a parody of the highly successful spy genre, especially of James Bond, as Secret Squirrel was known as Agent 000.

Secret Squirrel remained in the background compared to other, more successful HB characters such as Scooby Doo; however, the show appeared consistently throughout the 1970s and 80s, with a catalogue of only 26 episodes made up until 1993.

In 1993 a further 13 new cartoons were made with new animation and given the title of Super Secret Squirrel. The new animation had several changes to the artwork, such as characters with harder, sharper looks and included a recast of the voice actors. In these newly rebooted cartoons, we saw Secret Squirrel inhabiting an almost all-animal world, and he now also had a potential love interest in the chief's assistant, Penny, again mirroring the James Bond films.

In these new cartoons, our hero had lost his trade mark lisp and had switched personalities with his assistant Morocco Mole (more below).

Although rarely shown after the early 2000s, Secret Squirrel remains an iconic cartoon for a generation who grew up on this pint-sized spy.

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Characters

Secret Squirrel

The incredible Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Barney Rubble, Dino and Captain Caveman, to name a few) voiced the original Secret Squirrel and gave him his trade make lisp.

Our trench coat-wearing spy was famous for his fedora and an eye mask to maintain his secret identity. He followed all his orders to fight evil, originally from Double Q of the International Squeaky Service.

It was Secret Squirrel's job to fight enemy agents using spy gadgets such as machine guns, cranes, grips and a collection of weapons, all hidden under his bulletproof trench coat, along with devices concealed in his fedora.

Morocco Mole

Fez-wearing, bespectacled sidekick Morocco Mole was typically found helping our hero close the case. In the original 1960s cartoon, he was ‘the brains’ of the duo; however, in the 1993 re-vamp, the characters had a role reversal, with Morocco Mole becoming the more incompetent, bumbling character.

Double Q

Double Q gave the orders that Secret Squirrel had to follow. In the original series, he was an angry middle-aged man. By the time the reboot happened, he had changed into a cape buffalo to match the new almost all-animal landscape. He now also had his catchphrase- ‘Good Show, Secret’, and had adopted a British accent and was known simply as ‘The Chief.’

Yellow Pinkie

This was the arch nemesis of Secret Squirrel, and the play on words was a deliberate parody of Gold Finger from James Bond and his appearance was modelled on Kasper Gutman from The Maltese Falcon. Although the duo fought several villains, Yellow Pinkie appeared in the original and remake of the cartoon.

Fun Facts

• Nearly every villain was bald.

• ‘Heroes to the Rescue’ was their catchphrase.

• All the gadgets were stored in Secret Squirrel’s trench coat or fedora.

• In Germany, our hero was known as Siegfried Sqirrel.

• The eye mask that Secret Squirrel wears can register his emotions.