The Bongo Congo

On my drive to work this morning, a rat ran across the road in front of my car. At first I though it was a squirrel. Then I noticed the ratty tail, and knew this was no squirrel. A name popped into my head - Biggie Rat. Hmmm... Where did that come from? I gave it some thought, and started to remember a long-forgotten cartoon show from my early childhood. The cartoon was set in the Bongo Congo, where the king was a lion named Good King Leonardo. Seems to me he was kind of a doofus. His sidekick was a skunk named true blue Odie Cologne, who sounded like actor Ronald Coleman. There were two bad guys who always wanted to take over the kingdom. Biggie Rat was a gangster rodent. His partner was the king’s ne’er-do-well brother, Itchy Brother. I remember him as scruffy and not-too-bright. The evil plots were crazy, but the good guys always won. There were a couple of other cartoons in the half-hour show. Tooter Turtle always wanted to be somewhere else. A magical lizard (with a German accent) named Mr. Wizard would zap Tooter into a situation he thought he wanted. Then things would fall apart, and Tooter would yell for Mr. Wizard to bring him back. “Trissle tressle trussle trome, time for this one to come home”. Tooter would be back to normal, having learned his lesson. It sounds kind of dorky describing it now, but I enjoyed knowing that Tooter would soon be in a world of hurt (what does that say about me?). The other feature was The Hunter, a detective dog with a southern accent and a horn. His arch-nemesis was the Fox. I got a real kick out of the Fox because his crimes were so outlandish. He stole stuff like the Eiffel Tower, and then disguised it as an amusement park ride or put it at the bottom of the ocean. The Hunter was kind of dumb (seems to be a pervasive theme among the good guys) but would beat the Fox in the end by accident. These cartoons were imaginative and fun to watch. I’m not sure if I’m remembering them accurately. The memories I do have make me smile, though. That’s what counts.