Follow TV Tropes

Following

Western Animation / Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/butch.JPG
"Travelin' around all over the world
Solvin' every mystery
Puttin' it together with the Sundance Kids
You're somethin' else, Butch Cassidy"

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1973 for NBC. The show features several Follow the Leader elements that are often bungled online. The Five-Man Band is designed to fit similar roles to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. However, the way band travels around the world foiling schemes and the nature of the people they apprehend makes the actual show more like a cross between Josie and the Pussycats and Jonny Quest. The show itself depicted the adventures of a teenybopper rock group - led by heartthrob Cassidy, who - while eluding fans - worked undercover with his bandmates as a team of teenage secret agents (Butch, Merilee, Steffy, Wally, and Wally's dog Elvis), solving mysteries and apprehending criminals.

The teen musical sleuths were advised by a supercomputer named Mr. Socrates, who, strangely enough, was highly allergic to fleabag Elvis. So when the group visited Mr. Socrates for their latest assignment, Elvis was always made to stay outside the lair. But in each episode, either Elvis would find his own way in, or Wally - forgetting Mr. Socrates' allergy - would for one reason or another bring Elvis into the lair. Either way, Elvis' presence would cause the supercomputer to violently sneeze, blowing the group out of the lair and off to their assignment (in one episode the mere mention of Elvis' name aggravated Mr. Socrates' allergy!).

Cassidy (designated as "Sundance 1") wore a special ring with a hidden communicator to keep in contact with Mr. Socrates from afar. When they performed their music, Butch sang and played lead guitar, Merilee played tambourine, Steffy was on bass guitar and Wally was the drummer.

The series title is a word-play on the title of the unrelated 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Micky Dolenz, formerly the drummer and most commonly used singer of The Monkees, provided the voice of Wally, drummer for The Sundance Kids.


The series provides examples of:

  • Band Toon: They are a band, and this is a cartoon.
  • Beach Episode: "The Pearl Caper" has Merilee and Butch go to the beach and switch into swim wear. "The Super Sub" does the same for Steffy and Wally.
  • Beeping Computers: Mr Socrates is an excellent example of how this trope was codified.
  • Bluff the Impostor: In "Double Trouble" the kids use rock trivia to find out which Prince Taki is the real one. Given the prince is a big rock fan and the imposter has no clue. For example, Wally asks him who drummer of The Beatles is and turns it into a trick multiple choice question. The imposter screws it up so badly, his answer is "George Harris' son."
  • Celebrity Masquerade: An incredibly popular teen pop group who are secretly Teen Superspies travel the world playing gigs as cover for their espionage activities.
  • Character Name and the Noun Phrase
  • Counterfeit Cash: In "The Counterfeiters", Butch and the gang are booked at an alpine lodge in Latvania while they secretly search for the source of counterfeit $20 bills.
  • Death Glare: Happens sometimes, usually from Steffy to Wally after some bad joke.
  • Depending on the Writer: In the manual Steffy and Wally are siblings, and in some episodes this is briefly mentioned such as Steffy calling him "brother of mine". That being said in another episode she refers to Wally's mother as "his mother," and in "The Haunted Castle" this relationship is not mentioned at all when Wally is the one to receive an inheritance. (Unless there's been some misreporting there and they are instead supposed to be step siblings.)
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Given the spy nature of the show most of the other agents we meet are only known by some kind of spy lingo nickname. Most notable among the various contacts the stars meet Once per Episode.
  • Extreme Sports Plot: In "Road Racers", Butch and the gang trace black market diamond thieves and discover they're using a cross-country racing driver to smuggle the gems out of Italy.
  • Fake Band: Literally. It’s their cover.
  • Fanservice: Butch, Merilee, Steffy and Wally all invoke this. They appear in swimwear twice during the show's one season within three different episodes. It's also notable as far as 70s Hanna-Barbera teen characters go that Steffy and Merilee's beachwear designs were among the least covering.
  • Green Around the Gills: Wally turns thoroughly green on a roller coaster in "The Gold Caper." It's established in an earlier episode that he also gets seasick and airsick.
  • Groupie Brigade: Butch and company are often mobbed by groupie fans.
  • Large Ham: Elvis sometimes. In "Double Trouble" Wally and Steffy want him to fake ill to call a vet. Elvis acts as if he's practically got the plague.
  • Laugh Track: As per usual with early 70s Hanna-Barbera standard.
  • Master of Disguise: Merliee sometimes dons a random get up in the line of the mission.
  • Mission Briefing: It's why they go to Mr. Socrates.
  • Named After Somebody Famous:
    • Elvis and Mr. Socrates.
    • Butch himself is an odd example sharing the name with a real life outlaw. While never outright expressed in the show the band name is probably intended an in-universe pun based on this trope. Out of universe, it's too late to say Don't Explain the Joke.
  • Once an Episode: Some way or another, Mr. Socrates will start sneezing whenever Elvis sneaks into the mission room, and at one time even when Butch petted Elvis before accepting a call on his ring.
  • Orient Express: In "Orient Express", Mr. Socrates interrupts the band's vacation to give them their next assignment: deliver a top-secret formula to their Paris headquarters via the Orient Express.
  • Pet's Homage Name: Elvis
  • Plot Allergy: Mr. Socrates' is dogs. Guess what Elvis is.
  • The Reveal: Used in the end of the first episode where we learn the scientist the group had come to rescue, is the creator of Mr. Socrates.
  • "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Utilized only in one episode "The Haunted Castle", much less than some would have you believe.
  • Shoe Phone: Butch's ring.
  • Spoofy-Doo: A team of youngsters traveling around the world with their dog and solving mysteries.
  • The Spymaster: Again, Mr. Socrates
  • Team Pet: Elvis
  • Teen Superspy: A very good example of this trope before it would boom in later years.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Steffy and Merilee.
  • Unexpected Inheritance: Wally receives an old castle from an Uncle he never knew in "The Haunted Castle".
  • You Meddling Kids: While not the normal type, they still are young people saving the day.

"I pick that ax, and then I get a call,
Some bad guy is gonna take a fall/
One by one we're gonna meet them all,
and solve that mystery...
Come along with me, Butch Cassidy...!"

Top