William Watts Biggers, Co-Created Underdog
Biggers was an advertising executive when he helped to create the popular cartoon series for General Mills, which saw television as a way to promote its cereals.
William Watts Biggers co-creator of the popular cartoon Underdog, died February 10, 2013, at his Massachusetts home. He was 85.
According to news reports, the cause was a heart attack.
Biggers, a native of Georgia, was an account manager for the New York City advertising agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample when he accepted an assignment from the agency’s largest client, General Mills, to create TV cartoons to promote its breakfast cereals. He and copywriter Chet Stover conceived Underdog, whose title character, a mild-mannered canine showshine boy, becomes a caped superhero. Actor Wally Cox supplied the character's voice.
The Underdog series debuted on NBC in 1964. It moved to CBS for two years, then returned to NBC. It went off the air in 1973.
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