The Jungle Ditty Everybody Knows

George, George, George of the Jungle,

Friend to you and me (scream: Ahhhhhhhhhh!)

Watch out for that tree. . . .

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If ever a movie was based solely on an old TV theme song, it’s “George of the Jungle.”

True, “The Addams Family,” “The Flintstones” and “The Brady Bunch” had well-known themes, but those shows were well-remembered classics of the small screen.

“George of the Jungle,” an animated series from the creators of “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” lasted only 17 episodes and has been virtually impossible to find since ABC canceled the Saturday morning series in the early 1970s.

Its signature tune is a different story. Virtually every baby boomer (and many of their own children, it seems) can sing at least the opening lines--even if they never watched the show. That ultra-familiar song is one of the reasons Walt Disney agreed to proceed with the $50-million film, which opened Wednesday, starring Brendan Fraser.

“It was a real jumping-off point for the studio in wanting to make the movie,” producer Jordan Kerner explains. “It’s the one song that I know that makes everyone smile. It’s so incredibly infectious. Friends of mine tell me that when their kids hear it, five minutes later they know all the lyrics and are immediately singing the song.”

To update the theme for the ‘90s, the filmmakers recruited the Seattle-based rock band the Presidents of the United States of America to perform it under the film’s opening titles.

“They had a unique and hip enough voice to give a cool interpretation of it,” producer David Hoberman says. “For us, it made the statement that this is not just a kids’ song.”

The tune that everybody knows was the result of an afternoon’s work in 1967 by songwriters Stan Worth and Sheldon Allman. Worth was an accomplished singer and musician; Allman was a nightclub performer, game-show theme composer (“Let’s Make a Deal”) and character actor (he was the unsympathetic veterinarian in “Hud” and the prison chaplain in “In Cold Blood”).

Worth met with Jay Ward, producer of “George of the Jungle,” and got a brief rundown on the characters: a klutzy Tarzan-style lord of an African kingdom; his wife, Ursula; their well-educated ape friend, Ape; and his elephant Shep (who thinks he’s a dog). Ward wanted all of them mentioned in the title song. Plus, he wanted themes for two other cartoons within the “George” half-hour: the superhero spoof “Super Chicken” and the race-car driver “Tom Slick.”

“Stan came over to my house,” recalls Allman, now 73. “We started at 1 o’clock, and by 4 o’clock we had the three songs.” Allman’s wife came home about that time, making her the first person to hear the now-legendary tune. Her reaction, according to Allman: “You guys, with all of your talent and all of your training, and this is what you find to put your time in on? Shame on you.”

Although the song was a collaboration, the music was mostly Worth’s and the words were mostly Allman’s. (In fact, Allman’s line “away he’ll schlep on his elephant Shep” is believed to be the first instance of a Yiddish term in a TV theme.) For the original TV recording, Worth also arranged, sang, played keyboard and conducted the seven-member band.

Worth died in a plane crash in 1980. Allman never wrote for cartoons again but continued to write game-show themes and novelty tunes for TV, records and the stage. He wrote two songs for “Mr. Ed” (“Pretty Little Filly With the Pony Tail” and “The Empty Feedbag Blues”) and, with “Monster Mash” singer Bobby Pickett, a Frankenstein-Dracula-Wolfman musical called “I’m Sorry, the Bridge Is Out, You’ll Have to Spend the Night.”

His fame as the “George of the Jungle” songwriter earned Allman a day on the set, where he met the actors who were deferential, he says, “to an extent that I find embarrassing.”

For their part, the Presidents of the United States of America agreed to participate because the film offered an opportunity to work with producer Don Was. And, says guitarist Dave Dederer, they thought the script was hilarious.

The band jettisoned some of the original lyrics and added new ones. “The chorus [of the original] is very catchy, but the verse parts are quite forgettable,” Dederer says. “We tried to give them, musically, a little more oomph.”

The Presidents’ version serves as the end-title theme and is the basis for the MTV video, which features Jay Ward-style animation. For the movie’s animated opening, the Presidents’ cover was enhanced by composer Marc Shaiman’s elaborate overlay of sampled animal noises and orchestral sweetening.

Dederer & Co. aren’t crazy about this, but it was a big payday and they understand the realities of the biz. “The music business is extremely convoluted and hard to deal with,” Dederer says. “Then you get in the movie business, and you can multiply the weirdness to at least a power of 10 at the very minimum. Things just get so complicated. The fun of being a band, an artistic entity, is that you’re in full control of your destiny. It’s hard to give that up.”

Two-time Oscar nominee Shaiman (“The American President,” “The First Wives Club”) has been down the TV-to-film road before: He scored both “Addams Family” films, but barely used the original TV theme in either. With “George,” however, it was different: The TV theme is an integral element, interpolated throughout Shaiman’s lavish symphonic score.

“In this case, I completely embraced it as one of the two main themes for the George character,” he says. Adds Kerner: “Marc casts it in a heroic vein at times, and sometimes it’s woven very subtly in the midst of other scenes.”

Scoring the slapstick, over-the-top “George” was fun, Shaiman says. Director Sam Weisman and producers Hoberman and Kerner “were all in sync about the styles of music to use,” from traditional African tribal rhythms to big-band numbers. “On this movie, I got to use every burlesquey, vaudeville-shticky musical idea I’ve ever wanted to do,” the composer says with a laugh.

But the TV theme is the key. Explains Allman: “The song is easy to learn. You hear it once and you know it. The other thing is, it’s the connection of the character to the music. You cannot imagine ‘George of the Jungle’ without the song and you can’t sing the song without seeing George of the Jungle.”

According to Hoberman, marketing research indicates that “the recognition of the song is huge, particularly among really young kids, under 11 years old. There seems to be something about this song, and the yelling, that kids respond to.”

Adds Shaiman: “Both my little nephews are chomping at the vine to see this movie.”

Jon Burlingame is the author of “TV’s Biggest Hits” (Schirmer Books).

BE THERE

“George of the Jungle” is now screening in wide release. The original animated TV series airs weekdays at 9 a.m. on the Cartoon Network.