wait remember timon and pumbaa well who doesn't they are iconic characters from the lion king
films but specifically i am talking about their own tv show spin-off titled after them timon and
pumbaa the name of the show is spot on that is who they are now they were popular enough to have
their own spin-off show as well as a pseudo-sequel prequel remix of the film the lion king titled the
lion king one and a half which sees the events of the first movie but from the perspective of timon
and pumbaa the whole time including their own set of personal storylines all with a mystery
science theater fourth wall breaking attitude and ah i just love it but do i love this show i like
these characters a lot but will these new sets of globetrotting adventures give me the same energy
and dynamic duo connection i get from the movies i remember enjoying it when i was younger so let's
dig into what this show was how it came to be what happened to it as i relive my time watching it
come on what are you doing i'm fast forwarding to the part where we come in hakuna matata
ah here we go timon and pumbaa or more correctly the lion kings timon and pumba
followed around these two titular characters on their own journey separate from the movies they
themselves followed one simple message and their own personal philosophy hakuna matata
it means no worries well at least for the rest of your days but i'm sure you
already knew that it's also the song used for the theme song of the show so kudos for
the most obvious smart marketing aspect of this whole show the show itself was mainly episodic
a fact that the less than consistent timeline the series has heavily utilized with episodes
ranging and flipping between occurring after the events of the first movie during the events of
the first movie or even stepping earlier in time for events prior to the events of the first movie
long story short these stories can take place at any point in the lion king timeline throughout
these adventures timon berkowitz and pumbaa smith yes those are their actual last names would travel
all around the globe going everywhere from the uk to italy to even canada that's unheard of as well
as many many more places all the while having misadventures with the animals that live in the
locations they visit the style of the adventures though played out with a more stereotypical
buddy cop dynamic delving deeper into the tighter nuances of timon and puma's relationship than we
see from the original film there was also a strong emphasis on slapstick referencing their comedic
stylings from the film but turning it up a bit more here in fact timon and pumbaa keep a lot of
their base personalities that we already know and love pumbaa being the loyal and caring type and
timon being the wisecracking and lazier type only main differences now are that they are expanded
upon a lot more in the series as we get to see them in more over-the-top various wacky situations
interestingly enough despite the name of the show a few episodes were not focused exclusively on
those two but rather seeing episodes that focused on or heavily featured secondary characters like
some familiar faces making returns from the movie like rafiki the hyena trio zazu and even simba but
this isn't just a callback and references show there are plenty of new characters added in to
spice up the adventures and help flesh out the places timon and pumbaa visit characters like
speedy a talking snail that rather than slurp up like the usual grubs they eat they befriend fred
a meerkat friend from timon's childhood who loves to prank the pair often and toucan dan a criminal
con artist mastermind who often pulls one over on timon and pumbaa with his various schemes
most notably however is the addition of quint the first human to make an appearance in any lion king
media quint was kind of like the antagonist jack of all trades switching up between the roles he
plays and disguises he uses episode to episode but still always in a position that would cause
issues and problems for timon and pumbaa what is nice is that for pumbaa his original voice
actor ernie sabella returns to voice him sadly nathan lane doesn't reprise his role as timon well
he does for a bit of the first season along with quinton flynn but kevin shawn replaces them for
the other seasons of the show and does a fantastic job as a great replacement for the series
funny as kevin has replaced nathan lane in other properties as someone who sounds very similar
like in the stuart little franchise where nathan lane voiced snowball in the first two movies
but not in the third you see the third one he was voiced by kevin but let's now take a look
into how the series came to be in general you are my true bestest best friend so where's my present
hakuna matata simon and pumbaa we'll be right back kick back and watch some more timon and puma
january 4th 1995. a little less than a year after the runaway success of the lion king in theaters
for disney timon and pumbaa was announced as a spin-off television series the then president of
disney animation gary crizel felt that timon and pumbaa had the greatest potential to be a powerful
iconic comedy team and specifically wanted to increase more media centered around just the pair
gary here had the right idea bob's ganaway and tony craig were brought onto the series
as producers in an effort to begin expanding on the personalities of timon and pumbaa
with the pair seeing this as vital to keep the series fresh and the show interesting luckily
at this point in the lion king franchise it was pretty open range for creative ideas as the years
followed we would see sequels spin-off games the whole nine acres but at this point in 95
we really only had the first movie so that canvas was blank bob's and tony would later go on to be
part of many other disney tv animations including movie spin-offs with stuff like house of mouse 101
dalmatians the series lilo and stitch the series and of course the emperor's new school another
familiar face kevin campbell was on board as a writer and personally would spend time with bob's
in the early days of the show's conception making a list of countries names and puns surrounding
them to help come up with the episode ideas from this point these two would look into the wildlife
of those countries pick specific animals and write an episode directly related to said animal in said
country and timon and pumba somehow interacting with them several months later on september 8th
1995 timon and pumbaa took the spotlight as their show would officially premiere bobs and tony
remained on the show as producers for the show's first two seasons stepping away from the project
sometime around 1996 to 1997 which makes sense as this was common when other properties would
start formulating and disney wanted the right leadership and crew on board to help launch them
here specifically with 101 dalmatians the series starting up and they were both producers on chris
bartleman and blair peter stepped into the role of producers for the show's third and final season
these two would go on to work on such shows as kid vs cat and my little pony friendship is magic
the final season of the show itself containing the bulk of the series episodes while season 1
had 25 and season 2 had 21 season 3 would have a total of 39 episodes that's almost as much as
season 1 and 2 combined during the three seasons it was on the air timon and pumbaa aired on cbs
tuned disney and as a part of the disney afternoon a two-hour animation block that aired such shows
as gargoyles and chippendales rescue rangers after a total of 85 episodes timon and pumbo
remained on the air until september 24th 1999 the disney channel played reruns of the show up until
2008 and tune disney played re-runs up until the channel ceased to exist on february 8
2009. funny enough it had one more run in march of 2012 when disney launched disney junior as its
own separate channel with only a handful of select episodes of the series being chosen to be played
but as of 2014 that show was removed altogether from disney junior and now resides completely on
disney plus which hey that's pretty nice but why was the show canceled overall in the first place
was it received well or not was it due to the golden disney 65 limit rule that it also forgot
to enforce on so many shows for some reason and they felt the time was up or were there other
plans down the road for timon and pumbaa behind the scenes you mind if i pause it for a second
sure go ahead be right back these two unlikely friends really know their way around the jungle
and now back to timon and pumbaa right here on tune disney timon and pumbaa was actually received
quite positively couldn't have said it better myself with the show receiving over 17 annie award
nominations during its run and three total wins sadly like i said the show was cancelled after the
third season with no official reason being stated which is common i'd chalk it up to most shows
getting about two or three seasons from disney and then ending while it surprisingly did pass the 65
episode rule so did many other shows so i don't think it was directly related to that or else
episode 65 would have been its last it could have been down to the shift in writers and producers
between the second and third season or due to the purchase of abc that disney had made but
that happened in 1996 with the show still continuing on for quite some years after that so
i'll leave those up to theories and speculations rather than a straight up fact whatever the reason
is it eventually led to something that i hold dear that i briefly touched on before in 2004
the success of timon and poomba still lingered around and now with two full lion king movies
out there was a way to continue to brand these two characters specifically and bring more attention
to them here is where we saw the lion king one and a half come into the picture focusing exclusively
around the characters of timon and pumbaa prior and during the events of the first movie
i actually genuinely love this movie as much as i love the lion king as the great film that it is
there is just something about the lion king one and a half that i just enjoy so much i still have
the dig a tunnel song stuck in my head to this day and every time i receive a hug i still have
the urge to say choking not breathing man i i think all i am is nostalgia why can i ever just
leave the past anyway before i get all existential i'll leave it at that i just love that movie and
i greatly enjoy these two characters together the show overall does have its issues i mean
it even starts with a message before you start watching it on disney plus about certain aspects
being depicted that definitely aren't great in any way but for timon and pumbaa themselves
i just love their dynamic how they get into the shenanigans they do the way they care for
each other and the slapstick comedy that they pull off so well and of course how can i forget
the music there were a handful of music covers with remix lyrics for songs like stand by me
the lion sleeps tonight etc it wasn't necessary to have it in there when it was there but it was very
welcome as we know these characters specifically had a great musical rhythm thanks to the movie
itself which again here has hakuna matata as its intro music theme there was a video game that was
based off of the show technically titled timon and pumbaa's jungle games released in 1995 on the pc
with a super nintendo port in 1997 furthering the push for these characters that gary really wanted
it consisted of five mini-games like pinball a burping based shooter a hippo version of
what essentially is frogger a slingshot based game and bug drop which was a matching game
bug drop however was not ported to the super nintendo version in more recent years another
lion king spin-off tv series hit tv titled the lion guard and while there is no inherent
connection to anything timon and pumbaa the series about it these characters are in that
show with ernie sabella and kevin shawn playing them again as well as the creator ford riley
was actually a writer on the third season of timon and pumbaa so just a fun little fact
background connection there which is pretty cool rewatching this show was definitely a fun time
albeit a fair bit has aged poorly the concept of the show with two great characters kept
my attention throughout while not every tv series spin-off of a movie property was great
some of them out there are way better than you'd think they would be but i do plan on covering more
soon so make sure to let me know your thoughts on timon and pumbaa as well as what other tv show
spin-offs of movies you'd like to see me cover let me know in the comments thanks so much for
watching make sure to hit the like button and subscribe for more content like this follow me
on twitter and i'll be back with another video soon but until then later well enough of that
you