George of the Jungle swings back onto the small screen -- but the Schwarzeneggerian physique is gone, replaced by a younger, spindly-limbed body. All images © & ™ 2008 Cartoon Network.

Boom, boom, boom-ba ba-ba boom...

The most recognizable theme song (except for The Simpsons, of course) in TV cartoon history is back. After a close to 40-year absence, Jay Ward's George of the Jungle has swung back onto the screen -- and once again, face-first into that tree.

The song is familiar, but George doesn't look quite the way boomers remember him The Schwarzeneggerian physique is gone, replaced by a younger, spindly-limbed and somewhat less awe-inspiring body. Age discrimination, perhaps, but for the time being in kid-TV cartoonland, adult heroes need not apply...

"The old kid shows were totally different. Back then they were about adult characters and the subject matter was often adult," explains Evan Baily, EVP of Entertainment Rights group's Classic Media, the outfit behind George's return. (For AWN readers doing double-takes at the moment, "adult subject matter" back then meant something quite different from what goes down on Fox or Comedy Central these days.) "In some ways they were grownup-oriented, grownup-centric sitcoms for kids. Kids don't know from having a job or making a sales target, or romantic love in an adult way; a lot don't even really understand what money is. That subject matter affords less opportunity to connect with an audience that comes from a more kid-relatable context. "When we started [reviving George] we wanted to make the characters younger. The original George was a big muscle-y guy, with a deep voice -- a grown-up; Ursula was a grown woman -- a babe."

The characters soon shed a few years. "I think dad's George was in his 20s and this George is 15 or 16," says Tiffany Ward, daughter of the legendary Jay Ward and one of the new series' executive producers. "My dad always said, 'I don't write cartoons for kids -- I write for adults and the kids will get it. They'll hear the great voices, the funny-looking characters and they'll be entranced. The parents will be laughing at the inside jokes and the kids will be striving harder to get them.' The new George is maybe a little less sophisticated than the old George, but there are still plenty of jokes and humor in there for all ages."

"The challenge with George is how you keep him clueless but still a hero," Bailey muses. "Once you shrink down the muscles it becomes less incredibly obvious he's a hero. What we came to was George is a light switch stuck in the on position. He's brimming with energy, enthusiasm and optimism. He can talk to animals, he's super-strong, but his innocence is his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. It enables him to be constantly gulled, conned, rooked, fleeced and taken in a zillion different ways -- but it also enables him to see or look for the good in everyone. When things are ridiculously bleak he only sees the positive side of things and always keeps trying; that's his super power."

George and his jungle friends are now all teens. Ursula pals around with jungle gal Magnolia. Ape, George's elephant-who-thinks-he's-a-dog Shep and the Tookie-Tookie bird are also on hand.

Why did George get the call when Ward's other classic characters -- including the moose and squirrel themselves -- languish in the vaults? A good part of the credit goes to the successful 1997 live-action film starring the hunky Brendan Fraser as the thick-headed (and bare-chested) jungle king, followed by a direct-to-video effort in 2003, both of which raised the character's profile. By contrast, Fraser's 1999 turn as Dudley Do-Right went all but unnoticed, while the Robert DeNiro-produced live-action/animated Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle buried the famous duo under an avalanche of celebrity casting. ("Everyone at Universal was passionate about it. It just didn't fly the way we all thought it would," Tiffany Ward admits. "We're still proud of it.")

"It was terrific to work with Tiffany Ward on George of the Jungle," says Baily. "She knows this world and these characters better than anyone. She pushed us to stay true to her dad's vision and gave us a lot of insight into what made George work in the first place. We were lucky to have her on the team.

"There were a bunch of reasons [we chose George]," he adds, ticking off a few of them. "Number one is what are we most excited about, creatively? George is one of the greatest properties under our wing. There's a rights component as well -- do we have all the requisite international rights and rights to the ancillary businesses?

"The audience awareness is a huge plus. The kids know him not from the cartoons but from the live-action movie and the DTV sequel. It's a blend of considerations, but it seemed like we'd be idiots not to do it."

Classic partnered up with Tiffany's Jay Ward Productions to create Bullwinkle Studios, which is co-producing George with Vancouver-based DHX Media Ltd. subsidiary Studio B, where the show is animated. Four years of discussion and development led to the new series; animated in Flash, the new show has a more relaxed look than the original. "From a design standpoint," Baily says, "the original had a looseness and fluidity that I think was one of its principal charms. There was a lightness, a quickness in its writing, directing and acting which all tied together nicely.