The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican is an American animated television series that debuted on local stations in Chicago during the 1950s. It is exceedingly rare, but has gained some fame for appearing on Jerry Beck's Worst Cartoons Ever. On the DVD, Beck states that he has not found any evidence that this particular animated adaptation was aired on TV, although there is evidence that the Paddy the Pelican character began in 1950 as a local TV puppet show on Chicago's WENR-TV. Paddy's adventures were presented in comic strip drawings done by Sam Singer. This show appeared on the ABC network in the fall of 1950, but for only one month. The show aired on the ABC television network weekdays between 5:15 and 5:30pm from September 11, 1950 to October 13, 1950. Singer had also started producing a newspaper, Paddy Pelican Junior Journal. The animated episodes currently in existence all have copyright dates of 1954, but the copyright was never renewed, so the series is in the public domain today.