Manny the Uncanny is an unusual and curious person, who travels around the "world" looking for new and exciting things to try. He would speak in a nasally Jewish accent that his actor, Paul Rugg, was known for doing. He hosted his own self-titled segment on Disney's One Saturday Morning.
Overview[]
Manny the Uncanny would be seen wandering the inside of the One Saturday Morning building, interacting with the children, workers and animals that inhabited its structure. He was among the cast of characters that would introduce the animated programming, including Pepper Ann, Disney's Doug, and Recess by fiddling with the machinery. In between commercial breaks, One Saturday Morning would cut to Manny's mini-show.
Manny the Uncanny[]
Every episode opened with Manny hanging from a giant inflated man named Mr. Lighter-than-air who from a side view looked to be among the sky, but from a top view would be floating just above the Hubble Space Telescope above Earth's surface. The following surreal exchange would take place:
Manny: "Where are we going today, Mr. Lighter-than-air?"
Mr. Lighter-than-air: "Well, Manny...someplace wonderful!"
This was immediately followed by a short song sung by Manny:
- Hi there ho and happy days
- Let's have some fun and not be laz-y
- It's true!
Manny has visited a variety of places, including Hollywood, Gold's Gym, United States Mint, Medieval Times, United Nations, and Los Angeles Zoo, where he traveled with voice actor Frank Welker and learned how he gets his inspiration for animal noises.
Manny was sometimes accompanied by a small ventriloquist dummy version of himself named Little Manny who once attacked him so that he could introduce an episode. While attending Mime School, he brought along Smuch the Cat, a small robotic cat that could talk.
Manny's America[]
Due to Manny not necessarily traveling the world (so much as he traveled to places around America) the short form series changed its name to Manny's America. This show's intro began with Manny on a scooter, wearing a helmet that is useless to cover his tall hair, and proclaiming, "Let's go see America!" before riding off. A new song intro would follow:
- Today we'll have some fun
- I can feel it in my glands
- So come on let's go exploring
- Through this country's many lands
- We'll meet smany people
- And make some memories
- Your eyes won't be believing
- All the stuff your eyeballs see
- It's true!
This was usually accompanied by wacky animation of Manny riding his scooter through an animated map of the United States of America.
Physical appearance[]
Manny the Uncanny has by far the most unusual appearance of any live action character in the Disney family, which is very true to his name. He is recognized for his brown plaid suit, which seems to be slightly big for him, as evidenced by the way his pants flop near the bottom of his feet. He wears a brown plaid bow tie to match as well as shoes resembling Oxfords. Manny's shirt microphone was tied to his vest and noticeably larger than a regular one. Despite this, he usually carried a regular microphone with him. Manny also wears stereotypical nerdy glasses, but his most distinguishing feature was his tall fiery hair pointed straight up, making it resemble a raindrop.
Trivia[]
- The voice used by Paul Rugg for Manny the Uncanny is similar to his voice for Mr. Director from Animaniacs, which in turn is loosely based on the eccentric nasally voice stylings of comedian Jerry Lewis.
- Manny apparently is afraid of authority figures like police officers.
- Manny cannot drink "bubbly" drinks.