Underdog's Secret Origin

[tv star collector]

Underdog's Secret Origin

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Although written in 1963, by Buck Biggers and Chet
Stover, Underdog's back story was never used in an
episode. It appears for the first time in their 2005
book HOW UNDERDOG WAS BORN (published by Bear Manor Media).

The pup who would become Underdog was born (not on another planet) but in Huntsville, West Virginia, the son of a coal miner. His poor family had difficulty making ends meet. His mother helped earn money by writing poetry for local and regional publications.

Underdog was born Lewis N. Clark, Jr. Junior's life
was uneventful until he was about to enter high
school. A dangerous criminal escaped from Fullsome
Prison and Lewis, Sr., found he was extraordinarily
gifted at tracking and found the path the escaped
criminal had taken.

He captured the escapee, repeated the feat several
times and his fame spread rapidly. Soon he he was
called upon by prison officials, bail bondsmen, even
private individuals suffering because someone close
to them had vanished. The elder Lewis could have
become wealthy, but he refused to take monetary
advantage of his talent.

His tracking freed him from the coal mine. His
reputation grew. Only once was he unsuccessful in
his pursuit of a criminal: a fraudulent dentist.
Chasing the dentist (who, by the way, had removed
two healthy teeth from Lewis himself) across a
railroad crossing, Lewis' car stalled and he didn't
hear the approaching train. He lived just long enough to make a deathbed plea in the hospital. He asked his son to finish the hunt and bring the dentist to justice.

Although distraught over her husband's death, Molly Clark did not try to stop junior from going after the dentist. On a stormy night filled with lightning, Junior
picked up the trail and tracked him to a deserted
coal mine. Actually, the dentist had been leading
Junior to the mine, intending to destroy him.

To finish him off,the dentist began pumping
"laughing gas"into the mine. When the gas reached
the bottom of the mine where Junior was trapped,
a bolt of lightning struck the mine .

The combination of lightning and laughing gas in
that small area far beneath the earth produced an
unrelated explosion which literally turned the coal
into diamonds--and Junior underwent a comparable
transformation. Junior's eyes, ears, and muscles
underwent a remarkable change, and he was
empowered to become "Underdog."

Junior didn't immediately tell his mother what had
happened. They were still grieving over the loss of
a father and husband. But he finally spoke to her--
he had to tell someone--and revealed his new
powers. She told him he had to use those powers
"to fight for right and help others in need." She
said, "Help to bring a balance to life, to protect the
poor and the helpless, the needy, the underdogs of
the world."

And that was how he got his new name, "Underdog."

Wouldn't that storyline have made a great movie?

[comedyfreak]

That would have been better than the one in the movie, they should have made all the Underdog characters CGI like the Chipmunks.