Western Animation / Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1973 for NBC. The show features several Follow the Leader elements that are often bungled online. The Five-Man Band is designed to fit similar roles to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. However, the way the band travels around the world foiling schemes and the nature of the people they apprehend makes the actual show more like a cross between Josie and the Pussycats and Jonny Quest. The show itself depicted the adventures of a teenybopper rock group led by heartthrob Cassidy, who - while eluding fans - worked undercover with his bandmates as a team of teenage secret agents (Butch, Merilee, Steffy, Wally, and Wally's dog Elvis), solving mysteries and apprehending criminals.

The teen musical sleuths were advised by a supercomputer named Mr. Socrates, who, strangely enough, was highly allergic to fleabag Elvis. So when the group visited Mr. Socrates for their latest assignment, Elvis was always made to stay outside the lair. But in each episode, either Elvis would find his own way in, or Wally - forgetting Mr. Socrates' allergy - would for one reason or another bring Elvis into the lair. Either way, Elvis' presence would cause the supercomputer to violently sneeze, blowing the group out of the lair and off to their assignment (in one episode, "Operation: G-Minus", the mere mention of Elvis' name aggravated Mr. Socrates' allergy!).

Cassidy (designated as "Sundance 1") wore a special ring with a hidden communicator to keep in contact with Mr. Socrates from afar. When they performed their music, Butch sang and played lead guitar, Merilee played tambourine, Steffy played bass guitar and Wally was the drummer.

The series title is a word-play on the title of the unrelated 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Micky Dolenz, formerly the drummer and most commonly used singer of The Monkees, provided the voice of Wally, drummer for The Sundance Kids.

The series provides examples of:

• A.I.'s Agent: The titular heroes are the team of intrepid field agents thwarting the villains. They get their assignments and research updates from a sapient computer named Mr. Socrates.
• Band Toon: They're a band, and this is a toon.
• Beach Episode: "The Pearl Caper" has Merilee and Butch go to the beach and switch into some swim wear. "The Super Sub" does the same for Steffy and Wally.
• Beeping Computers: Mr Socrates is an excellent example of how this trope was codified.
• Big Eater: Wally, big time. In fact, in an episode where the band went to Italy, the first thing on his mind is him wanting pizza.
• Big Good: Mr. Socrates.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Merilee (blonde), Butch and Steffy (brunette) and Wally (redhead)
• Bluff the Impostor: In "Double Trouble" the kids use rock trivia to find out which Prince Taki is the real one. Given the prince is a big rock fan and the imposter has no clue. For example, Wally asks him who drummer of The Beatles is and turns it into a trick multiple choice question. The imposter screws it up so badly, his answer is "George Harris' son."
• Celebrity Masquerade: An incredibly popular teen pop group who are secretly Teen Superspies travel the world playing gigs as cover for their espionage activities.
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase
• Comic-Book Adaptation: One appearance, in Gold Key's Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #11 (a little over two years since issue #10 was released). It was the pearl smuggling story.
• Company Cross-References: The theme song for The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan can be heard when the Sundance Kids go undercover in a Chinese dragon costume in "Hong-Kong Story".
• Counterfeit Cash: In "The Counterfeiters", Butch and the gang are booked at an alpine lodge in Latvania while they secretly search for the source of counterfeit $20 bills.
• Cuckoo Snarker: Despite Wally being the most eccentric out of the Sundance Kids, he has a habit of making snarky comments every now and again, mainly involving the state he and the band are in.
• Deadpan Snarker: Steffy, usually in regards to Wally's idiocy.
• Death Glare: Happens sometimes, usually from Steffy to Wally after some bad joke.
• Depending on the Writer: In the manual Steffy and Wally are siblings, and in some episodes this is briefly mentioned such as Steffy calling him "brother of mine". That being said in another episode she refers to Wally's mother as "his mother," and in "The Haunted Castle" this relationship is not mentioned at all when Wally is the one to receive an inheritance. (Unless there's been some misreporting there and they are instead supposed to be step siblings.)
• The Ditz: In the episode "Hong-Kong Story", even Wally is aware of him not being that smart. We even get this line in the second episode of the series regarding him:

  Butch Cassidy: Wally, we don't know whether the baron is onto us yet. So, the only thing to do is play dumb!

  Steffy: (off-camera) For Wally, that's EASY!

• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Given the spy nature of the show most of the other agents we meet are only known by some kind of spy lingo nickname. Most notable among the various contacts the stars meet Once per Episode.
• Expy: Elvis serves as this to Muttley from Wacky Races, even down to the same laughing and grumbling sounds he uses.
• Extreme Sports Plot: In "Road Racers", Butch and the gang trace black market diamond thieves and discover they're using a cross-country racing driver to smuggle the gems out of Italy.
• Fake Band: Literally. It’s their cover.
• Fanservice: Butch, Merilee, Steffy and Wally all invoke this. They appear in swimwear twice during the show's one season within three different episodes. It's also notable as far as 70s Hanna-Barbera teen characters go that Steffy and Merilee's beachwear designs were among the least covering.
• First-Name Ultimatum: This happens twice in the episode "Hong-Kong Story" to Wally.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The four band members are two boys and two girls respectively.
• Green Around the Gills: Wally turns thoroughly green on a roller coaster in "The Gold Caper." It's established in an earlier episode that he also gets seasick and airsick, hinting he has motion sickness.
• Groupie Brigade: Butch and company are often mobbed by groupie fans.
• Large Ham: Elvis sometimes. In "Double Trouble" Wally and Steffy want him to fake ill to call a vet. Elvis acts as if he's practically got the plague.
• Laugh Track: As per usual with early 70s Hanna-Barbera standard.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Usually whenever The Sundance Kids need to split up, Butch and Merilee go one way and Wally and Steffy go the other way.
• Master of Disguise: Merliee sometimes dons a random get up in the line of the mission.
• Mission Briefing: It's why they go to Mr. Socrates.
• Named After Somebody Famous:
  • Elvis and Mr. Socrates.
  • Butch himself is an odd example sharing the name with a real life outlaw. While never outright expressed in the show the band name is probably intended an in-universe pun based on this trope. Out of universe, it's too late to say Don't Explain the Joke.
• Nervous Wreck: Wally, especially when danger occurs. At one point in the episode "Hong-Kong Story", he has this to say:

  Wally: Nice goin', Elvis. I was afraid of that. Come to think of it, I'm afraid of practically everything.

• Once an Episode: Some way or another, Mr. Socrates will start sneezing whenever Elvis sneaks into the mission room, and at one time even when Butch petted Elvis before accepting a call on his ring.
• Only Sane Woman: Steffy is the most straight-laced, sensible member of the Sundance Kids.
• OOC Is Serious Business: Not "serious business" per-se, but unlike the rest of the times when Steffy would get annoyed whenever Wally delivers some sort of snarky comment, she was actually amused when he said that a race car driver had more fans than Butch and Merilee. The same episode prior shows the normally straight-laced, sensible Steffy still swooning over a picture of Mario Angelino despite him clearly being on Mr. Marino's side.
• Orient Express: In "Orient Express", Mr. Socrates interrupts the band's vacation to give them their next assignment: deliver a top-secret formula to their Paris headquarters via the Orient Express.
• Pet's Homage Name: Elvis is a reference to Elvis Presley
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Butch and Merilee.
• Plot Allergy: Mr. Socrates' is dogs. Guess what Elvis is.
• Pungeon Master: From time to time, Wally has been known to do this.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Wally. He wears a pink sweater and pink shoes, and not once is he ashamed of it.
• The Reveal: Used in the end of the first episode where we learn the scientist the group had come to rescue, is the creator of Mr. Socrates.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Utilized only in one episode "The Haunted Castle", much less than some would have you believe.
• Security Cling: In the comic book, while Merilee is surfing, Elvis holds onto her leg.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Wally (sensitive guy) and Butch (manly man)
• Shoe Phone: Butch's ring lets him contact Mr. Socrates.
• Shout-Out: In "Road-Racers", Butch wears a racing outfit that's clearly similar to Speed Racer's outfit.
• Simpleton Voice: Wally has a whiny, nasal, high-pitched voice and isn't the brightest out of the Sundance Kids.
• Spoofy-Doo: A team of youngsters traveling around the world with their dog and solving mysteries.
• The Spymaster: Again, Mr. Socrates
• Team Pet: Elvis
• Teen Superspy: A very good example of this trope before it would boom in later years.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Steffy and Merilee.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Steffy may be tomboyish for the most part, but she also has many feminine qualities, like her knitting a green sweater in "The Gold Caper".
• Unexpected Inheritance: Wally receives an old castle from an Uncle he never knew in "The Haunted Castle".
• You Meddling Kids: While not the normal type, they still are young people saving the day.

"I pick that ax, and then I get a call,

Some bad guy is gonna take a fall/

One by one we're gonna meet them all,

and solve that mystery...

Come along with me, Butch Cassidy...!"