The Secret Squirrel Show Complete 1-Disc Box Set DVD

The Secret Squirrel Show aired on NBC in the mid-1960s, a Hanna-Barbera spy-and-detective parody built around a small bowler-hatted squirrel agent and his Mexican-mole sidekick taking on a steady stream of supervillain-flavored cases. The premise played the spy-thriller genre as broad cartoon comedy, with the agency, the codenames, and the high-tech gadgets giving each episode a James-Bond-flavored framework while the actual stories ran on slapstick and visual gags.

What stands out is the show's commitment to its parody premise. The mid-1960s spy boom was at its peak when this show aired, and the writers used that cultural moment to load each short with espionage tropes, the trench-coat boss, the gadget-laden briefcase, the recurring villain plotting global takeover, all played for laughs. The animation kept the Hanna-Barbera limited-cycle economy of the period, the design language stayed crisp, and the chase sequences and gadget reveals carried the comedy across the brisk pacing of mid-decade Saturday-morning television.

In the broader era of mid-1960s NBC programming, this kind of parody-genre cartoon was a particular fixture, with multiple studios producing comedies that played off the era's adult-broadcast trends. It suited household morning viewing for families who recognized the spy genre from prime-time television and films, young viewers who liked the visual energy of secret-agent gadgetry, and Saturday-morning audiences who liked their cartoon comedy fast and reference-heavy. It pairs well with other mid-1960s genre-parody programming.

Favorite episodes include the franchise-launching "Sub Swiper," the international-flavored "Scotland Yard Caper," the literary-spoof "Robin Hood & His Merry Muggs," the spy-thriller pastiche "Yellow Pinkie," the technological-comedy "Wacky Secret Weapon," the medieval-detour "Capt. Kidd's Not Kidding," the underwater-flavored "Scuba Duba Duba," and the closing-arc "Ship Of Spies." This 1-disc set gathers 25 episodes from the run, a tidy archive of mid-1960s Hanna-Barbera spy-parody Saturday-morning animation that disc ownership keeps available.