The Get Along Gang



The Get Along Gang were characters created in 1983 by American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, "Those Characters from Cleveland" (now American Greetings Properties), for a series of greeting cards. The Get Along Gang was a group of twelve (and later, fourteen) pre-adolescent anthropomorphic animal characters in the fictional town of Green Meadow, who had formed a club that met in an abandoned caboose and who had various adventures whose upbeat stories intended to show the importance of teamwork and friendship. The success of the greeting card line led to a Saturday morning television series, which aired on CBS for one season, from 1984 until 1985. The time slot was replaced by Disney's The Wuzzles. From January until July 1986, CBS aired reruns.

Each of the characters had obvious faults, which they learned to overcome with the aid of their friends. Montgomery Moose, the group's leader, was quite clumsy, Woolma Lamb was extremely vain and self-centered, Dotty Dog could be careless, Portia Porcupine had temper tantrums, Zipper Cat could be over-the-bit, and Bingo Beaver could be greedy and tended to get himself and/or others into trouble, although he was not mean-spirited like the Gang's enemy, Catchum Crocodile.

Contains examples of:

 * Alliterative Name: Montgomery Moose, Dotty Dog, Portia Porcupine, Bingo "Bet-It-All" Beaver, Flora "Forget-Me-Not" Fox, Catchum Crocodile, Leland Lizard.
 * There were exceptions however: Zipper Cat, Woolma Lamb, Braker Turtle. Montgomery becomes this if one considers his full name: Montgomery "Good News" Moose.
 * The Complainer Is Always Wrong: How some people view the entire message of the show.
 * Inverted in the episode School's Out. All of them save one, had very good reason to complain: Catchum and Leland had switched test papers, making it look as though none of them even answered the test questions. Montgomery was willing to have all of them accept their "punishment" anyway, but the others knew it wasn't right. In this case, the "complainers" were right this time, plus they were even able to get Catchum and Leland to confess what they had done.
 * Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The anthropomorphic critters in the cast. Even Braker Turtle, who doesn't own a turtle shell.
 * Funny Animal: The cast, obviously.
 * Furry Confusion: And how! (There are editors still trying to figure out why there's a zoo in this series.)
 * Gang of Critters: May be the trope namer.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: In the Pilot, Montgomery is Andrew Renko, Leland is Doug McKenzie, and Mr. Hoofnagel is Mike Hamar.
 * As for Bingo Beaver? That's Scott Menville of Teen Titans, and Mission Hill fame. "No meat touching, ma'am!"
 * He was also Brian, Rainbow Brite's friend from Earth, as well as Ma-Ti.
 * Dottie is Rainbow Brite herself.
 * Portia (and Miss Deering) are both Marilyn Piquel, and Sasami.
 * Montgomery in the series is Richie Rich, and the Saturday Supercade version of Dexter (but not his older persona).
 * Officer Growler is Boo-Boo Bear, Ranger Smith, (the second voice of) Dr. Benton Quest, and many other Hanna-Barbera characters. Transformers fans will know him as the original Ratchet.
 * Just Eat Gilligan: Removing Bingo "Bet-It-All" Beaver would have saved the gang some problems.
 * Not as You Know Them: The thankfully canned reimagining. You can't watch this pilot without planting some Epileptic Trees regarding how . Bonus: Where did they get Holograms?
 * On One Condition: Zipper was once given a deadline to claim inheritance.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Bad guys: Catchum Crocodile and Leland Lizard; Good guys: Braker Turtle. Of course.
 * Screwed By The Rights Holders: Along with The Littles, S'More Entertainment was planning to release the complete series on DVD. However, American Greetings was successfully able to block the release completely, possibly because, as the rights holders, they likely had the final say on the matter, possibly because of certain terms of the agreement between and AG and S'More. However, no explanation was given for why they blocked the release. In any case, Mill Creek Entertainment has been re-releasing the show on various configurations, although they have to do a complete series release.
 * Too Smart for Strangers: Ends up being subverted, since one-off character Sammy Skunk ("The toughest carny there is") is really a nice guy.