Channel Umptee-3 (also known simply as Umptee-3) is a Saturday morning animated television series created by Jim George and produced by Norman Lear. It aired on The WB as part of the Kids' WB programming block from 1997 to 1998. The one-season cartoon was designed to teach children to appreciate the wonders of everyday things, such as sleep and water. The title is derived from the fictitonal number "umpteen". It was also the last television series that Lear was involved in as an executive producer (and the last to feature an original story) until the 2017 revival of One Day at a Time.

Format

Ogden Ostrich, Holey Moley (a mole), and Sheldon S. Cargo (a snail) drive around the world in a van with their own underground pirate television station. Channel Umptee-3, which exists between other channels and is broadcast from a mobile station, tries to focus on a specific topic in each episode, but is normally diverted from it and shifted onto another topic; e.g., one episode started out discussing cats, but quickly segued into the subject of ownership (which was the real topic of that show). Meanwhile, "The Frumps" (i.e., Stickley Rickets and his henchmen) would try to shut the station down or increase their own power, but whatever plan they came up with would fail. The show made great use of stock footage, as did the earlier WB show Freakazoid! Also, the show sometimes made references to well-known films and TV shows; e.g., the episode "Yours, Mine, and Ours" included references to Cats, Harvey, Star Wars, Dragnet, and The People's Court, and the title was that of a classic film.

Characters

The Umptees

The Frumps

Other voices

Other voice actors who appeared on the show included:

Crew

Episodes

Episode status

Due to the short run and general obscurity of Channel Umptee-3, only four episodes and the intro music have been found publicly after its initial airing. Originally, the second, third, tenth and twelfth episodes were posted to YouTube, but they were blocked worldwide by Sony Pictures, leading them to be posted elsewhere, ultimately on the Internet Archive. Currently, Sony Pictures Television has the full rights to Channel Umptee-3, and has the option to provide the series for streaming content providers. , it is not yet available on any streaming platform, although it was rumored at one point to be potentially available on streaming platform Crackle sometime in late 2022/early 2023.