A mouse takes a bite of super cheese and gains the power to protect defenseless mice from cats and other villians.

PRODUCTION NOTES:

"Mighty Mouse Playhouse" is an animated American t.v. series that aired on CBS from 1955-66 and it is the first television series to feature Mighty Mouse cartoons on t.v. While Mighty Mouse appeared in animated theatrical shorts during the 40s, the t.v. series is credited with popularizing the Mighty Mouse character in popular culture.

Mighty Mouse was Terrytoons' most popular character and what made him a cultural icon was television. Most of the short film studios, both live-action and animated, were in decline by the 1950s, pressured both by the loss of film audiences to television as well as the increased popularity of low-budget, stylized, limited animation. Most of the studios cashed out of the short-film production business and began licensing or selling their back catalogs ("re-runs") to television. Paul Terry went as far as to sell the entire Terrytoon company to CBS in 1955. The network began running "Mighty Mouse Playhouse" in December 1955. It remained on the air for nearly twelve years (featuring the Mighty Heroes during the final season) and became a staple of children's television programming.

Terrytoons, under CBS ownership, produced only three further Mighty Mouse theatrical cartoons between 1959-1961 (this was in marked contrast to other animated cartoon lines such as Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry and Woody Woodpecker, all of which continued to produce new film shorts for nearly a decade after licensing their library to television). The company evidently believed that the existing library of shorts was enough to keep youngsters tuning into CBS every Saturday morning; the library consisted of 80 shorts, enough for 26 half-hour episodes.

Some early vinyls credit the original 1955 Mighty Mouse Playhouse theme song to The Terrytooners, Mitch Miller and Orchestra, but recent publishing has generally credited The Sandpipers.