Secret Squirrel first appeared in a prime-time animated special called The World of Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant, which aired on NBC on September 12, 1965. The character was a parody of the spy genre, and most of the shorts parodied elements of the James Bond films. In 1993, 13 new Secret Squirrel cartoons appeared in-between the 2 Stupid Dogs first-season episodes, with the updated title Super Secret Secret Squirrel.