The Story of Doctor Dolittle is the first in both publishing and in-universe order.
The last chapter briefly describes the doctor's traveling adventures, as he seeks to earn enough money to pay back what he owes for the ship he'd borrowed for the journey to Africa. It was later expanded into four additional books: Doctor Dolittle's Circus (fourth published), Doctor Dolittle's Caravan (seventh published), Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary (fourteenth published, taking place alongside Doctor Dolittle's Caravan and continuing afterward) and "Doctor Dolittle Meets a Londoner in Paris" (short story only included in the anthology The Flying Carpet; fifth published).
Doctor Dolittle's Post Office is the third book published, but sixth by in-universe order, as it takes place after the doctor has returned home and later set off again, but lacks Tommy Stubbins.
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is the second book published, but seventh in-universe, and introduces the Doctor's apprentice Tommy Stubbins.
Voyages was followed by four books that make up an ongoing story arc — Doctor Dolittle's Zoo (sixth published and picking up right where Voyages left off), Doctor Dolittle's Garden (eighth published), Doctor Dolittle in the Moon (ninth published) and Doctor Dolittle's Return (eleventh published).
Return is followed by Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake (thirteenth published), which also fills in the previously untold story of the Great Flood, described only in the vaguest of details late in Doctor Dolittle's Post Office. It is the last book by in-universe order.
The remaining three books in the setting are:
Gub Gub's Book: An Encyclopaedia of Food (tenth published, as an out-of-universe translation of an in-universe work);
Doctor Dolittle's Birthday Book (twelfth published and the last released during Lofting's lifetime, a day-book with pictures and quotations from the earlier stories); and
Doctor Dolittle's Puddleby Adventures (fifteenth and last published), which collects eight stories previously released in newspapers and taking place during the events of The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Doctor Dolittle's Caravan and Doctor Dolittle's Garden.
Referenced by...: In Temps de chien, after Antoine manages to save a dog named Maggie, Stéphane tells him "I don't know any veterinarian who would have done what you did today for a dog." before adding "Except Doctor Dolittle. But, for that matter, he doesn't even need an echography. Animals talk to him."
The movie
Box Office Bomb: Budget: $17 million. Box-Office: $9 million. It was one of many costly bombs by 20th Century Fox in the late 1960s that nearly killed the studio.
Cut Song: "Where Are the Words?," sung by Anthony Newley, and "Something in Your Smile," sung by Rex Harrison. Both songs appeared on the soundtrack LP and CD, however, and the latter song may be heard under the film's opening titles.
Dawson Casting: A rather weird case. The producers felt Rex Harrison was too old at 58 to play Dolittle, but hoped his name would help recreate the success of My Fair Lady.
Genre-Killer: Along with the same year's Camelot, the failure of this film killed the family musical.
It also killed merchandising tie-ins due to the spectacular failure of the film's $200m worth of tie-in merchandise. Not permanently, but this fact ended up resulting in one of the biggest twists of fate in film production history - the fact that the tie-in merch sold so terribly soured Fox on the idea of it for a decade, only for it to bite them in the rear in spectacular fashion when they signed away the rights to tie-in merch for the original Star Wars to George Lucas, only for the merchandise for what was already an incredibly popular film to become its biggest revenue source. Yes, George Lucas may not have become nearly as wealthy and influential in the industry as he did were it not for the spectacular failure of this film.
Hostility on the Set: Rex Harrison didn't make himself any friends onset. He particularly had it in for Anthony Newley, as he was jealous of the younger actor's superior singing ability. Harrison demanded Newley's role be reduced and disrupted scenes featuring him. He even disparaged his costar as a "Jewish comic," a "Cockney Jew" or a "sewer rat." Samantha Eggar said of Harrison:
Yes, he was unkind and vitriolic and very mean-spirited, but he was also very funny - until, of course, he turned on me, too.
Magnum Opus Dissonance: Apparently no one on the film production liked the song "Talk to the Animals," but that is the song that won the Oscar for Best Original Song and since has become the signature music of the whole media property.
Never Work with Children or Animals: The film's budget ballooned massively from this, and it's seen as a major reason it became a Box Office Bomb. Whole books have been written about the horror stories of over 1200 animals refusing to obey directions, including ducks forgetting how to swim and needing to be rescued, a goat that ate a script, a parrot yelling "Cut!", a squirrel that refused to sit still until it was rendered drunk, a piglet that had to be replaced multiple times due to outgrowing its own role, and a giraffe that stepped on its own penis.
Non-Singing Voice: Samantha Eggar's singing was dubbed by Diana Lee.
Star-Derailing Role: Rex Harrison permanently damaged his career when the film became a colossal bomb, made possible in part by his acting as a drunken prima donna; he demanded endless script rewrites, completely impractical production changes, and ridiculous cast changes so he could guarantee that no one could show him up singing, and also hurled anti-Semitic insults at his Jewish co-stars. It didn’t help that Harrison, older than most leading men by the late '60s, outright refused to play supporting roles. A few years later, Sam Spiegel approached him to play Count Witte in Nicholas and Alexandra, a small but important character. Harrison took offense, angrily telling Spiegel "I don’t do bit parts!" The role went to Laurence Olivier, who famously had no such reservations.
Troubled Production: As detailed by the 2008 book Pictures at a Revolution, it was a clusterfrak with a ballooning budget, uncooperative animals and stars (Rex Harrison was extremely difficult to work with during production, suffering various personal crises and constantly insulting and arguing with castmates, such as Anthony Newley for being Jewish, and crew members), location shoots where both the weather and the locals didn't help... producer Arthur Jacobs downright had a heart attack during production, and to compensate the hell he went through, came the only good thing out of the project, as Fox greenlit, under promise of not exceeding a $5 million budget, a discredited Pierre Boulle-penned sci-fi story that he had been seeking to adapt for years... called Planet of the Apes.
John Huston was considered as director, but producer Arthur P. Jacobs nixed the idea. Vincente Minnelli and William Wyler were also considered but Minnelli was felt to be too "old fashioned" and Wyler's reputation for expensively shooting far too many takes of a scene eliminated them from the running.
Bumpo originally appeared in the film and was to be played by Sammy Davis Jr.. Harrison vetoed this, refusing to work with a "song-and-dance-man" note Read: Someone who was better at singing than him and suggested Sidney Poitier. The character was later dropped from the script and Willie Shakespeare was added.
In the original cut of the movie, Dr. Dolittle and Emma did eventually begin a relationship. He sang "Where Are the Words?", when he realised he was falling in love with her, but in a revised version, it's actually Matthew who falls for Emma and it is his recording of the song which is featured on the soundtrack album. Both versions were filmed and both actors recorded their respective versions, but the footage for both, as well as the vocal track by Rex Harrison have been lost to history. In both scenarios, "Something In Your Smile" is sung by Dolittle when he realizes he himself has fallen for Emma, however, although Harrison's vocal for the song survives, the footage does not.
