The principal characters were Beany, a plucky young boy who wears a beanie cap; the brave but dimwitted Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, who claimed to be 300 years old and 35 ft 3 in (10.74 m) tall; another serpent named Common Dragon (named after Carmen Dragon, a famous conductor); Beany's uncle, Captain Horatio K. (for Kermit) Huff'n'puff (whose name is a play on Horatio Hornblower), who would blow on the sails of the ship Leakin' Lena (see below) to make it go faster, familiarly called Uncle Captain; Dishonest John, a/k/a "D.J.

", whose cape and handlebar mustache identified him obviously as a villain; another sometimes villain named Dudley Nightshade (named after Deadly Nightshade, a poisonous member of the family Solanaceae); Tear-a-long the Dotted Lion (who always had a fast entrance and whose name is in reference to the phrase "tear along the dotted line"); Mouth Full of Teeth Keith (a lion with false teeth); and Hopalong Wong (a Chinese version of Hopalong Cassidy, a tough cowboy actor).

The principal voice actors and puppeteers were Daws Butler (Beany and Captain Huff'n'puff) and Stan Freberg (Cecil and Dishonest John).

After Butler and Freberg quit the show during 1952 or 1953,[2] Jim MacGeorge, Irv Shoemaker and Walker Edmiston did the voice work and puppeting duties.

Time for Beany recounted the exotic voyages and landfalls of the ship Leakin' Lena as commanded by the sometimes inept "Uncle" Captain Huffenpuff.