AC's Animated Corner

Charlie Douglas...

2011-12-28T12:17:00.001-05:00

I couldn't let 2011 slip by without making mention of Charlie Douglas. A lot of you blog readers probably won't know who he is but some might...depending on where you live. Charlie, who passed away on Thanksgiving Day this year, was a famed disc jockey from the late '50s through the mid '90s. Aside from the career in radio he also became equally popular for his comedic stories. Charlie's biggest impact on radio came on WWL radio in Louisiana as the star of an all-night truckers show titled "The Road Gang". He was at the helm of this radio program from 1970 until 1983...from WWL he made his way up North to Nashville's WSM and remained on their airwaves through 1995. I first heard of Charlie Douglas by way of Jerry Clower! I have all of Clower's main comedy albums from his first one in 1971 on through his final one in 1998. It's on a 1975 comedy album from Clower titled Live At Picayune where you'll hear Charlie bring out Jerry Clower to thunderous applause. So, yes, a 1975 comedy album from Jerry Clower is where I first heard the name and heard the voice of Charlie Douglas!

As luck would have it I was also an avid listener of our own local all-night truckers show...but I knew nothing of Charlie's legendary radio career at the time. One night the local DJ played a comedy record about a bugle and a mule...the actual name of the story is "The Plantin' Bugle". It was rather funny...hysterical in places. Some time later the DJ played the story that for Charlie Douglas was his most requested...the one about the three-hole privy. Each story is lengthy but the build-up is well worth it. It would not be until I got on-line in 2004 that I was able to look up and research Charlie's career and was stunned to find out that he remained on the radio (at WSM) through 1995...I was stunned because it was around that point in time where I first heard of Charlie via the Jerry Clower comedy album. As you can tell, it was sort of ironic that I was just discovering who Charlie was a few years after he had retired from the radio.

You Tube has several of Charlie's comedy stories and eBay and other places have his celebrated comedy album: Me and Dammit Ray - Longtime Friends.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Thirteen...

2011-12-16T21:21:00.001-05:00

Howdy...fresh off of You Tube comes this nearly 7 minute promo piece for Hee-Haw that aired on an Oklahoma news program. The news story inserts clips lifted from the DVD collection I wrote about in Part 12. You will also see footage taken at the Hee-Haw exhibit which runs through the first half of 2012. Most of the clips shown in the video embed below come from the program's first season but toward the end of the embed they feature clips of later seasons, too. The DVD collection is available for purchase at Country Family Reunion's web-site.

RFD-TV is currently airing the 1972-1973 season. During the last several weeks saw the debut of Gordie Tapp's sketch, The Naggers, which featured an uncredited Roni Stoneman. George Lindsey, Gailard Sartain, and Roni Stoneman began making appearances uncredited during this time period. Of course, the reason I use the phrase "uncredited" is because their names weren't called during the familiar opening sequence (where the announcer runs through the cast-list). The Naggers would ultimately turn out to be a long-running sketch that often appeared twice in an episode (one per half hour) and it was still a part of the show for the rest of Roni Stoneman's involvement with the series (through 1991). The sketch was so popular that Gordie and Roni often appeared in-character as Laverne and Ida Lee Nagger during other comedy sketches. Examples being the Justus O'Peace sketch with Archie Campbell where the Naggers often complained to the Judge about their married life, The Kornfield one-liner segment, and in the early '80s the Hee-Haw Honky Tonk sketch. As the series went on The Naggers acquired a son, Elrod, played by cast member Kenny Price. Also, Ida Lee's mother became a frequent presence. The mother was played by Wendy Suites, a member of the show's back-up group, The Nashville Edition.

I'll be purchasing my copy of the Salute to the Kornfield DVD collection, hopefully around the end of this month. The cost, before taxes, is $79.80. The collection comes with 4 DVD discs plus an additional DVD of behind the scenes/backstage excerpts. This salute will eventually air on RFD-TV in 2012 but on-line shoppers can order the program prior to it's national airing.

Classic Cartoons on DVD...

2011-11-28T09:34:00.001-05:00

Over the course of the last several months quite a few Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the '60s and '70s have finally saw their release on DVD. The only catch is the discs are DVD-R's but I'm pretty sure the discs will play in any brand name DVD player. I've got some DVD-R discs that play in my DVD player and so I feel confident that there will be no problems.

I haven't placed an order for any of the collections, yet. I'm waiting on the holiday season to pass and then place my order(s) in the new year. However, I may slip in an order next month for one of the collections as an early Christmas present for myself. The collections are for sale at various on-line stores. Amazon is where I purchase things and so that's where the following links will take you...

The Herculoids: This series features the adventures Zandor, Tara, and Dorno who battle a different enemy in each episode. They're aided by Igoo, Tundra, Zok, Gloop, and Gleep. Mike Road and Don Messick provided a bulk of the voices.

Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles: This series deals with a kid named Buzz and a flying robot patterned after the Frankenstein monster. The second segment stars a rock band that doubles as a crime fighting trio. Fluid Man, Multi-Man, and Coil Man each have distinct powers and in many of the episodes there's spoofs of pop culture. Ted Cassidy voices Frankenstein Jr. while Dick Beals voices Buzz. Don Messick, Paul Frees, and Hal Smith voice Multi-Man, Fluid Man, and Coil Man respectively.

Moby Dick and The Mighty Mightor: This series deals with the whale, Moby Dick, acting as a guardian/protector of two kids. Along side this trio is the kid's pet seal, named Scooby! Typically the kids get into trouble and the seal acts as a messenger of sorts...escaping the latest trap and getting Moby to come to the kid's rescue. The Mighty Mightor segments are a lot like another series, Young Samson, although in this series the teenager named Tor uses a club to turn into his alter-ego, Mighty Mightor. In Young Samson the teenager clings his two gold bracelets together.

Jabberjaw: This series from Hanna-Barbera came along during the mid '70s. The previous collections all originate in the mid and late '60s. Unlike the emphasis on realistic science fiction and adventure in the mid '60s cartoons, Jabberjaw is light and patterned after the mystery solving format. Jabberjaw was a shark, who had a voice like Curly from The Three Stooges, and he played drums and doubled as the mascot for the show's teenage rock band, The Neptunes. This group consists of leader, Biff, easily annoyed Shelley, scatterbrained Bubbles, and cowardly Clamhead. Although it's often referred to as a Scooby-Doo clone given the teenage mystery solving format it has much more in common with Josie and the Pussycats. Shelley has similar facial expressions with Alexandra but Clamhead could pass as Shaggy's long-lost brother.

Speed Buggy: In this series we see the adventures of three teenagers and their talking race car, Speed Buggy. The teens this time around are named Mark, Debbie, and Tinker. Michael Bell, a frequent voice on cartoons, is the voice of Mark while face actress Arlene Golonka is Debbie. Phil Luther, Jr. does the voice of Tinker while Mel Blanc is Speed Buggy. In later years Tinker would be voiced by Frank Welker (Laff-a-Lympics, specifically).

Those are just 6 of the DVD releases that have come up for sale during the last several months focusing on classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. One of the long-time voice actors at the studio, John Stephenson, can be heard in many of those programs. He was typically cast as villains, policemen, scientists, and sometimes he'd do vocal effects, too. He had a varied career in radio and TV drama as well...I found this clip on You Tube the other day and it's John Stephenson acting in a daytime soap called Morning Star in 1966. John's natural voice will immediately be recognizable to Hanna-Barbera cartoon fans because he used his natural voice a lot in addition to doing celebrity impressions. In the soap he plays the part of Stan Manning and he has a substantial role in this particular episode, too. His scene starts at the 6 minute, 2 second mark:

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Twelve...

2011-11-21T01:07:00.000-05:00

In this particular Hee-Haw blog entry I'm focusing on an upcoming salute to the series that'll air in January 2012 on RFD-TV. The special is titled Salute to the Kornfield...at the moment I have no idea the running time of the special. I can't wait to see it...it'll feature recent interviews with a lot of the surviving cast-members of the show and I imagine there will be a lot of remembrances and memorials/tributes given to those who've passed away.

Before anyone can say "Great...but I don't get RFD-TV!!!" the great news is there's going to be a mammoth DVD collection which will feature the program that airs in January 2012 in addition to footage that didn't make it on the air. The DVD collection will cost a person a little more than $80.00 but it'll be well worth it not only for the interviews and memories but for it's historical value in the years to come.

Information about the DVD collection, which contains 5 discs in all, can be found by clicking the RFD-TV link. 4 discs will be housed in a standard DVD case while the 5th disc called Backstage will be housed in a separate case. You'll see the look and design and the price after you click the above link.

The reruns of the show that air on RFD-TV, in a lot of ways, is responsible for this reunion. Word of mouth and social media have created awareness for the reruns and in a lot of cases the program was discovered by younger audiences, too, who weren't even born when Hee-Haw aired it's last episode in 1992.

The program originally aired on CBS-TV for 2 and a half seasons, 1969-1971, and in syndication for 22 more seasons, 1971-1992. When the show ceased production of new episodes in 1992, at the end of it's 24th season, the program returned later that year as Hee-Haw Silver to commemorate it's 25 seasons on the air. That program was a retrospective series airing flashbacks of older episodes which ran through 1993...concluding it's 25 year run.

I find it thrilling that the program still has such a strong fan-base...but it's not surprising. Practically anything associated with Hee-Haw has turned a profit or helped networks increase their ratings. In the '90s The Nashville Network aired reruns of the show for nearly 5 years straight starting in 1993...months after Hee-Haw Silver concluded it's syndicated run.

One example of it's profitability being the series of Time Life DVD collections spread out over a period of several years. Those DVD's, I think, filled the void left when The Nashville Network abruptly stopped airing the reruns and the DVD releases increased the demand for more episodes. I say the DVD successes eventually led to the program's rerun debut on the RFD-TV network in 2008...where it's been airing ever since. The network is currently airing the 1972-1973 season.

Once again...the reunion of Hee-Haw will air in January 2012 and the DVD counterpart is available for pre-order at the web-link I posted up in the third paragraph.

Paul Winchell...

2011-09-16T10:37:00.002-04:00

I wrote a review of Paul's book, Winch, in the spring of 2004. The book is an autobiography and it comes to terms with past experiences, offers forgiveness for earlier mistakes he made in his personal life, and there's what I consider some heavy commentary about the afterlife and other spiritual curiosities. Not to be missed is the description of his feelings while inside a morgue aiding in an autopsy. Prior to purchasing the book I had somewhat of an idea what the book would be about based upon earlier reviews but one never knows until one purchases it for themselves. The only thing I will say is the book is candid and it tells the story of a man who had faults and flaws (just like we all do) but I have seen several reviews balk at the idea that he shouldn't have been so honest or so tell-all. The idea that he shouldn't write a book about his personal demons and what he went through in his life would be like evading reality and so it was necessary to include this information.

This kind of book, filled with one-sided recollections, was bound to create a stir from those who are in the book and the best a lot of us can do is just judge for ourselves. There are many sides to stories...Paul told how he felt, which it's his life story and who are we to say he's right or wrong?

The book is a fascinating story even though it jumps around from decade to decade without a lot of focus on any particular aspect of his career which enables the book to not necessarily be a career-oriented story. There's a lot of recollections about the pressures of show business and how fickle fame can be but this is a life story in every sense of the word in that it deals with his life's experiences and there's a lot of discussion about his trips to see psychiatrists and there's memorable recollections of outright rage and torment stemming from insecurities, paranoia, and his struggles with what I'd consider to be a dominating mother. Those who are wanting to read a career life story of Paul Winchell will just have to wait until someone comes along and writes a book about Paul which focuses on his stage life and voice work in cartoons. I'd be in line to buy such a book if it were to come into print. I grew up hearing his voice long before I knew of his career and his impact on children's programming. Tigger...Gargamel...Dick Dastardly...are what I call the "big 3". I remember watching an episode of Dick Van Dyke on TV and Paul Winchell was a guest star. It was the first time I had seen Winchell on TV. I was born in 1976 and so i'm more familiar with Paul's cartoon work. Anyway, after reading the book I do have a better picture of Paul, the man, but that in no way shape or form makes me not like his work given his life's experiences and mistakes. I still get a kick out of his voice work in animation and seeing his TV clips on-line with his puppet's. As I said at the start, it's a fascinating story...and there are plenty of pictures as well!

Paul Winchell passed away on June 24, 2005 at the age of 82. In one of the most ironic scenarios in all of Hollywood happened the next day on June 25 when John Fielder passed away at the age of 80. Fielder had long been the voice of Piglet on the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. Paul, mentioned earlier, was the voice of Tigger in those same cartoons and it was truly bizarre that the two of them would pass away a day apart from each other. A month earlier, in May 2005, Howard Morris had passed away. In addition to being a face actor and director, Morris was the voice of the Gopher in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons from the beginning through 1988 when he retired from the role.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Eleven...

2011-08-22T04:02:00.002-04:00

In this on-going series of blogs I've touched upon the fact that 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of Hee-Haw's debut on CBS in 1969. 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the program's re-launch into syndication. After CBS canceled the series in 1971 it went into first-run syndication later in the year and it remained in first-run syndication for the next 21 years (through May 1992). The follow-up series, Hee-Haw Silver, ran from the fall of 1992 through 1993. If you're familiar with that particular program let me know about it. I'd only heard about it but never saw any of those episodes. I know Roy Clark acted as host and Cathy Baker appeared at the end of each episode to say her signature sign-off line...but I learned of that from reading the Life in the Kornfield book that Sam Lovullo wrote in the mid '90s. I don't think the Hee-Haw Silver series will ever be uploaded onto You Tube or made available on DVD anytime soon...but I'm still interested in seeing the program.

Sunday evening's Hee-Haw episode on RFD-TV featured Connie Smith and Tommy Ambrose as special guests. It was the final episode of the 1971-1972 season (it's first season in syndication). Next Sunday's episode should be episode 1 of the 1972-1973 season or episode 2. I say this because a couple of months ago they aired the first episode of the 1972-1973 season (Ray Stevens and Dizzy Dean were the guests) and so they may skip that and pick up with episode 2. The 1972 season opener, by the way, featured the debuts of cast-members Marianne Gordon, Misty Rowe, Anne Randall, and Gailord Sartain (dressed as a cop). George Lindsey began making infrequent appearances on the program in 1972. He played the Goober character that he'd been playing since 1964 on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry RFD. Lindsey, however, didn't appear in the opening cast credits of Hee-Haw until several weeks into his run. He'd remain on the series through it's final episode in May 1992 and often appeared at Hee-Haw related functions in the years following it's cancellation. In 1995 he released his life story called Goober in a Nut-Shell and it became a runaway success. Also, it was at this point in time where Lindsey was in the middle of commemorating his 30th anniversary as 'Goober'.

Over the course of the last several weeks during the Hee-Haw reruns on RFD-TV they've been airing commercials that were taped at the recent get-together of the cast. The commercials feature cast-members saying who they are, often standing in front of a replica Hee-Haw prop, and thanking the viewers for watching the reruns.

The 2 Hour Ray Stevens Interview...

2011-08-02T21:31:00.001-04:00

On August 1st Ray Stevens was the special guest on WSM radio's Intimate Evenings series hosted by Eddie Stubbs. The show aired for 2 hours and was available for on-line streaming but for those who didn't hear it here's a run down of some of the things that went on...

The show took place at the Ford Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The program opened up with "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". Eddie introduced Ray and the two of them spoke about the song becoming a chart hit in 1961 with Ray bringing up that he'd been recording and releasing songs for several years prior to his arrival on Mercury Records but none of his releases had reached the national charts until "Jeremiah Peabody" came along. He made mention that his earliest recordings made local radio station charts but didn't break out nationally. Ray spoke of his 1960's single, "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", and how it led him to write "Jeremiah Peabody" given how the Sgt. Preston single (a novelty song) had racked up more sales than any of his previous releases to that point. Ray, around this time in the interview, also spoke of his desire to get back out on the road much more than he's been lately. A running joke throughout most of the first hour of the program had Ray playing the part of an artist desperate to do any kind of show...constant reminders of how available he is often found their way into the interview.

Eddie, a couple of times throughout the program, remarked on how packed the venue was and that they had to bring in extra chairs to accommodate all of the people who stopped in to hear Ray speak about his experiences in the music industry and hear tidbits about the songs he's written or recorded. Eddie asked Ray about the gospel songs he's recorded and this led into Ray speaking about his dad's favorite song being "Turn Your Radio On". Ray spoke of his days under the guidance of Bill Lowery and about the years he spent working on local radio programs in Georgia with Joe South, Jerry Reed, Billy Joe Royal, and Tommy Roe. Ray spoke of how Nashville has changed so much since the early '60s and commented that the easy-going, open-doors attitude of late '50s and early '60s recording studios is what enabled him to get his foot in the door. Ray remarks that his Sunday school teacher was instrumental in getting him in contact with Bill Lowery.

Ray recounts his first meeting with Ken Nelson, of Capitol Records, in the late '50s. Ray had made a demo recording at some point in 1957 which Lowery sent to Ken Nelson. One thing led to another and Ray found himself with a recording contract on Capitol's subsidiary, Prep Records, when he was still a teenager. Although not mentioned in the interview it was also during this time that it was suggested that Ray use a stage name. His birth name is Harold Ray Ragsdale...but neither "Harold" nor "Ragsdale" in the minds of the promotional department at Capitol had a lot of pizzaz and so the decision was made to have him use his middle name, Ray, and his mother's maiden name, Stevens, and from that moment on he would go by the name 'Ray Stevens'.

The conversation shifts to his modern-day recordings with Eddie remarking how incredible it is that at this point in Ray's career he's still highly active and working on multiple recording projects. Eddie only had to mention the phrase "Obama Budget Plan" and it sent the audience into applause and laughter...for the audience was well aware of the song's content and the music video. Eddie also asked about "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" and this led into Ray speaking of his recent experience with political songs and mentioning his C-PAC appearance several months ago. The audience laughed and cheered during his humorous quips about the current situation in Washington. Eddie played "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" and Ray commented afterward that during the C-PAC event he appeared on a political discussion panel. He remarked that he felt that a good number of the politicians on the panel, in general, perhaps only knew of him by way of the older songs from the '60s and '70s and probably weren't too sure why 'Ray Stevens' was sitting on a political panel discussing such heavy topics as the debt, deficit, and health care. He mentioned that as soon as he started into "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" he could feel electricity in the air from the audience...he said that they enjoyed it and got a kick out of it. After speaking a little about the Spirit of '76 Eddie plays "Obama Budget Plan".

Eddie, in all seriousness, asked Ray where he comes up his song ideas...instant laughter from the audience resulted from that question. Eddie plays "It's Me Again, Margaret" and how the song's writer, Paul Craft, had released the song nearly a decade before Ray's more familiar version was recorded. Ray commented on the inclusion of the 'dirty laugh' and he re-created the laugh several times during the conversation surrounding the song. From there Eddie brings up "Misty" and Ray talks about how that recording and it's arrangement came into being. It was during this point in the program that Eddie gave some spotlight on Ray's arranging skills. He marveled at Ray's talents at being able to hear songs play out in his head and know which instrumentation to use and everything else that goes into arranging music. He credits Bill Justis with teaching him how to be a music arranger. Eddie brought up Ray's multi-instrumental talents and the numerous recording sessions for other artists that Ray participated in during the '50s, '60s, and early '70s. Ray said that he used to smoke...but quit in 1969. He also commented that session musicians were paid around $50.00 per session.

Hour 2 kicked off with "Ahab the Arab". Ray gave the history of the song and Eddie commented that during the same recording session as "Ahab the Arab" Ray played on LeRoy Van Dyke's "Walk On By" and Joe Dowell's "Wooden Heart". The recording, according to Ray's recollection, happened in January 1962 and it was released as a single in the spring. Out of the blue Ray mentioned that he was working on a book about his career and life with the help of his songwriting associate, friend, and business partner Buddy Kalb. He didn't give a release date but said that it's in the works!

Eddie named off several of Ray's songs. Eddie and the audience chuckled when he got to "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues". Ray remarked that the single wasn't that big of a hit in America. He felt that it was possibly due to political correctness. It's a possibility because political correctness, in it's earliest stages, was starting to creep into television around the turn of the decade (1970-onward) and as the years went by more and more regulations on what could be seen on TV or heard on the radio became more and more prevalent. Ray, defending the song, commented that he was simply wanting to do a song with the Chipmunk sound effects...this caused laughter from Eddie and the audience...and then Ray commented that it became a big hit in England.

Ray's version of "Oh, Lonesome Me" is played. The conversation then turns to Ray's reputation for zany, comical recordings. Eddie brings up the One For the Road collection and the conversation of travel and being on the road leads to "Hang Up and Drive", a song Ray recorded about people driving and talking on their cell-phones.

Eddie brings up how busy Ray continues to be and this leads into a discussion about Ray's sit-com, We Ain't Dead Yet. The sit-com had a trial run on a former web-page that Ray's people operated called Ray Stevens Backstage. It was a premium web-page and it was up and running for nearly 2 years before it went off-line. Those who were members of this site were able to see a few episodes. I hope a general audience will be able to see the shows one day. They're funny, cute, and unique.

Eddie mentions that Ray won two Grammy awards...one for "Misty" and another for "Everything Is Beautiful". Streaking came up and this led into Ray talking about where the idea of the song came from and how he was able to get a jump on the fad nearly a month before it was all over the national news. "The Streak" was played and by then the program was nearly over. Eddie remarked that the Intimate Evenings series had never featured a performer primarily known for comedy but given that this was something new for the series he wanted Ray to have the honor of being the first comedian to make an appearance should they decide to have other comical entertainers stop by in the future. The show closed with Ray's song, "Thank You", from the We The People collection.

All in all the interview was great! Ray's had a varied career that encompasses just about every aspect of the music business: singing, songwriting, producing, arranging, and session playing. There were some highlights of his career that they didn't get around to discussing such as his You Tube music video successes; his revolutionary home video sales successes in the 1990's; his years in Branson, Missouri and the story behind "Shriner's Convention". I have no idea if the interview will be archived at WSM's web-site or not. I'll check their web-site periodically and see if an audio link becomes available.

Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume Five...

2011-07-21T19:33:00.008-04:00

I'm typically several years late when it comes to purchasing the Golden Collection series and this one's no exception. I purchased this a few days ago and it arrived yesterday. Thanks to the availability of Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection, Vol. 5 I was able, several years ago, to see 30 of the cartoons that are featured in this edition of the Golden Collection. As usual the Golden Collection is more for the cartoon enthusiasts...animation historians...and die-hard fans of the Looney Tunes. The main reason for the Spotlight Collections were to aim at the general audience and aim at those who wouldn't pay more than $20.00 for a DVD collection (although the Golden Collections are well worth the higher price). A lot of the reviews of this DVD I've not read (there's too many) but those that I've skimmed through touch base on just about everything and so I'm not going to do any break downs of too many individual cartoons.

Given that the Golden Collection, this one being no exception, are filled with extra features and mini-documentaries on animators, directors, and the like I watched most of the extra features and bonus material first and that's what this review will mostly be about.

The documentary I watched right away was "Drawn To Life: The Art of Robert McKimson" which is found on disc 2. I watched this first because I wanted to, first of all, see what the animators, historians and fans of the cartoons had to say. I also watched it first because McKimson is like the unheralded giant of classic Warner Brothers cartoons...and many cartoons by McKimson played a lot on ABC-TV's Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show of the '80s and '90s and I was raised on his cartoons every bit as much as I was raised on the cartoons by Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Tex Avery.

The documentary is a celebration of McKimson's career. He's noted as being one if not the only person employed at Warner Brothers cartoons from it's beginning in the early '30s to it's eventual closing in the late '60s. McKimson and his brothers, Charles and Tom, were natural artists and obviously this enabled them to become animators...and later, as we know, Robert became a director at the studio. Within the documentary, strangely enough, there isn't any archival commentary from McKimson's peers at the studio and there's no verbal recordings of McKimson. There are pictures of him shown (of course!) and there's invaluable commentary from his son, Robert McKimson, Jr., and several others but there's no actual footage of the senior McKimson on camera discussing his career or the characters he known for (Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dog, Prissy, Tasmanian Devil, Hippety Hopper, and Sylvester Junior).

While the documentary on McKimson is a celebration of his work and his talents it wouldn't have been realistic without discussing the sad but true fact that he's largely forgotten and unheralded when compared to Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Tex Avery. Several historians and cartoon enthusiasts offer their opinion on why that's the case...a lot of it has to do with the fact that McKimson passed away in 1977 before all the nostalgia and enthusiasm for cartoons really started to take off but also, according to some of the commentators, it also had to do with his low-key demeanor. It's a study in extreme ironies: McKimson was a skilled artist, animator, and director who did quite a lot of memorable cartoons but because of his low-key nature and the acclaim put on Friz, Chuck Jones, and the others through the decades it's created a scenario where a director's work is highly memorable albeit the name of the director isn't as well known by comparison. For example...say a couple of people are discussing various Bugs Bunny cartoons. One guy says "oh that was hilarious! let's see now...who directed it? it was either Chuck or Friz....hmmm, oh? it was Robert McKimson? it was a hilarious cartoon!". Other examples can also be used to describe the irony of the "oh, it was Robert McKimson? Hilarious!" realization. After awhile our mythical conversationalists recognize that McKimson directed his fair share of classic cartoons even though his name isn't as lauded as Chuck and Friz.

Another extra is "Once Upon a Looney Tune"...which airs prior to the McKimson documentary on disc 2. In this feature we see the exploration of the zany, irreverent spin on fairy tales which is what's featured on Disc 2 of the collection. There are various spoofs of Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Bears in addition to other fables and fairy tales. It's interesting to note that in the "Once Upon a Looney Tune" feature they air a clip of Coal Black, a parody of Snow White. Those who are die-hard fans of the Looney Tunes know all about Coal Black but it caught me off-guard when I saw the clip pop up on the screen.

Bob Clampett gets his own disc...it's Disc 3. Along side Tex Avery and Robert McKimson, Clampett's cartoons are laugh out loud funny in my opinion. It's often been said that Friz Freleng's cartoons had superior timing and razor sharp music coordination which brought out the humor in almost every cartoon. It's been said that Chuck Jones had superior timing, too, on top of using eye blinks, facial expressions, and word play to bring out the humor in his cartoons...but pretty much everyone who's given commentary about a Looney Tunes cartoon seems to point out Bob Clampett's work as being the looniest of all. Ironically, Clampett received a mini-documentary of his life and career back in the Golden Collection, Volume Two but it took until Volume Five for him to get a disc devoted to his directorial contributions at the studio.

There have been other Clampett cartoons sprinkled throughout Volumes 1 through 4 so it isn't like his work was completely ignored. However, compared to the amount of cartoons directed by Friz and Chuck featured on Volumes 1 through 4, Clampett's contributions pale by comparison. Some say it's because Friz and Chuck were at the studio much longer and made more cartoons therefore more of their contributions are showcased...which makes sense...but then there are those who say that limiting the Clampett cartoons was did intentionally because the irreverence, satire, and all out zaniness clashed with the works of Freleng and Jones.

There are two bonus features on Disc 3...one is all about the "Wacky Warner One Shots". This feature examines quite a lot of the cartoons from Warner Brothers which didn't star any of the popular characters (like Bugs, Porky, Daffy, Sylvester, etc. etc.). The second bonus feature, "Real American Zero: The Adventures of Private SNAFU", looks at Private Snafu...the inept soldier who doesn't do anything right. The training films were designed to teach newly enlisted soldiers how NOT to behave. By watching Snafu do the wrong things and get into a lot of trouble it was teaching soldiers to learn from Snafu's mistakes. The Snafu cartoons were never shown to the general public for obvious reasons. It's fun, though, to see the regular gallery of historians and animators who've contributed to the Golden Collection series speak more R-rated, too. The mini-documentary isn't an all out barrage of cuss words but given that it's all about the Private Snafu cartoons the language is a little bit looser. There are two bonus cartoons of SNAFU adventures and there are three cartoons starring SNAFU's Navy counterpart, Mr. Hook. SNAFU cartoons were made for the U.S. Army while the HOOK cartoons were made for the U.S. Navy.

Disc 1 features cartoons starring either Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. Of course there are several cartoons that feature Bugs and Daffy together outwitting a shared enemy. In "Ali Baba Bunny" the shared enemy is Hasan, the simple minded treasure guard who can't remember the magic phrase 'open Sesame'. The main extra feature on Disc 1 is a Chuck Jones documentary from 2000 called "Extremes and In-Betweens: A Life in Animation". This is the second documentary on Chuck...the first, "Chuck Amuck", was featured on Volume One.

Part 2 of the "Extremes and In-Betweens" documentary is on Disc 2...along with another Chuck Jones spotlight called "A Chuck Jones Tutorial: Tricks of the Cartoon Trade". This was originally a bonus feature on the DVD release of "Extremes and In-Betweens".

This Volume Five nearly completes my collection of the series...I now need to get the final volume, Six, to make it complete.

Disc 4 showcases early cartoons. A bonus extra, "Unsung Maestro's: A Directors Tribute" takes a look at various directors at Warner Brothers who contributed quite a few cartoons for the studio but were never given a lot of spotlight. A lot of the time it was because some of the directors were there prior to the arrival of future super star characters like Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Bugs Bunny. The directors of the Looney Tunes in the earliest of years get some spotlight in this feature. One of the more notable cartoons on Disc 4 is "Scrap Happy Daffy" from 1943. It was directed by Frank Tashlin. The first cartoon directed by Tex Avery, "Gold Diggers of '49", is featured on Disc 4. It stars Beans the Cat but many historians say Porky Pig is the real star. The cartoon is also notable for injecting a lot of what would become trademarks of the Warner Brothers cartoons: visual humor, pop-culture references, and general craziness. The cartoon premiered in 1935...several years before Mel Blanc would become the voice of Porky Pig and what we have is original voice, Joe Dougherty, providing the vocals. The cartoon was animated by Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones several years before the two of them would become cartoon directors. Research shows that "Gold Diggers of '49" is the second cartoon to feature Porky Pig.

All in all this is another perfect Golden Collection...some have ripped this collection apart but I have no idea why there's anger and bitterness at all. There was bitterness felt by some about Volume 4 due to several of the disc's concentrating on lesser known characters and highlighting cartoons that lacked a lot of the trademark humor of later cartoons from the studio. One of the disc's on Volume 4 was devoted to Speedy Gonzales which infuriated some but delighted others.

This Volume 5, in my opinion, doesn't feature any cartoon that deviates too much from what Looney Tunes enthusiasts crave. You can't go wrong with a disc devoted to Bob Clampett, neither! On top of this there's the wonderful look at Robert McKimson's work that I wrote of at the top of this review...and then there's the Chuck Jones documentary...and there's three Looney Tunes specials added as extra features on Disc 4: "Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals", "Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales", and "Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over".

In the latter, from 1980, several new cartoons are added to the lengthy list of theatrical Warner Brothers releases: "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny", "Soup or Sonic", and "Spaced Out Bunny". The "Soup or Sonic" short is a Coyote and Road Runner adventure.

In "Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales", from 1979, you get three newly animated adventures: "Freeze Frame" is a Coyote and Road Runner adventure while "Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol" casts Yosemite Sam as Scrooge, Tweety as Tiny Tim, Porky as Bob Cratchit and Bugs portrays a bystander bent on showing Scrooge how to treat people with respect. The third segment of the 1979 special was titled, "The Fright Before Christmas", and it featured Bugs and the Tasmanian Devil.

The "Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals" is a 1976 prime-time special featuring all new animated segments of Bugs and Daffy competing against the other which further fuels the Bugs vs. Daffy comical feud first explored in the theatrical cartoons. The 1976 special has a bit too much live action/symphony performance for me but the animated sequences are great.

Remembering Mel Blanc...

2011-07-10T05:53:00.004-04:00

July 10, 1989 is the day that the world lost Mel Blanc. I'm one of the millions of people who grew up hearing his voice on many cartoons. I never met him in person and have no connection to him or his family but like millions of others we've been impacted by his voice and have laughed at his visual performances. The death of the animation world's most celebrated voice actor not only made national but international news. One of the programs that I remember seeing at some point in the mid '80s when I was around 7 or 8 years old was a Lifetime show called Mother's Day hosted by Joan Lunden. The reason I remember this particular show is because Mel Blanc, of all people, made a guest appearance. In the show he was decked out in a sweatshirt with a picture of Bugs Bunny on the front.

In addition to voicing cartoon characters he also had an equal amount of time playing bit parts and recurring characters on many radio comedies of the '30s and '40s and then when television came along as the country's main choice of entertainment he often shown up in guest starring roles on TV comedies and talk-shows. The radio program with which Mel Blanc is so closely associated is the Jack Benny Program. Mel not only had recurring characters on the radio show but he also brought the characters to television in the '50s and '60s on Jack's television program (1950-1965). One of the characters, Sy, became part of a legendary comedy routine that highlighted the comedic timing of both Mel Blanc and Jack Benny. My grandfather introduced me to Jack Benny's television program...it happened around the mid '80s time period...the reruns were airing on the local PBS stations on Sunday morning. Ever since the mid '80s I've been aware of Jack Benny and Mel Blanc and have long been a fan of Warner Brothers cartoons of which Mel was the primary vocal star.

As others have said and I also agree, Mel Blanc was an actor first and foremost...one that used his expressive voice and entire body in most every performance...but it's the acting that brought everything together.

The vocalizations are what he's known for but it's his acting abilities that enabled those vocalizations to become believable. When you watch a cartoon and hear any number of his characterizations...the funny thing is...the character sounds real. It's one of those things that'll forever puzzle a lot of people. When you hear him as one of the radio characters he played...he sounds exactly like you'd expect his character to sound. Professor LeBlanc, the long-suffering violin teacher of Jack Benny, sounds pretty much the way you'd expect a long-suffering teacher to sound: easily irritable, agitated, sarcastic, and prone to fits of crying and misery. In Professor LeBlanc, Mel could go from misery and angst (during a violin lesson) to absolute joy and happiness (once the violin lesson was over!). Mel provided the voices of not only Professor LeBlanc but he was also heard as Sy the Mexican, Polly the Parrot, Carmichael the Polar Bear, Jack's Maxwell car, and the Train Depot announcer. These were just a few of the well-known characterizations...he provided voices for many nameless characters throughout his involvement in Jack's program from would-be burglars, to repairmen, plumbers, store clerks, and other occupational characters.

Speaking of store clerks...one of Blanc's most hysterical performances every Christmas season for many years was on Jack's program. In many holiday episodes Mel played the part of a nice, courteous store clerk who was driven insane throughout the course of the episode by Jack's annoying habit of changing his mind over what to buy someone for Christmas. Typically a routine would involve Mel having to wrap a gift...then unwrap the gift...wrap the new gift...put it back in the delivery room...then, upon another change of mind from Jack, Mel would have to retrieve the wrapped gift...unwrap it...wrap up the new gift...send it to the delivery room. This gift exchange routine would go on, at various moments, throughout each holiday episode. About mid-way through Mel would lose his temper just a little. By the episode's final exchange Mel would completely lose his mind and turn into a sobbing mess.

Mel turns into a sobbing mess in the clip below...

Mel asks for a Tip in this hilarious clip from one of Jack Benny's television programs. In the clip you'll see Jack, Mel, and Don Wilson (Jack's long-time announcer). I couldn't embed the above video because of the embedding option for it is disabled.

In the video clip below you'll see Jack and Don Wilson discussing the introduction of the show while Mel Blanc comes in about 2 and a half minutes later as a Taxi cab driver. Jokes follow about Mel's character being the owner of a cab service...Blanc then wonders what Jack's profession happens to be. Self-deprecating jokes from Jack as well as jokes from others teasing Jack's "celebrity status" were always prominent on Jack's program. This inquiry from Mel's character prompts Jack to deliver a line that comes off as an ad-lib (based on how Don Wilson and Mel both reacted to it!). You can find quite a few other clips featuring Mel and Jack on You Tube.

Lastly...and I'm not meaning to put a damper on things but a lot of the modern-day depictions of the Looney Tunes characters obviously lack Blanc's vocal touch.

It's one thing to keep the characters in the public eye (which I'm glad that they're doing) but at the same time the characters need to have voice actors who come near-perfect to Blanc's voice. At the present time Bob Bergen and Joe Alaskey are just two that spring to mind that sound similar to how Mel voiced the characters...while Frank Welker does a swell Barney Rubble.

Some of the artists who perform the role of Bugs Bunny put too much emphasis on trying to sound Brooklyn-Bronx and they end up over-doing it or they come off sounding nothing like Bugs Bunny and more like a stereotypical New Yorker.

As you can tell from my comments, I'm guilty of the following as are thousands of other people: Although it's probably unfair to have this kind of opinion but a lot of people judge new Looney Tunes cartoons NOT on the actual storyline but on how close the vocals are to Mel Blanc. Nothing makes a new Looney Tunes cartoon grow on me quicker than if the vocalizations are in the tradition of Mel Blanc. Animators and the musicians can re-create the look and sound of the classic cartoons but, for me, I tend to pay attention to the vocalizations, too. If the vocalizations aren't satisfactory it tends to put a dark cloud over the whole thing.

Mystery resolved: Hopefully this puts an end to the long-held belief that Mel was allergic to carrots. The truth is Mel didn't particularly like carrots unless they were boiled and had a lot of butter or syrup on them. The often told story is Mel had to quickly spit out the carrot that he'd bite into or become sick to his stomach due to some allergic reaction. The reason he'd spit out the carrot is simply to clear his mouth...the last thing you want is to be reading a script and a piece of carrot come up from behind a tooth or wherever and cause a reading to become wasted. People still like to say Mel was allergic to carrots. It's a funny and ironic scenario if it were true but in reality it's just an urban legend and completely, 100 percent false. Mel Blanc was NOT allergic to carrots!

Mel Blanc's son, Noel, often appears on radio programs to discuss animation, old-time radio, and his dad's legacy. He contributed to the various DVD collections that were issued in the middle of last decade (2000-2009) titled The Golden Collection. Each DVD release would feature 4 disc's of Looney Tunes cartoons. Loaded with extra features saw the inclusion of an on-going series titled Behind The Tunes. These installments ran an estimated 5 minutes and they featured clips of a specific cartoon or a profile of a specific character and there would be commentary on-screen by those who participated in the making of the cartoon...or there would be commentary by a relative. Noel Blanc appeared in quite a few of these brief documentaries. In one installment he speaks about Mel's performance and Oscar win for the cartoon "Birds Anonymous" which featured Sylvester trying to give up birds. Technically the producer of a short-subject received the actual award but those who worked on the cartoon rightfully claimed victory, too. Former producer of the Warner Brothers cartoons, Eddie Selzer, willed an Oscar to Mel according to Noel's recollections.

Mel is spoken of with reverence within the various documentary programs in the DVD collections and eventually the collection featured an in-depth look at Mel Blanc's life featuring clips of several of the directors, some of Mel's co-stars, and Noel too. The director's on-screen comments were all taped years before the DVD collections became a reality. Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng are the two who appear on camera with recurring frequency. Robert McKimson is highlighted in a 15 minute documentary; Frank Tashlin gets a documentary; and Bob Clampett has his own documentary, too. Tex Avery is frequently mentioned as is Art Davis.

Speaking of the Oscar...the following cartoons, all featuring Mel as the main voice artist, won an Oscar. I'm listing the actual director of the short-subject because I feel the director had much more creative influence over the cartoon than the producer:

1. Tweetie Pie: 1947 (Friz Freleng)
2. For Scent-imental Reasons: 1949 (Chuck Jones)
3. Speedy Gonzales: 1955 (Friz Freleng)
4. Birds Anonymous: 1957 (Friz Freleng)
5. Knighty-Knight Bugs: 1958 (Friz Freleng)

Mel Blanc's contributions to animation can still be heard. Somewhere in the world the classic Looney Tunes are still airing...if not the Looney Tunes then you're bound to hear his voice on The Flintstones and The Jetsons. Each series airs on the Boomerang channel in America. Mel voiced Barney Rubble and various incidental characters on The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely and other incidental characters on The Jetsons. Boomerang also airs "Wacky Races" and "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop". In the latter, Mel is heard as the Bully Brothers, Yak-Yak, and Chug-a-Boom (recreating the Maxwell vocalizations).

Mel Blanc: May 30, 1908 - July 10, 1989.

Heathcliff...

2011-07-09T14:56:00.005-04:00

It's a cute series in places, a laugh out loud series in places, and above all it's fun. I'm speaking of the animated series, Heathcliff. The cartoon series debuted in 1980 but research shows that the character's been around since 1973...as a comic strip. The original series of Heathcliff episodes aired for two seasons, 1980-1981 and 1981-1982. The first episodes aired as Heathcliff and Dingbat. The second season episodes featured Heathcliff sharing top-billing with Marmaduke (another comic strip character) in Heathcliff and Marmaduke. Scatman Crothers performed the theme song. In the first season, much like in the second season, Heathcliff stars in his own segments. The Dingbat segment from season 1 features a trio of bizarre characters: Dingbat, a dog with an accent similar to Bela Lugosi. Spare Rib, a skeleton, and the Jimmy Durante sounding Nobody the jack-o-lantern, rounded out the trio. The official title of the second segment was Dingbat and the Creeps. Altogether there were 25 episodes produced during 1980-1982.

I'm not listing each and every role in the series but here's a brief overview of who voiced who in the 1980-1982 series...

Mel Blanc provided the voice of Heathcliff and Spike in the first 25 episodes. June Foray provided most of the female voices but other female artists like Janet Waldo and Marilyn Shreffler provided voices, too. Frank Welker provided the voice of Dingbat while Don Messick was the voice of Spare Rib and Nobody. Messick, as mentioned, gave the Nobody character a Jimmy Durante kind of voice while his vocalization for Spare Rib was similar to other high-pitched roles that Messick provided in the past: Pixie Mouse, Ruff the Cat, Scrappy-Doo, etc. etc. Paul Winchell provided the voice of Marmaduke and Phil Winslow. Henry Corden was the voice of Clem and Digby.

The 1980-1982 version of the show, airing on ABC-TV, was not broadcast heavily in reruns. I never saw any episodes from the series until You Tube came along! A lot of the reason why the original 25 episodes weren't heavily reran probably had to do with the fact that in 1984 a syndicated version of the series debuted. This 1984 version didn't feature Marmaduke and it replaced the Dingbat and the Creeps segment with a new segment called Catillac Cats. In fact, the syndicated series was referred to as Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats but it was never officially given that name.

This syndicated series contained much of the same style of Heathcliff stories as in the past: Heathcliff either playing pranks on neighborhood businesses, or, annoying the easily annoyed Grandpa Nutmeg; or getting in cat fights with other cats AND dogs who either harassed him or attempted to steal his girlfriend, Sonja, away. The Catillac Cats segment centered around a comical gang of alley cats who hung out in a junkyard. The leader of the pack was Riff-Raff who was more of a con-artist forever dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes. Next in "command" was Hector...a brown cat who was often intimidated by the smaller Riff-Raff but wasn't afraid to verbally assault the roller-skate rhymer, happy-go-lucky white cat Wordsworth or the heavyset purple cat, Mungo. Cleo, a female cat, was depicted as Riff-Raff's girlfriend. Leroy, an easily irritated but also easily confused dog, was the Guard dog of the junkyard.

Hector, Wordsworth, and Cleo were designed with distinct 1980's fashions and although it enabled the series to become dated it nevertheless became one of the memorable aspects of the syndicated version of Heathcliff. Hector wore a headband with an '80s hairstyle...Wordsworth, in addition to always being on roller skates, wore headphones while presumably listening to music on a walk-man (which perhaps explained why he always spoke in rhyme). The actual device was rarely visible but the headphones were always seen. Cleo wore lavender leggings...what was probably an acknowledgement to the exercise craze that seemed to take off in the '80s.

The 1984 syndicated series became a huge hit...it's popularity kept the series in first-run production for four years through 1988. There were 86 episodes produced altogether...compare this to the 25 from it's original run (1980-1982). Upon the conclusion of it's last first-run episode and subsequent reruns the series became a hit all over again on Nickelodeon. The channel aired reruns of the syndicated series for four years, 1989-1993. Afterward, research shows that the reruns aired on The Family Channel for 6 more years, 1993-1999. What this means is the episodes that originally aired in syndication (1984-1988) remained on the air in reruns non-stop for 11 more years. Currently the episodes are airing on the This TV brand of networks and you can watch various episodes on DVD and on You Tube. The early episodes from 1980-1982 can sometimes be found on You Tube.

Mel Blanc provided the voice of Heathcliff in the ABC-TV version and the syndicated version. This character is often cited as being the final original character that Blanc provided a voice to. Much of the '70s and '80s saw Mel Blanc reprising his iconic Looney Tunes roles for television productions or commercials...and he also returned to his role as Barney Rubble in the many Flintstones animated productions and cereal commercials. The Heathcliff series pretty much dominated Blanc's schedule during the decade (1980-1982, 1984-1988). I do not know how many years it took to actually produce the 86 syndicated episodes...the voices are often recorded first and it wouldn't be unusual to have voice actors/actresses do all of their lines weeks before the actual cartoon went into production. Whatever the production schedule was the fact is the cartoons aired for 4 years (1984-1988) and then were reran for 11 more consecutive years. Blanc passed away in 1989...and it made national and international news. His last performances of his Looney Tunes roles came in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. A finished recording of his Mr. Spacely role in The Jetsons upcoming movie made it's debut in 1990. Ironically, Blanc and George O'Hanlon (the voice of George Jetson) both passed away in 1989 during production of the Jetsons movie. O'Hanlon passed away on February 11, 1989 and Blanc passed away on July 10, 1989 (tomorrow marks the 22nd anniversary of that sad day).

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Ten...

2011-07-04T14:33:00.003-04:00

A few minutes ago I came across a web-site originating from Oklahoma. I discovered that a Hee-Haw exhibit is taking place at the Oklahoma History Center. Those of you are familiar with the area or in the vicinity of Oklahoma City will probably know where the venue is. If not, the information can be found here along with a video clip of Roy Clark, Vince Gill, and Garth Brooks giving their comments on Hee-Haw and it's lasting impact. There's a nice article/write-up about the show and it mentions that although the show's been out of production since 1992 it's continued to find audiences through reruns. It reran on The Nashville Network (TNN) for nearly four years starting in the fall of 1993. Those reruns were a ratings success for the network and it helped promote the stage revival at Opryland Theme Park called Hee-Haw Live which got underway in the summer of 1994.

Upon the conclusion of the closing credits of the television rerun there would typically be a promo for Hee-Haw Live complete with ticket information, address, and phone number. Later, commercials for the future best-selling home video, Hee-Haw Laffs, began airing on TNN. The stage show featured just a small group from the regular cast and a few newcomers performing sketches and routines associated with Hee-Haw. Off the top of my head I think the members of the stage show were Lulu Roman, Grandpa Jones, Gunilla Hutton, George Lindsey, and theme park regular Jason Petty (now known as the definitive Hank Williams, Sr. in various stage productions). It was also around this time, the mid '90s, that the show's producer, Sam Lovullo, released his Life in the Kornfield book. I'll also add that the DVD releases from the middle part of last decade (2004-2006) have also helped introduce the program to multiple generations...especially since a lot of those episodes have turned up on You Tube and other video hosting sites within the last several years. Then a couple of years ago RFD-TV started airing the program...starting with the debut episode in 1969 and moving forward. Last night's episode was from 1972 with Porter and Dolly as special guests.

The Hee-Haw exhibit article states that the exhibit will be on display for exactly a year and so you'll have until sometime in April or May of 2012 to catch the exhibit. I had been watching Hee-Haw clips on You Tube earlier and it inspired me to do a Google news search and that's where I found the story about the Oklahoma City Hee-Haw exhibit. Strangely enough I didn't come across this article in May or June or I would've mentioned it then.

Old-time radio meets the Cartoons...

2011-06-27T01:39:00.008-04:00

It had been a few months since I did a You Tube video search for a certain cartoon but nearly 10 minutes ago I was over on You Tube and I decided to look up Toy Town Hall and to my amazement someone had uploaded it. According to the specifics it was uploaded late in March of this year so it's only been around a couple of months. The cartoon originates from 1936 and it's one of those caricature cartoons that I love seeing. The cartoon features a myriad of celebrity caricatures of the time period...a few of them are unfamiliar to me...but most of them I recognize due to one of my earlier hobbies of listening to old-time radio programs of the '30s and '40s and becoming familiar with classic movies.

At the start of the cartoon you'll hear an impression of Ben Bernie on the radio...using a line that's been used in other Warner Brothers cartoons that have caricatured him visually. The cartoon is "hosted" by a caricature of Fred Allen who pops out of a jack-in-the-box. Although the cartoon focused on having celebrities as toys it's ironic that the animators/writers would have Fred Allen as a jack-in-the-box considering his comical feud with Jack Benny. That's perhaps why they decided on caricaturing Fred Allen as a jack-in-the-box, specifically. Allen at the time was the host of Town Hall Tonight...which was the fifth name given to his national radio program following The Linit Bath Club Revue (1932-1933), The Salad Bowl Revue (1933), The Sal Hepatica Revue (1934), and The Hour of Smiles (1934-1935). The show remained under the title of Town Hall Tonight from 1935 through 1939. He hosted a self-titled Fred Allen Show during 1939-1940 and then from 1940 through 1944 he was the host of Texaco Star Theater. On-going battles with hypertension caused him to take nearly a year and a half hiatus in 1944 and he returned in the fall of 1945 with another self-titled program, The Fred Allen Show. This remained on the air through 1949 and after it's final episode in the summer of 1949 Allen never hosted another radio program full-time again.

In the early '50s he was a recurring guest on radio's The Big Show...appearing in nearly 30 episodes out of the 57 that were produced. Allen appeared in early episodes of television game shows...specifically his regular appearances on What's My Line? in the mid '50s. He was a frequent guest on the program for two years and had become popular with it's viewers...so popular that after his death in 1956 the game show mentioned his death on the air and at the end of the show each member of the panel gave their memories of him. Throughout his radio career he was often joined by his wife, Portland Hoffa. She's caricatured in this cartoon...saying her catch-phrase. The caricature you see on the screen below is Eddie Cantor. Modern-day readers who have no knowledge of old-time radio or classic entertainment will have no idea what's taking place in the cartoon and why it's considered funny by a lot of people who have appreciation for radio comedy. Also, modern-day readers keep in mind that Fred Allen and Steve Allen were two different comedians and neither of them were related to each other. I've come across web-sites where people see the name Fred Allen and they immediately think of Steve Allen.

And now that I've given a brief history of Fred Allen enjoy one of the cartoons that put his likeness center-stage...

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Nine...

2011-06-13T01:42:00.004-04:00

Howdy! There are several clips floating around on-line taken from the same Today Show segment. The particular segment on the morning news program spotlighted a recent get together of various Hee-Haw cast-members. One of the clips feature Buddy Alan while the other two clips feature commentary from Roy Clark and in a separate clip, Mel Tillis. Mel comments about the show and talks about his comedy CD. Since those particular video clips aren't uploaded on You Tube you'll have to Google them. The search phrases to use when surfing the internet are: "Hee-Haw + Today Show" or "Country Memories: The Cast of Hee-Haw Gets Together". More than likely you'll turn up web-sites owned and operated by NBC since that's the network that covered the get together. The reunion was to more than likely to commemorate the anniversary of the show's debut in 1969. The program debuted on June 15, 1969 as a summer replacement series on CBS. The summer episodes were a ratings winner and it was brought back in December 1969 as a mid-season replacement...airing until the spring of 1970. It later returned for one full season on CBS, 1970-1971, before going into syndication for 22 more seasons (1971-1992). In a lot of local markets the show aired in the same time-slot on local CBS stations which meant that a majority of viewers had no idea of the behind the scenes turmoil that went on with the on-again/off-again production cycle and it's cancellation by the network. As I mentioned in previous blog entries...the average viewer continued to watch Hee-Haw every Saturday evening for decades oblivious to the fact that it had become a syndicated series and was no longer financed by the network. (The average viewer of any TV show isn't going to pay attention to such detail!).

By the way...the summer season ran from June through September 1969.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Eight...

2011-05-25T07:06:00.002-04:00

According to the one who uploaded the above video this is from the final episode of Hee-Haw which aired on May 30, 1992. I've never seen a complete episode from the last season but in the above video we see a sketch called the Bus Stop. In the background you can hear the familiar banjo playing away and so I assume this was the urbanized version of the Kornfield. Gary Morris, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, and Hal Ketchum were the guests on what turned out to be the final first-run episode of the series. The series that appeared in the fall of 1992 was the "best-of" series called Hee-Haw Silver, which ran through the summer of 1993. In the above video you'll see Roy Clark, Grandpa Jones, Gordie Tapp, Mike Snider, Gary Morris, and several others trade jokes standing on a city street at a "Bus Stop".

In the video below we see a commercial for the Miracle Nose. It features Gary Morris and the Norris Twins. From 1969 through 1986 the program featured the Hagers, twin brothers who performed a lot during the show's earliest days. The arrival of the Norris Twins in 1992 marked the first time since the Hagers that twins were part of the series.

In the video below you'll see the relatively small cast...Roy Clark was the lone host during the show's final two seasons, 1990-1992. Roy had been joined by a different guest co-host each week between the years of 1986 through the spring of 1990. Prior to the fall of 1986 Buck Owens had co-hosted the show with Roy each week. Roy and Buck were the co-hosts from it's debut in 1969 through the spring of 1986.

The videos were uploaded by a fan of Gary Morris. I have no idea if other video from Hee-Haw's final episode exists but I'd like to see an episode from 1992 in it's entirety. As most people who read this blog are aware of I was never able to see the last season of the series because the local TV stations in my area didn't carry the show anymore. The final episodes that I saw were in 1991.

Trivia: What other television landmark came to a close in May 1992?

Answer: The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

Yes...that's right! The last Tonight Show that Johnny Carson hosted aired on May 22, 1992...which was on a Friday. 8 days later, on May 30th, Hee-Haw ended production of new episodes after a 24 season run.

Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians!

2011-05-16T10:34:00.006-04:00

This DVD contains 8 half-hour episodes. Two of the eight episodes feature split adventures and as a result there are 10 adventures but 8 actual episodes. This installment of Super Friends was much more serious and heavy on character studies...there was no narration, which will be noticed right away. In all of the episodes of the series William Woodson was heard as the narrator...his catchphrase "meanwhile...at the Hall of Justice..." became as synonymous with the series as the superhero's themselves. In this installment, which hit Saturday morning TV in 1985, there was no narration and the Hall of Justice had received a make-over. It now looked like an intergalactic headquarters one might find on a far off planet in the galaxy.

The appearances of the characters were more defined as well...more realistically drawn as compared to their previous look. One important note...the super-hero's were officially calling themselves the Super Powers Team...even the villains who for years had referred to them as "Superfriends" were now calling them the "Super Powers Team".

This review will obviously contain spoilers so don't anyone out there get angry when I reveal surprises and other interesting things that take place within these episodes!

There are several episodes in this 1985 series that are years ahead of their time. In one episode, the brilliant "The Fear", Batman is center stage as is the homicidal villain, Scarecrow, who is played more sinister than he was on Challenge of the Super Friends. New voice actor as well...the previous voice was provided by Don Messick. Cyborg is introduced in the first episode, "The Seeds of Doom", as a reluctant super-hero who ultimately becomes one of the Superfriends by the end of the episode. Lex Luthor appears at the beginning of this episode working the controls of a mechanical spider. He's soon captured and isn't seen for the rest of the episode. The Para-Demons of Apokolips are featured in the series...referred to as Para-Drones.

As you can tell, Darkseid becomes the main recurring villain in this series. Cyborg, by the way, is played in the first few episodes as a renegade of sorts...but he struck up a friendship with Ronald Raymond/Firestorm by the end of the first episode and by the third episode he's completely accepted his new job as a super hero.

"The Fear" tells the story of Batman's origin...it is noted that this episode was the very first time Batman's history was recalled in animated form. In the episode there are appearances by Alfred as well as Commissioner Gordon. In a unique scene we have Batman and Robin, for the first time in the Super Friend series, appearing as their alter ego's: Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Diana Prince, a/k/a Wonder Woman, makes an appearance at the Wayne Manor. Jonathan Crane, a/k/a Scarecrow, uses fear to control Batman's mind...throughout much of the episode the Super Friends are oblivious to Crane's secret identity. Dick Grayson innocently remarks to Alfred that Batman's acted strange ever since he left Crime Alley. This causes Alfred go drop his dishes...for only he and Bruce know the story of Crime Alley. Bruce reveals the history of Crime Alley and explains that's where his parents were killed...which is ultimately what inspired him to become Batman. Parts of the dialogue in this episode was lifted from a comic book series called The Untold Legend of the Batman.

Darkseid, a God from Apokolips, is the main villain of this series...just as he was in the previous installment in 1984, The Legendary Super Powers Show. In one of the episodes, one of the 12 minute offerings, we have "The Case of the Stolen Super Powers". In that episode we are treated to an appearance by the Penguin and Felix Faust...of course, everyone knows the Penguin is one of Batman's main villains. In the episode Felix uses his black magic to cause Superman to lose his powers. At the start of the episode Felix and Penguin are sharing a jail cell. As Felix casts the spell, Superman's powers leave him, and fly toward the prison. Penguin, sensing possible fame as a super-criminal, leaps in front of Felix and takes the powers for himself. Penguin, with Superman's powers, busts out of jail and flies away. Felix escapes, too, floating to the ground using Penguin's trusty umbrella. Felix vows revenge, summons Phantoms to track down Penguin who'd become a major media celebrity. While back at Felix's hide-out he ultimately causes Superman's powers to vacate Penguin's body. Felix now possesses Superman's powers while Superman, using help from a flying mechanism, enters Felix's cave. Wonder Woman and the rest of the Super Friends arrive. Firestorm uses Felix's newly acquired powers against him and transforms Felix's helmet into Kryptonite. Wonder Woman uses the power of her lasso to force Felix into relinquishing Superman's powers. At long last Superman has his powers restored while Felix and the Penguin are sent back to jail...with the news they'll be sharing the same cell again.

The Joker, Batman's #1 enemy, turns up in the episode "The Wild Cards". The episode starts out with a gang of petty criminals who are seen breaking into a building. Watching from a distance is a mysterious shadow figure who ultimately shows up as Ace claiming to be an admirer of the gang. He offers his help he turns them into the Royal Flush Gang...based upon a group of bandits from the past who dressed up as playing cards. In this gang there's King, Jack, Queen, and Ten. Later, during a battle with the Super Friends, King uses a red heart from a playing card to shoot out red sun energy...causing Superman to get weaker. Firestorm and Wonder Woman are also captured. They set their eyes on Batman and Robin before Ace shows up instructing them to return to the House of Cards.

Ace, a one time member of the original gang in the '60s, is revealed in this episode to be the Joker in disguise. Within the House of Cards there's a device which transforms the Super Friends onto playing cards. Later, thanks to a tracking device Batman planted on the bottom of the one of the flying cards, the rest of the Super Friends arrive at the House of Cards. They soon discover that within the fortress there must be a portal of some kind as Apokolips can be seen when looking outside the windows. Batman remarks that "inside it's Earth and outside it's Apokolips!". For those who don't know, Apokolips is the planet from which Darkseid comes from. After another battle, Ace and the Royal Flush Gang are captured by Batman and Robin. Once captured, Batman reveals that Ace is none other than Joker in disguise. Later, Ten, is about to reveal to Batman how Darkseid's card transformation device works but at the last second Darkseid enters, shoots Ten with his Omega Beams, and releases the captured gang as well as Joker. The Super Friends flee...but are soon captured...or are they? Jack and Batman fight...and later it's revealed that during the battle Batman changed costumes with Jack in an effort to rescue the other Super Friends. Once Batman (as Jack) releases the rest of the Super Friends from the playing cards he reveals how he was able to turn the tables on Jack and sneak into the House of Cards. Joker's consistent mishaps and failures irritates Darkseid to the point where he throws Joker out of Apokolips...with the episode ending with Joker falling out of Darkseid's star-gate into the waiting hands of the Super Friends.

That episode and the other episode I just wrote about "The Case of the Stolen Super Powers", mark the only appearances on the Super Friends series of The Joker and The Penguin. The two villains were missing in all of the other versions of the series.

In "The Darkseid Deception" we're told a story of how Darkseid learns of Steve Trevor, the boyfriend of Wonder Woman/Diana Prince. In the episode Darkseid captures the real Steve Trevor, transforming him into a mindless idiot. Darkseid assumes the identity of Trevor in an attempt to finally have Wonder Woman for his bride and co-ruler of Apokolips. In "Escape from Star City" we're told of a space city that features only two living beings: Moco and his daughter. Moco created Star City to escape Earth and it's destructive ways. Samurai grows puzzled why Moco doesn't want to have any involvement with other human's...he becomes further puzzled why Moco seems easily irritated and distant. It's revealed that Darkseid and company have captured the real Moco and have placed a robot android to take his place. Darkseid has his sights on taking over Star City which in his mind is a perfect location to ultimately take over Earth. The real Moco is rescued while Kalibak destroys Star City...thinking it's what Darkseid wants. Later, we see Darkseid genuinely in shock when he watches Star City fall apart. The scene ends with Deesad and Kalibak looking at Darkseid who apparently had been sitting in the same position for hours...with both of them hoping that Darkseid never finds out who really caused the destruction of Star City.

Brainiac makes an appearance on the episode "Brainchild" about Cyborg being captured and used in Brainiac's experiment. Brainiac created a gigantic commando robot and he implanted Cyborg's mind into it. Superman and Firestorm battle the indestructible robot until it's discovered that the robot still has some of Cyborg's humanity. They use the human side of the robot to cause it to overload and short circuit. Once this occurs Cyborg's mind is returned and he wakes up from suspended animation.

In the bizarre episode, "The Bizarro Super Powers Team", we get to hear William Woodson's voice narrating the opening sequence...telling us about the square planet known as Bizarro World...but he isn't heard again throughout the episode. Bizarro turns several of the hero's into Bizarro's while Mr. Mxyzptlk acts as the teacher who trains the transformed bizarro's into being so-called upstanding citizens. Ironically, Superman doesn't make an appearance in this episode...but at the last minute a bizarro Mxyzptlk is created by Wonder Woman and because everything's backwards when it comes to the Bizarro race Mr. Mxyzptlk's duplicate is referred to as Mr. Kltpzyxm and through a bizarre set of circumstances the real Mxyzptlk is tricked into saying his name backwards and is zapped back to the 5th Dimension. The bizarro version of Mxyzptlk has idea's of turning Bizarro World into a beautiful place, which alarms Bizarro, who voluntarily goes back to his own world to try and save it.

One of the most recalled episodes from fans of this series is the final episode, "The Death of Superman"...which is a wonderful episode! In it, the episode starts up reporting on the news of Superman's death. Darkseid doesn't believe it. The Super Friends send Superman's body off into the sun and make their way to the Fortress of Solitude. Firestorm in the meantime goes into a fit of anger as he was the one with Superman at the time of his death. Later, Firestorm gets into a fight with some of Darkseid's warriors...only to be captured and taken to Apokolips. Darkseid uses a device to force Firestorm to recall the hours leading up to Superman's death. We're told of how the two of them were on a planet where Superman became exposed to kryptonite. Firestorm was unable to get help and as a result Superman died from kryptonite poisoning. Darkseid revealed that he wished that he would have been the person responsible for Superman's demise instead of some freak accident. Later, at the Fortress, Batman and company enter and meet up with one of the various Superman robots that guard the Fortress. They explain Superman's death while the robot reveals that Superman had long been searching for an antidote to kryptonite and that in one of his recent experiments he put himself into a trance. They look at Superman's curious position on one of the computer tapes...which was exactly the same position Firestorm found him. It doesn't take long for several of the Super Friends to make the assumption that Superman's still alive but in a self-induced trance to slow down the effects of the kryptonite exposure! In the end Superman is revealed to be alive...which stuns Darkseid and just about everyone else.

The DVD contains the following episodes:

1. The Seeds of Doom
2. The Ghost Ship / The Bizarro Super Powers Team
3. The Darkseid Deception
4. The Fear
5. Wild Cards
6. Brainchild / The Case of the Stolen Super Powers
7. Escape From Star City
8. The Death of Superman

Look to the Sky...

2011-05-09T09:46:00.005-04:00

As a child of the '80s and early '90s I was also into comic books of the era, too. Batman and Superman were at the top of the list for me...I love the Super Friends cartoons as well. I was not familiar with the earlier cartoons of Superman until they were released on a low-budget home video in the early '90s. Those cartoons were the theatrical releases by the Fleischer Studio. I was then acquainted with the George Reeves version of Superman when Nick-at-Nite began to air the television show...around the same time I began hearing the radio version with Bud Collyer that would often show up on NPR and the anthology series, When Radio Was, formerly hosted by Stan Freberg. I was very familiar with the movie version of Superman played by Christopher Reeve. The movies used to air seemingly all the time in the 1980's on HBO and TBS.

In addition to Superman, Bud Collyer was equally noted as a game show host ("To Tell the Truth", "Winner Take All", "Beat the Clock", etc. etc.).

In this DVD we get 36 six minute episodes. I don't necessarily know if each episode runs exactly 6 minutes but I'd say 6 and a half to 7 minutes is the general length per episode. Among the many adventures in this collection quite a few of them are wonderful in their story-telling...one of the adventures that's fine but isn't on the same level as the other episodes is "The Iron Eater". In that episode Superman has to stop a bizarre looking mechanical menace devouring iron all over the world. That episode, as well as "The Imp-Practical Joker" featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk, are more whimsical than anything else.

One of the criticisms of the collection is that the episodes aren't in chronological order. For example, "The Return of Brainiac" is on Disc 1 while "Superman Meets Brainiac" is on Disc 2. As you can tell, the compilers of this collection should've caught the error before the DVD collection was released. Even with the collection not in chronological order at least someone should know, judging by the titles of those two episodes, which one came first. Regardless of this it doesn't take away from the enjoyment you'll get watching the episodes.

In what could be described as a forerunner to the future Legion of Doom makes an appearance as A.P.E. The members of the A.P.E organization are: Lex Luthor, Toyman, Prankster, and the Warlock. In their episode "The Men from A.P.E." we have Luthor as the inventor of a Kryptonic projector which is shot from a light-house. It's beam of kryptonite is capable of aiming at Superman within a mile radius. The villains purposely device schemes that cause Superman to fly near the light-house. "The Tree Men from Arbora" is a tale of a tree creature that consumes gallons of water...ponds, rivers, even the water from a by-stander's car engine. The creature hides in the Redwood Forrest and Superman has to battle him and return him to the Arbora planet.

"Merlin's Magic Marbles" involves Luthor and his assistant, Blinky, obtaining magic marbles from the spirit of Merlin. Toyman, in a later episode, creates a robot version of Superman for criminal use. The episode, "The Two Faces of Superman", is on Disc 2. One of the funnier aspects of the dialogue is when Superman refers to one of the insects in "Insect Raiders" as Buzzy...in another episode, "The Prehistoric Pterodactyls", Superman refers to one of them as Terry Baby. In the Superman history there have been various criminals to use the name, Toyman. The original, Winslow Schott, is who the Toyman in these cartoons is based on. The illustration of him in these cartoons has him with dark hair, a big red bow tie, and just as a side-note the Toyman in these cartoons makes me think of comedian Henry Morgan (most famously known as a regular panelist on the classic game show, "I've Got a Secret").

Something of a mystery to me is the identity of the person providing the voice in the opening sequence saying the line "It's Superman!". We hear Jackson Beck do the narration but then we hear "It's a bird!", "It's a plane!", and then "It's Superman!". The reason I'm curious about who did that particular "It's Superman!" voice-over is because it sounds incredibly like Danny Dark, the man who voiced Superman in the 1970's and 1980's Super Friends episodes. If anyone has any information I'd love to know if it was Danny Dark or someone else.

Given that The New Adventures of Superman originally consisted of three short episodes per half hour (2 of Superman, 1 of Super-Boy) we have all of the Superman episodes that aired on that program. Since there were 2 short adventures of Superman per half hour episode, and there were a total of 18 half hour episodes produced, that's 36 in total.

The Super-Boy episodes aren't included due to legal complications.

To clear up some of the on-going confusion of whether to call this a "complete series" it's important to note that without the Super-Boy segments it isn't a "complete series" but as far as the Superman segments are concerned it's indeed a "complete series" since it has each and every Superman adventure from the first season, 1966-1967. The second season, 1967-1968, aired under the title The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. The third season, 1968-1969, aired as The Batman/Superman Hour.

Each of those Superman adventures in the third season were split up into 2 parts.

The fourth season, 1969-1970, was nothing but reruns from earlier seasons.

Bud Collyer passed away on September 8, 1969 which was the same day an updated version of "To Tell the Truth" began airing with Garry Moore as the host!

Collyer was the voice of Superman/Clark Kent on radio, in theatrical cartoons, and in the made for TV cartoons of the mid to late '60s.

The voice of Lois Lane in these episodes is Joan Alexander...she also provided the voice of Lois on the radio version, too. She became a regular panelist on the 1950's game show, "The Name's the Same", in addition to her being a regular actress on various radio drama's of the time period.

Jack Grimes is the voice of Jimmy Olsen in these cartoons just as he was in the final few years of the Superman radio show.

The show's narrator, Jackson Beck, also provided the voice of Perry White in addition to various incidental characters. Beck was also the narrator and voice of Perry White in the radio version of Superman. Beck's most recognized cartoon voice is that of Bluto/Brutus in the Popeye cartoons produced from 1944 through the 1960's.

Super Friends...They're in the Mail...

2011-03-14T14:13:00.004-04:00

After several months of putting it off I finally got around to ordering the DVD's of the first season of the Super Friends. The episodes were released in two separate Volumes last year and those particular DVD's are the only ones missing from my collection. They should arrive in the mail within the week...probably near the weekend. I'd only seen a few of the episodes because back when Boomerang was airing them the channel would stick them on at Midnight and since I work nights I was never home to see the episodes...except on the weekend when I was home. It'll be nice to have all the episodes...from what I read there will be 2 DVD's in each collection with 4 episodes per DVD. There were 16 episodes produced altogether. The series ran 1 season and was ahead of it's time...considered a 'flop' originally. Later in the decade with the emphasis on escapist television drama and a live-action Wonder Woman series it was decided to re-run the 1973 Super Friends episodes which led to the eventual premier of The All-New Super Friends Hour which introduced the world to the Wonder Twins and Gleek (they replaced Wendy and Marvin and their Wonder Dog from season one). The original 1973 series, though, set in motion the overall formula for the remainder of the Super Friends programs that were to air throughout the late '70s and into the mid '80s.

Ted Knight narrated the first season's episodes...at the time, as far as animation fans are concerned, he was closely associated with the Filmation super-hero cartoons of the late '60s that were still airing in reruns on Saturday mornings in the '70s. Knight did the voices of The Joker, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Simon the Pieman, and Black Manta to name just a few...in addition he was the narrator on those super-hero cartoons. Knight became a huge television star beginning in 1970 with the arrival of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Knight played Ted Baxter on the series from it's debut in 1970 through it's final episode in 1977. It was in 1973 that he was called on to narrate the first season of Super Friends. By this time the adult audiences knew of him as Ted Baxter and I bet a lot of them were unaware of his contributions to children's cartoons.

This was also at a time when TV personalities often downplayed or hid their association with cartoons.

Meanwhile...when the Super Friends series was brought back with new episodes in 1977 (after a 4 year hiatus in production), William Woodson was the new narrator...and he, too, did character voices. Unlike Ted Knight, Woodson's voice roles in the series were in the category of incidental voices...characters that aren't part of the regular cast but are used to help support the storyline in a particular episode. Woodson would remain the narrator from 1977 through 1984. His voice appears in one episode of the series in 1985, ("The Bizarro Super Powers Team"), but in that particular version, (Galactic Guardians), the producers didn't use any narration on the rest of the episodes.

Ted Knight footage is easy to find on-line...videos of him are readily available on You Tube. William Woodson, on the other hand, not so readily available. One video clip, in particular, is a 1962 episode of The Rifleman. In this clip Woodson portrays the Sheriff of Red Creek. The episode aired on April 30, 1962. Woodson's footage begins at the 7 minute, 5 second mark but the bulk of the Woodson footage doesn't kick in until the 9 minute mark. This is where Woodson's character and Rifleman, Chuck Connors, have an intense confrontation.

Ray Stevens Animated Music Videos...

2011-03-13T19:25:00.001-04:00

Country singer Ray Stevens has issued several limited animation music videos down through the years. His initial step into that sort of product came along with the release of a project called Cartoon Video Collection which features 8 music videos where live-action Ray is shown with an animated back-drop. Several years later Ray began issuing music videos that were completely animated...including animated versions of his own image on screen. The results shown up on a couple of DVD releases in 2006.

Those music videos, coupled with brand new additions and some other previously released videos, shown up on Cartoon Carnival, Volume One, a DVD release of 10 animated music videos. That DVD collection was released along side Cartoon Carnival, Volume Two. Keep in mind the years that these individual music videos were released doesn't necessarily reflect the year they were originally recorded. Ray has made a lot of music videos, both live action and animation, of previous recordings that otherwise had no music video counterpart.

The 20 limited animation music videos that a person gets on the two Cartoon Carnival DVD's are as follows...

The Moonlight Special (2009)
Gone For Good (2003)
Along Came Jones (2006)
Barbeque (2006)
Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat (2009)
The Ballad Of Cactus Pete And Lefty (2006)
Power Tools (2003)
Can He Love You Half As Much As I (2006)
Deerslayer (2003)
Gourmet Restaurant (2006)
Hugo, The Human Cannonball (2009)
Hang Up And Drive (2003)
This Ain’t Exactly What I Had In Mind (2006)
Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens (2006)
Bridget The Midget the Queen of the Blues (2003)
The Camping Trip (2009)
Harry The Hairy Ape (2006)
Erik The Awful (2003)
Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills (2006)
Misty (2006)

I highlighted the four exclusive music videos that were added to the collection. This was one of the last projects released by Ray Stevens prior to his change in direction to releasing topical/politically-humorous music videos...which have been seen by millions on You Tube.

Superfriends...The Classic Era...

2011-02-24T04:26:00.003-05:00

Somewhere along the line there seems to have been an unwritten rule come along in which it's become popular(?) to make fun of the classic era of the Superfriends. I love the classic era. I've got most of the DVD collections of this series...the only collection's that I don't have, as of now, are the first season releases from last year. Like a lot of fans I'm waiting on news to come along that the 1979 episodes, titled World's Greatest Superfriends, are coming to DVD as well as the short episodes from 1980-1982. Commentary on-line suggests that the 1979 episodes won't be released due to the copyright issues of the literary works that were borrowed for the series...it was in the 1979 episodes where the Superfriends were placed in the land of Oz, for example, as well as battling foes in Camelot (referred to as Camelon in the series). There are other episodes from the 1979 series that were conventional episodes such as "Lex Luthor Strikes Back" where Lex and his bumbling assistant disguise themselves as various Superfriends with the help of a projector ray. The assistant, of course, is based on Ned Beatty's Otis character in the Superman movie a year earlier.

However, in spite of the belief that copyright problems may prevent the 1979 episodes from being re-released on DVD it should be noted that the DVD collection of the 1978 episodes features an installment called "Attack of the Vampire" which uses the actual name, Count Dracula, and then there are installments, also from 1978, titled "The Time Trap" and "Fairy Tales of Doom". In each episode the Superfriends come face to face with literary characters. Julius Caesar appears in "The Time Trap" while King Arthur is mentioned in the same episode. In the Fairy Tales episode Toyman sends several of the Superfriends into the books of fairy-tales: Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, as well as Jack and the Beanstalk. I think if there's a serious push for the 1979 episodes to get released on DVD there'd be a compromise or deal struck in some fashion or another.

The desire from fans is to have all remaining episodes of the series released on DVD.

Of the 7 DVD collections that I own I find myself watching Challenge of the Superfriends the most and second to that is the 1983 Lost Episodes release from 2009. Lately I've been watching more of 1984's The Legendary Super Powers Show but I've watched each of the collections a lot...so there's not any specific release that I'd consider an absolute favorite. It simply depends on my mood...if I want to see episodes with Darkseid I'll pull out the 1984 episodes. If I want to see the hour long episodes I'll watch one of the two volumes of The All-New Superfriends Hour from 1977.

There have been 9 DVD collections released of the Superfriends over the course of the last several years. I don't have the 2 volume set of the first season episodes but I have all the other collections. It was in the first season where Ted Knight played the role of the narrator and the Hall of Justice was referred to as the Hall of the Justice League. Ted Knight was chosen as narrator, I assume, because of his history with voicing cartoon characters in the 1960's super-hero cartoons. A lot of people forget that Knight was the voice of The Riddler, The Joker, Mr. Freeze, Black Manta, Torpedo Man, Tusky, and Imp during the late '60s in the Filmation produced cartoons. Knight was the narrator of the 1967-1968 Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure as well as the 1968-1969 series, The Superman-Batman Adventures, and he voiced a lot of the villains. Knight's narration in the first season of Superfriends wasn't that out of place at all if you know his history with the franchise. Yes...before anyone can ask...it's the same Ted Knight who appeared on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Too Close for Comfort, and the Caddyshack movies. You can find episodes of these late '60s super-hero cartoons with Ted Knight's involvement on You Tube. Those familiar with William Woodson's narration (1977-1984) and unfamiliar with Ted Knight's, of course, will find it odd to hear someone other than Woodson deliver the narration. I'm including this video of a 1967 Aquaman cartoon because it demonstrates Knight's vocal abilities as Black Manta. In the clip you'll hear Knight as the narrator, too...

For those who stumble onto this and don't own any of the DVD collections available here is a list of the officially released Superfriends collections...

1. Challenge of the Superfriends; 2004 (1978)

2. Superfriends, Volume Two; 2005 (1978)**

3. Superfriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show; 2007 (1984)

4. Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians; 2007 (1985)

5. The All-New Superfriends Hour, Volume One; 2008 (1977)

6. The All-New Superfriends Hour, Volume Two; 2009 (1977)

7. Superfriends: The Lost Episodes; 2009 (1983)

8. Superfriends, Season One, Volume One; 2010 (1973)

9. Superfriends, Season One, Volume Two; 2010 (1973)

(**)- in the 1978 hour-long series, Challenge of the Superfriends, the program was broken into two parts. In the first half hour the episodes revolved around the Superfriends and the Wonder Twins battling an array of small-scale villains, scientists gone mad, alien monsters, and local crooks bent on controlling the world or unleashing mayhem all over the world. In the second half hour the episodes revolved around the Superfriends, minus the Wonder Twins and with an increase of super-heroes, battling super-villains led by Lex Luthor. The villains resided in the Hall of Doom and they collectively went by the name of The Legion of Doom. When the DVD's were being released the company decided to release the 32 half-hour 1978 episodes in two separate DVD's consisting of 16 episodes per collection. Superfriends, Volume Two features the 16 episodes with the Wonder Twins as part of the line-up while the first collection released, Challenge of the Superfriends, features the 16 episodes with a line-up of 11 Superfriends battling the 13 member Legion of Doom.

The super-heroes in the episodes with the Legion of Doom include: Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkman, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and Apache Chief. The last three heroes were created for the 1977 series and hadn't appeared in any comic book or other animated series beforehand. They were included in the Challenge series, too, in an effort to offer more story opportunities.

The Legion of Doom members include: Lex Luthor, Black Manta, Grodd, Toyman, Sinestro, Brainiac, Bizarro, Captain Cold, The Riddler, Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, and Giganta.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Seven...

2011-01-17T01:04:00.002-05:00

Sunday night's episode of Hee-Haw on RFD-TV featured Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Cincinnati Reds catcher, Johnny Bench. This particular episode was among those issued on DVD from Time Life back in 2005. Waylon performed "Good Hearted Woman", "Me and Bobby McGee", and with Jessie he sang "I Ain't the One". Jessi performed "I'm Not Lisa". There were several performances from Roy Clark as well as Buck Owens...in addition to The Hagers. Lisa Todd even performed a song in this episode. Johnny Bench would pop-up in various, quick comedy exchanges with individual cast-members. As is the custom when athlete's show up the punchlines that they deliver or the jokes that they set up are typically sports oriented. Bench appeared on Hee-Haw several times.

In this seventh installment of the Hee-Haw retrospective I felt it a change of pace to ponder a question that's been on the minds of a lot of fans for years: Could Hee-Haw ever make it if brought back in first-run syndication? I don't necessarily have a definitive answer for that question but I'd guess and say there's plenty of people who would automatically say 'yes' and some that would quickly answer 'no'. Television syndication is an incredibly competitive business nowadays. It's actually been highly competitive since the dawn of the 1990's but with so many cable-TV channels and many productions working on off-network programs and the seemingly dominate grip on the 7-8pm time-slot by local stations through the week it leads to an ever increasing diagnosis of doom when it comes to trying to make it in television syndication in 2011 as opposed to 1991.

It's been almost 20 years since the Hee-Haw we all recognize went off the air. The final rural version of the program aired on February 23, 1991 and the guest stars on that last program were Tammy Wynette and Steve Wariner. The show went into a prolonged rerun period which lasted through the rest of 1991. It was also during this rerun cycle that the local TV station in my area stopped carrying the show altogether and as I've mentioned before I was never able to watch the 1992 episodes.

Anyway, the new version of Hee-Haw hit the air on January 4, 1992. Barbara Mandrell, Vern Gosdin, and Joe Diffie were the first guests of 1992.

This urbanized twist of the show went off the air in May 1992 and since that point in time there's never been any newly produced episodes of the program to see the light of day. The question of would a show like Hee-Haw work in 2011 remains up in the air for a lot of people. We all like to think the show, if brought back with new episodes in the rural version we all love, would be able to attract an audience of some kind and be successful.

The success of the Time Life DVD's, in addition to all the ratings successes that the reruns have enjoyed every time a channel airs them, is proof enough that the show is remarkably popular after all this time. Attempting to revive the show would be an undertaking to put it mildly.

I kind of get the sense that every so often talk starts up about a possible revival of the show in some form or another and this causes nostalgic feelings for the show to surface...eventually leading to nostalgic and emotional remembrances about the cast-members of the program, etc. etc.

In the most ironic of circumstances plans of reviving the show almost always get pushed onto the back burner because of the idea of reviving a program that's so beloved by it's fans that one false move in the production or casting can lead to severe backlash. Hee-Haw ended on a controversial note, after all. It's long-time fans were not pleased with the new look in the 1992 episodes. The main set, a cornfield, was replaced according to things I've read by a city street. Oh, in the course of the last 18 and a half years since the program's final episode in 1992 it's become even more of a treasured program in the eye's of it's fans...so the controversy over the 1992 episodes didn't necessarily damage the feelings for the show as a whole. This is why I feel if new episodes were to ever be made that the smartest move to make is to have the scenery rural...bringing back the cornfield and other elements of the show. If the program were ever revived it would clearly need to remain purposely corny and showcase a lot of music, too. I guess what I'm saying is a revival of the show would need to have the spirit of the classic Hee-Haw...not necessarily the same exact sketches or cast-members...but if it were done in a faithful way it could work.

Earlier I remarked that reviving the show would be an undertaking...and I assume it would be...but once a revival becomes officially cast, and the scenery and writing becomes intentionally reminiscent of it's early years, and the rapid editing style and showing of bloopers is inserted I think long-time fans of the show would absolutely love a revival of Hee-Haw.

In all my talks about the show I seldom mention the absolute fact that it wasn't the fans of the show that caused it to go out of production in 1992. Affiliate television stations by 1990/1991 were dropping the show...and obviously this will lead to a decline in audience. Well, due to television programmers dropping the show it caused a lot of fans to innocently assume the show was no longer on the air. I'll bet millions of people didn't see the 1990-1992 episodes due to the syndication practices of the era. In 1992 the show went out of production amidst the controversy of the urban Hee-Haw.

I find it ironic, though, that a year and a half after the show ended production in May of 1992 that it became one of the highest rated programs on The Nashville Network beginning in early 1994 when the reruns started airing on Saturday nights. Reruns of the show remained on TNN on a fairly consistent basis through 1997 but the time-slot was often being played around with. For the most part the reruns aired on Saturday nights at 10pm and would re-air at 1am. Later on the reruns were pushed back to 7pm and they'd re-air again at 10pm. TNN's prime-time line-up would always repeat itself for those who didn't catch the early airings. The reruns on TNN were publicized in a couple issues of Country Weekly magazine in 1994 and revitalized interest led to an outdoor stage show, Hee-Haw Live, at the Opryland complex.

The reruns eventually stopped airing on TNN and then came an ill-fated association with CMT who aired reruns of the show inconsistently. CMT apparently didn't want the ratings that Hee-Haw could bring in and so they eventually stopped airing the show altogether...the CMT era was launched on July 29, 2006 when the channel aired a marathon of episodes with the promise that reruns would air on a weekly basis...but this didn't pan out.

Around this same time, the mid 2000's, reruns of the show began appearing on DVD from the Time Life company. No doubt the success of those DVD's increased the belief that the show had remained popular after all these years...and now the reruns are airing on RFD-TV in a much more faithful way. In fact, they're airing in chronological order. Enjoy this beloved program as it airs each Sunday at 8pm Eastern.

41 years of Scooby-Doo...

2010-12-30T19:59:00.005-05:00

Last summer I wrote about an up-coming new series of Scooby-Doo cartoons that were to hit the airwaves beginning in the fall of 2009. No doubt, over a year later, those familiar with all things Scooby are well aware that the series didn't exactly make it on the air until the fall of 2010. That series, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc., initially aired in April 2010 but didn't debut on a regular basis until July 2010. The program's home, Cartoon Network, continues to air the program...an entry into the series that's like nothing seen before. In this particular version the familiar concept of solving mysteries is still there but there's a much more realistic approach to each of the characters that was lacking in all versions of the program, except perhaps the original run during 1969-1971. In fact, publicity centered around the idea that this latest series was to be a continuation of the 1969-1971 era when the four teenagers were treated as teenagers instead of as adults in teenage clothing.

In the latest version there's a romantic overtone that was lacking in other versions...and I think this romantic element being inserted into the series is a direct result of the internet culture where people, for whatever reason, romantically link Fred and Daphne as well as Shaggy and Velma. There was always this romantic connection between Fred and Daphne, going back to the original 1969 episodes...what with Fred typically more concerned whenever Daphne would get into trouble or vanish. In an episode from 1976 titled "The Frightened Hound meets Demons Underground" Daphne is taken prisoner by one of the demons. Upon realizing this seconds later, Fred shouts out something like: "Daphne!!?! Quick...we gotta find her!!". So, yes, there was always a subtle hint that Fred and Daphne were boyfriend and girlfriend...but it was never an in-your-face distraction.

This sort of romantic insertion, personally speaking, was always troubling to me because it shown irreverence toward the crux of the series: mystery solving. Those familiar with all the different versions of the series will certainly get a shock when they see Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc. for the first time...the series has it's great moments, though, but I find the romantic edge a distraction which plays more to a fan-fiction crowd than anything else. I prefer the traditional story of ghosts, monsters, goblins, and other assorted demons terrorizing the area and the teenagers, and Scooby, stumbling onto the mystery and solving it. This isn't to say that there's no mystery solving in the latest series...as I remarked, there's plenty of it...but having the romantic overtone is the equivalent of eating ice cream topped with pencil shavings (something Scooby and Shaggy may find incredibly appetizing). There's an on-going sub-plot in this series where the gang continues to find clues as to the whereabouts of another gang of four mystery solving teenagers and their dog who've long since disappeared.

In a rating scale of 5 stars, with 5 being great, I give the series 4 and a half. If the romantic element would be dropped I'd give it 5 stars.

This is the 11th individual series based on the original Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? concept. As the title of this blog entry suggests this is also the 41st year of Scooby-Doo. Here is a look at the various Scooby-related programs that have been on the air since 1969. This list doesn't include the home video/DVD market which have issued direct-to-video movies regularly since 1998...

1. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?; 1969-1971
2. The New Scooby-Doo Movies; 1972-1973
3. The Scooby-Doo Show; 1976-1978
4. The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show; 1979-1980**
5. The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show; 1980-1982**
6. The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show/The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries; 1983-1984***
7. The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo; 1985
8. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo; 1988-1991
9. What's New, Scooby-Doo?; 2002-2005
10. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue!; 2006-2008
11. Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated; 2010-present

**- there were 99 seven minute episodes produced and they aired as part of the package shows, The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show and The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. 34 hour programs {21 of the former, 13 of the latter} were produced altogether. In the second series there was a segment that featured Scrappy-Doo and new characters, Yabba-Doo and Deputy Dusty, solving cases with a western setting.

***- this series featured Scooby, Scrappy, Shaggy, and Daphne. There were 52 eleven minute episodes produced...2 eleven minute episodes aired per half hour...26 half hour episodes were produced altogether, 13 each season. The series went under the name of The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show in 1983 and The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries in 1984.

Frank Welker voices Fred in all of the incarnations of the series except for A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in which the characters were all small kids...even though Casey Kasem returned as Shaggy and Don Messick resumed his role as Scooby for that series. Casey was the voice of Shaggy in all incarnations of the series except Shaggy and Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue! and the latest, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. Don Messick was the voice of Scooby in all incarnations of the series through 1991. Don retired in 1996 following a stroke and passed away in 1997 and since then the character had been voiced, first by Scott Innes from 1998-2001, and then by Frank Welker starting in 2002. Innes was also the voice of Shaggy during 1999-2001, prior to Casey returning to the role. The Scott Innes characterizations are found on the various home video/DVD/video game releases since there was no television series in production at the time. Heather North, the second voice of Daphne but the actress who held the position the longest, joined in 1970 and remained with the series on and off through 1997. The original voice of Daphne was an actress with the unique name of Stefanianna Christopherson during the initial 1969-1970 season. Mary Kay Bergman held the role from 1998-2000. The current voice is Grey DeLisle...she took over the role in 2001. Velma has had several voice actresses through the years...most notable are Nicole Jaffe, Pat Stevens, and B.J. Ward. The current voice, since 2002, is Mindy Cohn, the face actress known by millions as Natalie on the 1979-1988 TV series, Facts of Life.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Six...

2010-12-27T08:44:00.003-05:00

This Life in the Kornfield book was released in 1996 and as far as I know it was never re-issued and so the only way an abundance of people were to get this book is if they bought it brand new at the time. It's available on the Amazon marketplace and it may be available on eBay...but it's long been out of print. 2011 will mark the book's 15th anniversary...it would be nice if the book were to get re-released in 2011 and have additional chapters focusing on Sam and the cast's thoughts about the success of the DVD's that Time-Life released in the mid 2000's and the thrill of the show getting a TV Land award a few years ago...in addition to the program's re-airing on RFD-TV...exposing the show to yet another generation. This book has a few flaws, though...those who get bent out of shape if a song might be referred to with a slightly different title or if 100% accuracy is a must you may find the book inferior. A slight inaccuracy is mistakenly crediting Gunilla Hutton as being a former cast-member of "Green Acres" instead of "Petticoat Junction". This sort of inaccuracy, though, would only be caught by those who are devoted fans of those two shows or know Gunilla's career history. The general public always mix-up those two shows because they both take place in the same town and have the same ensemble supporting cast...so, to all the nit-pickers, cut Sam some slack, okay?

This book contains an episode-by-episode breakdown...it's always been a fascinating part of the book...reading the names of all the celebrities that appeared from 1969 through 1992. This feature has added significance with RFD-TV airing the show in chronological order...now we can see ahead of time when one of our favorite singers are to make an appearance. Last night's rerun on RFD was from 1972 and it featured Jeannie C. Riley and Johnny Bench. That particular episode originally aired February 5, 1972. Looking in the episode breakdown I know that next Sunday night's rerun on January 2, 2011 will feature Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. The episode originally aired on February 12, 1972 of course.

The Hee-Haw 10th Anniversary celebration took place in 1978 as a 2-hour special that aired separately from it's weekly time-slot. This special was taped at the Opry, with a jam-packed audience, and it featured the cast and a lot of country singers stopping by giving their thoughts and memories of the show in addition to performing their current hits. One of the recurring features of the special was to air earlier clips of the cast prior to their current appearance. Tammy Wynette was saluted in a series of clips that spotlighted her various hair styles. Loretta Lynn appeared via video-tape and discussed her fondness for the show and they aired several clips of her and later she introduced Conway Twitty. All in all it was a fun celebration...and it included exclusive sketches performed live for the audience. They did a 20th Anniversary special in 1988 but for whatever reason it was never issued on DVD. In hindsight Time-Life should have issued the 1978 and 1988 anniversary specials together on one DVD. There were a few serious moments on the special...Grandpa Jones was featured sitting alone with a home made fishing pole discussing the murder of fellow cast-member, Dave "Stringbean" Akeman, which led into a video tribute of Stringbean's contributions to the show. Grandpa and Stringbean were close friends in real life. In another tribute, Buck Owens did a medley of his own hit songs as a salute to Don Rich, the leader of the Buckaroos band and an important figure in Buck's career. Don appeared on Hee-Haw every week as part of the Buckaroos band until his 1974 death at the age of 32.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992.

The Dick Tracy Collection...

2010-11-21T07:44:00.003-05:00

This 4-disc DVD set houses all 130 short-subject episodes of The Dick Tracy Show. I purchased this collection earlier this year and have probably watched it 7 or 8 times...well, not in one sitting and not each and every disc. I watched all four of the DVD's sprinkled throughout a week-long span and ever since that time I've often reached for DVD #1 and #3 the most even though DVD #2 and #4 are just as good. There's roughly 30-32 short episodes per DVD. Each and every adventure opens and closes as if it's a full-length half hour cartoon and so you'll find yourself seeing the same opening and closing sequences over 30 times per DVD. One of the things I would have done differently is have an opening at the start of the DVD and then just air each episode back to back to back and not show a "closing sequence" until the final cartoon on the DVD airs. However, that isn't the way it is on this collection.

In this series Dick Tracy doesn't participate too much in the crime solving. Instead, that part of the work is handled by a series of leg men who star in the individual episodes. First up is Hemlock Holmes, a white dog with a Cary Grant voice, who goes about his work with the aid of the bumbling Retouchables. This group of inept police are patterned after the Keystone Cops but have a name based on The Untouchables. Joe Jitsu is a parody of Charlie Chan and often uses his unassuming super-strength to punish his opponents. Go-Go Gomez is a Mexican character who has super speed...sort of like a human depiction of Speedy Gonzales. One of the ironies about Go-Go is even though he has super speed he speaks rather lazily. Heap O'Callory is a bumbling policeman with a voice similar to Andy Devine. Heap is featured on the outside cover of this collection chasing after Flat Top.

A lot of the voices are based on celebrities. Flat Top's voice is based on Peter Lorre. The Brow has a voice similar to James Cagney. B.B. Eyes has a voice similar to Edward G. Robinson. Itchy's voice often comes across sounding like the exaggerated voice made famous by Joe Besser. Once you see an episode with Itchy you'll understand what I mean. Prune Face has a voice similar to Boris Karloff's natural speaking voice. Some of the other villains have the typical dumb-bell voice or the stereotypical gangster voice...those voices can be heard via Oodles, Stooge Villar, The Mole...a French accent is given to Sketch Puree. The voice of Mumbles is hilarious. Some of the voice actors in this series are Everett Sloane as Dick Tracy; Benny Rubin as Joe Jitsu; Paul Frees as Go-Go Gomez and Flat Top; Jerry Hausner as Hemlock Holmes, Itchy, Stooge Villar, etc.; Johnny Coons as Heap O'Callory. Mel Blanc voiced Flat Top and Go-Go Gomez on an infrequent basis.

One disc is devoted almost entirely to adventures featuring Joe Jitsu while another has a majority of Go-Go Gomez adventures. Heap O'Callory isn't featured nearly as much while Hemlock Holmes is confined mostly to the first and second disc. In one of the episodes Hemlock Holmes and the Retouchables have to be rescued by Joe Jitsu...marking one of the rare moments where two of Tracy's underlings are featured in the same episode. The Retouchables are a spoof of The Untouchables but with a comedic twist inspired by the Keystone Kops. One of the running gags is how the Retouchables can never remember their orders. For example: suppose there's a robbery at a shoe store on piper street. Well, the Retouchables in unison would mangle their orders by saying something like "there's a pipe robbery at a shoe story" and another may 'correct' that description by saying "no, there's a pipe store being robbed on shoe street", etc. etc.

I found the cartoons to be completely entertaining...I loved them as a kid/teenager in the early '90s but seeing that I'm a bit older now I get the biggest kick out of the vocal work and the culture references. The banter between Prune Face and Itchy is hilarious as well. "Itchy, STOP that scratching!!" is something of a catchphrase. Another recurring feature is a scene where the cop on patrol can freeze time, typically at a crucial part of the story, in order to call in to Tracy with an update. Typically this feature requires comical commentary from whichever underling is reporting back to Tracy.

If Hemlock Holmes, for example, is about ready to fall into a burning building he'd holler "Hold everything!!!" and then the action would stop and he'd relay to Tracy, via wrist watch radio, the latest happenings by referencing the current situation. Hemlock would say something like: "I'm hot on their trail, Tracy, it's getting hotter each second!". Tracy, going only by the words Hemlock used and unaware of the true danger, would say something like: "Keep cool, Hemlock, I'm on my way...".

Laff-a-Lympics, Volumes One and Two...

2010-11-20T05:10:00.004-05:00

About a year ago I wrote a blog about the soon to be released DVD, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. I'd bought Volume One earlier in the year and a few weeks ago I finally got around to purchasing Volume Two of this obscure, though popular, series. I know those who read this may wonder "how can something be popular yet be obscure at the same time?". This sort of thing is common among vintage cartoon series...programs that achieve a level of popularity with an audience but over the course of time it becomes obscure and largely forgotten by the masses...yes, largely forgotten...except by those who have a fondness for the series. This holds true for Laff-a-Lympics. The series ran in the late '70s and would often turn up in reruns at various times in the 1980's. Personally speaking I first saw this program when it aired as part of the USA Network's Cartoon Express on Sunday mornings. I believe this happened to be the late '80s or early '90s at the latest. I've always had what some may classify as off-beat taste and I generally appreciated all forms of cartoons...even at a younger age. When I first saw this series I remember being excited seeing all of these unrelated characters from various cartoon programs featured in an ensemble program. Yogi's Treasure Hunt is another ensemble program that aired in reruns on Cartoon Express around the same time as Laff-a-Lympics.

Laff-a-Lympics focuses on three sets of teams: The Yogi Yahooies, The Scooby-Doobies, and The Really Rottens. Throughout each episode one or two characters from each team would compete in sporting events. The goal was to receive the most points by the end of the episode...and the winner would receive the Laff-a-Lympics gold medal. The hosts of the show were Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf...each character wore yellow sports jackets to mirror the style of jackets in use by real life ABC-TV sportscasters of that time period. The play-by-play broadcaster heard on every program making commentary on the sporting events was Don Messick.

The Yogi team was comprised mostly of Hanna-Barbera characters that originated in the late '50s and early '60s: Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo, Cindy Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quickdraw McGraw, Snooper and Blabber, Pixie Mouse, Dixie Mouse, Mr. Jinx, Wally Gator, Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy, Yakky Doodle, Hokey Wolf...the lone exception was Grape Ape, a character that originated in the mid '70s.

Scooby's team consisted of a collection of what would be considered Hanna-Barbera's more contemporary characters: Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Scooby-Dum, Babu, Captain Caveman, Brenda, Dee Dee, Taffy, Hong Kong Phooey, Speed Buggy, Tinker, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt.

The Rottens consisted of brand new characters, except the team captain, Mumbly. This team was basically used for comical antagonism and conflict...playing tricks and cheating their way to hopeful victory. Mumbly was switched from a good detective to a cheating scoundrel in this series. Originally Mumbly appeared in a series of shorts which later appeared as part of the short-lived Mumbly Cartoon Show. The shorts originally aired on a series known as The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show. In this series Mumbly embarked in crime solving adventures while his human boss, Schnooker, attempted to take the credit for everything. Mumbly's appearance is a dead ringer for Muttley...right down to the speech pattern and snickering laugh. Dread Baron, a new character created for the Rottens team, is said to be a redesign of an earlier character, Dick Dastardly.

The Rottens consisted of Mumbly, Dread Baron, The Great Fondoo, Magic Rabbit, Dinky Dalton, Dirty Dalton, Dastardly Dalton, Mr. Creepley, Mrs. Creepley, Junior Creepley, Orful Octopus, Daisy Mayhem, and Sooey Pig.

A running gag in the series is the constant deduction of points due to cheating...often applied to the Rottens...but there are a few episodes where Yogi Bear cheated and points were taken away. In some episodes where it appeared the Rottens were going to win, cleanly, something would happen to cause them to lose. In one particular episode Daisy Mayhem was on her way to winning an event but one of her team mates, the Great Fondoo, wanted to make sure she won. He cast a spell which backfired...causing Daisy to lose.

Each DVD features 4 half-hour episodes. There are two "on-location" locales per episode. Volume One features the following:

1. The Swiss Alps and Tokyo, Japan
2. Acapulco and England
3. The Sahara Desert and Scotland
4. Florida and China

Volume Two features the following:

1. France and Australia
2. Athens, Greece and the Ozarks
3. Italy and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
4. Egypt and Sherwood Forest

As you can tell, the series was a spoof of The Olympics, ABC's Wide World of Sports and Battle of the Network Stars. At the conclusion of most episodes, announcer Don Messick would parody the kind of narration heard on Wide World of Sports by enthusiastically saying something like: "...tune in next week for the thrills, chills, and all-around exciting spills as we go around the world with our star athletes...".

The voice cast, as you could imagine, was rather large. The Yogi team, however, consisted of just a couple of voice actors. This is due to the multi-talents of Daws Butler, by and large, as well as Don Messick.

Don Messick voiced Boo-Boo and Pixie Mouse while Frank Welker did the voice of Yakky Doodle. Welker was a replacement voice for Jimmy Weldon. Doggy Daddy was voiced by John Stephenson. Grape Ape's voice was performed by Bob Holt. Julie Bennett did the voice of Cindy Bear. Daws Butler did the voices of all of the other characters in the Yogi team: Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Hokey Wolf, Quick Draw McGraw, Mr. Jinx, Dixie Mouse, Snooper and Blabber, Augie Doggy, and Wally Gator.

The voices in the Scooby team were a bit more lengthy as almost every character had it's own voice actor/actress:

Don Messick did the voice of Scooby-Doo. Casey Kasem did the voice of Shaggy. Daws Butler did the voice of Scooby-Dum. Mel Blanc was on hand as the voice of Captain Caveman and Speed Buggy. Frank Welker did the voices of Dynomutt and Tinker. Gary Owens did the voice of Blue Falcon. Joe Besser was the voice of Babu. Scatman Crothers did the voice of Hong Kong Phooey. Laurel Page was the voice of Taffy. Marilyn Schreffler was the voice of Brenda. Vernee Watson was the voice of Dee Dee. Collectively Dee Dee, Taffy, and Brenda were known as The Teen Angels who assisted Captain Caveman at solving mysteries. The Teen Angels, of course, were a parody of Charlie's Angels.

The voices in the Rottens team were more in line with the Yogi team in that only a few voice actors/actresses did the entire cast:

Don Messick did the voices of Mumbly, Mr. Creepley, and Dastardly Dalton. Bob Holt did the voice of Dinky Dalton and Orful Octopus. Daws Butler was the voice of Dirty Dalton. Frank Welker provided the voice effects for Sooey Pig, Junior Creepley, and Magic Rabbit. John Stephenson provided the voices for Dread Baron and The Great Fondoo. Laurel Page was the voice of Mrs. Creepley while Marilyn Schreffler did the voice of Daisy Mayhem.

Last but not least are the hosts. Snagglepuss was voiced by Daws Butler. Mildew Wolf was voiced by John Stephenson. The character of Mildew was originally voiced by Paul Lynde in a series of short subjects titled "It's The Wolf" which aired as part of the Cattanooga Cats program but he was either not available or not interested in reprising the role for Laff-a-Lympics and so the role was given to John Stephenson.

Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble make guest appearances demonstrating the art of Lacrosse. Alan Reed voiced Fred Flintstone...reports suggest this was the final time the character was voiced by Reed, who passed away in 1977. Mel Blanc returned to his role as Barney Rubble. In another sporting event Jabberjaw makes a guest appearance as an underwater referee. The character was voiced by Frank Welker. He gave the character a voice based on Curly Howard of The Three Stooges.

I happen to enjoy Laff-a-Lympics and I hope more episodes become available. Some belly-ache that there are only 4 episodes being released on each DVD but the way I see it you can't predict the future. It's hard to tell if more episodes will become available...I hope more episodes are released...but until then the first 8 episodes will have to do. Laff-a-Lympics originally ran for 16 episodes in 1977 during the months of September through December. The official name, as I mentioned at the start of the blog entry, was Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. In 1978, eight more episodes were produced and aired as Scooby's All-Stars. This gives the Laff-a-Lympics format a total of 24 episodes.

Benny Hill Mega-Set gets re-issued...

2010-09-23T14:51:00.003-04:00

On October 5th there will be a DVD re-release focusing on Benny Hill. The DVD, previously released in October 2007, will contain 18 disc's and focus on Hill's 20 year career with Thames Television, 1969-1989. I'm very familiar with the comedy and programs of Benny Hill...I don't exactly have a count of how many DVD's and VHS videos of his that I have but I've got quite a few. Several years ago Hill's earliest programs for Thames began to get re-issued in various collections from A&E. I bought a couple of those collections but this "mega set" as it's being called combines all of those DVD releases into one big set. The mega set includes the following individual DVD collections housed in one "mega set":

Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated: The Naughty Early Years Set One, 1969-1971

Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated: The Naughty Early Years Set Two, 1972-1974

Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated: The Naughty Early Years Set Three, 1975-1977

Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated: The Hills Angels Years Set Four, 1978-1981

Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated: The Hills Angels Years Set Five, 1982-1985

Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated: The Hills Angels Years Set Six, 1986-1989

Hill's later work is just as funny as his earlier comedy but because reality comes calling a few of his co-stars had passed away or left the program as time went by...leaving some to feel that without certain co-stars the sketches didn't "feel the same". Some like to say his program started to go downhill by the mid 1980's but in all honesty, from doing research, a small percentage of public opinion about his program is what went downhill during this point in time...escalating this problem even more were fresh-faced television critics and up and coming comedians heaping negative criticism toward Hill's program to impressionable, younger audiences.

This facet of Hill's career will obviously be discussed in the bonus features that the megaset includes. One of the bonus features is titled Benny Hill: The World's Favorite Clown. It also includes the A&E Biography episode titled Benny Hill: Laughter and Controversy. A&E is the company responsible for this DVD megaset and several other DVD packages of Hill in recent years. In each of the documentary bonus features the rise of Hill is examined...the unexpected success of his programs in America...also examined, of course, is the so-called backlash of his style of humor by the "new generation". The re-release next month features new packaging...and a link to the DVD is below...

Benny Hill: The Complete Megaset

Superfriends: The Lost Episodes...

2010-04-12T23:59:00.004-04:00

As most people are aware that frequent this animation blog, I am a fan of the Superfriends series. For those who aren't frequent visitors here, I am referring to the 1970's and early 1980's animated versions of the DC comics superheroes. Today the Superfriends are referred to by their technical name, The Justice League. Once upon a time they were called the Superfriends. As you can see on the DVD cover there is Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Wonder Twins and Gleek. Green Lantern fans beware, though, there isn't a lot of him in this series. His biggest impact during the classic era is in the series Challenge of the Superfriends. These lost episodes are considered to be the more obscure episodes in the series because of the lack of repeated play on television. In fact, these 1983 episodes never aired in America until 1995. They aired on a USA Network show called The Superman-Batman Adventures. The series consisted of reruns of the 1960's and 1970's superhero cartoons and on some episodes they'd sprinkle in an early '80s short episode of Superfriends. All of these episodes aired on that USA Network series but even still they're not as familiar to most. This DVD consists of 24 short episodes...8 half hour episodes in all. Each episode contains 3 separate adventures that run roughly seven and a half minutes each.

Here are just some of the stand-out episodes in my opinion from this collection...

Warpland: Superman and Batman are pulled into another dimension where they meet up with an alien race headed up by Super-Frog. The voice of the frog is provided by Frank Welker, giving the super amphibian the same voice he'd provide for Darkseid. The alien's have their headquarters...none other than The Hall of Zoom. Superman is turned into an Eagle while Batman is turned into an actual bat. They battle Super-Frog's forces and once they leave the warp they revert back to their natural selves.

Mxyzptlk's Revenge: This episode features Batman and Superman matching wits with the 5th Dimension prankster, Mr. Mxyzptlk. In one memorable scene Superman almost passes out from green bean exposure...Mxyzptlk had placed Superman on a farm where green beans become a substitute for kryptonite. They eventually trick their way out of the 5th Dimension.

Revenge of Doom: This episode begins with a couple of inquisitive workers asking Batman and Robin a lot of questions about the Hall of Doom. The two workers turn out to be Lex Luthor and Solomon Grundy in disguise. Suddenly all members of the Legion of Doom have appeared and we're told that the Legion is back in session. Given this is a 7 and a half minute episode not a lot of the members of the Legion have speaking roles even though they're visibly present. Unlike in the Challenge of the Superfriends series, in this episode the Legion of Doom is captured.

Two Gleeks Are Deadlier Than One: Grodd and Giganta make an appearance in this episode where they kidnap Gleek and replace him with an android duplicate. The android was sent there under the notion that all of the Superfriends would be meeting at the Hall of Justice. One by one evil Gleek zaps the Superfriends into oblivion...but who really ends up with the upper hand? You'll have to watch for yourselves.

Bulgor the Behemoth: Apache Chief gets the most action in this episode where a writer's creation comes to life after a lightning storm...well, I should say, the writer turns into his own creation. It's up to Apache Chief and Superman to put a stop to the destruction and get the creature transformed back into the writer.

The Krypton Syndrome: In this fantasy adventure, Superman is zapped into a time warp where he finds himself near his home planet of Krypton before it exploded. He prevents the explosion of Krypton and saves the lives of millions in the process...but once he returns to his own time he discovers how Earth looks extremely different. He realizes when he saved Krypton from exploding that nobody on Earth knows of a Superman...and therefore his life on Earth never happened. Seeing that the Earth needs a person like 'Superman' to protect it from villains he decides to go back into time again but this time to make sure Krypton explodes.

Prisoners of Sleep: In this adventure, a mysterious floating figure known as Sleep starts a nightmarish reign of terror which soon finds Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman enmeshed in the nightmare world with the possibility of never waking up. Thanks to some mortals, the three Superfriends "wake up" just in time.

Return of the Phantoms: This episode is something of a sequel to an episode entitled Terror from the Phantom Zone that aired in 1978. In this 1983 cartoon, the three Phantom Zone villains named Hull, Romlock, and Logar, escape once again to cause trouble for Superman and the other people on Earth. In the end they're zapped back into the Phantom Zone.

Video Victims: In this quirky episode, Bizarro plays an arcade game which features arcade versions of several Superfriends. The episode starts out on Bizarro World, the square shaped planet where everyone looks like imperfect zombie duplicates of Superman and Lois Lane. Bizarro returns to Earth and immediately creates trouble. The episode also doubled as a mock of video games in general...including a Pac-Man style character.

Those are just the episodes that stand out the most among the others. Brainiac makes an appearance in the Superclones episode. El Dorado and Aquaman are the two victims who are cloned. The two create a world of problems for the Superfriends by telling a court of law that the entire Justice League has turned evil. The real El Dorado and Aquaman free themselves from Brainiac's trap and make their way to the courthouse.

There's also an episode where Superman and Wonder Woman are captured by aliens and forced to play spaceball...this episode is called The Recruiter. It's anyone's guess why the short episodes from 1983 were released first instead of the ones from 1980...but there's no complaints from me...this is a step in the right direction at getting all of the short episodes released on DVD.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992, Part Five

2010-03-05T16:12:00.003-05:00

Given that this is the fifth installment of my Hee-Haw blog it shouldn't come to nobody's surprise that I love the show! I can't really give an opinion of it's 24th season in 1992 because I've never really seen it but judging by things I've read through the years it wasn't what the doctor ordered...the overhaul of the show's image and the termination of long-running sketches and cast members...it was a mistake. The thing that made the show was it's look...as well as the corny jokes...also, the energetic banter among the cast and whatever guest stars were on the show that week. When the show debuted in 1969 it was met with a lot of harsh criticism not only from big city television critics but also music critics within country music. The country music industry was wanting to push the label of 'Country and Western' which sounded more marketable. Hee-Haw stood in sharp contrast to that marketing idea because of it's heavy use of haybales, farmer's daughter wardrobes, bib overalls and other rural imagery that pushed the 'Hillbilly' image that the country music big-wigs on Music Row were wanting to distance itself from. The enormous success of the show meant that the program would continue to air; and after it's cancellation by CBS in 1971, it went into first-run syndication and would remain a syndicated program for the rest of it's life-span.

Season One: June 15, 1969 - September 7, 1969
Season Two: December 17, 1969 - April 8, 1970
Season Three: September 15, 1970 - February 23, 1971
Season Four: September 18, 1971 - April 1, 1972
Season Five: September 16, 1972 - March 24, 1973
Season Six: September 15, 1973 - March 23, 1974
Season Seven: September 14, 1974 - March 8, 1975
Season Eight: September 17, 1975 - March 13, 1976
Season Nine: September 18, 1976 - March 26, 1977
Season Ten: September 17, 1977 - March 25, 1978
Season Eleven: September 16, 1978 - March 24, 1979
Season Twelve: September 15, 1979 - March 22, 1980
Season Thirteen: September 13, 1980 - March 21, 1981
Season Fourteen: September 12, 1981 - March 30, 1982
Season Fifteen: September 11, 1982 - March 19, 1983
Season Sixteen: September 17, 1983 - March 17, 1984
Season Seventeen: September 22, 1984 - March 16, 1985
Season Eighteen: September 21, 1985 - March 15, 1986
Season Nineteen: September 20, 1986 - March 28, 1987*
Season Twenty: September 19, 1987 - May 21, 1988**
Season Twenty-One: October 1, 1988 - May 20, 1989**
Season Twenty-Two: September 16, 1989 - March 24, 1990
Season Twenty-Three: September 15, 1990 - February 23, 1991***
Season Twenty-Four: January 4, 1992 - May 30, 1992^^
Season Twenty-Five: September 1992 - April 1993****

*-beginning with the 19th season, Roy Clark was joined each week by a different guest co-host.

**-There were no episodes that aired during the month of March during these production cycles. As a result, the season expanded further into the spring, to make up for the loss of air-dates.

^^-After the rural/backwoods version of the show was canceled in February 1991, the show went on a hiatus while producers/advertisers behind the scenes were plotting a new urban twist to the show. The new citified version of the show began in January 1992, the show's 24th season. The outcry from fans was so severe that the show went out of production in May upon the conclusion of it's 24th season.

***-Roy Clark became the solo host beginning with season 23.

****-This is the clip-filled season known as Hee-Haw Silver to commemorate the program's 25th season in syndication. After this clip-filled program wrapped up in the spring of 1993, reruns began to surface on The Nashville Network for a period of time.

A lot of the reruns that TNN aired were the late 1970's and early 1980's episodes. At one point in time TNN's Saturday night line-up was must-see television: Hee-Haw from 7-8pm; Opry Backstage from 8pm to 8:30pm; The Grand Ole Opry from 8:30pm-9pm; and the Statler Brothers show from 9pm-10pm.

After the reruns left TNN they began to air infrequently on CMT. There was never a serious effort on CMT's part to air the show and as a fan I felt insulted by the way CMT treated the program by not airing it on any consistent basis. TNN eventually ended it's run of country music oriented programming in 2000. It was renamed The National Network and consisted of reruns of mostly 1980's television programs. Later on the network was renamed again to Spike TV.

Hee-Haw currently airs Sunday nights at 8pm eastern on RFD-TV. The episode replays on Monday mornings at 10am eastern. The reruns that air are typically the earliest of episodes from 1969-1971. I've yet to see an episode on RFD-TV from the late '70s or the 1980's. I hope they start to air those episodes, too.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992; part four

2010-01-31T22:31:00.006-05:00

Howdy ever'body! Welcome to part four in this Hee-Haw blog series. Part Three was published on this blog many months ago...almost a year ago...where I spotlighted a couple of DVD's that Time-Life had released. Several weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my cable provider now carries RFD-TV! This is excellent news because this is the channel that airs Hee-Haw on Sunday nights at 8pm. The show repeats on Monday morning at 10am. I've watched the show at 10am but I don't have that same feeling that I do watching the show in the evening hours...even though the 10am Monday morning airing is a repeat of the 8pm episode the night before. I guess that has to do with all those years watching the show at 7pm back when it was still in production. I do remember catching the show in 1991 during Saturday and, or, Sunday afternoon...so having it air in the daytime isn't unheard of...I just prefer watching it in the evening hours.

The episode that aired tonight, January 31st, featured Loretta Lynn and Bill Anderson as guests. Susan Raye, a regular cast-member and frequent duet partner with Buck Owens, sang a song as did hosts Buck Owens and Roy Clark and twin cast-members Jim and Jon Hager. Loretta sang "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Secret Love"; Bill Anderson sang "Wild Weekend" and "I Love You, Drops". Susan Raye sang her Top-10 hit, "Willy Jones". The Hagers sang "Looking Out My Backdoor", a Creedence Clearwater Revival hit. The episode originally aired on February 2, 1971.

I have 11 of those Time-Life DVD's of Hee-Haw. I'm holding up 10 of them. An 11th wasn't able to be in the shot...as you can see I had a difficult enough time trying to keep them from falling from the stack...so I took the 11th DVD from the stack and snapped a picture real quick. Some of those DVD's have two episodes on them and several have just one episode. There is a 5-disc set called A Salute to Hee-Haw that is rather pricey. It's running time is 480 minutes altogether. I was never able to purchase it. It features 4 DVD's with 2 episodes per disc which adds up to 8 episodes and then a 5th disc which features interviews with some of the surviving cast members of the show.

Although I wish I had the 5-DVD release, I'm happy with the DVD's that I have so I'm not complaining...and the fact that I now get RFD-TV where I can see the show each Sunday evening is also a plus!! If I had my way, though, the show would air every weeknight at 7pm and I'd mix the episodes around. One evening have a show from 1970 and the next night have a show from 1984 and then the next night have something from 1972 and then an episode from 1989, etc etc. The 5-DVD collection is sold-out at Amazon and at Wal*Mart's web-site store...and I did a search at Time-Life's web-site and couldn't find any reference to Hee-Haw on their site. I did a product search and it came up empty so they must have stopped offering these DVD's. The 5-DVD set was released in 2006...much of the DVD's were released in 2004, 2005, and 2006...it certainly doesn't seem like it's been 4 years ago...in some cases 6!!

This is the DVD release of the only episode of Hee-Haw that George Strait appeared on. The episode originally aired on November 12, 1983 and at the time Strait was an emerging superstar...having been on the national scene a little over 2 years. In that short span of time he had racked up several consecutive Top-5 hits on his way to a hugely successful career...with over 50 #1 country hits and election into the Country Music Hall of Fame 23 years later in 2006. The Statler Brothers are the other guests on this episode and there have been some consumers upset over what they consider over-kill by the Statler Brothers. Some of the commentary I came across regarding this DVD included anger over how many sketches were centered around the group. I never saw anything wrong with the episode myself. The show's producer, Sam Lovullo, always wanted guests who loved to do the comedy sketches. Some artists shied away from doing too much comedy and they only shown up to sing. So, to my way of thinking, since the Statler Brothers are hilarious and have a comedic side to them, having them appear in the comedy sketches on the show seemed natural so you'll get no complaints from me.

Hee-Haw: 1969-1992.

The Tonight Show

2010-01-23T03:49:00.002-05:00

The Tonight Show has been in the news A LOT lately given all of the controversy surrounding the lackluster ratings of O'Brien's version of the program and the prime-time Jay Leno program. In a move that is unprecedented for the franchise, NBC will have Jay Leno return to hosting duties on The Tonight Show in March of this year as Conan O'Brien departs the network. O'Brien had been the host of the program since June 1, 2009 and when he became the host he followed in the foot-steps of four comedic titans: Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, and Steve Allen. The benchmark of hosting duties of course will always rest with the late Johnny Carson. He hosted the program for 30 years which means that he was a major comical voice of all the major events in world history for three decades. Although Carson did the show for 30 years others hosted the program before him and of course others hosted the show after him. The successors of Carson are fairly, or unfairly, compared to him even today nearly 18 years after he retired as host.

A run-down, of sorts, of the franchise's hosts...

Steve Allen: September 27, 1954 - January 25, 1957

Ernie Kovacs: October 1, 1956 - January 22, 1957**

Jack Lescoulie: January 28, 1957 - June 21, 1957*

Al Collins: June 24, 1957 - July 26, 1957*

Jack Paar: July 29, 1957 - March 30, 1962

Various hosts: April 2, 1962 - September 28, 1962***

Johnny Carson: October 1, 1962 - May 22, 1992

Jay Leno: May 25, 1992 - May 29, 2009

Conan O'Brien: June 1, 2009 - January 22, 2010

Jay Leno: March 1, 2010 -

As of this writing I have no idea what will air from January 25th through the end of February because O'Brien officially left the network on the twenty-second of January. NBC may repeat episodes of O'Brien's program or air reruns of Leno's older shows until Leno makes his return in March. This makes Leno the first former host to return as the "new" host. I think NBC realizes their mistake of removing Leno from The Tonight Show in the first place.

*- Jack Lescoulie and later, Al Collins, hosted the program when it was a news program called Tonight! America After Dark.

**-Ernie Kovacs hosted the Monday and Tuesday episodes of the program during Steve Allen's final year as host. NBC had wanted Steve to focus more on his Sunday night program opposite Ed Sullivan's CBS program.

***-various celebrities hosted the program after Jack Paar left. Johnny Carson was still under contract with another network and couldn't become the host...and so fill-in hosts presided over the program until October 1, 1962 when Carson took over the show...and remained for 30 years.

Gene Rayburn, later of Match Game fame, was the announcer on Steve Allen's version of the program. Jack Paar used Hugh Downs as an announcer for his version of the program. Ed McMahon was Johnny Carson's announcer for the entire 30 year run. Edd Hall was Jay Leno's announcer from 1992-2004. Hall was replaced by John Melendez for the remainder of Leno's first stint as host. Andy Richter became the announcer for Conan O'Brien's stint as host.

Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume Four

2010-01-11T01:39:00.003-05:00

The Golden Collection in my opinion is a fascinating series of DVD's spotlighting the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. I personally own almost all of the volumes that were released. I still need to grab the later volumes and I shall do that one of these days. As the series progressed, a lot of fans often voiced their displeasure in the presentation and sometimes the complaints came from those who weren't particularly interested in the nuts and bolts of putting a cartoon together. For those unaware, the DVD series was loaded with extra's and bonus cartoons. I'd find myself laughing and sometimes getting annoyed whenever I'd read commentary complaining about the extra's. It isn't like the extra's are automatically played...a consumer has the option of watching the extra's if they want to. One of the things that I liked about the series, as I mentioned, was the extra's. I think I've played and re-played and re-re-played several of those "Behind The Tunes" segments that they're probably worn out...but they still play so that's a good thing.

Volume Four contains 4 DVD's as was the norm and some of the extra's were really obscure and rare. The much-maligned Bugs Bunny Superstar documentary is broken into two parts. I happen to like the documentary and love seeing the clips of the directors and animators talking about the cartoons. I assume, going by what I've read, the reason why the special wasn't as well-liked is because a lot of fans have their favorite characters and their favorite cartoon directors, as do the critics. Fans also develop a kind of protective nature when it comes to a director. For example...a lot of people who like the Chuck Jones cartoons the best usually clamor for Chuck and only Chuck and everyone else is inferior by comparison. Then you have the fans of Bob Clampett's style. Those fans prefer the wild and crazy characterizations from Clampett and may look at Chuck's characterizations as being too sophisticated. Friz Freleng gets spotlighted on a documentary called Friz on Film and he, too, has a fan base that prefer cartoons that have razor-sharp timing and music ties. In just about all of his cartoons, Freleng would time a scene and use music as a starting point.

The four DVD's consist of theme-oriented cartoons and here are the DVD's contained on Volume Four of the Golden Collection:

1. Bugs Bunny Favorites
2. A Dash of Tashlin
3. Speedy Gonzales in a Flash
4. Kitty Korner

The second DVD as you can see is devoted to the cartoons associated with Frank Tashlin, one of the earliest cartoon directors at the studio who didn't stay around too long and as a result his legacy isn't as monumental as Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Robert McKimson, Bob Clampett, and Tex Avery. There are a lot of extra's which keep the DVD's chock full of information for those interested.

Ray Stevens: The ObamaCare Song

2010-01-09T22:22:00.001-05:00

The feeling continues to grow as "We The People" climbs into the Top-30 on Amazon's best-selling MP3 list. As far as country music MP3's are concerned it's still among the Top-3. The official web-site of Ray Stevens crashed multiple times on Friday January 8th and a lot of it had to do with increased traffic which as everyone knows causes a web-site to crash. I believe a lot of this increased traffic stems from the television exposure that Ray's music video had in a brief segment on The O'Reilly Factor. I think that the exposure helped to introduce the song to those who aren't as conversant when it comes to social networks like You Tube or Facebook and as a result even more visitors checked out Ray's web-site looking for the ObamaCare information. There's always a risk or a slim chance that an internet hit isn't well known outside the confines of cyber-space. Some people who don't frequent places like You Tube or just don't even pay attention aren't going to know a music video is available. One of the things that this experience has done with "We The People" taking on a life of it's own is that a good 75 to 80% of people weren't even aware that Ray had been active. A lot of people make the statement that they thought he had retired or had died years ago...so on one hand it's satisfying to see Ray get a lot of media hype and attention and on the other hand it's ironic to see that a lot of people didn't, on their own, seek Ray's music out and instead are just becoming aware of his presence through the "We The People" song.

There's also a good chance that people who discovered Ray through this song will check out his catalog of music...which dates back to the late 1950's. I think one of the things that's surprising to a lot of people who weren't really into all things Ray Stevens is how serious he actually is. As I mentioned in the earliest blog entries that I wrote, Ray had always wanted to be taken seriously and sing serious songs and love ballads but he had a sense of humor and also wanted to express it occasionally. The thing that happened, as long-time fans already know, is that the love ballads and non-comical songs weren't obtaining the same degree of attention from the buying public. One of the things that may be fascinating for some to learn is that the music critics, both in pop and country, almost always gave Ray's serious side good reviews and they would groan and bellyache whenever he'd issue a comical song or an entire album of comical songs. The exact opposite would occur with the buying public...with the exception of a few non-comical songs from Ray that achieved Top-40 rankings, nearly all of his biggest commercial successes came with the comical material. So it was like the buyers wanted fun and silliness from Ray while the critics wanted the serious, thought-provoking Ray.

Those who are amazed or surprised that Ray has serious opinions and world views perhaps thought that an artist known for light, comical banter doesn't take anything seriously? That's just my guess as to why some out there are shocked or stunned by the song...more stunned that it came from someone like Ray whose branded "safe" or "non-threatening". I think the very idea that the song comes from someone the public would least expect is where the 'novelty' aspect comes from...even though the lyrics are dead-serious. This is where I think the genius of Ray Stevens shines through and it has to do with the song's arrangement and the humorous music video imagery. The arrangement is bouncy and the chorus is catchy while the music video is funny to watch...and something else that's funny...

I've been a fan of Ray's 1974 single, "The Moonlight Special", ever since I first heard the song. It was on a 1983 Greatest Hits tape that RCA issued. The tape came into my possession during the early '90s when I located it at K-Mart. The song is a parody of the Midnight Special TV show which featured Wolfman Jack. I happen to think that the inability of a lot of teenagers and even young adults to laugh at themselves is why the single wasn't as big a hit as I think it should have been. As far as statistics go the single peaked just inside the Top-75 of the pop music chart and I believe it was based upon strength of sales instead of airplay. I did a blog entry about this single and titled it "Anniversary Under the Moonlight". 2009 had marked the single's 35th anniversary. The song itself is broken into three acts and the Sheep Dog acts as presenter/emcee. The Sheep Dog, of course, is the Wolfman Jack parody. Ray's own voice appears throughout singing the chorus of the song...but mostly the song is composed of his impressions of Wolfman Jack and the guests appearing on "The Moonlight Special".

For those who want to hear an R&B, bluesy take on "Indian Love Call" look no further than Ray's version of the song. He recorded it in 1975 and it became a Top-40 country music hit. Surprisingly the single didn't do as well with the pop audiences and that's perhaps because the overall feel of the song didn't mesh with the sound of pop radio at the time...or another reason could be that pop music DJ's didn't like the song altogether, no matter whose singing it. Some songs just seem to have this vibe that causes DJ's or music buyers to freak out and they don't want to hear the song by any artist and perhaps "Indian Love Call" is one of those songs? If that's the case the sentiments don't extend to the pop-standards crowd who loved the first known recording by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in 1936. Slim Whitman recorded the song in 1952 and his version is often considered the definitive recording because of his yodeling techniques when phrasing some of the lyrics. Ray's version I'd assume was a sleeper hit with country audiences because it doesn't exactly sound 'country' and the origins of the song aren't 'country'. I will make the assumption that a big factor in the song's acceptance had to do with Ray himself and perhaps the country DJ's getting a kick out of Ray's bluesy arrangement.

Scooby's Laff-a-Lympics and more

2009-12-28T15:17:00.005-05:00

There will be a couple of DVD releases coming in January 2010. One of them is the long-awaited release of "Laff-a-Lympics" onto DVD format by a major company. The plus side is that the episodes are finally being put onto DVD circulation but the down side is, from the looks of it, it'll be a 4-episode per volume collection. There were 16 episodes produced of the series in 1977-1978...and it all adds up to 4 volumes of "Laff-a-Lympics" on DVD containing 4 episodes each. Now, of course, I would have preferred the episodes be released in one complete collection...8 episodes on 2 discs...but that isn't the way it's going to happen. So, what consumers should do, is purchase the first volume that's available for pre-order at Amazon and other on-line stores.

"Why...it only contains 4 episodes???!!???!!"

Well, for those who take that approach here's something important you should know. The company that's releasing this Volume One collection is pretty much going to base their follow-up plan based on the success rate of the DVD. What this means is if the first volume of episodes doesn't show any sales success then it'll more than likely cause the company to decide against releasing further episodes. You can't take a wait and see approach or have the opinion of "I'm just going to wait until a proper release comes along" because the on-going release of more episodes of "Laff-a-Lympics" onto DVD will be based on the sales success of this Volume One collection that hits in January 2010. You all can do whatever you want to, of course. I'll more than likely purchase the collection.

In another report on DVD releases pertaining to vintage cartoons we have the news of the upcoming release of the original "Superfriends" with Wendy and Marvin and their dog aiding the Superfriends. This original series wasn't as heavily reran as later episodes featuring the Wonder Twins...I believe at some point earlier this year the original episodes ran late at night on Boomerang. Well, anyway, fans of the series have been hoping for a release of the original episodes for years and in January 2010 they will get their wish. The original run of the series featured Ted Knight as the narrator instead of William Woodson. Also, the original episodes had a much more limited animation style than the series that became more well-known. The DVD will feature 8 episodes and they each ran about 45 minutes in length...an hour when you factor in television commercial interruptions. There were 16 episodes produced of the original series, which was on the air during the 1973-1974 season. As with the "Laff-a-Lympics" release, the plans of following up "Superfriends" with the rest of the episodes will depend on the success of the Volume One collection.

The World Has Stopped Turning...

2009-12-08T16:37:00.003-05:00

I wanted to pass along the news that has no doubt been broadcast on radio and TV newscasts, especially those on CBS, that the world has stopped turning for soap opera As The World Turns. Well, officially the world will stop turning on September 17, 2010 which will be almost one year since the cancellation of Guiding Light on September 18, 2009. I wasn't that much of a follower of As The World Turns even though on the daytime schedule here it aired prior to Guiding Light. I knew of some of the characters on ATWT but as far as really connecting with the characters or stories that's where the distance grew. My mom and sisters watched all the CBS soaps back in the 1980's into the early 1990's, particularly during the summer months when we were on summer break. I would catch Guiding Light off and on during that time period and would also watch the show off and on throughout the 1990's and into the 2000's but my big thing in the 1980's were the game shows that used to be all over daytime TV prior to the schedule being took over by court dramas and talk-shows. Of course I also watched cartoons as well. I caught episodes of ATWT long enough to know of the characters Bob Hughes and his wife, a somewhat super-couple named Tom and Margo, Lisa, and the doctor, John Dixon. Barbara is another character I know of. Lisa Brown, of Guiding Light fame, played a character as well. I don't know the character histories or anything as I do Guiding Light but I felt like passing along the news of As The World Turns leaving the air in the fall of 2010. This will end a run of 54 years.

The Best of Mel Blanc: Man of 1,000 Voices...

2009-12-08T12:20:00.005-05:00

this 25 song CD from Collector's Choice Music came along in 2005. This is the only Mel Blanc compilation that I own and so I couldn't tell you if it's better than others but with 25 recordings you can't go wrong. One of the over-looked aspects of Mel's career was his music. The material, of course, was aimed primarily at children but at the same time much like the Looney Tunes cartoons playing in theaters there was plenty for adults to laugh at and enjoy. For example, I don't feel that a child could truly understand why "The Missus Wouldn't Approve" is hilarious beyond the sad, trembling voice he uses on the recording. He uses this voice on another recording, "I Tell My Troubles To Joe", a narrative that adults will understand more quicker than kids. This voice was similar to the one he used for The Happy Postman on the Burns and Allen radio show. There are even love songs on here...there is "My Kind of Love" and "I'm In the Mood for Love"...but everything else is on the comical and off-beat side.

One thing a listener will notice right away is the music is typical swing and big-band...sometimes there's a jazz overtone as well. These were the sounds that were considered "popular" prior to the creation of rock music. A few of the songs on this CD reached the Hot 100 in the late 1940's and early 1950's. His albums were primarily aimed at children and at one time he had several albums on the charts. Ironically, though, the more adult-oriented material I wrote of in the previous paragraph were released as singles to keep them separate from the albums that were aimed at kids.

I have the CD cover out of it's case, obviously. The cover is a centerfold where it has quite a few paragraphs from a man named Todd Everett from July 2005. The songs are written in list form and include the songwriter credits. Mel is listed as a co-writer on the song "There's a Hole in the Iron Curtain". Stan Freberg is credited as a co-writer on the song "Money". The songs associated with Mel that are considered the most popular are on the CD: "Woody Woodpecker", "Toot Toot Tootsie", "I Tan't Wait Till Quithmuth Day", "Barney Google", "The Hat I Got For Christmas Is Too Beeg", "Yosemite Sam", and "I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat". Some more hilarious recordings on the CD are "Yah Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree", "The E.I.O Song", "The Missus Wouldn't Approve", "Morris", "Money", and "I Tell My Troubles To Joe".

I would also like to use this blog entry to set the record straight about Mel and carrots. There has long been this myth that Mel was allergic to carrots. There is video footage of Mel on the special, Camera Three: The Boys From Termite Terrace, pointing out the fact that he isn't allergic to carrots. He simply doesn't like them...but the only thing that sounded like a carrot was a carrot...and so when recording the lines for Bugs Bunny he'd chew on the carrot and the recording would stop while he spit out the chewed carrot pieces in a bucket and they'd start recording again. This special was filmed at some point in the 1970's and was hosted by John Canemaker. In Mel's 1988 autobiography, That's Not All, Folks, he makes this similar statement again about not being allergic to carrots. Still to this day, 20 years after his death, people on social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, My Space, etc etc all continue to pass on this Mel was allergic to carrots myth as fact and they won't listen if you attempt to correct their mistake. I guess in their minds it's funny to continue saying Mel was allergic to carrots instead of accepting the truth that he wasn't. I know this paragraph won't erase the decades of belief that Mel was allergic to carrots but for those who do happen to stop by and read this blog entry you'll know the truth.

Hubie and Bertie...twice the mice is nice

2009-12-08T02:03:00.008-05:00

One of the lesser known character teams in the Looney Tunes family are a couple of mice named Hubie and Bertie. Each mouse changed color and voice in different episodes but what most recall is that Hubie is always depicted as the smart mouse and Bertie is the dumb mouse. The mice are perhaps more popular visually than they are by name because in a few of Chuck Jones' cartoons there were mice characters and their design and look were based on Hubie and Bertie. Now, throughout the final three cartoons of the series, they tormented a neurotic cat named Claude but in their first cartoon they tormented a similar cat in speech pattern and personality but visually different from Claude. The character's all had distinct voices. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg provided the voices for all of the episodes...but some sources say that an actor named Dick Nelson voiced the role of Bertie in one cartoon short, "Roughly Squeaking", from 1946, and that Freberg voiced Hubie...the mouse often voiced by Mel Blanc. Hubie and Bertie can be seen on the various DVD collections of the Looney Tunes. Their likeness has appeared on other cartoons as well...including cameo appearances on 1990's editions of Warner Brothers cartoons. As I mentioned earlier, the names of Hubie and Bertie may not ring a bell but once you actually see the mice you'll no doubt go "oh, now I remember those mice...". The duo headlined six cartoons:

1. The Aristo-Cat; 1943
2. Roughly Squeaking; 1946
3. House Hunting Mice; 1947
4. Mouse Wreckers; 1949
5. The Hypo-Chondri-Cat; 1950
6. Cheese Chasers; 1951

Mel Blanc's autobiography came along 21 years ago in 1988. It was issued a year before his death and I'd known of the book for years but never had the chance to read it until I came across a copy for sale on eBay about 5 years ago. I've since read the book and continue to read and skim the pages to continually remind myself of things I've read. There are several pictures that appear throughout and there's plenty of backstage gossip and other anecdotes that Mel recalls. There's also a chapter devoted to his career on Jack Benny's radio show called "Me 'n Jack". There's some candid moments in the book where Mel gives his opinions of cartoons now {1988} verses then and what he thinks about those who are dishonest in the radio and cartoon business and want to steal material. And so, people who do come across this book on-line somewhere and purchase it, you'll be in for a nice trip back in time as well as an open and honest look at the present through the eyes and mind of Mel Blanc.

Saturday Night Live: The Tiger Woods skit

2009-12-08T00:37:00.006-05:00

Can anyone say "how incredibly stupid are the liberal media?". I'll give anyone five seconds to repeat after me: "how incredibly stupid are the liberal media?". They're so stupid you'll end up making a stupid face like the one I'm wearing in this picture. Yes, they're that stupid! Can everyone make a stupid face like that one? I'll give you five seconds to try and duplicate the face. Anyway...seriously...this latest rant at the media and all things politically correct stems from the Saturday Night Live sketch featuring spoofs of Tiger Woods and his wife in the scandal/saga going on centering around the golfer. Was I offended by what I saw? Of course not! I took the sketch to be a satiric jab at Tiger Woods and how bizarre and strange all of these accusations and facts blending together are. What you have is a story like this centering an athlete, Tiger Woods, who up til now had what some derogatorily refer to as a "clean-cut" image. Now with accusations and what appears to be some sort of mysterious "confession" from Woods himself, the media and the comics are ready to pounce.

It's truly sad, though, to take in a belly full of political correctness and become aware that the Grand Dames of Democratic Discussion, collectively known as The View, charge the sketch with accusations of domestic violence insensitivity. Well, to be fair, not everyone on the panel of that show are rabid liberals...but 95% of the views expressed are liberal or moderate-Democrat. There's not too much conservative championing that goes on, let's put it that way. First of all, I don't find the sketch to be insensitive at all to domestic violence. Sure, domestic violence is an awful thing, but those who cry foul about the sketch need to simply lighten up. If I were a victim of domestic violence would I be ranting and screaming and accusing Saturday Night Live of being insensitive? Maybe...maybe not...but it's a free country...and those who are quote "insensitive" should have freedom of expression and that's what drives me up the wall when it comes to political correctness. It wants to silence other people's views and cause people to think only one way and have no mind of their own or voice of their own. If I'm not mistaken, though, the sketch wasn't cheering domestic violence...if anything the sketch was skewering Tiger Woods.

The domestic violence undertone of the sketch is what set people off...sending the misguided and the humorlessly politically correct advocates into a frenzy. People seem to forget that Tiger was dictating to the police how to behave and stalling and stonewalling until, in my opinion, he had time to plan his strategy and salvage his reputation somewhat. Didn't Tiger put off police questioning for a couple of days? Who else gets that treatment? So, Saturday Night Live in my opinion went after Tiger for his attitude and conduct, the fact that it had a domestic violence theme was unfortunate given how quick people fly off the handle.

So, I want to make it clear, I'm not a champion of domestic violence but if something strikes me as funny, and if a sketch is absurdly over-the-top in it's exaggeration, then I'll laugh. That's just the way it is. It doesn't mean it's okay, in real life, to abuse someone physically or verbally. It's time for some people out there to grab a hold of where reality and fiction meet and learn that there's a difference between exaggeration and realism. As a spokesperson for the show stated, the controversy and topicality of the whole bizarre scenario with the unlikely figure of Tiger Woods at the center of a sex scandal is too irresistible to shrug off.

Help!!! It's The Hair Bear Bunch

2009-12-04T02:02:00.003-05:00

Yes, the cartoon series from 1971 will put you in a goofy mood...but let that not distract you all from experiencing the Hair Bear Bunch for yourselves. The series lasted just 16 episodes which was a common practice for Hanna-Barbera in the late '60s on through the 1970's. On more than one occasion networks that aired cartoons on Saturday mornings, which would mean all three networks, were always on the look out for material to program their fall schedules with. Unlike Warner Brothers whose major contribution to Saturday morning television were four decades of theatrical cartoon reruns, Hanna-Barbera was putting out made-for-TV cartoons in quick succession. A lot of Hanna-Barbera's cartoon series seem to have more episodes than actually exist and a large part of this feeling stems from the consistent re-runs. Jabber-Jaw, for example, had only a handful of episodes but they've been re-ran off and on for decades. A lot of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons were spoofs and parodies of pop-culture. JAWS of course was the inspiration for Jabber-Jaw but in order to trump the potential violent over-tone of a cartoon focusing on a shark they gave the title character the sound of Curly from The Three Stooges. Frank Welker mimicked Curly Howard's voice in that series. Critics and fans alike refer to the cartoon as Scooby-Doo underwater because of it's mystery/teenager concept and a talking shark, instead of a talking dog.

So, what was the inspiration behind this 1971 cartoon that focuses on three bears and a couple of zoo keepers? The full title of this series is Help! It's The Hair Bear Bunch. The program isn't based on Scooby-Doo, surprisingly enough. Instead, the series is based pretty much on The Phil Silvers Show. Hair Bear, the leader, has the smooth-talking con-artist voice that Daws Butler often gave characters with this personality. Phil Silvers never actually spoke like this but yet the personality of one cooking up schemes in order to get rich quick is so synonymous with Phil Silvers' Sgt Bilko character that it's hard not to make the connection. Hair's two friends are Square Bear and Bubi Bear. Each bear has a distinct voice and personality. Hair being the leader and the brains behind their schemes. Square is the laid-back, almost hippie-like bear with an invisible motorcycle and a huge appetite. Bubi on the other hand is the short bear who talks in gibberish. It's hilarious listening to his gibberish because nobody watching the cartoon understands him but Hair and Square do. Bubi was voiced by Paul Winchell and Square was voiced by Bill Callaway. Several other animals from the Wonderland Zoo stopped by the bears cave...one of the gimmicks is that the inside of the cave could transform into a swinging singles pad but if either of the two zoo keepers was spied making their way to the cave then the bears would flip various rock switches in their cave and transform the interior back into a barren, empty cave to hide how comfortable they lived. Peevly ran the zoo as if it were a military base...another connection to Phil Silvers' TV show.

What about those zoo keepers, though?? The head zoo keeper, Mr Peevly, was always peeved about something...taking out his anger on his assistant, Botch. 99% of Peevly's irritation came from Hair Bear. Peevly was always on the quest to expose the bears for hi-jinks but he could never catch them that much...on the rare moments that he had the bears cornered and threatened to ship them off somewhere else, Hair would use blackmail and threaten to go over Peevly's head about a prior incident involving Peevly himself. This often caused Peevly to bellow one of his catch-phrases which went something like "I'll get ya for this, Hair! MARK MY WORDS!!!! ONE OF THESE DAYS..." and he'd go stomping off with Botch tagging along beside him. The zoo keepers were voiced by John Stephenson as Mr. Peevly, doing his Joe Flynn high-nasal impression, and Joe E Ross as Botch. Joe used the voice he was famous for and the "ooh-ooh" catch-phrase he made popular in the 1960's on the sitcom, Car 54, Where Are You? Botch was incredibly stupid and Peevly was short-tempered anyway...an explosive combination...factor in Peevly's irritations at the Bears and you had a walking time-bomb of anger. Joe Flynn, incidentally, played Captain Binghamton on McHale's Navy and his voice quickly became parodied on cartoons with John Stephenson often providing the vocals. Stephenson would use the Joe Flynn parody voice on other cartoon characters with similar short-tempered personalities.

This series, much like a lot of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, is mostly memorable not for any specific episode but instead for it's theme song and characters. Once a person watches this cartoon series and gets a grasp of what it's all about the individual episode plots don't necessarily tend to stick out as much as it's theme song and the personalities/voices of the characters. I think this is true for a lot of the cartoons of this time period from Hanna-Barbera. There once was a series called Where's Huddles? and if someone with some knowledge of cartoons attempts to cite certain episodes it's almost impossible to do...but yet the person can quote some of it's theme song and tell you what the show was about.

For those interested, the series can be seen on-line at various video hosting web-sites. It also airs on Boomerang.

Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970's, Volume One!

2009-12-03T23:49:00.003-05:00

This DVD collection features 12 cartoons on 2 discs...6 cartoon programs on each DVD. One of the programs is an hour-long and so technically you get 2 cartoons within the 1 hour time-frame. The hour cartoon is The Batman-Tarzan Hour. There are three extra's on the DVD. First we have something called "Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call" which is narrated by Casey Kasem. Mainstream audiences know of him for radio countdown programs while cartoon watchers immediately recognize his voice as Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, Alexander on Josie and the Pussycats, and Robin on Superfriends. The second and third extra are more traditional with interviews and commentary. There is a look at the cartoon series, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, with interviews by Eddie Carroll and Jamie Farr. The two of them describe what it was like writing a cartoon with a lot of interference from the censors and parental control groups. The third extra is a look at the Funky Phantom series with remarks about the series from fans in the cartoon industry and a brief acknowledgment to Daws Butler, the voice of the title character.

The extra's are a bit more irreverent but they aren't blatantly disrespectful to the audience. There is a companion Volume Two of this series and there is a two volume collection of the previous decade, the 1960's. Each collection has similar cover art. Several episodes on the DVD collections can be found on other releases. This DVD set is more or less for the general public and really isn't meant for the avid collector...even though the avid collector will no doubt purchase the series just to have it. The DVD being a sampler means that you're not going to be seeing the same characters over and over as you would in a DVD collection of one cartoon series. I liked all of the cartoons in this set and I was treated to a few I'd never seen before. Roman Holidays is by far the one that stands out because until this DVD came along I'd never seen that cartoon before. I'd also never seen any Tarzan cartoons, either, until now. Here's a list of what's on this DVD:

THE JETSONS

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN

TARZAN: LORD OF THE JUNGLE

HONG KONG PHOOEY

GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS

SPEED BUGGY

WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH

YOGI’S GANG

THE AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN

THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS

THE NEW SCOOBY DOO MOVIES {with the Harlem Globe Trotters}

THE FUNKY PHANTOM

EXTRA FEATURES: Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call; Solving Crimes the Chan-Clan Way; and Heavens To Betsy Ross: The Spirit of the Funky Phantom.

Looney Tunes: Back on Cartoon Network

2009-12-01T00:59:00.005-05:00

The picture I choose to put into this blog entry is appropriate. It's a picture of me reading Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All, Folks!, published in 1988. Blanc was the primary voice artist on the hundreds of Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons released during the late '30s and throughout the '40s, '50s, and into the '60s. November 30th marked the debut of the official daily showing of Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network. The program airs at 11am Monday-Friday. The re-addition of the Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons marks the first time in almost four years that the theatricals have been shown on a mainstream American television channel. The classic cartoons I believe last aired on Boomerang in America back in 2006...but I could be wrong about that. The last television package to feature the classic theatricals was a program on Boomerang called The Bugs and Daffy Show around that time period.

The theatricals haven't aired on network television in America since 2000 when ABC sold their broadcast rights. ABC had been one of the homes of those theatrical cartoons dating back to 1986. CBS and ABC both aired a string of Warner Brothers cartoon programs throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s...with ABC gaining exclusive network rights in the mid '80s through 2000. The cable channels owned by Ted Turner, TBS and TNT, joined in the mix in the late '80s and early '90s, airing the classic theatricals.

So, in essence, the theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons were a part of nearly everyone's life at some point for over 60 years...from those who saw the cartoons originally at movie theaters to those who were raised on the reruns that aired on Saturday morning TV for decades...to those who discovered the cartoons on TBS or TNT...the exposure of the classic theatricals over the last several years have been limited mostly to the popular Golden Collection and Spotlight Collection series of DVD's.

Looney Tunes...11am...Monday-Friday; Cartoon Network...

Gary Burbank: Radio comedy and my Memories

2009-10-18T00:10:00.002-04:00

This biography on Gary Burbank was released a few weeks ago...written by Greg Hoard, a local sportscaster, it's called Voices In My Head. For the curious, the reason the book has this title it's because Burbank's a skilled satirist and has a gift of mimicry. The characters that populated his radio programs grew into popular figures...a lot of times the characters were so convincing that some listeners assumed they were real at first.

When you read the book, or skim the many pages and look at the pictures, you'll learn the life and times of a popular Midwest DJ turned radio personality. Born Billy Purser, his first on-air name was Bill Williams. Afterward he began calling himself Johnny Apollo...who spoke with a decidedly edgy/groovy style. After creating a following as Johnny Apollo he became Gary Burbank in the late '60s. This name was inspired by radio DJ Gary Owens and the TV show Owens acted as the announcer for, Laugh-In, whose one of many catch-phrases was "beautiful, downtown Burbank". So, Gary and Burbank were combined. Ironically, though, Burbank's natural voice is similar to that of Gary Owens.

A lot of what you read here is my own thoughts from hearing Gary Burbank on the radio throughout the 1990's and into the 2000's. I still encourage those who know of the man to buy this book.

Burbank's legend was cemented at WLW radio in Cincinnati for 26 years, 1981-2007. His career, though, took off on WAKY radio in Louisville, KY and his popularity continued to soar during his stays at CKLW in Detroit-Windsor and WHAS in Louisville, KY. Along the way he did radio work at WNOE, KLPL, plus KUZN, WWUN, and WMPS. It was during Burbank's stay at WHAS that he enjoyed having a single hit the Hot 100. The song was "Who Shot J.R?" all about the Dallas cliff-hanger that fixated TV audiences throughout the summer of 1980.

Burbank won several awards for his radio work...including two Marconi Awards which some consider the Emmy or the Grammy of the radio industry. The list of characters that Gary brought to life all had a distinct personality and almost always there was an unusual or quirky character trait that made the characters durable. According to the book, the earliest character named 'Reverend Deuteronomy Skaggs' came about after an ordeal Gary went through with a studio packed with a religious group. The Reverend remained a core character for the rest of Burbank's years on radio. Then there were the bizarre characters of 'Eunice and Bernice' who were described by Burbank as Siamese twins joined at the telephone. This routine was recorded in advance and played back on the air as Burbank pretended to being taking a phone call...he would react to the taped out-bursts of the sisters who said just about anything.

A lot of the insane characters that Burbank voiced were recorded over a telephone in rehearsal and played back on-air under the disguise of a phone conversation with Burbank setting up the punchlines that the "caller" would inevitably deliver. This routine of Burbank "answering" the phone and hearing outrageous commentary on the other end would reach an all-time high in my opinion when the 'Synonymous Bengal' character came along. For this sketch, Burbank spoke in broken English and used sound-a-like words to replace other words in an effort to point out how stupid the character was. The absurdity of the caller referring to himself as the 'Synonymous Bengal' when he meant 'Anonymous Bengal' is what made it funnier because this character would call up and mangle the English language and pass along gossip but he wished to remain "synonymous". It was a skit that was way out there...of course it was rooted in local comedy and the Cincinnati Bengals.

In addition to Reverend Skaggs, Eunice and Bernice, and the Synonymous Bengal you'd also hear at various times Ranger Bob, Gilbert Gnarley, Lars Peevey, Big Fat, Howlin' Blind, Dan Buckles, Ed Harley...Burbank also spoofed local politicians and he'd spoof national politicians and celebrities if they happened to perk the curiosities of the local audience. Among the impressions Burbank was noted for were Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Paul Harvey, Jerry Springer, Dwight Tillery, and Tony Perez. Fake commercials was another treat. At one point in the series Weasel became a favorite subject to poke fun at. In the commercials it was referred to as "the other yellow meat" in a spoof of Pork. Jerry Springer's talk-show was spoofed a lot when it was a local program.

One character came along in the mid 1980's that remained a daily feature on his radio show...Earl Pitts. In the book you will learn why Earl's commentaries always start off with his familiar catch-phrase. Earl's commentary is usually 5 minutes long...sometimes they're 6 minutes. They typically aired at 3:23 or 3:25pm Monday-Friday on WLW and it would repeat at 5:23 or so.

When I became aware of Burbank his show was on from 2-6pm on WLW. During school I wasn't able to catch the first hour of his show but I'd listen almost religiously from 3pm onward. I was introduced to Burbank's radio program, and WLW radio, via my grandfather in 1991. He listened to talk-radio and WLW was and is a popular station and he started listening to it and I heard the station for the first time in 1991. So...getting back to Burbank's time-slot...when the summer came around and I was able to hear the first hour I realized that the show was broken into two segments: the first run and the re-run.

What I mean by that is how the skit's and routines would play out. Gary and his on-air partner, Kevin "Doc" Wolfe, were once on in the mornings at WLW. They were later put on in the mid-afternoon slot, 2-6pm, which is when I discovered them. The comedy bits that would pop up on the show within the 2:30-4pm time frame would be re-ran during the 4:30-6pm time frame. The reason? I suppose it was because a lot of people were still at work during the 2-4pm hours or they didn't get out of work until 4:30 or 5 and so the comedy bits that aired between 2:30 and 4 would get replayed for the people leaving work at the later time.

Sometimes the two were aided by Leah Burns who was called "Princess Leah" on the air. She played the legitimate female voices. Sometimes Burbank or Doc would play a female character with a stereotypical falsetto voice. Doc, by the way, was the voice of Barbara Bush whenever needed. Burbank was the voice of local news anchor Carol Williams from time to time. Leah was the voice of Hillary Clinton, Pearl Pitts, Sister Lamaze and the character of Portia Lynn Commode...a co-anchor with Dan Buckles. Portia was a spoof of Diane Sawyer and the character's name, Portia Lynn Commode is an obvious pun on porcelain commode. Doc portrayed a third co-anchor, Donald Samuelson, spoofing Sam Donaldson. Dan Buckles, of course, was a spoof of David Brinkley but with a hilarious twist: Buckles was a cross-dresser easily slipping from news reporting to commenting on his latest lingerie. As an added chuckle, Buckles depended so much on reading his scripts word for word that if a word was half-written he'd stop talking, you'd hear sound effects of ruffling paper, and he'd continue on with the second part of the word.

If a Monday-Friday show wasn't enough, fans could hear all of the weeks comedy bits played out on Saturday mornings from 8am until 12pm. This four hour program was called "The Burbank Saturday Morning Cartoons" where Leah Burns from 8-10am and Janine Coil from 10am-12pm would play music and air a week's worth of Burbank comedy bits throughout the morning. This style of program would later exit the airwaves when WLW stopped playing music on the weekends and went to all-talk all the time. A similar review of his comedy bits would later surface under the guise of "Burbank's Weekly Rear View". A BBC acronym was applied to Burbank's show during it's run on WLW. In this case BBC stood for 'The Broadbank Burbcasting Corporation'. As the 1990's wore on Leah Burns departed the show. Doc left the show in 1999 after an 18 year on-air partnership with Burbank, 1981-1999. Doc's on-air role on the show was taken over by 'Duke Sinatra' and the show coasted to it's eventual end in December 2007. By the time the show ended Burbank had been performing from a studio in Florida while the rest of his cast were in the WLW studios in Ohio. Amazingly, though, the show came off sounding as if everyone was all together in one studio.

Some of the recurring skits/comedy bits from the show could carry a local or national flavor. Among the many were...

Bush-Man and Quayle: self-explanatory; this was a political spoof of Batman and Robin featuring George Bush and Dan Quayle in the title roles.

First Family Ties: This was a spoof of domestic comedies featuring parodies of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsey Clinton.

Blues Break: This sketch aired on Friday and it featured Burbank as Howlin' Blind Muddy Slim. It was a respectable routine where Howlin' Blind would play blues songs...usually pieces of them. It was one of the only routines where it came off genuine and not a satire or a parody. This most likely is because in real life Burbank loves that kind of music.

The Boys In the Huddle: This was a lesser-known sketch spoofing the Cincinnati Bengals. There would be a 5 minute episode that aired on a Friday prior to the Sunday game. The episode would repeat during the Bengals pre-game radio show. There would then be a follow-up episode on Monday commenting on the loss or the win.

All My Bengals: This was the better-known sketch spoofing the Bengals. It would air on Friday's and Monday's during football season. One of the trademarks of the sketch was Burbank's long drawn-out delivery of the word "well". He'd sometimes stretch the word out to last at least 10 seconds... "wellllllllllllllllllll....".

ABCD News: In this sketch, news reporters Ed Harley, Fern Groto, and Bob Fishgill would deliver and comment on the news in an amateurish way. Burbank, Leah, and Doc participated in the sketch. In a separate routine Burbank and company could be heard as Dan Buckles, Portia Lynn Commode, and Donald Samuelson.

Vinyl Siding Theatre: Hosted by Big Fat, this sketch spoofed Saturday and Sunday matinee movie shows where a movie would air and during commercial breaks you'd see people trying to sell useless products before saying something like "...and now back to this weeks featured movie...". In Burbank's sketch, Big Fat is the brash host of a show that's so cheap he has to pretend he's the entire cast. The joke is that he has to talk to himself in different voices in order to create a conversation. His catch-phrase was "smooch, smooch".

Dwight Guy and Dave Man: This routine ran while Dwight Tillery was the mayor of Cincinnati, 1991-1993. Dwight's predecessor, Dave Mann, had the perfect super hero name.

The Reds and the Restless: Featuring authentic soap opera style theme music, this routine spoofed the Cincinnati Reds during baseball season. It wasn't a daily sketch but it would air periodically during the spring, summer, and fall. The restless in the title referred to the restless fans who wanted a winning team.

The Young Joe Nuxhall Chronicles: Doc took center stage on this routine. Doc spoofed Joe Nuxhall while Burbank was often heard as Reds TV commentator, Gordy 'Hey Buddy' Coleman.

Again, a lot of what you read are my own thoughts about Burbank's radio program with a mix of commentary about the book that's available. The likes of Burbank will perhaps never exist again and this book will let you in on all the behind the scenes goings-on, all the up's and downs of someone who rose through the ranks of radio from small market to large market during a 40 plus year career.

Shortest Presidential Terms

2009-10-17T01:18:00.003-04:00

Down through the decades and centuries there have been a number of United States Presidents who have short terms in office. I'm not meaning one term Presidents, either. I'm meaning Presidents that served less than 4 years. There's not that many and so here's the run-down...

1. William Henry Harrison; 1841 {died in office}

2. Zachary Taylor; 1849-1850 {died in office}

3. Millard Fillmore; 1850-1853 {took over Presidency after Taylor's death.}

4. James Garfield; 1881 {assassinated}

5. Warren G. Harding; 1921-1923 {died in office}

6. John F. Kennedy; 1961-1963 {assassinated in an infamous motorcade in Texas; Lyndon Johnson took over and was elected officially in 1964 but due to the civil rights and other social controversies of the late 1960's he didn't seek the re-election in 1968. He gave a famous speech about not seeking re-election and he wouldn't accept the nomination by the Democrats should they go ahead and nominate him in the 1968 election.}

7. Gerald Ford; 1974-1977 {took over when Nixon resigned; Ford ran for official election in 1976 but lost to Jimmy Carter; Ford had appointed Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973; Ford was then appointed the Presidency when Nixon resigned in 1974; This allowed Ford to have the unusual feat of serving in both the Vice Presidency and the Presidency without being elected by the people and this was used against him by the Democrats in 1976 by suggesting Ford wasn't a "real President" since he wasn't elected.}

Guiding Light: 1937-2009...Part Eight

2009-09-22T00:55:00.002-04:00

A couple of days ago, September 18 to be specific, fans of the long-running daytime drama Guiding Light watched the final episode. The end of the show, which ran 72 years as noted in the blogs title, has left a void in the lives of millions. I for one thought that the show could possibly go on forever and the reason why I say that is because the show was on for 72 years...so I assumed that it would just coast along and hit 75, then 80...etc.

The soap as you can tell has obtained several milestones in longevity. As far as soap operas are concerned...American soap operas...Guiding Light is hands down the longest running daily entertainment program. It's origins go back to 1937 where it debuted on radio. It moved to TV in 1952 and ran on both TV and radio until 1956...and then TV exclusively from that point forward. It's television run, 1952-2009, gives it a 57 year life-span. The only other soap to come close to matching or beating that longevity is As The World Turns, which debuted on TV in 1956 and it received a contract extension through 2010 which will bring that soap to 54 years guaranteed. So, that soap may in fact tie or beat Guiding Light but that's looking too far ahead...and that brings me to this...

The daytime drama climate as far as ratings go isn't exactly what it used to be and the highest rated show among the daytime dramas is pulling in an average of 1.5 to 2 million viewers where as in the mid 1990's and earlier the top rated soap was grabbing close to 3.5 million. In the 1960's and 1970's the top rated soap was grabbing over 5 million and close to 10 million viewers easily.

A lot of the morning news programs did their farewell segments on the soap and you can find those farewells on You Tube. One of the things that I wasn't too happy about was learning that the Soap Opera world, during their annual awards show, did a tribute of sorts that was terribly short. That salute to the longest running drama in broadcast history is also on You Tube. I would've expected that kind of rushed recognition from a national news outlet or something but not at a show promoting daytime television. On September 16, two days before the last episode, one of my favorite characters from the show died. Alan Spaulding died unexpectedly...while sitting on a park bench.

The character had been a part of the show since 1977 and had just two breaks: 1984-1986 and 1989-1994. The character was presumed dead from the latter half of 1984 through early 1986 when news started to surface that Alan could still be alive. The character was sent to prison in 1989...for shooting Roger Thorpe...at Phillip and Blake's wedding. Roger survived the shot...Phillip had been shot as well...and he, too, survived. Alan on the other hand was convicted of attempted murder in 1989 and remained off the show until 1994. The character returned in 1994 and remained an integral part of the show for the next 15 years.

Chris Bernau portrayed the Alan Spaulding character originally. He remains the definitive Alan Spaulding for a lot of people even though Ron Raines, the last actor to portray the character, played the role the longest. In between these two stints, Daniel Pilon played the character.

Chris Bernau: 1977-1984; 1986-1988
Daniel Pilon: 1988-1989
Ron Raines: 1994-2009

Here's a very brief look at the Josh and Reva factor during 1983-1990...

The final scene of the last episode involved the shows super-couple, Josh and Reva. The two characters had a wild on-again/off-again relationship that led to many attempts of marriage and several marriages and divorces. Their story was always portrayed as a kind of tragic melodrama where the man and woman are always this close to being happy and something comes along to drive them apart. The couple, in the final scene, drove down the road together with a lighthouse in the background and the words "The End" came up on the screen. I was a bit surprised that there was no cast farewell...usually you'd expect some sort of "thanks" or "thank you for tuning in all these years" on a final episode and see the cast hug and cry but there wasn't anything like that.

Josh and Reva were played by the same people from start to finish. Robert Newman originated the role of Josh Lewis in 1981 and was a completely different character from what most viewers would recognize. The character of Reva came along in 1983, played by Kim Zimmer, and originally the viewers only knew that she was Billy's ex-wife who Alan Spaulding paid to come to town in an attempt to break up Billy's relationship with Vanessa Chamberlain. Billy was Josh's brother...and Billy was prone to calling Josh "little brother". The viewers then learn that Reva and Josh were childhood lovers...that the two dated as teenagers and it was Josh's choice of putting college above Reva that drove her into his brother's arms. So now the back-story of Josh and Reva was playing out amidst Billy's war against both Reva and Alan. Josh left town when he learned the real reason Reva arrived...and afterward Reva found herself the object of H.B's affections. This is important because H.B was the father of Billy and Josh...when Josh returned and learned that Reva had married his father he drove off wildly and slammed into a tree and was paralyzed. Reva later became pregnant with H.B.'s child but she miscarried. H.B and Reva divorced...but just as Josh and Reva were growing closer again she started having feelings for Kyle Sampson who at the time was believed to be H.B.'s son with another woman and therefore Josh and Billy's half-brother.

During Josh's hiatus in Venezuela the Reva and Kyle relationship was underway. Kyle then learned that H.B. was not his father but he was still a brother to Billy. How? Well, Kyle and Billy shared the same mother: Sally Gleason. Josh and Trish's mother was Martha. Kyle and Reva grew apart.

Josh returned but then left again...but then returned...all in the span of several months. When he returned he brought with him a man named Will Jeffries...and what nobody knew was that when Josh was in Venezuela he had married a woman named Sonni Carrera who died after falling off of a suspension bridge. He kept this a secret...even from Reva...until Sonni turned up alive and he had to reveal the truth and play her husband even though he wanted to be with Reva.

The plot that unfolded started when Will tampered with the birth results of Reva's baby. Will made it appear that the father of Reva's baby was Kyle Sampson instead of Josh. In addition to that sub-plot, the main plot centered around Will and Sonni's plan to kill Josh and steal the Lewis fortune. Those story lines took up all of late 1987 through early 1989. Josh found himself pushed off of a bridge...Reva found herself in a coma, too. While Reva was semi-conscious Alan married her...she thought that she was marrying Josh. The marriage was annulled after Reva regained her right state of mind. Josh then learns that he's the father of Marah, the baby that most thought belonged to Kyle. It's revealed that Alan had paid Will to tamper with the birth certificate.

After the mayhem with Sonni, Will, and Alan climaxed in early 1989 Reva and Billy grew closer when it was revealed that years ago Reva gave up a baby she had with Billy for adoption and she became obsessed with locating her son. The son turned out to be a newcomer to town named Dylan. Josh and Reva grew closer once again and she became pregnant and later gave birth to Shayne. Josh was the father.

Josh and Reva finally marry...and it wasn't long afterward that Reva's grasp on reality started to suffer and in a memorable scene in 1990 she drove her car off an unfinished bridge in Florida with Josh watching in horror. She was presumed dead for the next five years.

What was to become known as Reva's missing years, 1990-1995, were spotlighted throughout mid to late 1999. It was revealed that Reva survived her car crash into the ocean but suffered from amnesia and took on the name of Katherine and was married to a prince...Richard Winslow...on the island of San Cristobel. Katherine's disappearance sent Richard into alcoholism...but it would be revealed that Katherine's disappearance was as a result of Edmund's treachery. Edmund was Richard's evil brother. On the sideline was Olivia, Richard's soon to be wife, who was annoyed by the re-appearance of Katherine. As the plot thickened and Reva's missing years were explored and explained, Josh and Reva grew apart...divorcing not long after Reva learned that she and Richard shared a son, Jonathan. Josh and Olivia were married...but later divorced when her affair with Alan Spaulding was revealed. Olivia and Alan then married...but she began having an affair with his son, Phillip, which led to a divorce. All of the drama between Josh, Reva, Olivia, and Alan played out during 1999-2002. Edmund rivaled Alan in the bad-guy department...but strangely enough Edmund, to me at least, didn't seem likable or sympathetic compared to Alan. Olivia would go on and become half of the couple known on-line as Otalia. Olivia and Natalia became an item...two females...and the couple was nicknamed Otalia. This couple became the main focal point during the show's final months on the air. So, for those who caught the show very late in it's run, Olivia had a 9 and a half year history on the show prior to her pairing up with Natalia.

Thanks to You Tube videos the memories of the show will, I think, live on forever on-line. In my collection I have a couple of books about GL...one is the 50th Anniversary book published in 1987 and the other is the 60th Anniversary book published ten years later. I have some other items as well.

Guiding Light: 1937-2009

Looney Tunes...crazy...100% nuts...

2009-08-31T23:40:00.004-04:00

Posing with a book that I bought several years ago at a book store in a shopping mall, this blog entry is really about my salute to the Looney Tunes characters and those of the Merrie Melodies. Originally, there was a distinct separation between the two series from Warner Brothers. However, as time went on, the characters started to appear interchangeably to the point where there wasn't much of a distinction anymore other than the differing titles for both sets of cartoons. Originally the Merrie Melodies series featured serious, Disney-like cartoons with heavy use of songs from the Warner Brothers music catalog. The Looney Tunes series featured the wild and crazy cartoons that were funny in comparison. It's these cartoons and that style which pushed the more serious cartoons off to the side as time went on.

The series had it's share of top directors, animators, writers, etc etc and one of the most interesting things about the Warner Brothers cartoon directors and writers is that their names are more widely known than the directors and writers at Disney and MGM, the two chief rivals in the theatrical cartoon business to Warner Brothers. I suppose if I looked it up, the cartoon directors at Disney would be easy to find in this internet age but would they be names that I'm familiar with? I admit that this feeling comes from being raised on the Warner Brothers cartoons. I know of the Disney characters...who doesn't know of Mickey Mouse? Donald Duck? Goofy? Winnie the Pooh? I couldn't tell you who the cartoon directors were. A lot of it has to do with, as I mentioned, not being raised on Disney cartoons. When I was younger the Disney cartoons were exclusive to the Disney channel...a premium channel...that my parent's didn't spend extra money for. This was several years before the local FOX stations started airing Disney cartoons in the afternoons in the late '80s.

As I mentioned, when I was growing up, it was the Warner Brothers cartoons I was most familiar with. Popeye was another...and Tom and Jerry, along with MGM's cast of characters. As I got older I discovered the made-for-TV cartoons of Hanna-Barbera and liked those cartoons as well.

The most talked about, or celebrated, directors at Warner Brothers during their golden age were:

1. Friz Freleng
2. Chuck Jones
3. Tex Avery
4. Bob Clampett
5. Robert McKimson

After those five, you then usually hear about...

6. Frank Tashlin
7. Art Davis
8. Norm McCabe

Ironically, #3 and #4 were with the studio a short number of years, instead of decades like Chuck, Friz, and Bob McKimson...but even today, among Warner Brothers cartoon fans, both Bob Clampett and Tex Avery have just as much discussion as the others.

Who you don't hear much about are #6 through #8. This is just my opinion but the big reason for this is because they didn't make any cartoons that have stood the test of time. Art Davis was more of an animator turned director for a few cartoons. Frank Tashlin made just as many cartoons as Bob Clampett and Tex Avery but his cartoons seldom got much attention due to their lack of exposure to various generations. The Bugs Bunny Show helped expose the characters to 4 generations of audiences starting in 1960. The cartoons from Chuck, Friz, and Bob McKimson were heavily favored.

It was on the air on ABC, then CBS, and then back to ABC during it's 40 year run. The show during it's final ABC run was titled The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show and it left the air in 2000 after a 40 year run on the air, in various time slots and under various titles.

The book that you see me holding is a companion book, of sorts. It details the history of Sylvester and Tweety and it gives a year by year break down of the cartoons. It gives writer, director, producer, and animation credits along with voice credits for each cartoon listed and if it was nominated or if it won an Oscar then it was noted.

A cartoon winning an Oscar?? Yes...for those who aren't too well studied about theatrical cartoons...there was once a category called "Best Short Subject". There still may be a category called that?? Anyway...that category was usually reserved for the animated cartoon that would air in movie theaters prior to the showing of the movie. The Academy would then nominate which cartoons, or "short subjects", they felt were Oscar worthy. The cartoons were dubbed short subjects because, obviously, the running time was short compared to a feature length movie. Most cartoons ran no longer than 8 minutes...9 minutes was a rare occasion...6 minutes or 6 and a half was the norm for most cartoons.

When the winner was announced, the Oscar was awarded to the producer...the writers or director or anyone else weren't given any Oscar's for their participation. The producer of the cartoons, originally, was Leon Schlesinger. He was the producer until the mid 1940's...around 1944/1945. He sold his company to Warner Brothers and Eddie Selzer became the new producer. From the things I've read and from the commentary made by those who worked on the cartoons, Selzer wasn't too popular among the directors. Friz Freleng recounts an incident where Selzer insisted that Sylvester team up with a woodpecker for a series of cartoons. Sylvester and the woodpecker had appeared in just one cartoon together, prior to the cat officially being called "Sylvester".

Friz had gotten the idea to team Sylvester up with the Tweety character that Bob Clampett created. Selzer didn't like the idea and Friz threatened to walk away from the studio...and then Selzer contacted Friz and gave in and told Friz to go ahead and team Sylvester up with Tweety. Their first cartoon together as a team won an Oscar, 1947's "Tweetie Pie".

Some things the average cartoon watcher may not know is Robert McKimson created the character, Speedy Gonzales, but it was Friz Freleng who had his unit re-design the character into what people recognize today and Friz directed several Speedy cartoons and Robert McKimson later began directing his own Speedy cartoons based on the Hawley Pratt design. Pratt was Friz's layout artist. McKimson is also responsible for Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester Jr, and the Tazmanian Devil. Henery Hawk was a character created by Chuck Jones but McKimson borrowed the character and used him extensively in the Foghorn Leghorn series of cartoons.

Out of all the directors at the studio, Friz won the most Oscars.

Chuck Jones is often more celebrated and hyped given that his approach to cartoons mirrors the collegiate and intellectual approach to animation. His cartoons, while hilarious, tended to be slightly Avant-garde in comparison to the belly-laugh style of Friz and McKimson. Tex Avery on the other hand went beyond belly-laughs and could have a viewer laughing without anything hilarious going on...a simple facial expression or some other timed gag in one of his cartoons was as funny as dialogue and out of all the directors, Avery could get laughs with sight gags because of how well-timed they were. He would become even more legendary at MGM...the studio he left Warner Brothers for. Bob Clampett, who adopted a Tex Avery style, would also depart the studio. Frank Tashlin left cartoons for live action movies. So, for a bulk of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies throughout the 1940s, 1950's, and into the early 1960's you had three directors: Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and Robert McKimson. Mel Blanc was the main voice artist for the studio from the late 1930s through the 1960's. He had co-stars, though. Arthur Q Bryan voiced Elmer Fudd for years. Bea Benaderet voiced Granny and many female characters up through the mid 1950's prior to June Foray coming aboard to voice Bea's characters and others that came along. Daws Butler was often heard doing celebrity impressions. Stan Freberg gave voice to quite a few characters that played off against characters Mel provided the voice to.

For those who want to see hilarious Warner Brothers cartoons seek out the Golden Collection DVD series. Not only will you get the cartoons but you'll also get a boat load of extra's that feature interview clips with the directors and animators involved in the cartoons. All of the major players, speaking about directors and writers and animators, are all gone. A few of the voice actors are still around. Here's a life-line of the heavy hitters at the studio and the lesser-known's...

Leon Schlesinger: May 20, 1884-December 25, 1949 {65; producer}

Eddie Selzer: January 12, 1893-February 22, 1970 {77; producer}

Mel Blanc: May 30, 1908–July 10, 1989 {81; voice artist}

Friz Freleng: August 21, 1906–May 26, 1995 {88; director}

Chuck Jones: September 21, 1912–February 22, 2002 {89; director}

Tex Avery: February 26, 1908-August 26, 1980 {72; animator/director}

Robert McKimson: October 13, 1910-September 29, 1977 {66; animator/director}

Bob Clampett: May 8, 1913-May 4, 1984 {70; animator/director}

Arthur Q Bryan: May 8, 1899–November 18, 1959 {60; voice artist}

**Stan Freberg: August 7, 1926- {currently 83; voice artist}

Bea Benadaret: April 4, 1906–October 13, 1968 {62; voice artist}

**June Foray: September 18, 1917- {curently 91; voice artist}

Daws Butler: November 16, 1916–May 18, 1988 {71; voice artist}

Frank Tashlin: February 19, 1913-May 5, 1972 {59; director}

Art Davis: June 14, 1905-May 9, 2000 {94; animator/director}

Norm McCabe: February 10, 1911-January 17, 2006 {94; animator/director}

Mike Maltese: February 6, 1908—February 22, 1981 {73; writer}

Warren Foster: October 24, 1904-December, 1971 {67; writer}

Tedd Pierce: August 12, 1906—February 19, 1972 {65; writer}

Carl Stalling: November 10, 1891–November 29, 1972 {81; music conductor}

Milt Franklyn: September 16, 1897–April 24, 1962 {64; music conductor}

=======================

**- both June Foray and Stan Freberg are the only surviving members of the Golden Age of Warner Brothers cartoons.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters

2009-08-26T15:04:00.007-04:00

This 1988 film, built around classic cartoons from the Warner Brothers library and new footage, is a broad spoof of the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise. The obvious title of "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" will tell you what this clip-fest film will be about. The film features two contemporary cartoon shorts, 1987's "The Duxorcist" and 1988's "Night of the Living Duck". These two cartoons, combined with specific clips edited from classic cartoons, were blended together to showcase a full-length animated feature poking fun at the GHOSTBUSTERS popularity and the language used in the movie. Daffy inherits a fortune because he was able to make a dying millionaire laugh. In a scenario from an earlier cartoon, "Daffy Dilly", Daffy plays a salesman who gets word that a dying millionaire will leave a fortune to whoever can make him laugh. The millionaire was offering a fortune to anyone who was able to give him one good laugh before he died. After arriving at the mansion and out-witting the butler, Daffy did a broad range of stunts that received no laughs but when he accidentally trips and a series of cakes fall on him, the dying millionaire {a dog named Cubish} starts to chuckle and soon breaks out into a fit of laughter.

Next we see Cubish in a pie throwing frenzy...hurling one pie after the other in Daffy's face. All through this he's laughing uncontrollably and that's when the original cartoon, "Daffy Dilly", ended. In the continuation, we see that Cubish dies laughing...and his estate goes to Daffy. The only catch is he has to use the money for good purposes or it'll cost him. Also, if Daffy even has the idea to use the money for greedy purposes, it'll cost him. Throughout the film each time Daffy gripes and complains about Cubish we hear thunder and see a stack of money in the vault vanish into thin air. Cubish often appears in ghost form throughout the cartoon. As a side business, Daffy goes into ghost hunting as a public service.

Daffy, Porky, and Bugs are billed as "Paranormalists at Large". Throughout the film a spoof commercial pops up promoting their ghost hunting business. Part of the commercial includes a now-popular phrase among Looney Tunes fans where Daffy explains the objectives of their business and tells potential clients something like: "spooks spooked, goblins gobbled, ufo's k.o'd, aliens alienated, and monsters remonstrated.". One of the memorable aspects of the film was how effortlessly the classic clips blended together. This wasn't the first time clip-filled animated films had been released by Warner Brothers but it was the first, to my knowledge, where two relatively new theatrical cartoons had been responsible for the commission of a full-length movie release.

And so...in between the classic clips we see new animation of Bugs, Daffy, and Porky bridging the clips along. We'll see the hilarious "but I did see an elephant in my bird bath" clip and pieces of Porky and Sylvester's adventures when Sylvester was cast as a cowardly feline and Porky was his annoyed owner. The 1987 clip of "The Duxorcist" is hilarious...particularly for those familiar with what it's spoofing, The Exorcist. In it, Daffy investigates a strange case of a female duck who's possessed and it's in this cartoon where the female utters all sorts of rubbish, but plainly enunciating in a sweet voice "Mary had a little lamb..." and then shouting in her possessed voice: "BUT I ATE IT!!!!".

Sharp eared listeners will note the differences in Daffy's voice when it segues from contemporary to classic footage. I believe they didn't speed up Daffy's voice enough in the new animation and so it sounds like Sylvester, more than it should. The difference between those two character's voices had always been that Sylvester had Mel Blanc's own voice with a lisp added to it while Daffy was actually the same voice only sped up a few octaves in the playback process to get a little higher tone.

The cartoon as a whole is 5 star material. It's funny, cute in places, satirical in places, and who can resist the Mel Torme contribution of "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" that Daffy sings in a monsters club after spraying his throat with Torme liquid. This scene happens near the start of the movie, within "Night of the Living Duck". The bonus features include the cult favorite "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th and 1/2 Century" along with "Superior Duck" and "Little Go Beep".

This is the first time this 1988 Daffy Duck movie has been released on DVD.

George Strait: Twang!

2009-08-12T19:53:00.003-04:00

This 13 song CD is almost like an about face when compared to the previous collection, TROUBADOUR. For one thing, it's always great when a CD is kicked off with an up-tempo number. "Twang", the lead-off song and title track, is the perfect lead-off song for the CD. I do not think it will be a radio single, though. I know some have said that it could be a single but I don't know if country radio will play a song called "Twang" because of how image conscious they are...and the fact that George sounds ever so twangy while dragging out the title "twa-a-a-a-ng...". I'm just going by hunch...I don't have any real idea what country radio will play. I just know they passed on several songs from his past that didn't "sound" like something George would release. You can look up his discography list and see the singles that didn't do as well as expected. A few peaked in the Top-20 and one peaked in the Top-30 because they were a departure of what was expected.

One thing that I also noticed about the CD is that the songs, for the most part, are under-stated. There isn't a lot of production...well, there's the same standard production values, but George's voice isn't drowned out by the musical accompaniment. This is evident on "Where Have I Been All My Life", the second song on the CD...but then on track three "I Gotta Get To You" we have a song that sounds like it might in fact be a potential single. I don't know if it'll be released this year or if MCA will wait until the spring of 2010. It stands out as a radio single to my ears.

"Easy As You Go" is a pleasant sing-a-long kind of song...the four songs that kick off the CD set up "Living For the Night", track number five. As that is his current single it's familiarity will bring a more embracing feel toward the CD, I think. Right after "Living For the Night" Strait goes back into high gear with the bluesy rocker song "Some Kind of Crazy". When listening to the song I kind of heard Ronnie Dunn in my head...like something he and Kix Brooks would have recorded.

This is music you'd expect on a CD called TWANG...and given that there's a Tex-Mex fringe in country music, it makes sense that Texas-born George Strait would bring in that style every now and then. I even think the word 'twang' in some circles is used as a symbol of musical pride in and around south Texas...there once was a magazine called Twang as well...which had a more Texas country music feel to it.

"Out of Sight, Out of Mind" will have a long-time fan thinking of the mid 1980's George Strait because it has a sound that is mostly identified with that era of his career. It's a nice ballad and written by George and his son.

Meanwhile, "Arkansas Dave" is a mysterious story song about a killer. George usually doesn't sing story songs like this...this is like something you'd might find on a Tom T Hall or a Dave Dudley album but it was written by George's son, Bubba, who helped write three other songs on the CD including the big hit "Living For the Night".

I really think "He's Got That Something Special" could be a single as well...it's one of the songs George co-wrote, too. That song may in fact be his next single...then in early 2010 "I Gotta Get To You" may be another single...but that's just my speculation.

The tempo picks up super fast on "Hot Grease and Zydeco" which sounds like it'll be a concert sing-a-long...it's one of the songs with a lot of production, which is lacking on a lot of the other songs. He closes out the English speaking portion of the CD with the Merle Haggard-like "Beautiful Day For Goodbye" which has a somber feel.

I do want to say that everyone seems to be talking about the final song, "El Rey". It's in Spanish...I don't understand the song. First of all, though, hearing him sing Spanish is quite unique and I feel it was placed on the CD simply because of Tex-Mex is part of the music scene down there in Texas and so it fits...but it is certainly unusual for a George Strait CD. I don't think he'll be putting on any other Spanish songs on future CD's. I assume he put it on there for shock value of some kind...since the fans nor critics would have predicted the inclusion of the song. It has a 1971 copyright and I'm not familiar with it's origins. I just know that it's rather unique and for those who purchase the whole CD or those who buy one song at a time, give a listen to the "El Rey" performance...although I don't have a clue what he's saying, the music in the background is catchy. I think radio stations that are playing this song are doing so out of curiosity...some may find it amusing, too, that George sings Spanish. Whatever the case, it's a neat little performance.

Off-topic: George isn't the only mainstream country artist to perform songs in another language. Freddy Fender became popular for inserting the Spanish and Mexican languages into his recordings. Conway Twitty at one time recorded "Hello Darlin" in Russian. He did the recording in 1975 for NASA. It's on his box set. But because it's George Strait and all of his albums carry a consistent formula, it's a big news story when he departs from what is expected or, in other words, predicted from critics.

All in all it's a great George Strait album. Longtime and hard-core fans will I think treasure the album...and for those who pay a bit more attention to who wrote what they'll be glad to see the likes of Dean Dillon, Jim Lauderdale, and Steve Bogard listed as songwriter's on several of the songs...and George himself being credited as a co-writer on three songs is the icing on the cake for those who pay attention to songwriter credits.

June Foray: The Autobiography

2009-08-10T16:01:00.007-04:00

This book about the first lady of voice acting, called Did You Grow Up With Me, Too?, chronicles the life and times both on and off the air of June Foray. There are quite a collection of pictures of June and her voice acting co-stars...one that caught my eye right away, given that it was the first picture in the book, is a glorious picture of June, William Hanna, Joe Barbera, Walter Lantz, Daws Butler, AND Don Messick. They're all standing side by side. There are also pictures of June during the 1940's and 1950's...pictures of her, Stan Freberg, and Daws Butler and pictures of character's she gave voice to. It's a nice balance between her career and personal life, which of course is what an autobiography is. The epilogue section was written by June and it's dated July, 2009 because, I assume, they wanted it to reflect the month the book was due for release.

Leonard Maltin wrote the forward...and do you know the story behind June Foray having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? You'll find out within the pages of this book.

A lot of the book is broken up into chapters that follow a theme. Near the end of the book there's a chapter dedicated to a few people June knew that are no longer living. Bill Scott, Jay Ward, Paul Frees, and a few others. She tells the intricate details of what "looping" means and she explains that it's wise to be punctual because it pays by the hour. Chapter Eight, called "My Rocky Life" is dedicated to her being cast in the Bullwinkle series, once known as Rocky and His Friends. This is where she remembers much of the Jay Ward era and offers pictures that were taken in the studio with her and Bill Scott and there's a picture of her, Bill, and Jay Ward; and a picture of her and Paul Frees. There are also cartoon stills of the characters. In Chapter seven, called "Chuck Who?" for comical purposes, is about her association with Warner Brothers director, Chuck Jones. The chapter was called that because June didn't know who Chuck Jones was. In a lot of her interviews she admits to not being much of a cartoon watcher so she didn't really know who made the cartoons. Chuck cast her as Witch Hazel, the name of another witch that the Disney studio cast her as.

Legal acrobatics enabled Warner Brothers to continue using the Witch Hazel name. Bea Benaderet, the prominent female voice on mostly all of the Warner Brothers cartoons before June came along, was the original voice of Witch Hazel and was the original voice of Granny...Bea had did the Granny voice for almost 15 years before June took over the role in 1955...off the top of my head I believe Bea started voicing Granny somewhere around 1943 or 1944. It was Bea's on-camera work in Burns and Allen plus her other on-camera assignments that led to her cartoon roles being re-cast in the mid 1950's. Her workload had become too hectic to continue and so she concentrated more on the TV sitcom's she appeared in.

June's been the voice of both characters, Witch Hazel and Granny, ever since...her most recent assignment as Granny was the Baby Looney Tunes series a few years back. There is an interesting story that June talks about when it came time to cast the voice actors for the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries series in 1994/1995. According to June, the producers were wanting her to come in an audition for the role of Granny...whoever was in charge apparently wanted the Granny voice to resemble the one provided by Bea Benaderet. June recalls how outraged she felt because she'd been the voice of Granny since the mid 1950's and here she was told that they wanted the voice to resemble Benaderet's characterization. June then lets us in on how she came about being cast as Granny on the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.

This brings me to a small little rant that I have about such things. When a voice actor or actress plays a role for a good number of years, he or she pretty much know the in's and out's of the character{s} they voice and the producers or casting directors should give the voice actors and actresses associated with the role automatic casting because of the proven track record. I feel the only time a character's voice should be re-cast is if the voice actor/actress can no longer do an adequate job...meaning they've lost their voice. I don't think a voice artist loses their natural talent...so whether someone is 21, 41, 61, 81, or 91, if he or she is still capable of doing their job they should be given the first shot and THEN if the producer isn't satisfied then a re-cast should happen. This notion that you have to audition voice actors for roles they've played for decades is ludicrous and offensive to the voice artist, as you'll see when you read June's thoughts about it.

In the "Chuck Who?" section she talks about how she was called on to do the voice of an Irish lady from the waist down on Chuck's version of Tom and Jerry plus she talks about the various witch characters she has performed. It is also in this chapter where she relates a story about cigarette smoking and how it was a big advertising sponsor at one time. There's a priceless story about how she gave up smoking but a lot of others didn't and she tells about a recording session in the mid 1980's during the revival of The Jetsons and it involves Mel Blanc. It's a cute little story about Mel's smoking in the studio. There's a picture of June and Mel in the studio, too.

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few pictures...and there's one on page 129 of June, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Art Babbitt at the 1974 Annie Awards. Before any can ask, the Annie Awards is short for the Animation Awards...a gala where animation big-wigs and voice actors and actresses gather. It's much like the typical awards programs you see but cartoons are being honored and celebrated instead of live-action.

One of the things you may or may not notice is that the chapter's are short...well, a lot of them are. "Chuck Who?" is a rather lengthy chapter as is "My Rocky Life". There's a section called "The War Years" where she talks about her career doing radio shows and offers a picture of her as part of a dance group. She makes a lot of jokes about her short stature and reflects that her short stature must have been a good reason she clicked so well with Daws Butler in the recording studio.

It's really a great look at June's life and career.

If you do much You Tube searching, be sure to look up some clips of Ma and Pa Kettle. The clips will feature an actress, Marjorie Main, in the role of Ma Kettle. This is the voice that June based a lot of the older lady types on...the voice is heard prominently in Fractured Fairy Tales, a segment in the Rocky and Bullwinkle series. June usually gave fairy godmothers or witches that voice. In the Disney cartoons, Duck Tales and Gummi Bears, June gave the Ma Beagle and Grammi Gummi characters the Marjorie Main vocal characterization.

Hamateur Night: Major Bowes parody

2009-07-24T00:28:00.003-04:00

Hamateur Night is a hilarious 1939 cartoon directed by Tex Avery. Yes, doing the math, it's from 70 years ago...on radio there was a program known as the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. On the show amateur's would be heard singing or telling jokes...or playing a piano. It's been considered the great-grandfather of all amateur talent programs to follow in it's path. Bowes often struck a gong if he didn't like a performance...shades of The Gong Show of a later generation. Also heard was a bell, almost like the one's heard during boxing matches. If the amateur wasn't too well received then the bell would strike.

The radio show ran for many years, beginning locally in 1934 and going national in 1935, on NBC radio. The program moved to CBS radio in 1936 and remained there until 1945. Bowes died in 1946...his side-kick/talent scout, Ted Mack, brought the show back in 1948 and hosted the slightly re-named Original Amateur Hour until 1952. The program was in production off and on throughout the 1950's on television. In 1960 it went back to CBS and remained on the air until 1970...some say that the program ended production before CBS could cancel it officially. At the time, CBS was ridding it's network of top-rated program that attracted older and rural audiences in favor of the big city/urban audiences topical comedies could bring in.

By 1972 CBS had removed such big ratings winners as "Petticoat Junction", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Hee-Haw", "Lawrence Welk", "The Red Skelton Show", "The Ed Sullivan Show", "Gomer Pyle, USMC" just to name a few and replaced those programs in the prime-time line-up with the likes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "All in the Family", "M*AS*H", "The Bob Newhart Show", "The Waltons", "Maude", and others. In reality, a few of those shows had left the CBS network in 1970 and 1971...but the fact that so many of the programs were gone by 1972 shows how intent the network was at reaching a different audience.

In the above cartoon, spoofing Major Bowes' radio program, we see a display of amateur's who all get their comeuppance. There are plenty of topical jokes. The first act introduced is a parody of Stokowski, a musical conductor. In the cartoon he's referred to as Maestro Can-o'-Whiskey. A recurring joke is the Egghead character appearing in between acts singing a brief refrain of "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain", always being yanked off stage by several hooks. A lot of the animals were also featured in other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The rooster and Katherine Hepburn chicken, spoofing Romeo and Juliet, were seen in the cartoon, Daffy Duck in Hollywood. There is a recurring scene with a hippo character...he, too, was shown in a couple of other cartoons...specifically She Was An Acrobat's Daughter. In this Hamateur Night cartoon, the hippo has a very peculiar sense of humor and infectious laugh. Tex Avery voiced the character...he also used this voice in a cartoon short called The Bears Tale. The laugh is hilarious...now, this laugh will feature in toward the end of the cartoon...be on the look-out for it.

The cartoon ends with the host going by each amateur and through a series of boo's we're let in on the fact that the audience doesn't like any of the acts...until the host reaches Egghead. When he's singled out last the audience goes wild...much to the shock of the host. The camera shows the audience and we then understand why Egghead's simple rendition of "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain" is so well loved.

Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection, Vol. Five

2009-07-21T00:28:00.004-04:00

This collection of hilarity features 30 cartoons. From the start, The Spotlight Collection was always meant to be a cheaper collection of cartoons derived from the more exhaustive Golden Collection sets. By cheap, I mean dollars and cents...not quality of the packaging.

The Spotlight Collection would feature 30 cartoons, 15 on 2 DVD's, culled from the latest installment of The Golden Collection, which in turn would feature 4 DVD's altogether. So, The Spotlight Collection was simply a much shorter collection of cartoons at a more smaller price.

In Volume Five of The Spotlight Collection we have 30 cartoons that also appear on The Golden Collection, Volume Five. DVD #2 is dedicated to the fairy tale parodies...and there were plenty. The funny thing is...there are various cartoons on DVD #2 that tell the same story but each and every cartoon is hilarious due to the writing and characters involved. In "The Bears Tale" from 1940 we see the telling of The Three Bears but with a twist. Tex Avery is the director...in the cartoon we see the blending of two fairy tales. The Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood...the connection being the wolf who decides to exit Grandma's house and flee to The Three Bears place to attack Goldilocks instead. It's very funny...particularly the characterizations...Papa Bear's laugh is infectious. Robert Bruce narrates.

There are three parodies of Little Red Riding Hood back to back to back...but they're are so cleverly written that you don't mind the same story. In "Red Riding Hoodwinked" we see the goings-on between Tweety, Sylvester, a Wolf, Red Riding Hood, and Granny. In this parody, Sylvester and the Wolf are in the pursuit of Tweety and Red respectively. Granny falls into the scene as she's the "Grandmother" in the fairy tale. Her line, "Pow...right in the kisser!", is lifted from The Honeymooners. "Red Riding Hoodwinked" was released in 1955. In "Little Red Walking Hood", directed by Tex Avery, we're treated to a Katherine Hepburn version of the fairy tale character who uses typical reaction to almost everything that we know is suppose to happen in the story...the Grandmother is portrayed as a kind of loose cannon, hip to the scene. "Little Red Rodent Hood" is the third cartoon to spoof the Red Riding Hood fairy tale.

"Goldimouse and the Three Cats", from Friz Freleng, is easily one of the stand-outs on DVD #2 among many others. This parody of the Three Bears features three cats and a female mouse with flowing blond hair. The cats, headed up by Sylvester and his son, Sylvester Jr, plus a mama cat...make up the cat family who eat porridge, just like in the Three Bears. Before you all can ask: "what are cat's doing eating porridge?" Sylvester Jr wonders the same thing. Throughout the cartoon Sylvester tries his best to capture Goldimouse. She's voiced by June Foray, who also narrates the cartoon. "Bewitched Bunny" kicks off DVD #2. It's a Chuck Jones cartoon about Bugs Bunny encountering Witch Hazel who's plotting to cook Hansel and Gretel. A running joke is the pronunciation of the boy's name. "Hansel?", "Honsul?", "Han-so". After freeing the kids, Witch Hazel has ideas of having Bugs for dinner.

"Foney Fables", from Friz Freleng, is a grouping of fairy tale spoofs in one cartoon. Narrator Robert Bruce explains things as we see illustrations of Tom Thumb, the nursery rhyme about the piggie's that go off to the market, the boy who cried wolf, and others.

In DVD #1 we have traditional Warner Brothers cartoons. The kick-off cartoon is "14 Carrot Rabbit". In it, Yosemite Sam is a gold miner who doesn't have much luck. All of the sudden Bugs comes along with a huge gold boulder...having it weighed. All that he wants as a payment is a supply of carrots. Sam gets the idea to stalk and befriend Bugs...it seems Bugs has this "feeling" that comes over him whenever gold is in the area. The ending of the cartoon is hilarious as well. Friz Freleng directed this...as he directed most, if not all, the cartoons with Yosemite Sam.

"The Stupor Salesman" tells the story of Daffy Duck as a door-to-door salesman. The joke is that Daffy's at the hide-out of a crook who doesn't want any interruptions. Daffy, being a salesman, won't back off no matter how much torment and torture the crook puts him through. Finally, in the climax of the cartoon, Daffy discovers something that the guy needs since throughout the cartoon he kept telling Daffy to scram or get lost. In "Buccaneer Bunny" we see another classic Bugs Bunny-Yosemite Sam team-up. In this one, Sam is a pirate and Bugs happens to be on a beach where Sam wants to bury his treasure. Since Bugs claims the area to be his home and Sam stubborn and won't bury the chest elsewhere, a battle of wits ensues on and off the pirate ship. This cartoon includes the famous cannon scene where Sam repeatedly gets shot in the face by a cannon.

"Bugs' Bonnets" is a surreal cartoon...a truck hauling hats hits a bump in the road and the back door becomes unlatched and the woods are littered with hats. Bugs and Elmer Fudd proceed to take on various personalities as hat's pop on and off of their heads. "Ali Baba Bunny", directed by Chuck Jones, has Bugs and Daffy on the run from an Arabian guard named Hassan...Daffy had discovered a hidden treasure after he and Bugs dug their way under a cave and come up on the inside. Meanwhile, Hassan has forgot the password. He finally discovers the password and goes running in after the trespassers. Throughout the cartoon we see a character study of opposites. Daffy wants to claim all the gold for himself while Bugs has no desire for it. Daffy's antics get him into trouble...always causing him to turn to Bugs for a way out of the mess. Bugs dresses up like a genie in one memorable scene. Later, Daffy discovers a lamp and rubs it. A genie pops out and a miserly Daffy will have no more threats to his wealth and he literally stomps the genie back into the lamp. This causes severe consequences, though.

Friz Freleng directs "A Star Is Bored" which pits Bugs against Daffy in a movie setting. Daffy wants to be a big star like Bugs and when he thinks he's finally gotten his big break he soon regrets it. Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd make cameo appearances. Daffy plays Bugs' stand-in...inserted into any scene that is potentially dangerous for Bugs to carry out. A running gag is Daffy's demand of "MAKE-UP!!" after every explosion and every scene. "Hollywood Daffy" has Daffy trying to get into the Warner Brothers lot. In the cartoon it's referred to as 'Warmer Brothers'. In most cartoons that spoof their own studio, it's referred to as Warmer Brothers. In "Hollywood Daffy" we see an over-zealous guard with a Joe Besser-like voice preventing Daffy from entering. By cartoon's end, Daffy insists that he isn't leaving until he see's some stars and the guard relents and affords him the ability to see star's.

"Stupor Duck", a cartoon from Robert McKimson, has Daffy spoofing Superman, of course. In the cartoon he's on the look-out for a villain, Aardvark Ratnik, but the villain is from a crime drama...Stupor Duck, in his secret identity of Cluck Trent, misunderstands while eavesdropping and he spends the episode on the hunt for this villain. Mel Blanc voices Daffy and Daws Butler voices the Editor and the narrator at the start of the cartoon. Porky Pig makes an appearance in "Paying the Piper". He plays a pied piper in charge of ridding a town of rats. He seems to have succeeded at the start of the cartoon until things go awry. The supreme ruler of the cats has other idea's and the fight ensues as the cat dresses up as a big rat...this causes the local mayor to angrily take away the sack of money he had given Porky for ridding the town of ALL rats. The cat's of course want the rats to stay because they chase after them for food. A battle of wits ensues...Porky ends up winning by cartoon's end. Mel does his famous "stuck-up" characterization for the Mayor while the supreme cat carries a thick New York accent. Robert McKimson directed the cartoon.

Walter Cronkite: 1916-2009

2009-07-17T22:23:00.004-04:00

I assume by now the country has learned of the death of journalist/news anchor Walter Cronkite. I grew up in the era of Dan Rather hosting the CBS Evening News and so I do not personally recall when Cronkite was the anchor but I knew of him through his appearances on television programs and his distinctive voice isn't to be forgotten if you've heard it. I've been watching the coverage of the various tributes to Cronkite and those who are hard-core fans/appreciators of Cronkite will get the irony in this situation that's unfolded. He was known to not be very happy about 24/7 news channels, cable news specifically...because in his opinion he felt all-news networks politicized the coverage and those who watched cable news were watching because of the viewpoints of broadcasters and talk-show hosts about what's happening, and that they weren't watching to find out the in's and out's and facts of what's happening.

So, I find it very ironic that the 24/7 cable news stations that he often spoke out against are the very same outlets who are airing tributes to him even as I write this blog entry. I clicked over to CBS and they're airing their usual line-up of programs...no salute, no tribute, no fanfare. If anything demonstrates just how times have changed, the cable news channels of CNN and MSNBC are interviewing cable news anchors and personalities: the likes of Brian Williams, Sam Donaldson, Bob Schieffer, Morley Safer, Don Hewitt, Tom Brokaw, and several radio broadcasters have given their thoughts of Cronkite. Of course, watching cable news the last several hours I could have missed a CBS news-break or something but I just find it bizarre that, as far as I know, they hadn't said anything on their broadcast network. Perhaps the early morning newscasts will offer some commentary about the broadcaster who brought the network millions of viewers? If they don't, well, that's the way it is...

Anyway, it just seemed ironic that a lot of Cronkite's admirers in the news business shared their thoughts of him via the 24/7 cable news channels instead of on CBS...and I could be wrong but it appears as if CBS didn't want to interrupt their programming with any lengthy salute or tribute. Even more ironic is Cronkite passes away a few days before the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing of Apollo-11...and Cronkite is considered the face and voice of NASA's man on the moon coverage in 1969. It's his broadcast that typically gets singled out and re-played. July 16, 1969 was the launch and July 20, 1969 was the day of the moon landing. Just wrapping up on Fox News Channel was an hour long program about the Apollo-11 moon landing. It was a taped program...I assume contracts prevented the network from postponing the air-date. After it was over, a live transmission aired featuring a 5 minute look at Cronkite...but then it went into regularly scheduled programming of The O'Reilly Factor, a repeat from earlier in the evening.

Walter Cronkite was a radio correspondent/journalist during World War Two...and he joined CBS in 1950 and did a multitude of reports and stories. He hosted a series called You Are There for a total of four years, 1953-1957. Afterward he became the host of The Twentieth Century, a documentary program, which ran nine years, 1957-1966. Afterward, it was replaced by The Twenty-First Century, again hosted/narrated by Cronkite. This version remained on the air through 1970.

Eight years earlier, though, in 1962, he became the anchor of the CBS Evening News. It was in this position that he relayed and broadcast all of the events that took place in American and world history from 1962 through 1981. Dan Rather took over the anchor position and became a fixture in that position for decades, too. Cronkite continued to appear in news stories and remained a face/voice in news and current affairs programming. He lent his voice to a variety of projects...becoming the narrator/host on a 4-part series called Dinosaur for the A&E Network in 1996.

In his later years he became more known for his appearances on, and his narrations of, a wide variety of documentary programs ranging from sports to science to all points in American and world history. He often narrated documentaries on PBS. He hosted and or narrated several programs of that vein in this millennium. For those who think Cronkite slipped into obscurity and never did much after the 1980s you'll be in for a treat when you browse his credits at the Internet Movie Data Base.

1916-2009.

Beany and Cecil, Volume Two DVD

2009-07-11T23:56:00.003-04:00

There is going to be a new DVD collection coming along this fall. The release of "Beany and Cecil, Volume Two" will happen on September 8th. This comes on the heels of a DVD collection from nearly 10 years ago.

In the early part of this decade there was a DVD released called "Beany and Cecil: The Special Edition" which consisted of a wide variety of Bob Clampett programs. Of course, 90% of the material was Beany and Cecil related...but a lot of the extra's dealt with other projects. In the previous collection the DVD consisted of 4 episodes of the live-action puppet show, Time For Beany, which ran for six years, 1949-1955. The puppet show ran locally, 1949-1950, but then started airing nationally later in 1950. The first volume DVD featured quite a few of the episodes of the animated version, simply called Beany and Cecil. In the animated version, the voice actors were slightly different than what viewers of the puppet show heard. In the puppet version, Daws Butler and Stan Freberg voiced the characters. In the animated version, which ran for one season of first-run episodes, but aired in reruns on the network for four more years, the voice actors for the animated version were Jim MacGeorge and Irv Shoemaker.

The cartoons usually had a sing-a-long/rhyme segment which lead up to the two characters singing together "...a Bob Clampett Cartoon" prior to the start of each episode. Beany's voice in the animated series lacked the cuteness, I think, that Daws Butler gave the character in the puppet version. The boy's voice in the cartoon is nothing like Butler's while Cecil and the villain, Dishonest John, sound somewhat close to the way Stan Freberg did the characters in the puppet version. Captain Huffenpuff, Beany's uncle, was the fourth major character. Daws voiced the puppet version while Jim MacGeorge voiced the animated version.

Much of the program's charm was the dialogue between all the characters...when the cartoon version began a lot of the charm lay in the pun's that Clampett was noted for. In one episode there was a reference to Dinah Shore as "Dina Saur" {Dinosaur, get it?}.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/time-for-beany-online-photo-archive.html

If you can't open that link, copy and paste it in your search box, click enter, and see if a link to the site comes up. If not, try Googling CartoonBrew and navigate their site until you come across the Beany and Cecil photo album. They have a fabulous pictorial up of both Stan Freberg and Daws Butler performing on the 1949-1955 puppet show. There's 10 pages of black and white pictures of the two! I saved quite a few of them.

In closing...

There were 26 half-hour productions that started to air in 1962. There were 78 segments...which means there were something like 3 segments per episode, of varying length, if my math is correct which it usually never is. So, these 78 segments/26 episodes aired consistently in reruns until 1967. The show remained in syndication on into the 1970's but eventually it left the airwaves. The cartoon and the puppet show have a cult following today and the DVD releases have been sparse. The first release that I wrote of earlier, "Beany and Cecil: The Special Edition", was the first DVD release of it's kind to focus on these characters with any degree of respect. Fast-forward a decade later, 2009, and we're about to have a second volume released to us. "Beany and Cecil, Volume Two"...

Tom and Jerry: Chuck Jones Collection

2009-07-08T22:50:00.002-04:00

The Chuck Jones version of Tom and Jerry typically gets a bad wrap because of the different approaches to the characters. In addition to the physical differences from classic cartoons and the Chuck Jones version of the characters we also have the characters making more verbal noises than before. Tom was famous for doing that loud howling scream on occasion and Jerry sometimes would let out with a giggle at Tom's expense or utter a nervous laugh, or gulp, if he felt he was about to be pounced on by Tom. In this version, though, we hear a lot more gasps and yelps and whimpering...mostly from Tom but some from Jerry. We don't have that howl that Tom was noted for.

There are a couple of extra's on the DVD. There is a documentary called "Chuck Jones: Memories of a Childhood" and a featurette called "Tom and Jerry...and Chuck." I had not watched the documentary yet but I did watch the featurette and it's narrated by June Foray. It's about Chuck Jones and the last years at Warner Brothers and the time he spent at MGM doing the Tom and Jerry cartoons. The profile doesn't shy away from Chuck's personal feelings about limited animation but that's come to be expected. I happen to appreciate both styles. In one style you get full animation where you can see facial expressions and body movements and there might not even be any dialogue but you can tell what's happening from looking at the sequence and in the other you get emphasis on the vocals where you didn't necessarily understand what the characters were feeling if you turned the sound off.

As I've touched upon in other blog entries, Chuck is credited with coining the phrase "illustrated radio" to describe the style of animation Hanna-Barbera pioneered on TV. The series of episodes that Chuck did at MGM often pop up on Boomerang or Cartoon Network...mainly Boomerang. Some critics have said that Chuck took away the violence...I can see where the critics come to that conclusion but it had it's share of the good ol' cat and mouse chase where Tom hits Jerry with a fly swatter and Jerry's flattened on the floor...there's all kinds of sight-gag's and eye wiggles and gestures but because they were designed different and really weren't given a chance, the series usually leaves a bad taste in some viewer's and critics mouths. There's also a myth/rumor that some fans out there deliberately dismiss the Chuck Jones Tom and Jerry cartoons because of comments made by Chuck in later interviews that he didn't enjoy doing the series and found the 'cat and mouse' formula tiresome.

In the featurette it's pointed out that Chuck never liked to talk about the Tom and Jerry days in his later interviews and didn't like to bring the series up and as a result of this, I feel, younger animators who've looked up to Chuck automatically reject the series based solely on what Chuck's opinions were. I do come across web-sites out there that deal in cartoons and animation and most of the people/fans who cite Chuck Jones as their main director/animator from Warner Brothers tend to carry the same sentiments Chuck held. I don't know if they genuinely feel the way Chuck did about animation and all of that or if they're just going along with their hero. It's tough to tell...but I can tell you that this series is nowhere near as awful and terrible as critics and Chuck himself write it off to be.

There is no episode list on the DVD cover...you have to insert the DVD in your player and then look up the episodes from the main menu. It's a nuisance having to do that. They do list the extra features on the back of the DVD. There were only 34 theatrical shorts made of the characters under Chuck Jones...and all 34 of them are presented on two DVD's. All of the characteristics Chuck brought to the Looney Tunes characters are on full display in his version of Tom and Jerry. Chuck wanted to evoke life, which is at the heart of animation, into the characters he worked on and he succeeded.

Casey Kasem: 39 years of countdowns

2009-07-07T13:48:00.004-04:00

Casey Kasem began his weekly music countdown program on July 4, 1970. American Top-40 became one of the highest rated syndicated programs on radio...in fact, it became the highest rated. Casey and his associates also created the American Country Countdown which featured the same formula as the pop/rock counterpart. The idea of the show was to spotlight the hit singles of the previous week from #40 to #1. The countdown began at #40 and there would usually be 8 or 9 songs within an hour's time frame when you factor in song length and commercial breaks. A 40 song countdown would run at least 4 hours because of this pattern.

American Top-40 had it's share of features, too. There was the long-distance dedication which listeners would write the countdown letter's, usually of the Dear Abby variety of a former lover wanting to send a song to someone in their past; Casey always opened the segment saying "Dear Casey..." and he read the requests, using vocal dramatics at times if the letter was sad or depressing. If the dedication was read over the airwaves Casey would play the requested song. Another feature of the show as the countdown got closer to the Top-10 or to #1 was the recurring practice of the "AT40 extra" which was a song that had been a hit in the past by an artist still on the chart, typically preceding or following the current hit by the artist. Another feature was the radio station credit where Casey would name off some of the radio stations that aired the countdown. In the internet age, this feature was expanded to something like: "AT40 is heard from coast to coast and around the world on great radio stations like..." and he'd start naming off the stations. Once the countdown had reached the #2 spot, after the runner-up song was over, Casey would tease the listeners by saying something like "before we see who's #1 this week, let's hear the song that was #1 five years ago...". Also, Casey would name off the #1 songs on the other weekly charts, too, once the countdown grew closer to #1.

Casey remained the host of American Top-40 for 18 years, 1970-1988. In this time he had become a TV star as well. His weekly syndicated program, America's Top-10, would countdown the Top-10 singles of the week in a variety of music formats and play music video's, which was something new at the time. The series was in production for over 10 years. It was a half-hour show.

Casey was also a prominent voice actor for Hanna-Barbera. He gave voice to three popular cartoon characters: Robin on the various Superfriends cartoons of the '70s and '80s; Casey, in fact, voiced Robin in the late '60s cartoon series of The Adventures of Batman. Casey became the voice of Shaggy on countless Scooby-Doo projects. Lastly, Casey gave voice to Alexander Cabbot in Josie and the Pussycats. Casey, as far as I know, isn't putting an end to his voice-over career...just the countdown program.

After Casey left AT40, as it's commonly referred to, he created Casey's Top-40 which competed with AT40. Casey's program was using the chart data from Radio and Records. The AT40 data was supplied by Billboard magazine. Casey also started two more countdown programs: Casey's Countdown which counted down the Top-20 Adult-Contemporary songs of the week and Casey's Hot 20 which counted down the Top-20 Hot Adult-Contemporary songs of the week. The countdown's were 3 hours in length...a lot of features and extra songs were played to fill out a countdown that would actually be 2 hours since each show counted down 20 songs.

AT40 was taken over by Shadoe Stevens...he hosted the program from 1989 until 1995. Casey's countdown shows were higher rated than the program he had hosted for 18 years and so AT40 ended in 1995 after a 25 year run. In the meantime, Casey had put an end to his syndicated TV series. On Nick-at-Nite he became famous for the annual New Year's Eve program, The Rerun Countdown. On this show he counted down the top 25 reruns of the year determined by viewers. He presided over this program for 9 years and it kicked off at noon on New Year's Eve and because the TV shows were half an hour in length, the program ran for 12 and a half hours. The #1 rerun of the year was announced around midnight and the airing of the #1 rerun brought in the new year...the show would wrap up typically around 12:30am New Year's Day. I was a child of the '80s and a teenager in the '90s and I was hooked on Nick-at-Nite and loved watching the older TV shows and so on New Year's Eve, for me anyway, it was watching Casey's rerun countdown. Casey was no stranger to marathon's, though. He has appeared for years on the annual Jerry Lewis MDA telethon as one of the recurring co-hosts and he often provides voice-over's for a lot of the video footage that gets spotlighted.

In 1998 AT40 was re-launched and Casey was back as the host. His two other countdown programs were re-titled American Top-20 and American Top-10. The Top-10 show was a revamped edition of the Hot Adult-Contemporary Top-20 countdown, previously known as Casey's Hot 20. The AT10 show ran 2 hours. The AT20 show ran 3 hours as usual, counting down the Adult-Contemporary songs.

In 2004, Casey stepped down as host of AT40...replaced by Ryan Seacrest. Casey continued to host his other two countdown programs. A syndicated series called AT40 Flashback started airing on satellite radio in 2006 and then the show started airing on mainstream Top-40 radio stations in 2007. The program is 3 hours and it presents a vintage Top-40 episode from the '70s or the '80s. The reason it isn't 4 hours is because a lot of the original commercials are edited out. In some broadcasts of the Flashback show you'll hear Casey lead up to a commercial but then the program resumes after a brief second or two of silence. This makes the show seem to move along quicker when you cut out the commercials and station identifications. Although Casey does provide station ID's for the stations airing the Flashback show. He typically says: "you found it, AT40 Flashback..." and he names the radio station.

The weekend of July 4, 2009 proved to be a shocker...Casey, without prior warning, announced that it would be his final time counting down the songs...bringing a close to an exact run of 39 years of counting down the hits. I assume the secrecy was because he didn't want a big fuss or farewell made because he's still going to be busy with other projects and it isn't like he's retiring from working. I'm sure he'll still be providing the voice of Shaggy in whatever new Scooby-Doo program that comes along, though. In a statement he commented that he wanted to focus on a myriad of other projects but he said he loved every minute of doing the countdown program's.

Are You Being Served...anything Happens at Grace Brothers...

2009-07-07T01:35:00.004-04:00

A fictional department store in London, Grace Brothers, held shop for 12 years of hilarious comedy. In British television, they do what is called a 'series'. A series can consist of any number of episodes in a calendar year. In America we're used to the 'season' method where there's a set amount of episodes taped each TV season. But what is this British comedy I'm writing about? It's none other than Are You Being Served?

I have known of the program for almost 20 years. I used to watch it on the local PBS station. It would air every night at 11pm...followed by another episode at 11:30. The program became popular in America...a cult favorite almost...through the re-runs of the episodes from the '70s and early '80s. A few of the stars from the show came to America several times in the 1990's to participate in various PBS fundraisers. It's continued popularity in both England and America led to Grace and Favour. In America, the show was called Are You Being Served...Again!.

In England, Are You Being Served? had 10 series in 12 calendar years...non-consecutive calendar years. The thing about British programming is a show could leave the air for a year or two but return with a new 'series' of episodes which is what happened with this show.

The pilot of the show aired in the fall of 1972. The first series began in the spring of 1973 and it consisted of 5 episodes...airing during the months of March and April. New episodes wouldn't surface until the spring of 1974, the show's second series which consisted of 5 episodes. So, 10 episodes aired in an American TV season's time, 1973-1974, but in England this was the show's second series.

Series three, 1975, contained 8 episodes...to date the most episodes produced...bringing the overall total to 18. In December the show put out it's first Christmas special, an episode called "Christmas Crackers". These special episodes were generally not part of the episode package that PBS stations aired. Series four consists of 6 episodes, which brings the show's total to 24 episodes {not counting the Christmas special and the pilot}. In December 1976, the month I was born, they produced their second holiday special, "The Father Christmas Affair".

Series five in 1977 contained 7 episodes. This was the final batch of shows with Arthur Brough, the actor who had played the senior salesman, Mr Grainger, since the pilot. In series six in 1978, just 5 episodes were produced, bringing the grand total of episodes up to 36. In December the cast participated in the third holiday special, "Happy Returns". Series seven featured 7 episodes in 1979...bringing the show's total to 43 episodes. In December the fourth holiday special aired, "The Punch and Judy Affair".

There were no episodes produced in 1980. Trevor Bannister didn't return to the series when it started up again with series eight in 1981. His role was filled by Mike Berry, playing Mr Spooner.

Series eight, by the way, contained 8 episodes. On the fifth episode we're introduced to Mr Klein, the replacement for Mr Grossman. As you can see, Grossman only lasted four episodes. A Christmas special aired in December 1981 that to this day is one of the more sought-after. It's called "Roots?" and it's a very surreal episode. The staff wants to trace the roots of the Grace Brothers and throughout the episode we're treated to one mini song and dance act after the other as the staff rehearse various styles of songs ranging from the Scottish to the Irish and all other nationalities. The climax results in the entire staff dressing up in black face for a rousing finale as both Young and Old Mr Grace are in attendance. It would be Harold Bennett's final appearance.

There were no episodes produced in 1982...so series nine started in 1983 and it contained 6 episodes. No new episodes aired in 1984. When the show returned in 1985 for series ten, there were 7 episodes produced. The final episode is memorable in that it spoofs pop music with Mr Spooner and the staff emulating the pop music scene of the day. Spooner appears on a London talk-show in full pop music attire while members of the staff act as his backing band singing the song "Chanson D'amour".

The show, in a nut-shell, was an enormous hit. It created a few catch-phrases such as "are you free?", "glass of water for Mr Grainger", the Mr Humphries line: "I'm free!" plus the Mrs Slocombe line: "I am unanimous in that!". The show's star changed, it seemed, each successive year it was on the air. Here's a more detailed look at the main cast...

Trevor Bannister was written as the star early on. His Mr Lucas character was a focal point in a lot of the episodes. Not to be out-served was John Inman, playing the hugely popular Mr Humphries. John would become the star as the show continued on into the late '70s. Frank Thornton portrayed floor walker, Captain Peacock, who shared star status. He was portrayed as snooty. He wore a red carnation, which sometimes would become a source of comedy. Mollie Sugden was on hand as senior sales woman Mrs Slocombe. She also shared star status and would often gossip with Miss Brahms and talk about her cat's adventures. The word she used for cat was a bit R-rated and each time she said the word the audience would howl with laughter. Double entendre's were a big part of the shows.

Wendy Richard portrayed junior sales woman Miss Brahms. Right after Are You Being Served? ended in 1985, she took on the role of Pauline Fowler in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders and played the role until 2006. Arthur Brough portrayed senior salesman Mr Grainger. Nicholas Smith played the role of department manager, Mr Rumbold. Harold Bennett played Young Mr Grace who had a knack for falling asleep but could be woken up if any of his secretaries or his nurse bent over. These characters would define the show in the early episodes and shape the way a lot of the scripts were written.

The main characters: Miss Brahms, Mr Lucas, Mr Humphries, Captain Peacock, Mrs Slocombe, and Mr Grainger.

Eventually the death of Arthur Brough caused cast changes. James Hayter was brought in as Mr Tebbs for one series. He was replaced by Alfie Bass in the role of Mr Goldberg. Alfie remained as a cast member until 1979. He didn't return in 1981 when the show resumed production. Milo Sperber was brought aboard to play Mr Grossman, for as it turned out, four episodes. Old Mr Grace took over running the store in 1981, portrayed by Kenneth Waller. Young Mr Grace gives his brother a small tour of the office before making his exit.

Secondary characters included the janitors: Mr Mash at first...but then he was replaced by Mr Harmon. Miss Belfridge was Mr Rumbold's secretary who flirted with Captain Peacock. Young Mr Grace, as well as his brother in later episodes, Old Mr Grace, had a series of nurses who would often show up. Young Mr Grace often wore a medical contraption around his neck and anytime he got excited {almost everytime he saw one of them bend over to pick up something from the floor} the buzzer would sound off. The clueless nurse on duty would always wonder what got him excited. The staff ate in the cafeteria. They call it a canteen.

The canteen was ran by a woman whom Captain Peacock couldn't stand...and she couldn't stand him either. A lot of the humor, in addition to the double-entendre jokes, a lot of the humor came from the class system and anti-authoritarian situations. The canteen manageress as she was called often spoke her mind, something that irritated Captain Peacock, for he felt that she was of 'lower class' and didn't have the permission to speak her mind. They traded insults regularly. Mr Lucas and Miss Brahms, the younger members of the staff, often found themselves at the receiving end of Mr Grainger, or Mrs Slocombe's wrath because both junior members of the sales staff were viewed as cheeky or saucy, lacking respect for their elders...sometimes Captain Peacock would be on the warpath and have a short temper with everyone. The department store was divided between the Men's and Women's apparel. In early episodes Mr Grainger was so protective of "his" side of the store that he would bark and complain if Mrs Slocombe or Miss Brahms came within several feet of what he considered his side of the floor. In one memorable episode they were forced to share the same side of the store because the Women's section was being redecorated.

PBS aired nearly all of the episodes...give or take a few. They aired a few of the Christmas specials around fund-raiser time but they weren't part of the daily episodes.

Here's the Are You Being Served...Again! collection...the series consists of 12 episodes...which was two series worth of programs in 1992 and 1993. According to what I researched, when the original show ended in 1985 everyone wanted to do a spin-off program but nothing came of it until 1992...

Mollie Sugden, the actress who played Mrs Slocombe from the start until the finish passed away several days ago back on July 1st. She was 86. Wendy Richard passed away in February of this year, she was 65; John Inman passed away in 2007 at the age of 71; Kenneth Waller passed away in 2000 at the age of 72; Arthur English passed away in 1995 at the age of 75; Benny Lee passed away in 1995 at the age of 79; Larry Martyn passed away in 1994 at the age of 60, he played first janitor, Mr Mash; Milo Sperber passed away in 1992 at the age of 81; Alfie Bass passed away in 1987 at the age of 71; James Hayter passed away in 1983 at the age of 75; Harold Bennett passed away in 1981, two days before he would have turned 82; Arthur Brough passed away in 1978 six weeks after his wife of nearly 50 years had passed away, he was 73.

All this and Wally Gator

2009-07-02T19:48:00.006-04:00

During the late 1980's into the early 1990's part of my daily habit was watching the USA Cartoon Express. The marathon cartoon series at one time was a once a week program, airing on Sunday mornings beginning usually at 7am and going until noon. 5 or 6 hours of back-to-back cartoons which were mostly Hanna-Barbera or Ruby-Spears productions. Later, the Cartoon Express became a daily program...airing at first during the 6-7pm hour but then shifting to a 6-7am hour. The daily version being only an hour meant just two half-hour cartoons were aired. All of these shifts in schedule and cartoon line-up changes ultimately ended that show's run in 1996. The program had began in 1982...reaching it's peak in the late '80s and early '90s prior to Ted Turner buying the Hanna-Barbera library and shifting 90% of the cartoons to his new Cartoon Network. One of those Hanna-Barbera cartoons was a series called Wally Gator. This cartoon originally aired in 1962-1963 and 52 episodes were produced. Daws Butler provided the voice of Wally, doing an impression of Ed Wynn. The zoo keeper, Mr Twiddle, was voiced by Don Messick. The other one-shot characters were voiced by Daws and Don, too. Wally was depicted as a pampered alligator who loved life in the zoo but boredom usually sets in and he escapes...by episode's end he's running back to the zoo. It aired under the umbrella title The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series. Each episode consisted of three short segments which was a trademark of Hanna-Barbera made for TV cartoons.

Along side the Wally cartoons you had a self-titled cartoon starring two characters named Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har. The voice for Lippy was Daws Butler, doing an impression of Joe E. Brown. Lippy was a con-artist, always looking for quick way to make money at almost any cost. Daws would use this voice again for a different character, Peter Potamus. Mel Blanc was the voice of Hardy Har Har, a pessimistic hyena in spite of his name. Daws and Mel would voice any other character written into the episode...or sometimes, Don Messick would play a role. A lot of the female characters in many of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons during this era were voiced by either Jean Vanderpyl or Janet Waldo.

The third segment featured in the series featured two swashbucklers by the name of Touché Turtle and Dum-Dum. They fought on the same side of the law, though. Touché Turtle was up-standing, well-meaning, and heroic while his partner, Dum-Dum, was as his name implied: dumb. Bill Thompson gave this turtle character the same voice he gave Droopy. Alan Reed was on hand as Dum-Dum. It was never really explained why this series didn't feature Daws Butler or Don Messick in the lead roles. Each segment contained 52 episodes. So, in the years/decades to come, there were plenty of short-subject cartoons to fill Saturday mornings with. Doing the math that's 52 + 52 + 52 and that equals 156 short-subject cartoons produced in a season's time.

Moving on...in the 1970's Hanna-Barbera ended this practice and focused on half-hour programs, 22 minutes minus commercials. Often, these half-hour's would contain at least 16 separate episodes airing once a week...and that would be the norm throughout the decade. A lot of their late 1960's and 1970's cartoon shows featured no more than the standard 16 episodes a piece and those were re-ran continuously for at least a decade. Everyone whose a fan of older cartoons knows how Speed Buggy, for example, only consisted of 16 episodes. The original network, CBS, aired the show for two years, 1973-1975. 16 episodes...plus the re-run cycle...that's 32 air-dates for the show. What happened is, CBS aired the series but then kept repeating the same episodes for an additional season. It was on the CBS line-up from September 1973 until August 1975. Then ABC and NBC aired the 16 episodes. According to research, ABC aired the cartoon for a few months in early 1976 and then NBC picked it up and aired it on their schedule during 1976-1977. In the 1980's it moved to the USA Network's Cartoon Express, the show that I started this blog entry writing about.

I know it sounds mind-boggling...but those 16 episodes of Speed Buggy got a lot of mileage.

The Jetsons hold the record, though, for longest running cartoon series with the fewest episodes. That series by Hanna-Barbera began in prime-time in 1962 on ABC and originally 24 episodes were produced. These 24 episodes would be re-ran continuously on Saturday morning...up until 1985 when all-new episodes started airing. 23 years worth of repeats of the same 24 episodes {1962-1985}. Amazingly, 23 years later, all of the original voice actors/actresses were on hand to reprise their roles. Original voice cast: George O'Hanlon, Penny Singleton, Daws Butler, Janet Waldo, Don Messick, Mel Blanc, and Jean Vanderpyl were joined by other voice actors like John Stephenson, Frank Welker, Julie McWhirter, Hamilton Camp, and others.

There were 21 additional episodes produced in 1985...bringing the total of episodes altogether: 65. These episodes aired along side the 1960's version...and then 10 more new episodes were produced in 1987...bringing the grand total to 75 episodes...a much better total than 24.

I want to touch upon, just briefly, the huge celebrities and famous people who passed away during the month of June. David Carradine's mysterious death happened on June 3rd. Later in the month long-time TV personality Ed McMahon passed away on June 23rd. Now, what happened afterward is something I've never witnessed before and I'll probably never witness it again. On June 25th two legendary figures passed away on the same day. Early in the day Farrah Fawcett was reported to have died. The media and news programs aired their tribute's to her and then the news broke that Michael Jackson had died...and he was 50. This isn't all...on June 27th news breaks that 1950's sitcom star, Gale Storm, died...and then a day later, on June 28th, news breaks that commercial pitchmen Billy Mays has died at the age of 50 and on the same day news breaks that impersonator/voice actor, Fred Travalena, died after a battle with cancer.

Gale Storm was a weekly fixture on TV for eight years, 1952-1960, starring in two back-to-back comedy shows: My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Obviously, a lot of female comics during this era are over-shadowed by Lucille Ball but Gale Storm was one of the few, along with Eve Arden and Gracie Allen, to enjoy popular careers along side Lucy. Unfortunately, Gale's two sitcom's weren't heavily syndicated in their repeat cycle as other programs were and this caused less familiarity as the years went by.

Fred Travalena had a career that paralleled Rich Little. The two of them were known for their impressions. Fred often used heavier make-up to visually look like the character he was impersonating. As with Rich Little, the two impressionists couldn't break out into the contemporary scene...their impressions were of celebrities and singer's of a different time period enjoyed more by those like myself who have interest in the past. Also, their impressions were enjoyed more by those who are old enough to remember the celebrities that either Fred or Rich were impersonating. Fred did a brilliant Humphrey Bogart impression and he used this on the cartoon series, Shirt Tales, in the 1980's. The character he gave voice to was Bogey, obviously named after Bogart. Fred also voiced several characters on the Smurfs and other 1980's cartoons. His legacy, aside from his impressions, was his many appearances on TV game shows and talk-shows showcasing his impressions. I saw him numerous times on game shows...also, he sang...but it's the impressions and voice-over work that brought him fame. In 1972 he was part of a group called the Kopycats on The ABC Comedy Hour. Among the other impressionists in this group were Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, George Kirby, and others.

Ed McMahon: 1923-2009

2009-06-23T20:22:00.008-04:00

"Hi-Yo!" was a familiar phrase heard for years on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Delivered by Ed McMahon, it became as synonymous with Ed as the greeting he delivered at the start of each episode bringing out Johnny Carson night after night/week after week/year after year for 30 years. Ed and Johnny's on-air partnership went further than the late-night show. Ed was Johnny's side-kick on the game show, Do You Trust Your Wife, later re-titled Who Do You Trust, for a number of years in the late 1950's prior to the two of them leaving that show to become a fixture on late-night TV.

I had always liked watching Ed whenever he'd appear on TV talk-shows and during the conversational moments on the Tonight Show when Ed sat on the couch or the chair and became involved in the Carnac skits, especially. As was the custom, Ed was the straight-man in the various comedy sketches that Johnny and company appeared in...

In the early years on through the middle period, specifically the mid to late '70s, Ed and Johnny performed in a lot of sketches. Carnac was the most popular and best-remembered but Ed was also on hand during a quirky sketch about a woman named Aunt Blabby who had a similar personality, almost, to Jonathan Winters character of Maudie Frickert. Carson appeared as Aunt Blabby and the concept of this skit was having Ed be an interviewer who would then proceed to bring up a lot of words synonymous with older people and death...causing Aunt Blabby to utter a one-liner or show some sign language with her cane...in the thumbnail image below we see a typical exchange between Ed and Johnny in an Aunt Blabby skit...

Ed and Johnny...bantering about day-to-day activities...late 1970's. Johnny passed away four years ago in 2005

Ed, being the announcer, often did live commercials in the early days of the show and he became famous for his loud laughter...there'd be a skit going on and over the audience's laughter you'd hear Ed laughing in his distinct way. This distinct laugh became a running joke on the show and on other program's that spoofed Carson, most notably Saturday Night Live.

Throughout Ed's involvement on The Tonight Show, he branched out into other area's. In addition to being Carson's side-kick, Ed could be seen every year, starting in 1973, on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon each Labor Day weekend. McMahon became involved in the MDA behind-the-scenes as well and made what was his final appearance on the telethon last year...his 35th year as co-anchor of the telethon. You can visit the MDA web-site for pictures of Jerry Lewis and Ed McMahon.

In the 1980's he became popular with an alternative audience probably too young to be viewers of The Tonight Show when he became host of the syndicated program, Star Search. In the picture above, Ed is host of a 1990 episode...and not much had changed appearance wise three years later...

On the final episode of The Tonight Show in May 1992 Ed joked that Johnny should appear on Star Search if he yearns to be on TV again. Ed hosted the talent show program for 12 years, 1983-1995, it airing usually on Saturday or Sunday evenings or late-night. It pre-dated American Idol even though on Star Search home viewers didn't vote on the contestants...the studio audience voted in case there was a tie between the panel of judges. In the Championship series, the official judges were left out while the studio audience played judge. Several singers and groups and comedians went through the show on their way to fame. Notable: LeAnn Rimes, Drew Carey, Jenny Jones, Britney Spears, country group Sawyer Brown, Bill Engvall, Alanis Morissette, Jessisa Simpson, and on and on...

In addition to hosting Star Search, he and Dick Clark became synonymous with blooper programs. Originally, both Dick Clark and Ed McMahon hosted individual blooper programs in 1982-1983 but then they were paired together in one all-encompassing program in 1984.

The series that became TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes came about as a series of specials in the early 1980's. A lot of networks jumped on the blooper bandwagon and soon a blooper craze was underway. The gimmick of the shows was seeing well-known actors and actresses messing up their lines on camera during rehearsal. The element that was missing in all of the copy-cat shows was the practical jokes...where a celebrity would be taped/filmed in either an embarrassing situation or in a situation that often resulted in a low-key actor becoming hostile. At just the right moment, the celebrity would be informed that they were being featured on Bloopers and Practical Jokes and it was all a joke. It was basically a Candid Camera kind of scenario. Each program consisted of recurring segments...one that I remember the most was a segment where an individual or a couple appear in disguise and audience members have to try and figure out who the mystery person happens to be. In one episode Don Adams and Barbara Feldon appeared in heavy make-up...revealing themselves by segment's end...ripping off their made-up disguises to audience applause. Dick Clark usually hosted this segment.

This sort of blooper program wasn't new but it hadn't been on mainstream television in years which helped the concept during the early '80s and it was a ratings hit each time NBC would air them. It became a weekly series in the mid '80s and then became a series of specials again as the 1990's dawned. The show, at one time, was also called Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes. The series continued to appear on the NBC schedule off and on...usually airing as mid-season filler programming whenever a show was canceled. Dick Clark took the show to ABC in 1998 and new blooper programs continued to air periodically through 2004...sometimes during rain delay's of baseball games on cable channel, TBS, a rerun of the show will air. Both Dick Clark and Johnny Carson produced the blooper programs...in other words, Dick Clark Productions and Carson Productions.

Still, after all of these assignments, Ed was also popular for the TV commercials he appeared in...Budweiser being one company he did commercials for...years later he did senior citizen commercials for Colonial Penn Life Insurance and he was the spokesman for Publisher's Clearing House for quite a number of years. Here is a TV commercial from 1963 featuring Ed, a pool table, and some beer that I found on You Tube...although Ed is 40 here, his voice sounds the same as it did at 50, 60, 70, etc., etc.

Ed's legacy should be remembered for all of the wonderful laughter and smiles he brought to the program's he was affiliated with. That's the way I, and I imagine, so many others will remember him. However, in some circles, his legacy will be a mixed bag given the troubles both physically and financially that he went through during his last years and the mild controversies he dealt with during his later years. A lot of the controversy comes from an audience who is unapologetic and cynical and view Ed McMahon in the same way you'd view a nobody. His impact, nor his popularity, does not phase some people out there who love to see celebrities suffer "like everyday folks do" and for some they loved reading about the financial woes Ed suffered in his final years.

So, keeping that in mind, you'll see two extreme's at play when people discuss the life AND career of Ed McMahon all over the internet. I am not saying his final years should be ignored...but some people out there want to highlight the controversies he had the last few years with the insurance companies. They don't want to discuss the overall picture...or the overall career. It's just as wrong to ignore the negatives as it is to ignore the positives...but on some web-sites and message boards all you're bound to see is one snippy remark after the other pertaining to his final years and not his life as a whole.

Brace yourselves.

Scooby-Doo...Here You Come Again...

2009-06-14T23:31:00.003-04:00

There is not much known about the latest addition to the Scooby-Doo universe. There is news that Cartoon Network will air, in the fall of 2009, a brand-new cartoon centered around Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby...it'll be called Scooby-Doo, Mystery Inc. which has sort of been the unofficial/official name of the amateur detectives since the series began in 1969. It hasn't been revealed what the character design will look like, though, so it's difficult to really say you're looking forward to something based simply on a premise.

Here is the official release concerning this series AND the movie...the movie will be live-action...

Scooby-Doo - Mystery, Inc.: A sleepy little village, Crystal Cove, boasts a long history of ghost sightings, poltergeists, demon possession, phantoms and other paranormal occurrences. The renowned sleuthing team of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo arrive to prove all of this simply isn't real--but they don't realize the locals don't welcome their help. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation.

Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins: Discover the never-before-told story of how a mismatched quartet of teenagers first came together before becoming known as the Mystery Inc. gang. Freddy (Robbie Amell), the school athlete; Velma (Hayley Kiyoko), the science fair-winning brainiac; Daphne (Kate Melton), the drama beauty; Shaggy (Nick Palatas), the beatnik; and Shaggy's newly adopted dog, Scooby Doo, are forced to band together to clear their names. Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins, a Cartoon Network co-production with Warner Premiere and directed by Brian Levant (Snow Dogs, The Flintstones), is slated to premiere in fall 2009.

And so...it looks to be a Scooby-Doobie fall/winter TV season. Given that the series originated in 1969 and this is the 40th anniversary of the series it would be nice if this latest series features the 1969 character designs instead of the more up-dated designs of the last several years. Also something to ponder...it wasn't revealed if this latest Scooby series will use traditional animation or use 3-D animation like on TOY STORY, GARFIELD, and other similar films where the films are clearly computer-driven but the characters look real.

This Scooby series will be the latest in a string of Scooby cartoons that have been on the air without a break for 40 years. CBS, ABC, WB, and the CW were the homes of the series and it's sequels over the last 40 years...Cartoon Network is the series' latest home, being the network debuting "Scooby-Doo, Mystery, Inc."

George Strait: Hit Singles, Part 2

2009-06-10T15:55:00.008-04:00

It's me again...included on this third blog about George Strait in my off-topic/Animation blog I want to single out the actual hit singles that have been released on George Strait. At the present time he's amidst his 90th Top-40 single, "Living for the Night", which is now in the Top-25...chart watchers say that it'll be in the Top-20 next week...the single's third week on the chart. It debuted at #34, moved up 10 places, #24, and speculation arises that next week it'll be inside the Top-20...chart movement indicative of a potential Top-5 or #1 finish. But let's back up and look at the 89 singles that have already reached Top-40 status for George Strait. I'm going to break down the many George Strait singles by #1, Top-10, Top-20, etc etc.

Given that Strait has very few singles that have peaked below #10, prepare yourself for an eye-popping list of hit songs from a tremendously popular country music singer. Let's start off with the Top-40 singles...Strait has three such singles...and each of them were not officially released by MCA. The following singles reached the lower Top-40 from unsolicited airplay:

1. Murder on Music Row; 2000 - duet with Alan Jackson {This song is notable as being the lowest ranked Top-40 in George Strait's career...it managed to make the Top-40 through unsolicited airplay which means a song is getting radio airplay on it's own, without help/input from the record label or a promotional team. The song became an award winner, named CMA Song of the Year in 2001 and the CMA Vocal Event of the Year in 2000, and is a bigger hit than it's chart performance would indicate.}

2. Christmas Cookies; 2002 {This holiday single marks the only Top-40 Christmas song in George's career; during the holiday's radio played this song the most.}

3. Texas; 2005 {From the Somewhere Down in Texas album, this ode to all-things Texas became a Top-40 single on it's own probably on the strength of it's airplay on country radio stations in Texas.}

It wore my hands out typing up such a LONG list as that!!

Let's move on to the singles that MCA officially released but did not make it into the Top-10:

1. Down and Out; 1981 {This single hit the Top-20, Strait's second single release.}

2. Lovesick Blues; 1992 {This single reached the Top-30; it's a remake of a country classic by Hank Williams; it was the first official single from Strait that didn't at least make the Top-20...and only his second single to not make the Top-10, after "Down and Out" in 1981. This was the fourth single from his 1991 album, Chill of an Early Fall.}

3. King of the Mountain; 1997 {This reached the Top-20 and it's really a good country song but radio didn't embrace it like they did the other songs from his 1996 Blue Clear Sky album. This song had originally been recorded by George Jones in 1991 but not released as a single.}

4. Don't Make Me Come Over There and Love You; 2001 {This Top-20 single was a bit of a rocker...it shown that Strait was experimenting with his sound and the style of songs that had come to define him over the last 19 years; The song is from his self-titled album, George Strait, that was released in 2000 and it's the only album in his career to not have a Platinum or higher certification; it's a Gold album still...and because of this the album has kind of garnered the reputation as being weak which is furthest from the truth. The album didn't have sufficient single releases, just three, with this one peaking in the lower Top-20, and it lacked a lot of publicity...which are two things that'll cause any album to go under-rated; it needed another single in the same league as "Go On" to push the sales.}

5. Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa; 2003 {Originally a minor hit for Noel Haggard, one of Merle's sons, the song was written in 1978 by Red Lane and it seemed tailor-made for Strait...the song was what the industry would refer to as a lazy ballad...it was a slow ballad about a break-up and the song's title used sarcasm, actually. It almost made the Top-10 for Strait, peaking in the Top-15. The slow going ballad perhaps had lost it's punch by the time it reached it's peak position and it couldn't go much further. It's hard to tell. It was the lead-off song from Honkytonkville, Strait's 2003 album.}

6. The Seashores of Old Mexico; 2006 {This song has another Merle Haggard connection and it peaked in the same position as "Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa"; Merle actually wrote and recorded this "Seashores..." song back in the early 1970's. Merle and Willie Nelson later recorded it as a duet and named one of their duet albums after the song. Strait's version is excellent and is one of the three singles from Somewhere Down in Texas. Strait's version was made into a music video.}

And there you have it...just 9 singles have peaked below the Top-10 for Strait during the last 28 years, with 3 of them being unofficial releases. "Living for the Night" became his 90th Top-40, currently at #24, and seeing that 9 singles didn't reach the Top-10...this leaves us with 80 singles that did reached the Top-10...and those 80 songs are as follows...because Billboard is the most-watched weekly chart, I've decided to highlight in bold the #1 hits on Billboard and italicize the #1 hits on the other country music charts...take a deep breath...

1. Unwound; 1981 {This is Strait's first single on the Billboard chart and it hit the Top-10; the first of many.}

2. If You're Thinking You Want a Stranger; 1982 Top-5 hit

3. Fool Hearted Memory; 1982 #1

4. Marina Del Rey; 1983 Top-10

5. Amarillo By Morning; 1983 Top-5

6. A Fire I Can't Put Out; 1983 #1

7. You Look So Good in Love; 1984 #1

8. Right or Wrong; 1984 #1

9. Let's Fall To Pieces Together; 1984 #1 {Strait was named ACM Top Male Vocalist of the Year.}

10. Does Ft Worth Ever Cross Your Mind; 1985 #1 {Strait won the ACM and CMA Album of the Year for the album named for this single; he was named the ACM Top Male Vocalist for the second year in a row}

11. The Cowboy Rides Away; 1985 Top-5

12. The Fireman; 1985 Top-5

13. The Chair; 1985 #1 {Strait was named the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year for the first time}

14. You're Something Special To Me; 1986 Top-5

15. Nobody In His Right Mind Would've Left Her; 1986 #1 {Strait was named the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year for the second year in a row}

16. It Ain't Cool To Be Crazy About You; 1986 #1

17. Ocean Front Property; 1987 #1

18. All My Ex's Live In Texas; 1987 #1

19. Am I Blue; 1987 #1

20. Famous Last Words of a Fool; 1988 #1

21. Baby Blue; 1988 #1 {Strait was named ACM Top Male Vocalist this year}

22. If You Ain't Lovin' You Ain't Livin'; 1988 #1 {this was originally a hit single for Faron Young}

23. Baby's Gotten Good at Goodbye; 1989 #1

24. What's Going On In Your World; 1989 #1

25. Ace in the Hole; 1989 #1 {Strait won the CMA Entertainer of the Year after several nominations; he was also named the ACM Entertainer of the Year; President Bush awarded Strait the Presidential American Success Award.}

26. Overnight Success; 1990 Top-10 {This broke the string of 11 consecutive #1 hits dating back to the summer of 1986.}

27. Love Without End, Amen; 1990 #1 {Strait's first multi-week chart-topper, it stayed at #1 for five weeks; Strait was named the CMA Entertainer of the Year for the second year in a row and on the album cover for Livin' It Up, he wore a belt buckle that had the honor written across the buckle; he has not won this particular award since.}

28. Drinking Champagne; 1990 #4 {I've always liked this song...some critics felt it was a bit too pop given the arrangement.}

29. I've Come To Expect It From You; 1990 #1 {This was another 5 week chart-topper}

30. If I Know Me; 1991 #1 for 2 weeks. {the American Music Awards named Strait the Favorite Country Male Vocalist.}

31. You Know Me Better Than That; 1991 #1 for 3 weeks.

32. The Chill of an Early Fall; 1991 Top-5 {this reached #1 in Radio and Records; the next single, "Lovesick Blues", hit the Top-30 and the next two singles peaked below #1 in Billboard; some critics were speculating that the influx of new artists that emerged in 1989/1990 and were reaching their stride during 1991-1992 would likely replace Strait on the charts because, after all, they assumed that after 11 years on the popularity charts his career couldn't possibly go on much longer in the Top-10...those critics have eaten their words many times over.}

33. Gone as a Girl Can Get; 1992 Top-5

34. So Much Like My Dad; 1992 Top-5 {this reached #1 in Radio and Records}

35. I Cross My Heart; 1992 #1 for 2 weeks {this returned Strait to #1 in Billboard nearly a year after "You Know Me Better Than That" had hit the top...and although Strait would not have quite the #1 streak he enjoyed during 1986-1989, he nonetheless remained a consistent presence in the country Top-10 and at #1.}

36. Heartland; 1993 #1

37. When Did You Stop Loving Me; 1993 Top-10 {this single and the above two were from the movie, Pure Country, which Strait starred in.}

38. Easy Come, Easy Go; 1993 #1 for 2 weeks

39. I'd Like To Have That One Back; 1994 Top-5 {hit #1 in Radio and Records}

40. Lovebug; 1994 Top-10 {this was a Top-10 single for George Jones in 1965}

41. The Man In Love With You; 1994 Top-5 {hit #1 in Radio and Records}

42. The Big One; 1994 #1

43. You Can't Make a Heart Love Somebody; 1995 #1

44. Adalida; 1995 Top-5

45. Lead On; 1995 Top-10 {hit #1 on Gavin country chart; this represents the biggest chart discrepancy of his career...this single ranked below the Top-5 on Billboard but made #1 on another chart. it's counted among his overall #1 hits.}

46. Check Yes or No; 1995 #1 for 4 weeks {CMA and ACM Single of the Year; Music City News Single of the Year; Music City News Video of the Year}

47. I Know She Still Loves Me; 1996 Top-5 {hit #1 in Radio and Records; this single and "Check Yes or No" were pulled from his career spanning box set, Strait Out of the Box which became one of the biggest selling box sets in history.}

48. Blue Clear Sky; 1996 #1 for 2 weeks {Strait was named the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year in 1996.}

49. Carried Away; 1996 #1 for 3 weeks

50. I Can Still Make Cheyenne; 1996 Top-5 {hit #1 in Radio and Records; the album, Blue Clear Sky, was named the ACM, CMA, and American Music Awards Album of the Year; and it won a few fan-voted awards from Music City News.}

51. One Night at a Time; 1997 #1 for 5 weeks

52. Carrying Your Love With Me; 1997 #1 for 4 weeks

53. Today My World Slipped Away; 1997 Top-5 {hit #1 in Radio and Records; originally a Top-5 hit in 1983 for Vern Gosdin, who also co-wrote the song; the ACM and CMA named Strait the Male Vocalist of the Year for 1997 and the album, Carrying Your Love With Me, was named Album of the Year by the ACM, CMA, and the American Music Awards.}

54. Round About Way; 1997 #1 for 2 weeks

55. I Just Want To Dance With You; 1998 #1 for 3 weeks

56. True; 1998 #2 for 4 weeks {hit #1 in Radio and Records for 3 weeks; Strait was named the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year for the third year in a row and Favorite Country Male Vocalist by the American Music Awards.}

57. We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This; 1998 Top-5 {hit #1 in Radio and Records.}

58. Meanwhile; 1999 Top-5

59. Write This Down; 1999 #1 for 4 weeks

60. What Do You Say To That; 1999 Top-5

61. The Best Day; 2000 #1 for 3 weeks {this was Strait's 36th Billboard chart-topper, breaking a tie between Conway Twitty and Merle Haggard, who both had 35 solo #1 singles...Strait would need 2 more to tie with Merle Haggard, who had three additional #1 hit duet's, giving him a grand-total of 38 #1 hits; Strait would need 4 more to meet Conway's grand total of 40 #1 hits; Conway had 5 chart-topping singles with Loretta Lynn, which gave him 40 altogether.}

62. Go On; 2000 #2 for 3 weeks {hit #1 in Radio and Records; this was by far the biggest single from Strait's self-titled CD.}

63. If You Can Do Anything Else; 2001 Top-5

64. Run; 2001 #2 for 4 weeks {hit #1 in Radio and Records}

65. Living and Living Well; 2002 #1 for 2 weeks

66. She'll Leave You With a Smile; 2002 #1 for 2 weeks {this #1 was Strait's 38th on Billboard, tying him with Merle Haggard's grand-total; when factoring in all of the weekly music charts, this was Strait's 50th single to reach a #1 position.}

67. Cowboys Like Us; 2003 #2 for 2 weeks {Strait received the National Medal of Arts.}

68. Desperately; 2004 Top-10

69. Hey Good Lookin'; 2004 Top-10 {this is a group sing-a-long featuring Strait along with Jimmy Buffett, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Clint Black, and Toby Keith; it was officially a Jimmy Buffett single, released by RCA Records.}

70. I Hate Everything; 2004 #1 for 2 weeks {this was Strait's 39th Billboard #1 and the 51st overall...it's from the double album, 50 Number Ones which compiled every single to make the #1 spot on the various charts: Billboard, Cashbox, Radio and Records, and Gavin America. This single reached #1, so the double-album featured 51 #1 hits altogether.}

71. You'll Be There; 2005 Top-5 {this single was one of the highest debuting of his career...it had all the makings of going all the way to #1 but it didn't; Strait and Lee Ann Womack won the CMA Vocal Event of the Year for "Good News, Bad News".}

72. She Let Herself Go; 2006 #1 {this was Strait's 40th #1 on Billboard, tying Conway Twitty's 1986 achievement for most #1 singles...it was Strait's fifty-second #1 altogether, 3 behind Conway, who had racked up 55 #1 singles altogether in his career. Strait hit #1 with this in January 2006.}

73. Give It Away; 2006 #1 for 3 weeks {this was the record setting #1 single...the 41st to reach #1 on the Billboard country chart...breaking the late Conway Twitty's 20 year hold; this single was co-written by Bill Anderson and it won ACM awards as Single and Song of the Year, and won the CMA Song of the Year; Strait was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame...making him the second artist behind Eddy Arnold to be inducted while still actively having Top-10 hits.}

74. It Just Comes Natural; 2006 #1 for 2 weeks. {the album named for this single won the CMA Album of the Year.}

75. Wrapped; 2007 #2 {hit #1 on the Canadian country chart and on Media Base; becoming his 55th #1, tying Conway Twitty's achievement.}

76. How 'Bout Them Cowgirls; 2007 Top-5 {this was the fourth single from Strait's album, It Just Comes Natural; this was the first album from him in several years to boast four Top-5 singles}.

77. Shift Work-duet with Kenny Chesney; 2008 #2 {this duet was released in December 2007 and rocketed up the chart...peaking at #2 by the spring of 2008; it was officially a Kenny Chesney single, which is why it was released on his label, but Strait delivers an adequate amount of vocals to qualify it as a duet; it's a good-time/feelgood song and not meant to be gripping or compelling but some critics at the time destroyed this song because of it's good-time approach and sing-a-long lyrics.}

78. I Saw God Today; 2008 #1 {this is noted as Strait's highest debuting single of his career...it debuted in the Top-20 in February 2008 and by April it was #1...his forty-third on the Billboard chart and his fifty-sixth overall...moving ahead of Conway Twitty, who had sent 55 singles to the #1 spot on the various weekly music charts; given the big debut, some felt it odd that it only spent 1 week at #1; it won the CMA Single of the Year.}

79. Troubadour; 2008 Top-10 {this biographical song was the title track of his 2008 album and the single peaked in the low Top-10 on the country chart but in Canada, it reached the Top-5; a lot of it's charm, of course, was the fact that the song was basically written for an artist of Strait's longevity and experience; the album of the same name won Country Album of the Year at the Grammy awards...making the album the first ever Grammy win of his career and it was named the CMA Album of the Year; this single moved Strait into #2 on the All-Time list of Top-10 singles; the previous artist in the #2 slot was George Jones who had achieved 78 Top-10 hits...this single from Strait became his 79th Top-10, moving Jones to #3 and Conway Twitty, who was ranked #3 with 75 Top-10 hits, to #4; Eddy Arnold still commands the #1 slot with 92 Top-10 hits.}

80. River of Love; 2009 #1 {this became Strait's 44th Billboard chart-topper and the 57th overall; it was at the top for a week and then fell down to #9 and then was completely off the singles chart the following week as a victim of Billboard's latest chart policy changes; the single became his 80th Top-10...firmly establishing himself as the artist most likely to give Eddy Arnold's all-time Top-10 total some serious competition; the ACM named Strait it's Artist of the Decade: 1998-2008; he received the honor in the spring of 2009.}

This brings us to "Living For the Night", Strait's 90th Top-40 single...a song that should become his 81st Top-10 and hopefully his 45th Billboard #1 {58th overall}.

All told...here's the complete single peak break-down from the weekly country music charts down through the years:

Add the Number of singles peaking above #41 but below #10: 9
+ the number of singles peaking above #11 but below #1: 23
+ the number of singles peaking at #1: 57
= the total number of Top-40 Hits: 89

This numbers break-down doesn't include his current single "Living for the Night" since it's chart position will change weekly for the next several months.

George Strait: Living For the Night

2009-06-09T14:27:00.006-04:00

I have purchased the on-line digital single of "Living For the Night". I usually just wait until a CD is released before buying but seeing that this song will be the one that's pushed heavily throughout the summer until his CD is released this fall I decided to just go ahead and get the single on-line for only 99 cents. The single became available for on-line purchase today, June 9th. Who knows...the success of this single could perhaps cause MCA to release his up-coming CD sooner than expected should "Living for the Night" rocket up to the Top-10 or go to #1 relatively quickly...or they could release a second single by the time the CD actually arrives. It wouldn't be the first time a Strait single has rocketed to the top and a follow-up quickly released...so we shall see. The single is already knocking on the door of the Country Top-30 so it's on a pace to reach the Top-10...how far into the Top-10 it goes depends on the singles getting an abundance of airplay at the time.

It's available at the various on-line music stores...I purchased mine at the reliable Amazon in their MP3 store. I wrote a review of the single as well...which shouldn't be too surprising for those familiar with me...here it is...

This is just a perfect example of why George Strait is still at the top of his profession and why the ACM named him the Artist of the Decade {1998-2008} which in reality Strait could have easily been named Artist of the Decade for the 1980's or 1990's...that's how successful he has been in the music business. He keeps coming up with songs that hold your attention.

Although this isn't a bouncy sing-a-long like his previous single, "River of Love", was...it isn't a drag-out ballad neither. The mood of the song is painted with the lyrics and that guitar that picks away...giving it that lonesome feeling. I look for this song to easily become Strait's 81st Top-10 country hit...and possibly his 45th Billboard #1...it's a strong lead-off single from an up-coming CD and it presents a first for Strait: he is credited with co-writing the song with his son, Bubba, and songwriter Dean Dillon. This is the first time in his now 28 years on MCA that a single credits not only George, but his son, as co-writers. Prior to this, you'd have to go back to Strait's second MCA album to find "I Can't See Texas From Here", written by Strait. The song was never a single and so "Living for the Night" represents the first commercial single to feature Strait with a songwriter credit.

And so, that was my little review. The song is about a man who lives for the night because he feels dark and gloomy by himself and so he goes bar hopping at night and finds "neon arms" to fall into.