Paul Winchell...

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.

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

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.

Hubie and Bertie...twice the mice is nice

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 Morning Cartoons: 1970's, Volume One!

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.

June Foray: The Autobiography

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 surrounded by 5 amazingly talented people in the animation business. They're all standing side by side. There are 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. 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 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 but then lets us in on how she came about being cast as Granny on the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries after all.

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 and some friends 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.

All this and Wally Gator

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.

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

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."

Wayne Allwine: 1947-2009

This being my animation/cartoon blog I felt it appropriate to be one of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people relaying the news of the death of Wayne Allwine, voice of Mickey Mouse during the last 32 years, 1977-2009. His death happened as a result of diabetes complications according to his wife, voice actress Russi Taylor. He was 62.

Allwine's initial job at voicing Mickey Mouse happened in 1977 but it was the 1983 special, Mickey's Christmas Carol, that is often highlighted as Allwine's breakthrough performance as the character since it was the first theatrically released cartoon featuring the character in 30 years.

Throughout the rest of the decade and into the 1990's and beyond, Allwine was typically always on hand to perform the character when needed. The popularity of the various Disney cartoon programs in syndication, including the various Disney theme parks, ultimately contributed to the continued success of Mickey Mouse. As others have stated, Allwine was only the third voice actor to take on the character in the last 81 years. Mickey made his debut in 1928, voiced by his creator, Walt Disney. Walt continued giving voice to Mickey off and on through the 1930's and into the 1940's. After Walt, an actor named Jimmy McDonald took over the role in 1947...lasting until 1953 in theatrical animation but McDonald would continue voicing the character when needed through 1977. Then, Wayne Allwine stepped into the role, which lead to the 1983 holiday classic Mickey's Christmas Carol. That 1983 special marked the first time Wayne Allwine voiced the character in a theatrical, it also marked the first time Alan Young voiced Scrooge McDuck, and it also marked the last time Clarence Nash voiced Donald Duck.

Allwine would not voice the character in two specials in the mid 1980's. There was a 1986 special which featured Lee Perkins as the voice of Mickey. The special was called DTV Valentine.

Then, there was a 1987 special called Down and Out with Donald Duck which again featured Lee Perkins as the voice. That program was co-written by voice actor/satirist Stan Freberg.

Saturday morning commercials...from my era...

I have touched upon this topic in the past...wrote about how I think and feel about modern-day cartoons verses the ones I grew up watching. I also gave my thoughts about the style of commercials that aired on Saturday morning TV...a kind of commercial that would make any dentist howl in disgust. At my house, I can pretend it's Saturday morning everyday if I wanted to...and the kind of Saturday morning from my era. I'm not incredibly old...I'm 32...so my "era" is pretty much the 1980's into the early 1990's. I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons...and those endless cereal commercials...I liked seeing the commercials with the animated mascot's: Lucky Charms, Cap'n Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Golden Crisp, Cookie Crisp, Crispy Critters, Rice Krispies, Froot Loops, Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, the Monster cereals: Boo-Berry, Count Chocula, and Frankenberry.

In the picture above I'm showing off a box of cereal called Smorz. It's a combination of tasty, sugary squares and small white marshmallow's with a chocolate swirl effect blended in to create the S'mores taste in the cereal.



The milk in my bowl is turning chocolate as of this writing...I always prefer cereal to turn the white milk to chocolate because it gives it a better flavor, I think.



Can anyone think of anymore cereal brands that paraded around on Saturday morning TV before the activists took over and ruined it all? I was a bit too young to remember Quisp and Quake but I know of those commercials being a student of nostalgia. How about the frog, Dig 'Em, in the cereal commercials for Smacks. Oh, and then there's all of those Frosted Flakes commercials with Tony the Tiger.

Saturday morning commercials from my era...they're all grr-rea-a-a-a-t!!

Oh, those Smurfs!!

Like them or not, The Smurfs was a mainstay on Saturday morning television as well as late afternoon syndication for a period of years. The characters were created by an artist named Peyo over-seas and the Hanna-Barbera studio adapted the characters for American audiences. Schtroumpf is the word that was used overseas and it was translated into "Smurf" for America...and it is the Americanized characters of which this blog is about. NBC was the network that aired the program.

The characters, the core line-up, each had distinct character traits...each one was somewhat predictable in terms of what would happen within the story. A lot of the characters interacted with one another peacefully but there were several episodes where there was anything but peace among the village. Usually at the heart of most arguments and the cause of most annoyance was Brainy Smurf. He was the brainiac of the group but often in the stories he'd use his "brains" in a condescending way...as a sort of know-it-all. This characterization allowed him to be at the receiving end of a lot of anger directed at him by others...including the usually gentle, Papa Smurf.

Papa Smurf was the leader of the group. He was never really said to be the father of every single Smurf but a lot of fans and critics seem to suggest it. Some say the "papa" name is just a word that's used to show respect for an older, wiser adult. Smurfette, for years and years the only female Smurf, was created by the wizard Gargamel in one of his schemes to capture the Smurfs.

Gargamel was an evil wizard who lived in a run-down castle/hut who was constantly hatching schemes to capture the Smurfs for his magic potions. He could never find the Smurfs hidden village on his own...but sometimes he was led into the village by accident or just in sheer luck he stumbled onto it all on his own. The running joke was that Gargamel could never find the village once he was tricked into leaving...for example, he could be five steps away from the village but he couldn't find his way back. This irritation prompted him to look at his cat, Azrael, and scream something like: "I almost had them!!! Where is the village...come on...we gotta find it!!! AZRAEL!!!!". In most episodes, as Gargamel and his cat are roaming all over the countryside in search for the Smurf village and getting farther and farther away, you can hear him throwing a fit as the camera shows the Smurfs gathered around laughing as the scene fades to black.

Clumsy Smurf was an accident prone Smurf, always at the receiving end of Brainy's wrath for being "dumb". Clumsy looked up to Brainy but would often out-smart Brainy in his own unique way by using a simple approach to handle a situation within the story which differed greatly from a complex approach from Brainy. A typical exchange would find the two of them standing on the outside of a locked door and Brainy would become the "teacher" and go on to tell Clumsy how to proceed with climbing through the window, giving him step by step instructions, quite certain that the door is locked...only for Clumsy to walk over to the door, turn the knob and say something like: "Gosh, Brainy...we don't have to climb through the window...the door's unlocked." Brainy would look into the camera and slap his forehead or roll his eyes.

Vanity Smurf is just as his name implies...vain. He carried a mirror and wore a pink flower in his hat...often commenting on the state of the plants in his mushroom. All of the Smurf's lived in mushroom houses. He'd also react to the exaggerated macho behavior of Hefty Smurf. Jokey Smurf liked to play practical jokes. Sleepy Smurf was typically dozing off all the time. Grouchy Smurf was a grouch. Farmer Smurf was the village's farmer...looking over the garden. The Smurf's had several allies...Mother Nature was their biggest. She often helped Papa Smurf and gave him advice on all sorts of situations. Johan and Peewit were also allies of the Smurfs...as the series became even more popular they added Baby Smurf and a few more female Smurfs and Grandpa Smurf...with a wooden cane and a longer beard...perhaps Papa Smurf's father!? Hogatha, Big Mouth, Scruple are just three of the secondary villains of the series...they, like Gargamel, have this shared hatred for the Smurfs.



The Smurfs ran for an incredible nine years, 1981-1990. The characters spoke English pretty much...and they had their own slang phrases as well. They'd incorporate the word "smurf" into nearly everything they said. "Have a smurfy day!" or "Holy smurfs!!" or "That's smurfy!". Another phrase "i'll be smurfed!" was often said in place of "i'll be darned". "Great Smurf!!" was used in place of "Great scott!!". There was a Smurfs comic book issued on Marvel. There was also a Smurfs cereal...very smurf-a-licious!

The ratings of the series had declined by the late 1980's but the ratings weren't abysmal by any means...but the series went out of production in 1990 simply because NBC wanted to expand their news program on Saturday morning and it ate into a lot of the air-time for animated cartoons on that network. I believe NBC was the second network to rid it's Saturday morning line-up of cartoons and replace it with news programs and live-action teen programs. I think CBS was the first and ABC was the last to rid it's line-up of wall to wall cartoons. Whatever network came first, all three of them plus the Children's Television Act, helped end Saturday morning TV as people in my age group and older remember it. Now, of course, there's a few programs aimed at children that air on Saturday morning but it's nothing like it once was...with every network airing cartoons for nearly 5 hours on Saturday mornings...that'll never happen on network TV again.

In total there were 256 episodes...and because several episodes would contain 2 separate stories, there were in reality 421 stories spread out over those 256 air-dates.

After the show ended production in 1990 it continued to air in syndication in the late afternoons for a period of years until quite a few cartoon franchises became property of Ted Turner in the early to mid 1990's. He purchased the Hanna-Barbera library and as a result all of the syndicated cartoons from that company that were in reruns on network TV suddenly departed network for cable-TV...specifically airing on his Cartoon Network, a 24 hour cable network that would air cartoons from the Hanna-Barbera library. Soon, Cartoon Network became a major cable network and as things are likely to do it started to change. The network became more about original programming instead of airing vintage cartoons. The Warner Brothers cartoons became Turner's property as well during the 1990's. Boomerang was launched to provide a network for the classic cartoons so Turner and company could use Cartoon Network for original programming. Turner owns, partially owns, or at one time owned just about everything...the Hanna-Barbera cartoon library; the Ruby-Spears cartoon library; the MGM library; the Warner Brothers cartoon library. He created the cartoon character, "Captain Planet". Turner's non-animation networks include TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, and CNN...so the 1990's were a time of severe change in the Saturday morning business...



Behind the scenes of The Smurfs the main voice artists for this series were Don Messick. He gave voice to Papa Smurf as well as Dreamy Smurf and the hisses of Azrael and other sound effects. Paul Winchell was on hand as Gargamel...using the voice he gave to Dick Dastardly. Lucille Bliss was the voice of Smurfette. June Foray voiced Jokey Smurf and Mother Nature. Alan Young was the voice of Farmer Smurf and Miner Smurf. Danny Goldman was the voice of Brainy Smurf. Frank Welker provided the voice of a lot of minor characters in addition to semi-regulars Hefty Smurf and Poet Smurf. Michael Bell voices Grouchy and Handy Smurf while William Callaway voices Painter Smurf and Clumsy Smurf. Hamilton Camp gave voice to Greedy Smurf. I believe there were something like 99 Smurfs in all...

This series utilized the talents of Alan Oppenheimer...he was on hand to voice Vanity Smurf, Father Time, and Homnibus. Jonathan Winters voiced Grandpa Smurf. I think that covers pretty much the main Smurfs that made the most frequent appearances on each episode. Johan and Peewit were voiced by Michael Bell and Frank Welker. Michael Bell voiced a lot of characters and his most popular role is Zan, half of the Wonder Twins, on the late 1970's and 1980's version of Superfriends. Search through my various blog entries to read more about Frank Welker and a lot of these voice artist's.

The series has become available on DVD. It airs on Boomerang, the vintage cartoon network. The series is still popular, or infamous, depending on your viewpoint, some 19 years after it's last first-run episode aired.

Gag me...with an Anvil

I title the blog entry as such because I simply wanted to write a little about the gag's and jokes often used in the cartoons that used a lot more visual humor, than verbal. Also, as a child of the 1980's and half of the 1990's, the phrase "gag me with a spoon" was often used in the 1980's that it stuck with me...I don't use the phrase but I figured i'd base the title of this blog on that slang expression, since this entry is about cartoon gag's, and so "Gag me...with an Anvil" fits rather nicely I think...even though I'm writing about more than just the anvil.

The picture of me reacting to the outrageous design of the Wolf going to pieces at the site of Droopy was taken awhile ago...I wish I had a picture of me reacting to an anvil gag but I don't. The cartoons that spring to mind for me that incorporate the use of anvils are the ones from Warner Brothers and quite a bit from MGM, namely the cartoons from Tex Avery, the early Droopy cartoons. However, it's the Warner Brothers cartoons that popularized the gag of anvil drops to the best of my knowledge...mostly seen in the Chuck Jones series about the Road Runner and Coyote. Several gag's were used where the Coyote uses an anvil, often in a pulley scenario where an anvil would be used as a weight with rope tied around it while the rest of the rope would go up and into a pulley and back down to the Coyote's hands...the Coyote of course would let go of the rope, with the anvil dangling high up in the air, laughing to himself as he thinks the anvil's dropping and smashing the Road Runner as the bird is eating the ever-famous "free bird seed" offering.

However, something always goes wrong with the Coyote's attempts and so the Road Runner has quickly eaten the bird seed and goes "beep beep" and speeds off. The Coyote, for example, is standing in the spot where the anvil's suppose to fall and nothing happens. He looks annoyed and then looks up and see's the anvil dangling there...so he looks back at the camera and then looks back up at the anvil...and in an example of timing, just as he's decided the trap failed, he turns to walk away and WHAM down falls the anvil on his head...squashing him a few inches or so...as he makes his way behind a boulder or a cliff as the scene fades to black.

Anvils also played a part in several of the more looney Daffy Duck cartoons...in a particular Porky Pig cartoon he and Sylvester are spending the night in a haunted house that Porky mistakes for a hotel. The place is "haunted" by a couple of mice, actually...playing tricks on Sylvester. In one scene where Sylvester is trying to dismantle one of the mice's traps, Porky wakes up and see's what's happening and he rolls up his sleeves and says: "A-a-a-nd just wh-wh-what were going to do with th-th-that anvil??".

The anvil was the most-used prop for gags...the second most-used prop was the dynamite stick. Countless cartoon characters always had a stash of dynamite handy...even innocent characters like Tweety could pull sticks of dynamite out of his imaginary pocket, light it, and toss it at Sylvester. The MGM Tom and Jerry series made extensive use of dynamite and anvils to some degree...their gags were centered mostly around household appliances or tools one could find outside, like a push mower for example or a more famously the garden rake that Tom never failed to step onto and have it swing up and slam into his face, causing him to shatter. Tom or Jerry equally could pull dynamite out of nowhere if they needed it. In several scenes the dynamite was endless...Tom once crammed the entire living room with dynamite sticks, dynamite drums...all sorts of explosives...the point isn't where did he get all those explosives...the point was watching him fill the place with dynamite in his desire to destroy Jerry. Jerry on the other hand often gave Tom a hot foot with matches and sometimes would substitute candles on a cake with dynamite sticks, something a lot of cartoons used. In some of the Droopy cartoons, hand grenades were used...the grenades would often backfire on the Wolf or the dog, depending on which villain was using one. Spike the bulldog in a classic scene pulled the pin out of grenade and he had the pin clinched in his teeth getting ready to throw the grenade...well, as he's counting, another grenade comes sailing into the scene and it explodes...then the grenade Spike's holding explodes.

The third most-used prop for gags was the mallet...where characters would pull a mallet out of nowhere, often thin air, and hit their antagonist on the head with it. In Tex Avery cartoons a character could get hit with a mallet and the character would split into various pieces and crumble...also, depending on how the mallet was struck onto the character, it could squash the character and cause multiple smaller characters to emerge, all of them waddling around like clowns popping out from a small car at a circus. Sometimes, getting hit with a mallet would cause a character to stop, twirl around a bit, get that dazed, disoriented look on their face, before ultimately falling backward or face forward...shattering into a thousand pieces in the process.

Funny, funny visual slapstick cartoons. The Tom and Jerry cartoons, especially, rate up at the top when it comes to visual humor because the two main characters never spoke except for when Tom would give out with a loud holler. The cartoonish violence in the cartoons of course has long been held in contempt by a society who just doesn't get the point of slapstick humor in my opinion. The cartoons as they're shown on TV have been edited and toned down...if one is inclined to see many of these cartoons in their original form, they're all available on DVD collections.

A lot of little gags that use violent pay-off's or social comedy of the time period have all been edited out for TV broadcast so watching a familiar Tom and Jerry for example on an un-cut DVD presentation, fans who may have seen the same episode a hundred times on TV, will see several gags that may appear out of place at first but were actually part of the original presentation in theaters during the 1940's and 1950's that TV censor boards had long since edited out.

All those gadgets, widgets, and digits

"Go-Go Gadget Copter!!!" That was just one of several catch-phrases on the internationally popular cartoon series Inspector Gadget which ran for a few seasons...churning out 86 episodes. The series had a long history prior to it hitting the air in 1983...I can't recall but I believe three or four pilot episodes were taped before settling on the definitive pilot and voice cast. The show's production schedule was also rather bizarre when compared to most animated programs. Pre-production was handled in Canada, which included the voice work, while the animation/production of the series was handled in Japan and then post-production was dealt back to Canada before airing. The DIC company distributed the series to America and all points of the world.

The series itself was a light parody of a whole mix of spy and secret agent TV shows and movies. Inspector Gadget's appearance, with the trench coat, is a direct parody of Inspector Clouseau, the detective made famous by Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther movies. In fact, there was a cartoon series patterned after the character simply titled The Inspector which featured the voice of Pat Harrington, Jr. The character is human but he's composed with robotic and bionic parts enabling him to do all sorts of things but because he's a klutz, his gadgets are often a curse instead of a blessing. He often calls out a gadget "Go-Go Gadget Skates!" and the copter would pop out of his hat...or he'd be in a situation that called for his mini-copter "Go-Go Gadet Copter!" and his skates would pop out from his shoes...often his gadgets malfunctioned...resulting in hilarious results. He drove what he called the GadgetMobile which was a sleek transformation car that could go from being a high-speed police car to a family van just by shifting the gears.

In the series, Gadget is working for the Metro Police Department and he receives his assignments from Chief Quimby. In nearly every episode, Gadget reads his message, which ends with the line "this message will self-destruct", spoofing the secret agent program Mission: Impossible. Gadget usually tosses the message, almost always finding it's way to Chief's hiding place...blowing up soon after. The evil organization that Gadget is in pursuit of is the MAD Agency. MAD is a spoof of both the SPECTRE crime organization from the James Bond movies, KAOS from the "Get Smart" TV series, and THRUSH from "The Man From UNCLE". The MAD agency is headed up by the never seen Dr Claw. The only thing people see of Claw is the metal gloves that rest on his chair...which often are pounding the desk in anger...or hitting his pet, Mad Cat. Claw can monitor just about everything on his computer...which I believe is a spoof of computers in general and the mystery surrounding them to the public at large. Claw often deploys several Mad Agents to stop Gadget...and this is where we get to the heart of the series.

Inspector Gadget is a bumbler in the tradition of the previously mentioned Clouseau with an added touch of moronic logic obviously borrowed from CONTROL Agent Maxwell Smart from the TV series Get Smart. The star of the show, Don Adams, supplied the voice for Inspector Gadget. This connection seemed perfect because in a lot of ways it was like watching an animated version of Maxwell Smart in a trenchcoat. Gadget's phone wasn't in his shoe, though...Gadget's phone was in his thumb and index finger...a wire would pop out of each finger as Gadget spoke to the Chief or someone else. Gadget being a bumbler and clueless meant he needed serious help in solving his cases. This fell on his niece, Penny, and her dog, Brain. It's also interesting to note that in the early episodes of Get Smart, the dog on the show was known as Fang, aka K-13. The character wasn't featured in many episodes, though. Penny was like the 99 of the show...being the sensible and rational thinker. Penny used a watch and a computer book to help her solve crimes for her "Uncle Gadget". Brain did the leg work...being in disguise...almost always being pursued by Gadget, thinking Brain's in-disguise character was a MAD agent. Penny used her Uncle's clueless nature to enlist Brain with making sure he got her Uncle here and there and everywhere...once Brain was able to lure Gadget to a check-point, the villains of the episode somehow managed to bungle their own operation and end up at Gadget's feet like he had apprehended them...just in time for the Chief to pop out of nowhere congratulating a clueless Gadget on another well-done job.

Each episode of the series ended with Dr Claw's promise of "I'll get you next time, Gadget...NEXT TIME!!!".

Some of the catch-phrases, in addition to Dr Claw's promise were:

"Wowsers!!": an exclamation by Gadget whenever something wrong happened, which was often.

"I'm Always on Duty": this was Gadget's promise to Chief Quimby and a sly reference to Maxwell Smart's pet phrase on the Get Smart TV show when Smart would imply "...And loving It!" upon getting news from his boss about the potential dangers of an upcoming case.

"This message will self-destruct": This one is heard after Gadget reads his mission from the Chief borrowed from the Mission: Impossible TV show.

"Go-Go Gadget...": This was used as a command of sorts for the gadgets he used in the case.

In addition to Don Adams, the series used Frank Welker and Maurice LaMarsche as well as Cree Summer for the bulk of the series. Don voiced Inspector Gadget while Frank was the voice of Brain, Dr Claw, and MAD Cat. Maurice handled the voice of Chief Quimby. I am sure Frank and Maurice also voiced an assortment of MAD Agents, too.

In a bit of pointless or useless trivia and probably only a coincidence but in the GET SMART series, Max's agent number is 86...and that's exactly the number of episodes that were made of Inspector Gadget. The series consisted of 65 episodes during the 1983-1984 season...those episodes re-ran another season, 1984-1985, and then 21 new episodes aired during the 1985-1986 season...bringing the series to 86 first-run episodes altogether.

The series has ran almost forever in reruns...well, I use the word forever loosely. Last year was the program's 25th anniversary. After it's original run it was shown every weekday morning in many TV markets for years and years. The children's network, Nickelodeon, ran the show from 1987-1992. It's aired all over the world since the mid 1980's and shows no signs of slowing down.

he's a chicken...rooster, that is!

1946 was the year Foghorn Leghorn made his mark on Warner Brothers cartoons. The character was created by Robert McKimson and was often featured in a series of formula driven cartoons. The appeal of the series was the mannerisms and expressions of Foghorn and how he attempted to either thwart the aggressive attempts of Henery Hawk or set up elaborate pranks on the dog, known as The Barnyard Dog. In other adventures, Prissy often would feature into a story. She is the thin bonnet wearing hen who often had a crush on Foghorn and would later have a son of her own...as far as I know there was no indication of who the father was as Prissy was often played as the sorrowful hen who couldn't catch a husband...no matter how she tried.

Foghorn's debut was in a cartoon short called Walky Talky Hawky that featured Henery Hawk, the small chicken hawk. The debut cartoon in a lot of ways set up the "formula" I was referring to earlier of life on the farm. Foghorn goes through a lot of pranks and jokes trying to convince Henery that the dog is a chicken. Earlier in the episode Foghorn claims to be a horse and the way he imitates the horse is the exact way Mel Blanc often imitated a horse on TV talk shows...by placing a finger beside the nose and whinnying. Naturally, Foghorn placed his finger up on one of his nostrils on his beak to provide the horse effect. By the end of the film a horse gets into the "i'm not a chicken" argument and the cartoon ends with Henery capturing all three animals and dragging them off.

Foghorn's second appearance, "Crowing Pains", appeared on the DVD collection I previously wrote about. It features Foghorn, the Dog, Henery, and Sylvester the cat. It's in these earlier cartoons that Foghorn's voice is a lot more raucous and up-tempo prior to it being modified toward the more laid-back southern drawl it became. In all, Foghorn appeared in 28 theatrical cartoons released between 1946 through 1963. There was often one or two cartoons a year produced. The last theatrical, "Banty Raids", featured a beatnik rooster at the farm throwing love fits among the hens. Foghorn doesn't quite grasp the rooster's manner...until he learns that the rooster is crazy for females. In one scene, the rooster is kissing each hen who are lined up. Foghorn is in line and the beatnik rooster is too into the moment he doesn't even realize who Foghorn is. "Broken Leghorn" features Foghorn planting an egg underneath Prissy...the egg hatches to reveal a baby rooster. This causes Foghorn to get jealous and say something like: "we already have enough roosters and I'M it". He spends the episode teaching the kid how to be a rooster, always failing to trigger Foghorn's traps...causing the pranks to back-fire on Foghorn instead. By the end of the cartoon he marches into the bosses office and demands that either the kid goes or he goes...the cartoon ends with Foghorn being hauled away in a poultry truck.

In one of the last cartoons, "Dixie Fryer", from 1960, Foghorn does battle with a couple of southern buzzards: Pappy and Elvis. Pappy's name actually being B.O. Buzzard which stood for body odor as one can tell by the flies that swarmed around him. Elvis was the son filled with promise but slow-witted. Daws Butler voiced the two characters. In another entry which featured Daws Butler, "Raw! Raw! Rooster!", we are introduced to one of Foghorn's college friends, Rhode Island Red. Butler voices the rival. Interestingly, Mel Blanc provides the voice of the character at the end of the cartoon.

One of the memorable aspects of the character was his speech pattern and mannerisms. Foghorn was never won to back down when it came to the battle of wits...often sparring with whoever happened to appear on the farm. "That's a joke, son!" and the recurring phrases "I say", "that is!", and "you all" were heavily used by Foghorn. One of the mysteries if one can call it that is the story behind the character. Mel Blanc, the voice of Foghorn, recounts in his 1988 autobiography his story of why he gave Foghorn the sort of voice he did. The character debuted in theaters in 1946 in the "Walky Talky Hawky" cartoon. However, radio comedian Fred Allen during this same era featured a character named Senator Claghorn on his radio show. This character was played by Fred's announcer, Kenny Delmar. The voice characterization Delmar provided was in step with Foghorn Leghorn...and both characters had similar sounding names: Claghorn-Foghorn-Leghorn. Now, the mystery of sorts is who came up with "that voice" first: Delmar or Mel Blanc? The answer most often given is both...since the voice is a stereotypical southerner who likes to bellow and embellish the truth; so, it's quite possible both men simultaneously came up with that voice.

Delmar, I might add, once said that he did that voice years before the Senator Claghorn character was even created and Mel had also said in interviews that he had often used "that voice" prior to the rooster character being created...so it's a strange scenario where the same kind of voice was created by two different people and used on two commercially successful characters. However, due to the Claghorn character hitting the national airwaves on Fred Allen's radio show in 1945...and the first Foghorn cartoon hitting theaters in 1946...critics often say the Foghorn character was a parody of Senator Claghorn and therefore referred to as a "rip-off". I certainly wouldn't call it a rip-off...if anything it's a parody, which goes hand in hand with the kind of cartoons Robert McKimson was noted for at Warner Brothers. Several of the animated parodies of radio and early TV shows were directed by McKimson.

And now we shift focus to Robert McKimson...

It was Robert McKimson who directed "Backwoods Bunny", the cartoon I made reference to earlier which pitted Bugs against the two buzzard characters. "The Honeymousers" and "The Mouse That Jack Built" are two now-famous cartoons that McKimson directed. The first, from 1956, is a spoof of THE HONEYMOONERS and the second, from 1959, is a spoof of THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM. Daws Butler did the voices of Ralph and Norton and June Foray voiced Alice. In the Jack Benny parody, the radio cast donated their voices for their cartoon counterparts...and Mel Blanc just happened to be a member of Jack Benny's radio and TV shows anyway so he was on hand as the voice of Jack's car, The Maxwell.

Foghorn and the Tasmanian Devil are McKimson's biggest characters for the studio. Some other McKimson directed cartoons: "Early To Bet", "Tabasco Road", "Rabbit's Kin", "Pop 'Im Pop", "Hillbilly Hare" {hilarious cartoon featuring a laugh out loud violent square dance call sung by Bugs Bunny}. All of the theatrically released Foghorn Leghorn cartoons and those with the Tasmanian Devil were directed by McKimson. In addition to those, he also created the series of Sylvester cartoons with his son, Sylvester Jr, on the pursuit of the baby kangaroo that Sylvester always mistakes for a giant mouse. McKimson worked at the DePatie-Freleng company for a number of years as well when Warner Brothers closed it's cartoon division. McKimson died in 1977...years before the directors of the cartoons were lauded and applauded by successive generations. Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng both lived long...Chuck passing away in 2002...Friz in 1995...Bob Clampett passed away in 1984...animator/sometimes director, Arthur Davis, passed away in 2000...while Tex Avery passed away in 1980.

Robert McKimson's work is showcased on those DVD collections but yet in popular culture, he's often noted as the forgotten director...whose work is greatly remembered but whose name was never lauded or praised in the same lavish way as his peers. If one mentions Foghorn Leghorn or mentions one of many of the cartoons McKimson directed, the response often greeted is a surprised: "Oh...he did those!?? I didn't know that." So, chances are, McKimson's work is popular if you bring up a particular cartoon or a scene from one...even if his name often goes over-looked among the other directors at the studio.

Looney Tunes Premiere Collection

This collection was released in 2003...it contained 28 cartoons from the first volume of The Golden Collection DVD project. I'm going to highlight a few cartoons from the DVD in this blog...

A lot of the cartoons featured on here, and on the other DVD's, consist of projects directed by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones. However, there are cartoons here directed by Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson, as well as Arthur Davis...but Chuck and Friz have the lion's share of cartoons here. Clampett's cartoons spotlighted on here are "Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid" which is a cartoon about a family of buzzard's whose youngest, a dimwit in the mold of Mertimer Snerd and or, Goofy, is on the trail of a rabbit...Bugs Bunny, of course. The cartoon is #13 on DVD number one. The buzzard goes through all sorts of stunts trying to capture Bugs but it's useless because Bugs simply out-smarts the bird. The buzzard's mother is remembered for her Italian dialect.

"Tortoise Wins By a Hare", another Clampett cartoon, closes out DVD #1. In this cartoon, Bugs competes in a foot race with a turtle named Cecil. The idea is a recurring gag but in this particular depiction, Bugs dresses up like a turtle in hopes of winning the race. He wears a metal turtle shell packed with a motor. In the end, though, he ends up losing the race through ironic means. "Haredevil Hare" is a cartoon from Chuck Jones which introduces Marvin the Martian, although he isn't named this. Mel Blanc's original voice for Marvin is way different than the more familiar voice Mel later gave him. Marvin wants to blow up the Earth...the reason for Bugs being up in space is due to a space company wanting to put a rabbit on the moon. Bugs resists at first until the top half of the rocket is filled with carrots. The cartoon ends in a cliff-hanger or sorts...or I should say a moon-hanger. For those who've seen the cartoon you'll understand.

"Canned Feud" is one of the funniest cartoons on DVD #2. It's the story of a couple who leave on vacation for California. They accidentally leave the cat in the house...the cat being Sylvester. He spies through the front window that the owners left a note to the milk-man to not deliver any milk to the house while they're away. Sylvester panics and goes running through the house looking for food. He finally comes across a cupboard full of cat food but he needs a can opener. A mouse makes his appearance...taunting Sylvester with the can opener. The rest of the cartoon is about the two battling back and fourth. Later, when Sylvester has had enough and blow up nearly the entire kitchen, the can opener falls at his feet. He immediately gets excited but then makes his way back to the kitchen and discovers the cruel irony awaiting him at the hands of the mouse.

"Kit for Kat" is just as hilarious. Elmer Fudd becomes the victim of Sylvester and a small kitten's rivalry. He has both of them stay at his house and declares that he'll make up his mind which one to keep in the morning. This prompts Sylvester to go about ridding himself of the kitten through elaborate stunts...each of them backfire...causing him to look bad in Elmer's eyes. Near the end of the cartoon there's a scene with the radio...the kitten turns the radio up full blast and we hear some banter between the voice artists, Mel Blanc and Bea Benederet. They call each other by their full name: Melvin and Beatrice. "Ahhhh, Melvin!! What are you gonna do with that gun, Melvin??" "I'm gonna kill you, Beatrice! Do you hear?? Kill you! Kill you!!! Bwahahahahahaha!!" "Melvin...you mustn't...ahhhh!! hahhahaha now i've got the gun, Melvin!", etc etc. Finally, Elmer runs downstairs and declares to the two cats that he's made up his mind which one's leaving and then, out of the blue, a knock on the door is heard and Elmer's given some bad news of his own.

"Tweety's S.O.S" is a cartoon by Friz Freleng where we see Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny all on a cruise ship. Throughout the cartoon Sylvester is trying to get Tweety but Sylvester has a slight case of sea-sickness which prevents him from fully conducting his plots against Tweety. Granny, on the other hand, is her usual protective self. Sylvester temporarily finds a cure for his sea-sickness but Tweety doesn't help matters when he often pulls out a picture of a ship with crashing waves...telling Sylvester, in a hypnotic tone, "it was a terrible storm; the ship was rocking and rocking; waves were splashing...rocking...rocking..." causing Sylvester to go hang his head over the ship once again. Later, Tweety dumps nitro-glycerin into the bottle of sea-sickness formula. Sylvester drinks the entire bottle...but then Granny goes after Sylvester with her umbrella, trying to hit him with Tweety protesting "no Granny..." and then Sylvester explodes...shooting him up in the sky. He falls back down to the ship with the Captain exclaiming he tawt he taw a putty tat.

"Early To Bet" features Stan Freberg as a gambling bug who constantly bites down on a bad luck cat. Each time, he and a bulldog play card games...and each time the cat loses. The dog suggests the two play Penalties. The funny part is each time he loses he has to go spin a wheel...then whatever number the wheel stops on, the cat goes to a filing cabinet and searches for the corresponding folder. Inside the folder is the type of penalty that the dog unleashes on the cat. A typical line from the cat: "no...no...not ROLL OUT THE BARREL!!! Anything but that!!!". Mel Blanc voices the cat, the dog, and the announcer at the beginning introducing the gambling bug. The cat gets his revenge on the gambling bug by the cartoon's end.

The southern rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, makes a couple of appearances. The first one being a short simply called "The Foghorn Leghorn" where Henery Hawk wanders to the farm that his father is raiding. Foghorn catches the father in the act and beats him up. Henery, not really knowing what a chicken looks like, asks his father if that was a chicken. The father shrugs it off and says something like: "you think i'd let a chicken do that to me? that's nothing but a loud mouth schnook.". So, the rest of the cartoon, Henery tries to capture a lot of animals he thinks are chickens...not even Foghorn can convince Henery what a chicken is. Finally, the Dog beats Foghorn up and calls him a good for nothing chicken. Henery captures Foghorn soon after with a shovel to the face...dragging him "home" as the scene fades to black...with Foghorn muttering "i'm just a loud mouth schnook". The other Leghorn cartoon is "Broken Leghorn".

Pepe LePew appears in "For Scent-Imental Reasons". Chuck Jones often directed the Pepe cartoons...plus many of the ones with Bugs Bunny that are featured on this collection. Friz Freleng directed a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons as well...plus he directed all the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. One of the Chuck Jones cartoons, "Don't Give Up the Sheep", features Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. Ralph looks similar to Wile E Coyote. This segment features mostly pantomime action...no dialogue except for the dog saying hi and goodbye to Fred, his replacement watching sheep when the time clock whistle blows. This Premiere Collection concept was later re-named The Spotlight Collection when volume two came along.

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection 6

I don't know if I'm sub-consciously writing more about Warner Brothers cartoons or not. I may have touched upon this in a previous entry but I tend to not write as much about the Warner cartoons because there's so many people who do...I tend to spotlight the lesser-known or the made-for-TV programs from Hanna-Barbera simply because there's not a whole wide spectrum of sites that specialize in those cartoons whereas the programs from Warner Brothers are embedded into pop-culture so much what isn't there to know?

However, I wanted to spotlight one of the latest spotlight collections, number 6. It's a DVD collection of 30 cartoons on two disc's which comes to 15 cartoons on each. There are 8 more cartoons featured as bonuses: 4 on DVD #1 and 4 on DVD #2. I hadn't had the time to watch DVD #2 but i've watched DVD #1 a couple times. The theme of DVD #1 is "Cartoon Superstars". It features cartoons that star each of the main characters. The first, "Baby Buggy Bunny", centers around Bugs finding an orphan of sorts...actually, some money has been stolen from a bank that finds it's way to Bugs' hole in the ground. The thief, a midget, adopts the identity of a baby and arrives at Bugs' hole as an orphan. Bugs at first is unaware of the baby's true identity...the baby's name is Fenster. After repeated attempts from the baby to grab the money, Bugs excuses himself and later spies the baby shaving and smoking a cigar in the bathroom. Coincidentally, a news report flashes on the TV about a bank robber on the loose...Bugs gets that 'look' on his face that he's been tricked and then gets the devilish look that he's going to get his revenge. He strolls in and starts whipping the kid and throwing him up in the air and shaking him...it's quite a funny scene as guns and weapons start falling everywhere all the while Bugs is still spanking him "Oh Fenster! What a naughty, naughty, boy!!!". The anger in Bugs' voice as he's getting his revenge is quite satonic but that makes it all the more hilarious.

In the next short, "Broom-Stick Bunny", Bugs is out on Halloween dressed as a witch and he stumbles upon the castle of Witch Hazel. This cartoon's plot is Witch Hazel trying to get the "witch" {Bugs} into a pot of boiling water...periodically she stops at a magic mirror asking who's the ugliest one of all. She gets great delight in being declared ugly...she also gets delight in making jokes, causing her to go off into a fit of cackling laughter. Bugs reveals himself as a rabbit which causes Witch Hazel to grow even more determined to fulfill her magic potion. She is about to kill Bugs when he gives her the pouty-eyes routine and she starts crying, thinking about memories of Paul. Bugs turns the tables and offers the witch a drink. She drinks it and turns into a Cinderella-type...and then she goes to her magic mirror asking who's the ugliest one of all...the genie in the mirror doesn't even bother answering her...one look and he hops on his carpet in hot pursuit and flies out of the mirror chasing her.

"To Duck or Not to Duck" is a cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. The cartoon is basically about a boxing match between the two of them...with a lot of duck's in attendence cheering on Daffy while only one in the stands cheers on Elmer, namely the hunting dog Ladamore. Each time he cheers on Elmer he gets pelted with fruit. The referee introduces Elmer amidst a series of laughter...and the audience boo's. The referee then turns his attention to Daffy...and in a scene that often becomes a subject of mockery, the referee brings on Daffy with some of the most sentimental words imaginable...going so far as to climb upon Daffy in an intimate way, blinking his eyes and wrapping an arm around Daffy's shoulder, becoming quite affectionate in the process. This, of course, is a spoof of boxing in general...how it often comes across that referee's have favorites and that the fighting is rigged...which is spoofed when the referee goes into his "I wanna clean fight" routine. Elmer, at cartoon's end, turns the tables on the scheming ducks. The cartoon fades out as Elmer's throwing the ducks all over the boxing ring.

"Birth of a Notion" is one of the more hilarious ones. In this, Daffy gets tangled up with an evil scientist wanting his wish bone. The scientist is a caricature of Peter Lorre. Daffy was brought to the castle by a dog named Leopold...Daffy, not wanting to fly south for the winter, befriended the dog and was soon in the castle. Daffy overhears the scientist's plans of needing a duck's wishbone and soon it's a battle of wits between him and Daffy. The action takes place between the two of them so much that in one segment it shows Leopold griping about his lack of screen-time. In one of the most singled-out moments in the cartoon, Daffy attempts to throw a baseball bat at the scientist only for Leopold to grab it in time. This, however, causes the scientist to think his own dog is out to kill him and the scientist breaks the bat into tiny pieces. Daffy attempts to murder the scientist with a knife but the scientist is prepared...he lets out with a creepy, perverted giggle as he chases after Daffy, who, runs off hollering his trademark "hoo hoo hoo hoo".

The two Foghorn Leghorn cartoons appear on "Crowing Pains" and "Raw! Raw! Rooster". In the first cartoon, we see Henery Hawk on a quest for a chicken. The character has never really been written as a smart guy...more of a little tough guy instead...who can never recall what a chicken looks like since he's so easily fooled by Foghorn in all the cartoons. So, he usually listens to Foghorn's stories and claims about other animal's being chickens. In "Crowing Pains" the action revolves around Foghorn, the Barnyard Dog, and Sylvester the cat...although some cartoon purists would say it isn't Sylvester because the character doesn't have a patch of white fur on his tail...but the character design and speech pattern is definitely Sylvester. So, the three of them are consistently fighting amongst each other while Henery just wants to know which one of them is a chicken. This is one of the earlier Foghorn cartoons as Mel Blanc's vocal performance is more in step with bellowing and hollering his words instead of delivering them as the refined southern blow-hard the character became. 

Foghorn likes to play tricks on the dog...and Sylvester's presence causes the dog to be after the cat, natural instincts. Foghorn plants an egg under Sylvester at one point...further confusing Henery, who's actually inside the egg...a device Foghorn came up with. Henery finally decides to wait until sunrise to see which animal crows...Sylvester, prone to keeping his mouth open even when he isn't talking, has his mouth open a little as the sounds of a rooster is heard. The Dog looks over at Sylvester and gets a disgusted look because he knows Foghorn's tricks...and Henery drags Sylvester away.

"Raw! Raw! Rooster" is one of the later Foghorn cartoons...you'll notice the difference in Mel's delivery. The cartoon is about one of Foghorn's rivals coming for a visit...the rival is a big practical joker, which doesn't sit too well with Foghorn, who would rather play jokes on others instead of having them played on himself. The rival, known as Rhoad Island Red, mingles with Foghorn and has all the hen's love-struck, which causes further jealousy to mount. Rhoad Island Red was voiced by Daws Butler. Foghorn sends his rival away by the end of the cartoon and has a few going away prizes...filled with dynamite.

In "My Favorite Duck", Porky Pig attempts to have a relaxing time at a camp site only to be tormented by Daffy at each attempt. The joke of the cartoon is that the woods has a strict fine on hunting ducks...people aren't even allowed to harass or bother ducks. This, of course, allows Daffy to become over-bearing and do all sorts of things to Porky...who can't do anything because each time he attempts to strangle or hit Daffy, this would cause Daffy to whip out a sign that read "No Duck Hunting" or "No Harming Ducks". Later in the cartoon, the tables are turned, and Daffy finds himself as a most-wanted duck...each sign that he comes up with invites Porky to kill and shoot...one sign I think read "Open season on ducks...no limit". The cartoon ends rather Tex Avery-like with Porky and Daffy chasing one another around and around a tree...before long the cartoon's "film" starts to go haywire and it snaps into. Daffy pokes his head into the scene and goes about telling us how the film ended...only to be pulled off-camera by Porky, who finishes beating him up...with the cartoon ending as Porky drags Daffy across the screen.

"Jumpin' Jupiter" is a surreal cartoon...it involves Porky and Sylvester camping out in a dessert area. Later, aliens come down to Earth and literally lift the camp ground up and fly off with it into outer space. Sylvester awakens and reacts to all of this while Porky remains asleep. Even after the gravity pull is gone, Porky is clueless of what's going on...then the camp site appears on the planet Jupiter. Porky wakes up...Sylvester was up all-night experiencing everything. Sylvester spots one of the aliens...Porky meets the alien but mistakes him for some sort of Indian. Gags from this cartoon were re-used years later on the Daffy Duck film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters including the gag of Sylvester being so scared he turns stiff as a board around Porky's face and when thrown off, hits the ground with a hollow thud. Another re-used gag was the phrase "yellow dog of a cowardly cat", Porky's affectionate description of Sylvester.

In "Satan's Waitin", we see the story of Sylvester and his nine lives. The cartoon centers around a bulldog Devil wanting Sylvester to go through the last 8 lives rather quickly...often causing Sylvester to get into all kinds of predicaments, with his lives evaporating one by one. Each of his lives sit together on a rock couch down in the pits of fire...he soon decides to hide himself in a bank vault where no harm can come to him...since he only has one life left. Later, bank robbers blow up the vault and everyone's killed. The cartoon fades out with Sylvester and the bank robbers all taking a trip down to meet the devil.

The rest of the cartoons on DVD #1 are just as good as those that I mentioned. "Dog Gone South" is a laugh-out-loud cartoon about a dog's adventures on a plantation. In "Often an Orphan" we have the same dog being the victim of owner abandonment. At the start of the cartoon we see the dog purposely being left at a camp site by his master. The dog talks his way into Porky's life by trying to convince him he needs a dog. This goes back and fourth throughout much of the cartoon...near the end we see Porky and the dog in a very familiar scene at a camp site ready to have a picnic. Porky tells the dog to fetch a stick but being through that routine too many times the dog jumps into Porky's car instead and speeds off as the scene fades.