Saturday, January 23, 2016

Getting Schooled: The Funny Company (1963)

Two years before introducing the world to Roger Ramjet, independent producers Ken Snyder & Charles Koren produced the syndicated The Funny Company, which, like Ramjet, was designed to be sold to stations on a daily basis. In fact, Hal Smith (The Andy Griffith Show, Davey & Goliath) and Dick Beals were among the voice talents here, as well as later on in Ramjet. Unfortunately, the same fate befell Company as would all of Snyder's later projects. It lasted just 1 season.

Let's take a look at a sample clip, as the kids learn about the life of a "Tarantula":




By the time Snyder had sold Skyhawks & Hot Wheels to ABC six years later, he clearly had changed animation houses, since those series used more realistic character designs. One thing that Funny Company has in common with those later series is that all three were underwritten by Mattel, the makers of the Hot Wheels toys.

No rating.

2 comments:

Silverstar said...

Thanks for uploading this, Hobbyfan. Up to know I had only read about "The Funny Company" in various archive books; I had never seen the series before, as it came and went before my time (I was born in '69). Shame this didn't catch on or go beyond 1 season; it seemed like a cute, fun little series. The Native American characters would be deemed grievously Politically Incorrect by today's standards, but one must keep in mind when this cartoon was made.

hobbyfan said...

Too true. I first learned of this show via the now defunct Toon Tracker site, and there was a portion an episode that included a piece on Keebler cookies, but I figured I'll do two separate posts, since I posted a Keebler commercial the other day. My memory is so hazy of a lot of things from those days, which is why I do so much research.