As we've previously discussed many moons ago, Motormouse & Autocat were spun off from Cattanooga Cats into their own all-rerun series in 1970. All that was new was the opening sequence, repeated as the closing credits played. The Cats appear in a trio of bumpers also held over from the previous season.
We had the It's The Wolf episode, "Winter Blunder-Land", by itself, but it was deleted from YouTube years ago. This comes complete with commercials for Shasta (a toonfomercial narrated by Tom Bosley that I think is available on its own) and Wyler's (back when it was a subsidiary of Borden).
You have to feel sorry for Dick Tracy's foe, The Brow. We saw him yesterday on Archie's TV Funnies, where he was treated like the menace he was meant to be. 10 years earlier, he and other villains were treated like saps by UPA for Dick's made-for-TV aides.
This video has three Brow & Oodles shorts, in which the villains bumble their way to jail.
"Lighthouse Creepers": Go Go Gomez (Paul Frees) is up first against Brow & Oodles, and, wellllll.......
"The Vile Inn": Next, it's Joe Jitsu (Benny Rubin) shutting down Brow's operations at a cheap motel.
"Banana Peel Deal": Finally, Hemlock Holmes (Jerry Hausner) goes after another of Brow's smuggling operations.
The theme of this episode of Archie's TV Funnies centers on Reggie (John Erwin) and Moose covering the Riverdale Air Circus, with disastrous results.
Also on deck:
Broom Hilda tries to placate Irwin and Gaylord by making it rain. Due to the use of Noah's Ark at the end, I don't think this would play today in certain parts of the country.
In The Captain & The Kids, the boys are falsely accused of untying the Captain's canoe, when it's clear they had nothing to do with it.
Dick Tracy battles The Brow.
Emmy Lou consoles a friend who thought she found Mr. Right, but is disappointed.
A quick Dropouts skit involving a giraffe, and gags with Smokey Stover & Nancy.Moon Mullins got the week off.
I honestly think Filmation could have spun Dick Tracy off into his own series, but passed.
Ronald McDonald (King Moody) helps the Professor with a new "invention'----a dinner gong. Howard Morris voices the Professor & Mayor McCheese, and likely directed the ad, too.
Here's another animated spot for 'Lectric Shave. Allen Swift voices the husband, but we're not sure about the wife. Might be Joan Gerber or Norma McMillan. Designs by Jack Davis.
Before Carnation was bought out by Nestle, they expanded their Friskies line of cat foods with Little Friskies' Chef's Blend. The product was introduced in 1979, and it's not only a medley of flavors in the product itself, but some musical commercials, too.
In this 1981 entry, the Chef himself (speaking voice appears to be Barry Gordon) extols the virtues of the product.
If you've ever wondered what goes into making a commercial, McDonald's offers a primer with this behind the scenes look at a 1973 ad featuring Ronald McDonald (King Moody, ex-Get Smart), Captain Crook, and the Hamburglar. Howard Morris not only was the voice of Mayor McCheese, recycling his Mummy voice from Groovie Goolies, but he also directed this particular spot and a few more!
Spike & Tyke were spun off from the Tom & Jerry shorts, but were only given two of their own before MGM shut their animation studio later in 1957.
In "Give & Tyke", a neighborhood stray (Daws Butler impersonating Art Carney) steals Spike's collar & license ID. Chaos follows.
Edit, 1/20/24: Had to change the video. This copy has the insinuation that it was reissued by Sunset Productions, which did some WB reissues. It's not. The poster did this to evade the copyright patrol.
Conflicting sources listed Bill Thompson as the original voice of Spike, while others said it was under-appreciated, under-credited Billy Bletcher. Either way, Butler took over in "Scat Cats".
Here's another Toon Heads special, this one focusing on "The Lost Cartoons".
What the "Lost Cartoons" entails are rare shorts, some of which, such as "Any Bonds Today", "So Much For So Little", and Private Snafu, were previously reviewed, plus some rarities.
I think we can see why Bosko didn't have staying power. Hugh Harman & Rudolf Ising moved on to MGM after leaving WB, if memory serves correctly. We previously featured Ralph Phillips in "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z", but it was deleted off YouTube and Dailymotion.
Based on a 1989 toy line from Playmates, Barnyard Commandos was adapted into a short-lived animated series which got 13 weeks in 1990, produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). You have two teams of animal armies who engage in playful war games, but sometimes, things do get serious.
The voice talent included Robert Ridgely, Len Weinrib, and relatively new to toons Thom Bray (ex-Riptide).
Following is the series opener:
I think that might be Weinrib attempting a mimic of Robin Leach as the narrator.
There's a reason the toy line faded into obscurity until plans surfaced for a revival 2 years ago.
The Glo Friends is the last component of My Little Pony & Friends to be discussed here. The series launched nine months after a Christmas special introduced viewers to a community of glow-in-the-dark insects. The personalities of some of these characters mirrored those of the Smurfs, well established at NBC. Some of the same voice actors worked on both shows, including Don Messick, Russi Taylor, and Frank Welker.
26 weekly installments of 15 minutes each were produced. That's all. The Christmas special, which we figure we'll have up in time for the holidays, featured a All in The Family mini-reunion with guests Carroll O'Connor and Sally Struthers.
For now, here's the intro.
I think part of the reason this was cancelled was because it was not only derivative of other Marvel-Hasbro entries such as MoonDreamers and Transformers, but I don't think I'm the only one who saw the comparisons to the Smurfs.
In some circles, graffiti is a form of artistic expression. Unless you happen to be Cool Roy, who tags any place, any time, including Fat Albert's apartment building. Judging from the spelling errors on his outdoor tags mocking Albert & Rudy, I'd say he's also got a bit of a learning disability......
Today, my neighborhood has a ton of graffiti lining the walls of various businesses, some vacant, but the message is incomprehensible, as they're trying to make art, but don't know what message to convey. It could be worse, of course.
MoonDreamers was part of a rotation of back-up features as part of the My Little Pony & Friends syndicated anthology package, based on the toys of the same name. One other series, Potato Head Kids, has previously been reviewed, and we'll look at Glo Friends another day.
The format was to have Pony take up the 1st half of the show, with the back-ups in the 2nd half. This is why the series opener is a 2-parter. Overall, the concept was another variation on the good vs. evil conflict seen on Transformers and other action series geared for teens. MoonDreamers was set for pre-teens and younger.
No rating. I was at work when this show aired, and thus never saw it. It's for the little ones, after all.
Marlon (Larry Storch) is trapped in a soda can. Don't ask. The Brady Kids have to deal with a couple of crooks to get him home in "Pop Goes The Mynah":
Just fast forward past the cheesy theme song, and enjoy.
The J. B. Williams Company was known as the makers of Geritol, Aqua Velva, Sominex, Nytol, and 'Lectric Shave, until each of the products were sold to other companies.
In 1975, Williams' ad agency commissioned artist Jack Davis (Mad Magazine) to design the characters in this next ad. Allen Swift (ex-Howdy Doody) voices the man on the right of your screen.
Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed was said to have been disappointed with the final product of 1991's A Wish For Wings That Work, an adaptation of a book he'd written, featuring characters from the strip.
31 years later, Opus, Bill The Cat, and the rest are getting ready to make a comeback.
Fox has picked up a license to do a new Bloom County series, as the strip itself was revived online by Breathed 7 years ago. Emmy winning writer Tim Long (The Simpsons) will be a showrunner, and work with Breathed. Plans, it seems, call for the new Bloom County to launch in 2023 or '24.
Now, I wonder if they've released the current series in any other media.......
In addition to putting Pink Panther on NBC's Saturday morning slate, starting a 9 year run, DePatie-Freleng, which produced the animated opening to I Dream of Jeannie, did the same for Sheldon Leonard's adaptation of the works of James Thurber, My World..... And Welcome to it, a one season wonder.
William Windom (ex-The Farmer's Daughter) was the star, playing cartoonist John Monroe, prone to Walter Mitty-esque fantasies, such as the one in the opener, in which he sees himself as General Ulysses S. Grant.
That's where Marvin Kaplan (ex-Top Cat) comes in, around the 12 1/2 minute mark, as an assistant to Grant.
Co-star Lisa Gerritsen would move over to The Mary Tyler Moore Show in a recurring role the next year.
We've got a review of My World over at The Land of Whatever, but we'll also take a deeper dive since there is the animation factor, adapting the line drawings of Thurber, down the line.
Until a few years ago, Labor Day meant the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, which for many years was hosted by entertainer Jerry Lewis, who started the telethons in New York, and promoted them via appearances on shows like What's My Line?
In 1969, this animated spot aired prior to, and, presumably, during, the telethon. Forgive the video quality.
Even though the telethons ended nearly a decade ago, and a 2020 revival fronted by Kevin Hart was a non-starter, MDA is still raising money.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is the first animated iteration of the franchise since the 1973-5 series Filmation & Paramount produced for NBC. However, this one is an over the top comedy-adventure series, now in its 3rd season on Paramount+.
I know some of you might be turned off by the animation from Titmouse, Inc., which is co-producing the series. The Cal Arts style of character designs is the trend du jour in American cable & streaming these days, but had they gone for a more traditional, Trek-accurate look, who's to say if it would have gotten this far, given the tastes of today's animation fans?
I wish I could put an episode up, but after Paramount+ pulled the premiere of Mike Judge's Beavis & Butt-Head less than 24 hours after I'd reviewed it, I'm not taking any chances.
Is it worth getting on DVD? You decide. I'd sooner see it repurposed on Comedy Central.......
Cartoon Network's primetime series, Toon Heads, had a few episodes that didn't make it to air. This 2003 episode, chronicling the best of the worst cartoons ever (at the time), is one of them, due to it being chock full of errors made by narrator-producer George Klein.
For starters, Klein gets his Tom & Jerry chronology wrong.
Hanna-Barbera acquired the award winning duo in 1975, then relinquished the rights, which were then picked up by Filmation in 1980, not the other way around. Klein also screws up by claiming Filmation honcho Lou Scheimer was the voice of Droopy in the 1980 series. Wrong again. Frank Welker had that gig, while Scheimer and his family (wife Jay, son Lane, and daughter Ericka) voiced supporting characters.
Even though Ruby-Spears was name checked at the start, Klein fails to make the distinction between R-S & H-B in discussing two segments of 1979's Plastic Man anthology package---Rickety Rocket & Mighty Man & Yukk, and 1984 bomb Turbo Teen, which Klein does acknowledge owes its existence to NBC's Knight Rider, which was entering its 3rd & final season.
Finally, Klein, while claiming Trollkins was a Smurfs knockoff crossed with The Dukes of Hazzard, fails to note that Smurfs & Trollkins debuted the same year---1981. All this being said, CN made the right call in cancelling this episode. Should've sent Klein to the nearest library to get his facts straight.
A big reason why it was pulled was supposedly because they didn't want to upset any remaining H-B executives. Yeah, sure, but there were a lot of screwups in those days.
Yosemite Sam is cast as a Viking named Sam The Terrible, who invades an island with only an elephant to help him. Bugs Bunny appoints himself the island's protector in "Prince Violent" (a play on the comic strip Prince Valiant).
Before Cartoon Network came into existence in 1992, Nickelodeon was home to a large chunk of syndicated Looney Tunes shorts that were otherwise not airing on ABC, which was on its 3rd go-round carrying the classic shorts.
Initially, shorts from the pre-Bugs Bunny era of the 30's, featuring the likes of Buddy and Bosko, were mixed with 60's shorts, mostly produced by Format Films and/or DePatie-Freleng after the Termite Terrace studio at WB was closed. Eventually, Nick & ABC began swappiing shorts until both terminated their contracts with WB, as Cartoon Network became the exclusive home of the Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies in 2000 (extended to include Boomerang, of course).
Nick suits were able to program a block as part of the primetime Nick at Nite block, which didn't last as long as the daytime blocks. As with ABC, many of the shorts were edited for various reasons.
Right now, here's a sample compilation of bumpers, plus the open & closing.
10 years was a pretty healthy run on Nick, but given how CN/Boomerang have mistreated Bugs and the gang in recent years, the short term successes of The Looney Tunes Show and New Looney Tunes aside, and the turmoil surrounding HBO Max, maybe WB should consider lowering the price of those Golden Collection DVD sets......
