Toons After Dark: Family Dog (1993)

In the early 90's, ABC & CBS each attempted to develop animated primetime series in answer to Fox's The Simpsons, but couldn't find the right formula.

Family Dog had its roots in a 1987 episode of NBC's Amazing Stories, a Steven Spielberg-produced anthology series that lasted just 2 seasons. Created by Brad Bird, this was your typical domestic pet cartoon, assuming your pet was raised on, say for example, Harry the Dirty Dog and Dennis the Menace.

Unfortunately, viewers voted with their remotes, as six years had passed since the backdoor pilot had aired. Bird had moved on, and if memory serves he was working on, ironically enough, The Simpsons, by this point. The creative pedigree, aside from Spielberg, who had a couple of daytime toons on the air by this point, included Tim Burton and Paul Dini, the latter having graduated to icon status thanks to a certain Dark Knight.

Here's a sample episode:

This wound up filed under "troubled productions". Universal & WB collaborated with Amblin (Spielberg's company) on the show, and after showing dissatisfaction with the overseas animators, had Canada's Nelvana Studios redo the episodes.

Rating: C.

From Comics To Toons: Driven to Distraction (Archie's Weird Mysteries, 1999)

From Archie's Weird Mysteries:

Betty & Veronica have a new rival for Archie's affections, but it just so happens to be a cherry (or is that blood) red convertible that Archie has christened, Betsy. "Driven to Distraction" is a very loose adaptation of sorts of Stephen King's Christine. You'll see why as we go along.

By the time they made this series, the beaten up jalopy that had been Archie's mode of transportation in the 60's had been phased out, and "Betsy" had been used in the comics before this episode. 

Rating: B.

Spooktober: Darkstalkers (1995)

Darkstalkers was based on a series of video games made by the folks at Capcom. Graz Entertainment acquired a license to do a weekly animated series, which lasted just 13 weeks. As memory serves, the series aired in Boston on WSBK, but I don't recall any stations in New York carrying the show.

If you've wondered why no one has brought this show back, it might be because it's locked in Capcom's vaults.

I didn't watch much of the show when it first came out, so there won't be a rating. Here's the intro:

Looney TV: Hippety Hopper (1949)

How can anyone confuse a baby kangaroo from Australia with a tiny American mouse?

It became a running joke in the course of 16 Hippety Hopper cartoons, produced between 1948-64. Hippety never had a short all to himself, although this next item bears his name. In it, a Brooklyn mouse, contemplating suicide, is saved by Hippety, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the rodent also mistakes Hippety for one of his kin. I guess it's because they have the same skin color. Anyway, inevitably, the mouse takes Hippety home with him to confront Sylvester. You can guess the rest.

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Hippety never spoke---he was a baby, after all---so everyone else had to carry the action for him. Some folks must wonder why Sylvester drew the short straw to get embarrassed by Hippety every time.

Rating: A.

You Know The Voice(s): Len Maxwell & Jack Sheldon (1964)

This clip is also at The Land of Whatever.

We previously presented Jack Sheldon doing his stand-up act on The Nut House, a failed pilot from Jay Ward. Here, Sheldon & Len Maxwell (later of Batfink) help a soldier try to record a message to his mom. Alan Sues, later of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, shows up near the end of the skit as time runs out on the show. Literally.

Literary Toons: SuperTed (1983)

In 1978, animator Mike Young,  better known here in the US for his later reimagining of He-Man, among other things, developed a series of stories about a sentient teddy bear endowed with super powers. The idea was that Young wanted to help his son overcome his fear of the dark, and in the original stories, SuperTed would also have the same phobia.

Five years later, Young reworked the origin for a series of animated shorts that aired first in the UK, then were imported to the US by the Disney Channel. This time, SuperTed was just a discarded teddy bear deemed defective by the manufacturer. An alien named Spotty (Jon Pertwee, ex-Doctor Who) brought the bear to life with some cosmic dust. Mother Nature endowed the bear with powers to fight crime. Derek Griffiths voiced SuperTed.

In 1989, Hanna-Barbera obtained a license to adapt the series for American audiences. Since SuperTed had been out of production, the battling bruin returned in The New Adventures of SuperTed as part of the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera anthology package, but, save for Victor Spinetti as Texas Pete and one other cast member, H-B opted to recast virtually every role. Danny Cooksey (ex-Diff'rent Strokes) took over as Ted. We'll review H-B's version another time.

Right now, though, let's join SuperTed & Spotty as they try to round up Texas Pete and his henchmen in "SuperTed and the Stolen Rocketship":

Droll, not so much different from any other action cartoon of the day, save for its length.

Rating: B-.

Toonfomercial: Bugs Bunny for Yellow Pages (1973)

I have no idea when this commercial first aired, but this is an obscurity I hadn't seen before.

Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) is a guest, apparently on a talk show, joined by Rose Marie (Hollywood Squares, ex-The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Johnny Brown (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, later of Good Times).



Edit, 12/22/16: Updated text.