Our final Valentoon for this year features Popeye.
Unsurprisingly, during season 1 of The All-New Popeye Hour, CBS managed to gain a primetime special, the first for the spinach-eating sailor (Jack Mercer). "Sweethearts at Sea" is an elongated version of a typical Popeye plot from the 60's involving the Sea Hag (Marilyn Schreffler, who also voices Olive Oyl), who all of a sudden is smitten with Popeye. Bluto (Allan Melvin) is, of course, more than willing to see to it that he gets Olive all to himself, but you know how this will end, don't you?
Yes, it's the same theme song used on Saturday mornings. I guess the intention was that if possible, they could replay this in the rerun cycle of the regular series, but I'm not sure if they ever did.
No rating.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Toonfomercial: Donald Duck shills for the March of Dimes (1954)
Disney cleverly edited a Donald Duck short to create this ad for the March of Dimes from 1954. Huey, Dewey, & Louie made $3 from shoveling snow, but they want to spend the money on sodas. Donald's got other ideas.
Valentoons: Romie-o & Julie-8 (1979)
Canada's Nelvana Studios served up a very, very loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, set in the far flung future.
Romie-o & Julie-8 was premiered in syndication in April 1979, but hasn't seen the light of day much since. As with The Devil & Daniel Mouse, ex-Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian wrote much of the music, aided this time by The Band's Richard Manuel and a then-unknown blues singer-songwriter who'd later become a household name, especially in the home district, Rory Block.
The plot: The titular androids meet at a convention, where Romie-o saves Julie-8 from an overly amorous human. We all know that robots aren't supposed to have human emotions, but it's become increasingly common in science fiction to give androids human feelings, to make it easier for them to fit in. Luckily, unlike Shakespeare's original story, this has a happy ending. Of course it would.
How the networks passed on this, I'll never know, though it probably did air on a Canadian network........!
Rating: B.
Romie-o & Julie-8 was premiered in syndication in April 1979, but hasn't seen the light of day much since. As with The Devil & Daniel Mouse, ex-Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian wrote much of the music, aided this time by The Band's Richard Manuel and a then-unknown blues singer-songwriter who'd later become a household name, especially in the home district, Rory Block.
The plot: The titular androids meet at a convention, where Romie-o saves Julie-8 from an overly amorous human. We all know that robots aren't supposed to have human emotions, but it's become increasingly common in science fiction to give androids human feelings, to make it easier for them to fit in. Luckily, unlike Shakespeare's original story, this has a happy ending. Of course it would.
How the networks passed on this, I'll never know, though it probably did air on a Canadian network........!
Rating: B.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits: Honey (1970)
From Archie's Funhouse comes this romantic tune, just in time for Valentine's Day. Here's "Honey":
Friday, February 10, 2017
Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Tonto vs. the Black Arrow (1966)
The writers of the 1966 Lone Ranger series didn't exactly have Robert Louis Stevenson in mind when they came up with the masked "Black Arrow" (Michael Rye) as an opponent for Tonto (Shep Menken), but make of this however you will.
This just wasn't given enough time. Period.
Rating: B-.
This just wasn't given enough time. Period.
Rating: B-.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Toons You Might've Missed: John Doormat (1956)
In the late 50's, Gene Deitch was brought to Terrytoons to help develop new stars. Deitch decided that it was past time that Terrytoons began creating human characters to complement, though in this case they would replace, classic characters like Heckle & Jeckle and Mighty Mouse.
Unfortunately, John Doormat was not the answer.
Doormat appeared in 4 shorts total between 1956-9, but the animation was much more limited than usual, lacking the fluidity of earlier works. It didn't help that Doormat wasn't really a likeable character. As demonstrated in "Another Day, Another Doormat", Doormat is, to use modern parlance, whipped.
I think I can see why these shorts have rarely aired on television.
Rating: C-.
Unfortunately, John Doormat was not the answer.
Doormat appeared in 4 shorts total between 1956-9, but the animation was much more limited than usual, lacking the fluidity of earlier works. It didn't help that Doormat wasn't really a likeable character. As demonstrated in "Another Day, Another Doormat", Doormat is, to use modern parlance, whipped.
I think I can see why these shorts have rarely aired on television.
Rating: C-.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
You Know The Voice: Bill Thompson (1959)
To cartoon buffs, Bill Thompson is best known as the original voice of Droopy, and also essayed the role of park ranger J. Audubon Woodlore in a few Disney cartoons. Like many voice actors of the Golden Age, Bill came from radio (particularly Fibber McGee & Molly), but he was in another line of work when he was brought to New York to appear on To Tell The Truth in 1959. Another radio alum and voice actor, of course, is host Bud Collyer (Superman).
Bill is in game 2, which begins around the 9 minute mark or so.
Figuring out which of the three men was Bill was rather easy, wasn't it?
Bill is in game 2, which begins around the 9 minute mark or so.
Figuring out which of the three men was Bill was rather easy, wasn't it?
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