Monday, March 12, 2012

Saturtainment: Breezly & Sneezly (1964)

Hanna-Barbera was bound & determined to get over the concept of a freeloading comedy team. Previous attempts included Hokey Wolf, and, as part of The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series, Lippy The Lion & Hardy Har-Har. In 1964, they tried again, this time with Breezly & Sneezly, which was initially a backup segment on The Peter Potamus Show, then was swapped over to Magilla Gorilla in season 2 in exchange for Ricochet Rabbit.

Now, using a polar bear and a seal in this context should've worked, except for one thing. The other series noted above had aired just a few years prior, and in Lippy's case, only 2 years passed before Breezly came along. Some older viewers might've recognized some of the similar plot ideas and gags and decided to pass. It's a shame, really, because the biggest difference was in Sneezly (Mel Blanc), whose unpredictable penchant for ill-timed sneezes, even if they weren't allergic in nature, created some interesting gags. Enterprising Breezly (Howard Morris) might as well have been auditioning to replace the Trix Rabbit, because his schemes never worked a large majority of the time. Part of the problem was that the action was centered on a military installation in Alaska, Camp Frostbite, whose major domo, Colonel Fuzzby (John Stephenson), always seemed to be prepared for Breezly's antics.

For now, we have just this short snippet:



H-B would revisit this concept again several years later with Dirty Dog, a backup feature on Kwicky Koala. Sad to say, that didn't work, either, as that series was cancelled after 1 year. Breezly, oh by the way, hasn't been seen since Magilla & Peter's respective series were cancelled.

Rating: B.

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