Paul Lynde's only steady gig by 1976 was as the center square on Hollywood Squares, while periodically appearing on Donny & Marie. Still, ABC gave him his first and only primetime special, airing on Halloween weekend. The Osmond sibs make an appearance, unadvertised, plus Florence Henderson, KISS, Margaret Hamilton, Billy Barty, and Roz Kelly. Ernie Anderson is the announcer.
Yes, I previously screened this over at The Land of Whatever a ways back. This show aired on a Friday, and I wasn't home to see it, if memory serves. No rating.
After being reintroduced earlier in the series, Darkwing Duck appears in the season 3 DuckTales episode, "Let's Get Dangerous". Yes, that's Darkwing's catchphrase from the original 1991 series, and this, more than anything, is a back-door pilot for a new series that would be a spin-off from the current DuckTales.
Drake Mallard (Chris Diamantopoulos) was introduced as an up and coming actor hired for a movie about Darkwing, a radical change from the original concept. He adopts Gosalyn (Stephanie Beatriz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as his ward after her efforts to locate her missing grandfather, well, you'll have to see it to find out. Uploaded by DisneyXD's YouTube channel.
DuckTales' 21st century relaunch also created a shared universe for Disney's family of series from the late 80's and early 90's. Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera (Lin-Manuel Miranda), aka Gizmoduck, was rebooted as a Latino because the show's producers felt there hasn't been enough Latino representation in the superhero community, which is actually true.
Jealousy will cloud minds more than any other negative emotion. And it was a recurring theme in Filmation's Secrets of Isis and Shazam! in the mid-70's.
Gender equity plays a role here, too, as a young woman wants to join an aeronautics competition at Larkspur High, but a jealous boy wants to put a stop to that. Here's "Dreams of Flight":
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tiny Toon Adventures' debut on Fox. What better way to mark the occasion, then, by announcing that the beloved denizens of Acme Acres are finally returning.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros. & Variety.
Yes, Buster, Babs, and the gang will return in Tiny Toons Looniversity, which is ticketed, of course, for HBO Max, which, I think, has the rights to the original series. Steven Spielberg has already signed on as executive producer. With another Spielberg series, Animaniacs, set to return next month on Hulu, all that's needed now is to bring back Freakazoid!, and 90's toon fanatics would be in hog heaven. Personally, I'd be happy if they spun off Toby Danger, the back-up feature from Freakazoid! that parodied Jonny Quest long before The Venture Brothers, and let it stand on its own, but that's me.
To paraphrase Stephen King, sometimes, they all come back. Eventually.
Season 2 of Tales From The Cryptkeeper saw EC's other horror hosts, the Vault Keeper & the Old Witch, envious of the Cryptkeeper becoming a TV star, try to replace him.
The Vault Keeper (David Hemblen) traps the Cryptkeeper (John Kassir) in a newspaper so he can introduce "All The Gory Details"
ABC cancelled the series after 2 seasons, but then Nelvana brought it back as New Tales From The Cryptkeeper for CBS in 1999.
General Foods' advertising agency thought it'd be a clever idea to send some kids into space as ambassadors for Honey Comb cereal. Apparently, though, this was a 1-shot, as the ambassadors sell the cereal to some octopus-like aliens. Jackson Beck is the narrator.
Every now and again, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello would not be partners, but instead be playing individual roles, as is the case in 1946's "The Time of Their Lives".
Lou is a Colonial era tinker, competing with a duplicitous nobleman (Abbott) for a young maid's hand. Circumstances result in Horatio (Costello) and the wife of another nobleman being mistakenly branded as traitors and killed, leaving their ghosts to haunt the grounds until their innocence can be proven. Gale Sondergaard and Marjorie Reynolds co-star.
Edit, 9/18/23: Had to change to a trailer for the movie:
Abbott essays a dual role, as he also portrays a modern descendant of the nobleman, seeking to atone for his ancestor's misdeeds. Costello may be the same bumbling soul he usually played, but here he's brave instead of cowardly, motivated by the pursuit of innocence.
After more than 20 years, Paramount Studios rolled out the last Popeye theatrical short in the summer of 1957, "Spooky Swabs". Paramount, of course, had distributed every one of the sailor's adventures, dating back to his days with the Fleischers.
Popeye (Jack Mercer) & Olive (Mae Questel) are stranded at sea until they happen across a 17th century ghost ship....
You might wonder how Popeye, in the 20th century, could eat a can of spinach that's roughly 300 years old. It's a cartoon. No need to wonder.
Washington Irving's legendary Headless Horseman had the distinction of encountering both sets of animated Ghostbusters. Filmation's team actually befriended the Horseman after Jake Kong, Jr. learned to forgive him for the past, and the Horseman comes in handy on a time trip.
Was it necessary to give this Horseman an actual head? Maybe, for comic effect.
Disney knows what to do with Jim Henson's Muppet franchise.
After a primetime sitcom featuring the classic characters ended up cancelled after 1 season on ABC (2015-6), Disney brought back Muppet Babies for Disney Junior two years ago. It's flown under the radar to this point, but that is all about to change.
The new series introduces a new character, Summer Penguin, who may or may not show up with the adult versions of the gang in future projects, we just don't know. Nanny, now known as Ms. Nanny, appears to be younger than in the original 1984-91 series, voiced by Jenny Slate (ex-Saturday Night Live). The CGI animation makes the gang so much more lifelike, and they've added those curmudgeons from The Muppet Show, Statler & Waldorf, much younger, of course, and commentating from the upper levels of their building (of course).
Aside from Jenny Slate, the voice talent also includes toon vets Cree Summer and Eric Bauza, and from what we've seen, the show is on point, already renewed for a 3rd season, which, given how "seasons" are defined differently on cable, means 3 "seasons" in just 2 years.
I chose the image above, rather than run the risk of pulling a video that's likely to be taken down by YouTube, because there's something in the wind that may create some unpleasant tension for the series' future.
You see, veteran writer Jeffrey Scott, who helped develop the original series, among his many toon credits (i.e. Super Friends), is alleging that Disney is using his story bible from the original series for the new show, without his consent, and is filing suit. Expect this to be settled out of court in due course.
Just like the original, the new Muppet Babies gets an A.
We had this up a while ago, but it was bounced due to copyright issues. Let's try this again.
"Three Little Bops" reposits the Three Little Pigs as a swinging jazz trio, with the Big Bad Wolf trying to crash the act. Stan Freberg narrates, and voices the pigs & wolf. Music by Shorty Rogers and friends.
Yeah, we can only present the title card. Bummer, man.
It's too bad Friz Freleng couldn't follow this up, but some of the musicians that backed Rogers on this short followed Freleng as he founded DePatie-Freleng nearly a decade later, and did some of the music for the Ant & The Aardvark.
Monster Tails was the other animated component of the short-lived Wake, Rattle, & Roll 30 years ago. These monsters are meant to be the pets of the familiar ghouls (i.e. Dracula). When you're only given 5-6 minutes per short, 5 days a week, you need to make a good first impression. Since the series was cancelled, with rerun rights granted to a then-premium Disney Channel, you can imagine that they didn't, even with talent like Charlie Adler (Tiny Toon Adventures) and Jonathan Winters (ex-Smurfs, Mork & Mindy).
In "New Corpses on The Slab", Igor, Jr. (Adler), shut out of getting tickets to see The Graveyard Gang in concert, creates his own band (a parody of New Kids on The Block, who had their own show on ABC that same year).
I think viewers took one look at Igor, Jr., a nerdy hunchback, and said, thanks, but no thanks.
Topper Toys usually lagged miles behind its competitors (i.e. Mattel, Kenner, Hasbro) back in the day, no matter how hard they tried.
To that end, the company hired jazz icon Louis Armstrong to help sell Suzy Cute around 1965 or so. To tell you the truth, I think poor Suzy was off the market by the end of the decade.....!
The current rights holders to the Peanuts specials have decided to take the classics, such as It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, off broadcast TV, and move them to the Apple+ TV streaming service.
You know how it is. It's all about the dolla-dolla bill, y'all. There's more money to be made in streaming these cartoons online, and while Apple will stream it for free for a few days, don't count on them doing that every year. If you don't feel streaming is an option, you might want to see if it's still available on DVD.
Apple's doing the same thing next month with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but not with December's A Charlie Brown Christmas. I guess they're hoping you buy the stream as a holiday gift, or something.
Robert Kimmel Smith's Chocolate Fever comes to television, adapted by the author himself.
Henry (David Mendenhall) is like a lot of ordinary kids, except that he just doesn't have a sweet tooth when it comes to chocolate. It's an addiction of sorts, and it leads to the titular affliction, which brings with it an important lesson.....!
At the end of the 5th season, Lassie, by this point now produced by Jack Wrather, had a crossover of a sort with another property owned by Wrather at the time-----The Lone Ranger!
The "Peace Patrol" referenced in the title was a promotion associated with Lone Ranger, and Timmy (Jon Provost), along with Lassie, joins up. Clayton Moore guest stars.
Note: Part of the opening credits, and the closing credits, have been edited off.
There is another copy that has the complete opening credits, but a shorter running time, and part of the opening scene was edited off that copy.
Ten years after her first DCAU DTV, Wonder Woman returns in an all-new adventure, "Wonder Woman: Bloodlines".
An updated, abridged version of the origin is told, as Diana (Rosario Dawson, ex-Luke Cage, The Defenders, etc.) leave Themyscira, disowned by her mother after freeing Steve Trevor (Jeffrey Donovan, ex-Burn Notice), in order to thwart an alien invasion.
Five years later, a new threat arises, involving some familiar enemies of the Amazing Amazon. Familiar, at least, to long time comics fans. IGN offers a trailer:
Much of the film is built around reimagined versions of some of the characters, including Etta Candy (Adrienne C. Moore, Orange is The New Black), who was flipped to African-American under writer Greg Rucka. Having seen Ms. Moore's picture, I'm guessing the design for Etta in the movie might partially be based on the actress herself.
One of the funnier bits involves the use of a minotaur (Michael Dorn), who eventually joins Diana's team. That's all I'm going to say for right now. Meanwhile, some genius decided to give Trevor a beard, designed such that you'd be forgiven if Steve was mistaken for Oliver Queen....!
Bruce Coville's The Monster's Ring was adapted by Hanna-Barbera Australia for Storybreak, and follows a familiar path. A troubled youth, a victim of bullying, acquires a strange ring that turns him into, well.....!
Host Bob Keeshan's bumpers were edited off. Don't ask.
After a colossal stink bomb that was The Scooby-Doo Project in 1999, Cartoon Network tried to do right by its viewers and fans of the franchise with another Halloween-themed special 2 years later.
Night of The Living Doo is a left-handed nod to the 1972-4 New Scooby-Doo Movies, as well as a parody of George Romero's classic, "Night of The Living Dead". As advertised, Gary Coleman, David Cross, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are the guests, plus Mark Hamill, the only one of the lot with any previous interaction with Scooby & the gang (Mark, remember, voiced Corey on Jeannie, and there was a crossover during season 2 of the Movies).
CN copied their strategy from 2 years earlier, releasing short interstital chapters before the final product aired to end the Halloween marathon. However, the pacing was a wee bit off. Not good.
In 1992, someone decided to have a little fun, three years after the infamous Milli Vanilli Grammy scandal, to have two anonymous rappers record a single using the names of cartoon icons Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny.
"Dynamite" won't be confused with Jermaine Jackson's hit of the same name eight years earlier, but it does have a nice, funky beat. The video mixes together footage from various shorts, including "Yankee Doodle Daffy", "Any Bonds Today?", "Three Little Bops", and also incorporating some material (look quick at the end) from Bugs & Daffy's Carnival of The Animals, which we reviewed the other day.
There is very little information available online as to the true identities of the artists.
Six years after he'd charted for the last time, Rick Nelson and his Stone Canyon Band appeared on The Midnight Special to perform "Garden Party", which was Rick's lyrical account of a disastrous appearance at Madison Square Garden in 1971.
Host Wolfman Jack interviews Rick before the song, and they awkwardly close the show.
Principal Prickley (Dabney Coleman) decides to replace "Old Rusty", the jungle gym in the playground beloved by the children of Third Street Elementary, with a new, up-to-date model, but the kids have other ideas. Here's "The Great Jungle Gym Standoff":
GEICO acquired a license last year to use Casper as part of their GEICO-ween promotion, which has seen them bring the ads from last year back this year.
Here, Casper makes an uncharacteristically annoying guest on movie night.
Filmation's 2nd generation Ghostbusters travel back in time to the Salem witch trials to save Futura. Here's "Witch's Stew":
Had the series been renewed for a 2nd season, instead of being replaced by Bravestarr, they could've followed up on Jake's romantic conumdrum. Futura's got the hots for him, while he was interested in reporter Jessica (both women voiced by Susan Blu). At least Eddie could help to make it a double date.....
The poetry of Ogden Nash had been adapted for television before in the short-lived 1970 series, Tomfoolery, for NBC. Six years later, Chuck Jones fused together Nash's verse with the music of Camille Saint-Saens, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, with help from Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc).
Bugs & Daffy's Carnival of The Animals continues the rivalry between Bugs & Daffy borne in classic shorts years earlier. For example, as you'll see, when Bugs enters, he arrives to applause, while Daffy gets-----crickets.
CBS blew an opportunity to repurpose this as a Saturday morning special. I'm begging HBO Max to pick this up, since Chumptoon Network couldn't be bothered to run it.
We've previously seen Jackie Joseph on Gomer Pyle, USMC, but her first appearance on the show came in season 1.
Here, she has the attention of Sgt. Vince Carter (Frank Sutton) in this short excerpt.
As we know, a year later, Jackie would turn up on Hogan's Heroes, and continue a string of guest shots, including The Wild, Wild West, F-Troop, & Run, Buddy, Run. Too bad she never got her own show.......
Vincent Price, at the time fresh off the short-lived Time Express, is your genial, vampiric host for Once Upon a Midnight Scary, a Halloween themed special that includes an excerpt from the often adapted Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving's legendary tome, which turns 200 this year, and The House With a Clock Within Its Walls, a 1973 story that was adapted into a feature film starring Jack Black just a couple of years ago.
The ratings must not have been good enough for this to be encored on an annual basis. No rating.
Part of the merchandising that came with the 1995 "Casper" movie was having the lovable ghost do an ad for Pepsi. As you'll see, Casper finds out the hard way that he can't make a solid object immaterial like himself.....
It was the late Tex Avery that first postulated the idea of sentient vehicles in a couple of shorts for MGM back in the day.
It wasn't so long ago that Disney & Pixar came up with the "Cars" trilogy of movies, which, surprisingly, hasn't led to a weekly series.
So now, someone has sold an idea to Warner Bros. Animation that would consider the prospect of the Batmobile, and other Bat-vehicles, mind you, gaining sentience.
Batwheels is heading for HBO Max & Chumptoon Network, perhaps as early as next year, aimed at preschoolers. Bear in mind that CN tried a line of pre-school toons a number of years back that didn't get the ratings they were hoping for, and were cancelled inside of a year or two.
There's no guarantee that, as of this writing, we'd see the Batman on this show, though I'd suspect it would be a given in the final product.
Well, it could've been worse. They could've revived Turbo Teen, a Knight Rider parody that Ruby-Spears produced for ABC in the mid-80's, but then, it's easier to sell toy Batmobiles if there's a show full of them.....
You just don't see animated commercials for products like Diaparene anymore, but back in the 70's, they'd commission a cartoon for just about any sponsor.
Simply animated, and gets the point across. Scope:
Rowlf the Dog (Jim Henson), fresh from The Jimmy Dean Show, promotes a line of Muppet puppets that the kiddo's could use themselves. Henson had cut a deal with Ideal Toys for the products.
You'd think these would've still been on the market around the time Sesame Street launched three years later, but nope.
Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of split personalities goes feline when "Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat":
This was still early in the series, with Mighty Mouse wore a Superman-inspired blue & red costume. The more familiar yellow & red suit was still to come.
In an election-themed episode, Stacy Ferguson (later Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas) shares lead vocals on a cover of Foreigner's 1987 hit, "Say You Will". In case you wonder, another future pop star, Martika (Marta Marrero), and actor-dancer-musician-do-everything Mario Lopez had long since left the series. Lopez, in fact, was on Good Morning, Miss Bliss by this point, and by 1988, Kids and Bliss (later retitled Saved by The Bell) were on Disney Channel.
Ryan Lambert had been in the movie "Monster Squad", also in '87 (no connection to the 1976 TV series of the same name), but has swapped music for filmmaking.
It was, for all intents and purposes, Jim Henson's last project before his passing in 1990. He had been working on a project involving dinosaurs, and the final product became a sitcom that was, in a way, Henson's answer to The Flintstones, which had marked its 30th anniversary in 1990.
Dinosaurs premiered in the spring of 1991, and was an almost immediate hit. The central family, the Sinclairs, were the tip-off that the series was also a satirical poke at the oil industry, since characters such as the Sinclairs and Earl's boss, a Mr. Richfield, were named for prominent oil companies (Richfield being part of Atlantic-Richfield, for example).
The voice cast included Stuart Pankin (Not Necessarily The News), Jessica Walter, Sherman Hemsley (Amen), Michelan Sisti ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"), Steve Landesberg (ex-Barney Miller), and Christopher Meloni, well before Law & Order: Special Victims Unit made him a primetime icon, and, well, now you know why he was so comfortable with cartoon work of late (i.e. Harley Quinn).
Why do I think it should've been on Saturdays? Repurposing, for one thing, to ensure it would have a strong, steady audience, as some folks might not have been watching on weeknights, and assumed, just because Henson's son, Brian, was an executive producer, that this was meant for the kiddo's. Then again, Flintstones was meant to be an adult cartoon, too.
Here's the intro:
Aside from a likely run on Disney Channel, the series was never released in syndication, for reasons known only to Disney. Their loss.
It was a common practice back in the day for a comedy act to, ah, double up when a script called for them to have children.
In the case of The Three Stooges, Moe & Shemp Howard and Larry Fine double as their own sons, who have inherited their fathers' slapstick habits, as the fathers spin the tale of "Creeps":
"Creeps" was a remake of a 1949 short, also with Shemp. I've seen this one more frequently over the years, though.
"Terrifying Tales of Recess" (italics mine, of course) is the sixth season opener of the series, which had just six episodes in its final season. In a way, it's Disney's answer to The Simpsons' annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes (which would constitute a DVD release all by itself). The three vignettes include a knockoff of the adaptation of Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, two years after another King story, Christine, was loosely adapted for Archie's Weird Mysteries.
