You Know The Voice: Paul Winchell (1966)

From the final season of The Dick Van Dyke Show:

Paul Winchell guest stars as a ventriloquist named Claude Wilbur, whose puppet, Jellybean, is one of the hottest acts on television. Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and his staff inquire about a job opening after they panic over the prospect of being dismissed from the Alan Brady Show per a network memo that Rob finds in the trash.

Paul appears around the 11-12 minute mark in "Talk To The Snail":

Toons You Might've Missed: Dingbat in Sour Grapes (1950)

After debuting as a supporting character in the Gandy Goose shorts, Dingbat, meant to be Terrytoons' answer to Tweety, was given a series of his own. His antagonist was Sylvester the Fox (Dayton Allen), who spoke almost exactly like his feline namesake, though Allen made a point of not trying to mimic Mel Blanc.

However, most of us grew up not seeing Dingbat or Gandy, as syndication in the 70's meant a steady diet of Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, & Deputy Dawg, with a side order of Hector Heathcote. As a result, we're probably seeing this next item, "Sour Grapes", released in December 1950, for the first time.



Rating: B-.

Saturday School: Fat Albert in Spare The Rod (1979)

After producing four seasons of first run episodes over the first seven years (1972-9), Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids went back into production as The New Fat Albert Show, adding the show-within-a-show, The Brown Hornet, which gave the gang an object lesson to use during the rest of the show.

In "Spare The Rod", Fat Albert (Bill Cosby) becomes concerned when a classmate has bruises on her arms, which leads to the suspicion that her mother or father has been abusing her.



Only three seasons were produced during this period (1979-82) before going back to reruns for the rest of the CBS run, 24 episodes total. New episodes didn't resume until the series entered syndication in 1984.

Rating: A.

Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits: Machine Gun (1974)

From Soul Train:

The Commodores released their debut album in 1974. Ye scribe didn't become familiar with them until a few years later, when they released hits like "Sail On" and "Lady (You Bring Me Up)". Here, though, was their debut, the title instrumental from "Machine Gun":

On The Air: Inspector Gadget (2015)

More than 30 years after his debut, Inspector Gadget is back on the job.

Canada's DHX Media has revived the series, which marks the return of the cyborg detective for the first time since the passing of his original portrayer, Don Adams. Ivan Sherry does his best mimic of Adams, but, as you'll see, it's the same old Gadget, although his nemesis Dr. Claw isn't quite as evil as he once was, and Claw now has a nephew, Talon, who secretly is interested in Gadget's niece, Penny, who now officially is her uncle's partner.

The series finally has an American home, as it's currently airing on Universal Kids (formerly Sprout). The 4th (current) season began this winter.

Curiously, while virtually all of the roles were recast, the most glaring change is that Frank Welker, the original Dr. Claw, wasn't invited back. Neither was Cree Summer, as Tara Strong takes over as Penny. Also, Derek McGrath (ex-My Secret Identity) is on board as the new voice of Chief Quimby.

In this episode, Dr. Claw & Talon steal all of Metro City's water, but have different ideas about using it.

Edit, 11/4/23: Had to change the video. 

Contrary to the original 1983-6 series, this version follows the current trend with two 15 minute installments for each half hour. 

Rating: C.

Daytime Heroes: Mighty Mouse in The Racket Buster (1949)

Now, here's a rarity. A Mighty Mouse cartoon that features Pearl Pureheart, but not their mutual nemesis, Oil Can Harry. Instead, you have some gangster cats (their leader is a stereotype Edward G. Robinson mimic) who try to rub out Mighty Mouse, gangster style. Of course, you know how this will go.

Here's "The Racket Buster":



By this point in the series, they were alternating between standard fare such as this and the operatic bits where you'd find Pearl & Harry. We'll have one of the opera shorts down the line.

Rating: B.

Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits: A Circle of Blue (1968)

Thanks to catching up with The Archie Show via syndicated reruns on cable in the late 70's, I was able to pick my favorite Archies songs, and here's one of them. The two-part harmony of Archie & Reggie (singing voices by Ron Dante & Andy Kim) fuels "A Circle of Blue".