You hear their voices on cartoons but, of course, you never see them. They’re the great voice actors that Hanna-Barbera hired. Most of them had training in the days of radio drama and comedy before television bludgeoned it to death. Some did live action television, so their faces may be familiar.
We’ve posted pictures of some of them here before—Daws Butler, Don Messick, Doug Young, the casts of The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Top Cat. And you’ve seen others elsewhere on the internet. But I’ve got a file folder with photos and clippings that I don’t think have been posted, so I’m doing it now.
This is not intended as a complete, definitive photo gallery, so don’t ask “Why isn’t there a picture of Lennie Weinrib?” and then list every cartoon role he ever played. I’m just putting up a miscellany of graphic files I’ve accumulated. Some are trade ads, others are publicity head shots.
Daws Butler improved every cartoon he appeared in, and some needed a lot of help. This shot must be from the early ‘50s when he was working with Stan Freberg, and comes from a biography about him broadcast years ago on PBS. Daws had so many great voices, it’s impossible to pick a favourite. I do have a favourite one-shot voice, though. It’s when Daws did his Fred Allen impression in the Huckleberry Hound cartoon “Skeeter Trouble.” My dad came into the living room when the cartoon was on and remarked that it was Fred Allen. “No, dad, it’s Daws Butler,” I replied. It’s the only time I ever corrected my father; kids didn’t do that back then. But this was important. We were talking cartoons, after all. (You can also hear Daws as Fred Allen in the August 1956 CBS Radio Workshop production “An Analysis of Satire”).
Mel Blanc was the King of Theatrical Cartoon Actors. There was no one better. He was a tremendous actor, yet he failed when handed a starring role in a radio sitcom in 1946, though the one-dimensional characters and trite concept were the reasons. He didn’t work for Hanna-Barbera until The Flintstones came along. He was Secret Squirrel and, well, a bunch of other characters that didn’t do a lot for me. This trade newspaper ad is from 1950, which gives you an idea what roles Mel thought were his most important at the time.
I love Howie Morris. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen is Howie as Uncle Goopy on the This is Your Life send up on Sid Caesar’s show. His first H-B role, to the best of my knowledge, was Jet Screamer on The Jetsons, though he was pretty funny as Harlan, Cogswell’s lackey. He starred as Atom Ant, tried to enliven Magilla Gorilla cartoons as Mr. Peebles and got a Kellogg’s cereal gig as the voice of Hillbilly Goat, pushing Sugar Stars. He also told off Joe Barbera in language not fit for television, thus resulting in a change of cartoon addresses to the Filmation studio.
Know who this is? He’s in character as Solomon Levy on The Goldbergs radio show. It’s Alan Reed. This trade ad shot is from 1943. He carved out a good radio career before being hired as Fred Flintstone. His best role was probably that of hammy poet Falstaff Openshaw on Fred Allen’s show; the Falstaff voice got recycled as “Frederick” in the first season of The Flintstones. Reed did dialects on radio as well; Pasquale on Life With Luigi may be his best-known one.
This is the guy that Reed replaced as Fred Flintstone because he couldn’t keep enough gravel in his voice during recording sessions. It’s a picture of a young Bill Thompson, who theatrical cartoon fans will know as Droopy (MGM) and J. Audubon Woodlore (Disney). Old radio fans remember his long stint on “Fibber McGee and Molly” starting in the late ‘30s, interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Navy during the war. He was billed as “Jackie Coogan’s Double” at age five and went into vaudeville at 12. The Fibber gig dried up about the time MGM closed its cartoon studio, so Thompson got a job in 1957 as a community relations executive for Union Oil. That’s what he was doing when he arrived at Hanna-Barbera. He starred as Touché Turtle but didn’t do a lot of work for the studio. He died in July 15, 1971 at age 58.
Paul Winchell entertained audiences on radio, TV and cartoons. His sneering Dick Dastardly on Wacky Races was great, though I suspect his first H-B “appearances” were on The Banana Splits Show (both of which debuted in 1968). Winchell, of course, was Gargamel in the studio’s take on The Smurfs and popped up on other series, and made a fine Tigger for Disney. He was born Paul Wilchinsky and he, his father Sol (a tailor by trade), mother Clara and sister Rita were in Los Angeles by 1940 where Paul was acting in what was left of vaudeville. As you likely know, he was an energetic ventriloquist. You should check out a What’s My Line show where Winchell is on the panel and the mystery guests are Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. You can read Mark Evanier’s remembrance of Paul Winchell HERE.
Since we’re on the topic of ventriloquists, Yakky Doodle’s voice is still with us. Jimmy Weldon’s fame from his television appearances in California in the 1950s with his puppet Webster Webfoot. This photo is from 1959. Weldon had replaced Shari Lewis on “Hi Mom,” shot in New York, and would very soon be back on the West Coast. Red Coffey had been doing the voice of a little duck in the earliest Hanna-Barbera cartoons but when the duck was given his own series in 1961, Weldon won the role. He’s spent time in retirement, if you want to call it that, as a motivational speaker.
Hanna-Barbera’s utility man was John Stephenson, who came on board after The Flintstones went to air in 1960. Besides Mr. Slate, he grumbled a lot about “if it wasn’t for those meddling kids and their dog,” started out playing Dr. Benton Quest until Joe Barbera or someone decided to replace him with Don Messick, tried out his Cary Grant voice on Top Cat, had supporting roles on Breezly and Sneezly and Squiddly Diddly (yeah, I know, not exactly two of H-B’s greatest), used Paul Lynde-inspired voices in a couple of series and even voiced later incarnations of Doggie Daddy when Doug Young left California in 1966. He seems to have been in every one of those mid-1970s Tom and Jerry TV cartoons, the stiff-looking, talky ones where the cat and mouse are friends. I always enjoyed watching him on Hogan’s Heroes because I recognised his voice from cartoons. He was still doing commercials up to a few years ago as part of Dick Orkin’s stock company and is apparently doing well in his late 80s. The bio is from a mid-‘50s Radio-Television Mirror magazine when Stephenson was on the sitcom The People’s Choice.
I’m not a fan of the Cindy Bear character, but here are some publicity photos of the young woman who played her, Julie Bennett. The first one is from 1950, the second from 1951. I suspect Cindy’s voice was inspired by magnolia-scented Leila Ransom on radio’s The Great Gildersleeve, voiced by Shirley Mitchell (imitating Una Merkel), who had the misfortune of appearing in Hanna-Barbera’s Roman Holidays. Bennett’s first role for the studio was on “Masking For Trouble” (1959), a Quick Draw McGraw cartoon. Her whereabouts today, unfortunately, are unknown.
Okay, I’m cheating now. Gil Mack never appeared in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. But he voiced a number of H-B characters on Golden Records recorded in New York City. Gil racked up credits on some great shows, as you can see by this 1940 trade newspaper ad, but imitating Daws Butler and Don Messick’s characters wasn’t exactly his forte.
And I’m cheating again. Jack Shaindlin and John Seely never voiced characters but their music was prominent behind the voices on the soundtracks of H-B cartoons from 1957 until Hoyt Curtin started writing underscores in 1960. Biographies of both Shaindlin and Seely have been posted elsewhere on the blog. These are trade ads; Seely’s is from 1961 and Shaindlin’s from probably a decade earlier. This is as good a post as any to put them on the blog.
This is a funny photo I grabbed off Facebook. You know who it is. But someone didn’t. The caption reads:
Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland.
One of the joys of being an archivist is finding mistakes and correcting them. We found this photo in the Imogene Coca file, but it's not her. Students of 1950s television or fans of voice actors, might recognize the face as that of Arnold Stang. But when and where did he dress up in drag?
One Google search later and we learned that the picture is from an episode of the "Red Skelton Show," broadcast on April 2, 1957. One of Skelton's recurring sketch characters, "Cookie," is in the Navy and there's a chance for shore leave in Japan as the prize in a drama contest. So Red became a six-foot-three Romeo to shipmate Stang's five-foot-three Juliet.
Arnold Stang had to be a great comedian to be able to hold his own on TV with hammy scene-stealers like Skelton and Milton Berle. Here’s Stang with his alter ego in a more familiar photo you’ve seen here before.
Of course, there were many more actors who settled in front of the microphones at the Hanna-Barbera studios. All of them were talented. All of them made fans laugh, even though they couldn’t see us and, in a case of tit for tat, we couldn’t see them.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Augie Doggie — Pint Giant
Produced and Directed by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Animation – Dick Lundy, Bob Carr (uncredited)?; Layout – Paul Sommer; Backgrounds – Fernando Montealegre; Story – Mike Maltese; Story Director – Alex Lovy; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson. (no credits)
Voice Cast: Augie Doggie, Mike, Man in Manhole, Man in Window, Man With Packages – Daws Butler; Doggie Daddy, Cop 1 – Doug Young; Hector – Don Messick.
Music: Phil Green, Harry Bluestone-Emil Cadkin, Hecky Krasnow, Jack Shaindlin, Geordie Hormel, unknown.
First Aired: rerun, week of May 8, 1961.
Episode: Quick Draw McGraw Show M-030, Production J-88.
Plot: Doggie Daddy pretends to be a giant after Augie tells a fib to a neighbour boy.
Here’s another cartoon where the star is the dialogue Mike Maltese puts into the mouths of characters in the middle of ridiculous situation. I especially love how Doggie Daddy can’t get his fairy tales straight.
Maltese isn’t just the writer of the cartoon. He’s in it. Well, one of the two cops in this one is named Mike. It’s a pity it’s not a caricature of him. The designs were, according to the Big Cartoon Database, by Paul Sommer. There’s no reason to think otherwise; they don’t look like the work of the other layout artists to me. Monte is the background artist; the style of block letters on the pennants in the opening scene give it away. I like how Augie’s bedroom has a picture of Huckleberry Hound. And Augie’s apparently a weightlifter, too.
BCDB says the animation is by Dick Lundy. I admit I’m sceptical. Lundy drew three Augie cartoons in the first season and they all look different; in “Million-Dollar Robbery,” the characters look hyper at times. He also animated “Patient Pop” in the second season and the main characters look different again. Let’s compare. The frame on the top is from “Pint Giant.” The frame on the bottom is from “Patient Pop.” They’re both from the end of each cartoon when Daddy is laughing, with his head in the farthest right position.
There is a possible explanation. A studio newsletter in the mid-‘60s gave a biography of Bob Carr, saying he did some assistant work on some cartoons before being promoted to a full animator. Some of the drawings, especially of characters with their eyes closed, look like Carr’s to my admittedly not-well-trained eye. So I’m going to speculate he worked on some scenes and Lundy did the rest. Regardless, there’s nothing really all that interesting in the way the characters move in this one. So it’s up to the soundtrack to carry things. Maltese does his best.
Daddy butchers words right off the bat. “Look at dis room! What a mess! I’ll make Augie come in dis instinct and unmess it back neat.” But, first, Daddy observes Augie talking to a human kid, Hector. It’s much in the vein of “Tee or Not Tee Vee” that Maltese wrote in the first season. We get the child-version (as opposed to the boy genius version) of Augie who makes up a story to one-up a bragging school mate. Hector has one of Don Messick’s un-childlike growly back-of-the-throat voices. The kid’s sneering that he’ll play Jack the Giant Killer in the school play and Augie responds by saying he’ll get a “really” giant, one of Maltese’s little dialogue quirks dating back to his days at Warner Bros, and plants some lima beans so a beanstalk will grow by the morning, just like in the fairy tale book.
“After all, who am I to shatter his faith in fairy tales?” says Daddy and the next scene shows him covering the dirt on a makeshift beanstalk. The scene’s in silhouette, which is a nice variation. He’s got Augie’s stilts to put him “in the giant cata-glory.” Morning comes. Augie wakes up (his head top is flat, just like Huckleberry Hound) and he and Hector check out the beanstalk where Daddy’s in a silly costume and holding on. “Fee, fie, and a foe and a fum. Someone has been eatin’ my porridge. I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down.” Hector runs away but Augie chops down the beanstalk.
For reasons of convenience to the plot, Augie isn’t bright enough to recognise Dear Old Dad through the costume (or the voice) or his own stilts. Well, actually, no else does either. Everyone else Daddy meets up with for the rest of the cartoon thinks he’s a giant. Daddy gets tripped up on one of Augie’s skates, sending him 60 miles an hour down the street in a 20 zone. Daddy misquotes Jimmy Durante’s misquote along the way: “Someone stop me before there’s a cat-atstropic.” Of course, since it’s an Augie Doggie cartoon, the rule is if there’s speeding, a cop shows up (the aforementioned Mike and his nameless partner; both non-Irish for a change). Then chase is on but Daddy disappears. The cops decide there was no giant. “Must be the smog.” “Yeah. Makes you see things like giants and stuff.” Turns out Daddy went down a manhole. A sewer worker pops his head up out of the hole and Daddy’s on top of his hard hat. Daws Butler comes up with an odd voice for the sewer worker; I think he’s basing it on William Bendix. “I must be working too hard. I coulda sworn there was someone down here with me.”
“You’ve fee-fied your last fum,” yells Augie, who’s running down the street to lasso dear old dad. “One thing I can’t stand,” he says, “is a giant on stilts.”—as if such a thing is an everyday occurrence (Maybe it is. It would explain the handy bucket of water). Augie finally ropes “the giant” and goes to get help but runs into a guy with Fibber Fox’s voice. The conversation’s plain old silly.
Man: What’s the hurry, sonny?
Augie: I caught a giant! I caught a giant! I caught—
Man: Well, you pick up my packages and I’ll go get your giant.
Augie: Thank you. But be careful. He’s 30 feet tall.
Man: Oh, of course.
Daddy: What happened?
Man: Pardon me. Are you the giant?
Daddy: Uh huh.
Man: Well, how come you’re not 30 feet tall? I was told you were.
Daddy: Very simple. I haven’t been well lately.
Well, time’s just about up, so Maltese has to wrap up the cartoon. Daddy runs away. Cut to a scene of an ill-repaired beanstalk with Daddy pretending to yell at the giant as Augie slides to a stop. Augie’s jumps up and down to the drum kit sound effect before he zooms off to tell Hector he scared off the giant. Daddy’s standard style tag line “After all, what good is a fairy tale widout a happy ending?”
The music fits the action okay, though the sound cutter on this one likes to start new cues in mid-sentence. Sorry I don’t have the titles to some; they may be lost to the ages. The light symphonic string music that, I think, is by Lou De Francesco in the Sam Fox library appears again.
0:00 - Augie Doggie Main Title theme (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin).
0:26 - THE HAPPY COBBLER (Krasnow) – Pan over Augie’s room, Augie talks to Hector, “And when the giant climbs down…”
1:35 - CB-89A ROMANTIC JAUNT (Cadkin-Bluestone) – “Whap!”, Hector walks away, Daddy plants beanstalk.
2:32 - GR-65 BUSH BABY (Green) – Augie in bed, beanstalk, Daddy as giant.
2:53 - jaunty bassoon and skippy strings (Shaindlin) – Augie and Hector run to beanstalk, “Fee, fie…”
3:06 - ZR-94 CHASE (Hormel) – “And a foe…”, Augie chops down beanstalk, Daddy on ground.
3:51 - light symphonic string music (?) – Augie runs, Daddy skates past cops, down manhole, crash.
4:51 - GR-347 GATHERING THE PRODUCE (Green) – Shot of police car, Augie with lasso, Daddy pokes head out from behind building.
5:26 - GR-457 DR QUACK BRIDGE No 1 (Green) – “I hope so, Augie,” water poured on Daddy.
5:39 - PG-177C LIGHT COMEDY MOVEMENT (Green) – Long shot of Daddy wearing bucket, man in window talks to audience.
5:48 - GR-78 CUSTARD PIE CAPERS BRIDGE No 1 (Green) – Daddy runs, Augie lassos, runs into man.
6:01 - EM-107D LIGHT MOVEMENT (Green) – Man talks to Augie and Daddy.
6:32 - tick tock/flute music (Shaindlin) – Beanstalk repaired, Augie excited, Daddy talks to audience.
7:10 - Augie Doggie End Title theme (Curtin).
Animation – Dick Lundy, Bob Carr (uncredited)?; Layout – Paul Sommer; Backgrounds – Fernando Montealegre; Story – Mike Maltese; Story Director – Alex Lovy; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson. (no credits)
Voice Cast: Augie Doggie, Mike, Man in Manhole, Man in Window, Man With Packages – Daws Butler; Doggie Daddy, Cop 1 – Doug Young; Hector – Don Messick.
Music: Phil Green, Harry Bluestone-Emil Cadkin, Hecky Krasnow, Jack Shaindlin, Geordie Hormel, unknown.
First Aired: rerun, week of May 8, 1961.
Episode: Quick Draw McGraw Show M-030, Production J-88.
Plot: Doggie Daddy pretends to be a giant after Augie tells a fib to a neighbour boy.
Here’s another cartoon where the star is the dialogue Mike Maltese puts into the mouths of characters in the middle of ridiculous situation. I especially love how Doggie Daddy can’t get his fairy tales straight.
Maltese isn’t just the writer of the cartoon. He’s in it. Well, one of the two cops in this one is named Mike. It’s a pity it’s not a caricature of him. The designs were, according to the Big Cartoon Database, by Paul Sommer. There’s no reason to think otherwise; they don’t look like the work of the other layout artists to me. Monte is the background artist; the style of block letters on the pennants in the opening scene give it away. I like how Augie’s bedroom has a picture of Huckleberry Hound. And Augie’s apparently a weightlifter, too.
BCDB says the animation is by Dick Lundy. I admit I’m sceptical. Lundy drew three Augie cartoons in the first season and they all look different; in “Million-Dollar Robbery,” the characters look hyper at times. He also animated “Patient Pop” in the second season and the main characters look different again. Let’s compare. The frame on the top is from “Pint Giant.” The frame on the bottom is from “Patient Pop.” They’re both from the end of each cartoon when Daddy is laughing, with his head in the farthest right position.
There is a possible explanation. A studio newsletter in the mid-‘60s gave a biography of Bob Carr, saying he did some assistant work on some cartoons before being promoted to a full animator. Some of the drawings, especially of characters with their eyes closed, look like Carr’s to my admittedly not-well-trained eye. So I’m going to speculate he worked on some scenes and Lundy did the rest. Regardless, there’s nothing really all that interesting in the way the characters move in this one. So it’s up to the soundtrack to carry things. Maltese does his best.
Daddy butchers words right off the bat. “Look at dis room! What a mess! I’ll make Augie come in dis instinct and unmess it back neat.” But, first, Daddy observes Augie talking to a human kid, Hector. It’s much in the vein of “Tee or Not Tee Vee” that Maltese wrote in the first season. We get the child-version (as opposed to the boy genius version) of Augie who makes up a story to one-up a bragging school mate. Hector has one of Don Messick’s un-childlike growly back-of-the-throat voices. The kid’s sneering that he’ll play Jack the Giant Killer in the school play and Augie responds by saying he’ll get a “really” giant, one of Maltese’s little dialogue quirks dating back to his days at Warner Bros, and plants some lima beans so a beanstalk will grow by the morning, just like in the fairy tale book.
“After all, who am I to shatter his faith in fairy tales?” says Daddy and the next scene shows him covering the dirt on a makeshift beanstalk. The scene’s in silhouette, which is a nice variation. He’s got Augie’s stilts to put him “in the giant cata-glory.” Morning comes. Augie wakes up (his head top is flat, just like Huckleberry Hound) and he and Hector check out the beanstalk where Daddy’s in a silly costume and holding on. “Fee, fie, and a foe and a fum. Someone has been eatin’ my porridge. I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down.” Hector runs away but Augie chops down the beanstalk.
For reasons of convenience to the plot, Augie isn’t bright enough to recognise Dear Old Dad through the costume (or the voice) or his own stilts. Well, actually, no else does either. Everyone else Daddy meets up with for the rest of the cartoon thinks he’s a giant. Daddy gets tripped up on one of Augie’s skates, sending him 60 miles an hour down the street in a 20 zone. Daddy misquotes Jimmy Durante’s misquote along the way: “Someone stop me before there’s a cat-atstropic.” Of course, since it’s an Augie Doggie cartoon, the rule is if there’s speeding, a cop shows up (the aforementioned Mike and his nameless partner; both non-Irish for a change). Then chase is on but Daddy disappears. The cops decide there was no giant. “Must be the smog.” “Yeah. Makes you see things like giants and stuff.” Turns out Daddy went down a manhole. A sewer worker pops his head up out of the hole and Daddy’s on top of his hard hat. Daws Butler comes up with an odd voice for the sewer worker; I think he’s basing it on William Bendix. “I must be working too hard. I coulda sworn there was someone down here with me.”
“You’ve fee-fied your last fum,” yells Augie, who’s running down the street to lasso dear old dad. “One thing I can’t stand,” he says, “is a giant on stilts.”—as if such a thing is an everyday occurrence (Maybe it is. It would explain the handy bucket of water). Augie finally ropes “the giant” and goes to get help but runs into a guy with Fibber Fox’s voice. The conversation’s plain old silly.
Man: What’s the hurry, sonny?
Augie: I caught a giant! I caught a giant! I caught—
Man: Well, you pick up my packages and I’ll go get your giant.
Augie: Thank you. But be careful. He’s 30 feet tall.
Man: Oh, of course.
Daddy: What happened?
Man: Pardon me. Are you the giant?
Daddy: Uh huh.
Man: Well, how come you’re not 30 feet tall? I was told you were.
Daddy: Very simple. I haven’t been well lately.
Well, time’s just about up, so Maltese has to wrap up the cartoon. Daddy runs away. Cut to a scene of an ill-repaired beanstalk with Daddy pretending to yell at the giant as Augie slides to a stop. Augie’s jumps up and down to the drum kit sound effect before he zooms off to tell Hector he scared off the giant. Daddy’s standard style tag line “After all, what good is a fairy tale widout a happy ending?”
The music fits the action okay, though the sound cutter on this one likes to start new cues in mid-sentence. Sorry I don’t have the titles to some; they may be lost to the ages. The light symphonic string music that, I think, is by Lou De Francesco in the Sam Fox library appears again.
0:00 - Augie Doggie Main Title theme (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin).
0:26 - THE HAPPY COBBLER (Krasnow) – Pan over Augie’s room, Augie talks to Hector, “And when the giant climbs down…”
1:35 - CB-89A ROMANTIC JAUNT (Cadkin-Bluestone) – “Whap!”, Hector walks away, Daddy plants beanstalk.
2:32 - GR-65 BUSH BABY (Green) – Augie in bed, beanstalk, Daddy as giant.
2:53 - jaunty bassoon and skippy strings (Shaindlin) – Augie and Hector run to beanstalk, “Fee, fie…”
3:06 - ZR-94 CHASE (Hormel) – “And a foe…”, Augie chops down beanstalk, Daddy on ground.
3:51 - light symphonic string music (?) – Augie runs, Daddy skates past cops, down manhole, crash.
4:51 - GR-347 GATHERING THE PRODUCE (Green) – Shot of police car, Augie with lasso, Daddy pokes head out from behind building.
5:26 - GR-457 DR QUACK BRIDGE No 1 (Green) – “I hope so, Augie,” water poured on Daddy.
5:39 - PG-177C LIGHT COMEDY MOVEMENT (Green) – Long shot of Daddy wearing bucket, man in window talks to audience.
5:48 - GR-78 CUSTARD PIE CAPERS BRIDGE No 1 (Green) – Daddy runs, Augie lassos, runs into man.
6:01 - EM-107D LIGHT MOVEMENT (Green) – Man talks to Augie and Daddy.
6:32 - tick tock/flute music (Shaindlin) – Beanstalk repaired, Augie excited, Daddy talks to audience.
7:10 - Augie Doggie End Title theme (Curtin).
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Flintstones Weekend Comics, February 1963
Little Pebbles Flintstone’s birth (on February 22, 1963) didn’t just take up a half hour of TV time. It was heralded in the Flintstones newspaper comics, both the dailies and weekend editions.
The character changed the dynamic of the show. Family man Freddie couldn’t be seen picking on Mommy Flintstone like he had in the first two seasons of the show, so he got toned down a bit. Too bad. Still, some good cartoons were made with Pebbles at the centre of the plot (“Daddies Anonymous” comes to mind) but the show really wasn’t the same. And the less said about later, post-1966 Flintstones incarnations, the better (the cereal commercials with Fred and Barney were more entertaining than the Saturday morning cartoons).
So here are the Flintstones Sunday comics for this month 50 years ago. The last two deal with the arrival of Pebbles.
Did dinosaurs really live in icy, snowy conditions? They do in the February 3rd comic. The last panel is really a treat on all these comics. I love the smiling alligatorsaurus (or whatever it is). One of Fred’s schemes actually works for a change. The incidental character ice fishermen add nicely to the panel.
Ah, the cutsey neighbour girl Amber returns on February 10th. Once Pebbles came along—and started talking via thought balloons—there really wasn’t a need for Amber any more.
The story of how Wilma broke the news to Fred about the pregnancy is different in the comics than the TV show (Hints!? Why didn’t Wilma just tell him earlier?). I really like the layout of the last two panels of the February 17th comic.
I love the final panel of the February 24th comic. No, Fred, things haven’t changed since the Stone Age.
As a Pebbles Birthday Bonus, here are the daily comics from February 18-23. The scans are not all that great.
As usual, click on any of the comics to make them bigger.
The character changed the dynamic of the show. Family man Freddie couldn’t be seen picking on Mommy Flintstone like he had in the first two seasons of the show, so he got toned down a bit. Too bad. Still, some good cartoons were made with Pebbles at the centre of the plot (“Daddies Anonymous” comes to mind) but the show really wasn’t the same. And the less said about later, post-1966 Flintstones incarnations, the better (the cereal commercials with Fred and Barney were more entertaining than the Saturday morning cartoons).
So here are the Flintstones Sunday comics for this month 50 years ago. The last two deal with the arrival of Pebbles.
Did dinosaurs really live in icy, snowy conditions? They do in the February 3rd comic. The last panel is really a treat on all these comics. I love the smiling alligatorsaurus (or whatever it is). One of Fred’s schemes actually works for a change. The incidental character ice fishermen add nicely to the panel.
Ah, the cutsey neighbour girl Amber returns on February 10th. Once Pebbles came along—and started talking via thought balloons—there really wasn’t a need for Amber any more.
The story of how Wilma broke the news to Fred about the pregnancy is different in the comics than the TV show (Hints!? Why didn’t Wilma just tell him earlier?). I really like the layout of the last two panels of the February 17th comic.
I love the final panel of the February 24th comic. No, Fred, things haven’t changed since the Stone Age.
As a Pebbles Birthday Bonus, here are the daily comics from February 18-23. The scans are not all that great.
As usual, click on any of the comics to make them bigger.
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Yogi Bear — Gleesome Threesome
Produced and Directed by Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna.
Credits: Animation – Carlo Vinci, Layout – Tony Rivera, Backgrounds – Dick Thomas, Story – Warren Foster, Story Director – Alex Lovy, Titles – Art Goble, Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Voice Cast: Yogi, Southern Desk Clerk, Bellboy, Park Superintendent – Daws Butler; Boo Boo, Ranger Smith, Short Desk Clerk, Thin Ranger, TV announcer – Don Messick.
Music: Bill Loose-John Seely, Spencer Moore, Geordie Hormel, Jack Shaindlin.
Episode: Huckleberry Hound Show K-042, Production E-112.
First Aired: week of November 14, 1960 (source, Ft. Lauderdale News).
Plot: Yogi and Boo Boo think they’re invited on Ranger Smith’s Florida vacation.
So do you walk around with your eyes closed, throwing open doors, and complementing people on their appearance? Yes, with your eyes closed. Ranger Smith does it in “Gleesome Threesome.”
It really shouldn’t bother me. After all, I’m willing to accept that a bear not only talks but he drives a dump truck filled with sand (lord knows where he got it) onto a beach, which also happens in the very same cartoon. But I accept that because it’s in character for Yogi. I can’t picture any character walking around with their eyes shut and telling someone how great they look.
Well, something else bothers me about the plot in the cartoon. But we’ll get to that a little later.
“Gleesome Threesome” is a third season Yogi Bear cartoon. By then, animators seem to be hewing closer to Dick Bickenbach’s model sheets. Yogi looks more consistent from cartoon to cartoon, but I’m still fond of the variations in look that each animator brought to the character in the first two seasons. And the animation was much more uniform and more bland, at least to me, in the third season. So we get Carlo Vinci Light in this cartoon. You can still tell it’s Carlo. There’s one brief moment where Yogi develops a thick bar of teeth.
And Yogi has that three-drawing head tilt in dialogue that Carlo liked using.
It’s a cute little sequence. I like how Boo Boo looks completely embarrassed. There’s virtually no animation, but it gets the feeling across. And that’s all you need. (Note how the TV show is appropriately in black-and-white).
Carlo also likes walk cycles where Yogi moves his shoulders and his butt up and down. He’s animated this one on twos, eight drawings. Again, it’s not as distinctive as walks in earlier seasons and the studio had long eliminated the distracting bongo sound effect during Yogi walk cycles.
The background artist is Dick Thomas. Here’s about half of his first background painting that panned across at the start of the cartoon.
And here’s his drawing of the modern Miami Beach hotel where some of the action takes place.
The cartoon starts with Don Messick’s narration informing us it’s winter at Jellystone Park. Yogi decides before he and Boo Boo hibernate (“Nothin’ left to do but hit the sack-aroo”), they should wish the Ranger a happy vacation. The bears overhear him on the phone to a hotel in Miami Beach making sure his room his room is next to Charlie Behr’s. “The ranger is talkin’ about us,” says Yogi as neither he or Boo Boo seem to be able to spell.
The next scene finds Yogi and Boo Boo checking into the hotel. How did they get there? I can picture asking that of Warren Foster and getting the answer “Does it really matter?” I guess it doesn’t. Anyway, the main desk clerk is a Southern colonel and he has a line I like. “Weren’t those last guests a little odd?” asks a slightly-drawling little desk clerk. “They’re Yankees, son,” observes the colonel. “And all Yankees are odd. Cold drives them down from the North every year.” I suspect some Southerners still feel that way.
Ranger Smith arrives and cracks a corny “lonesome ranger” pun before heading up to the Behrs’ room (in the meantime, we get the old “give you a tip” gag between Yogi and the bellboy). This is where Smith walks in with his eyes closed and tells “Carolyn” (Boo Boo) how lovely she looks. Boo Boo even tells him he’s not Carolyn but the ranger’s developed some kind of hearing loss. Finally after telling “Charlie” he’s a little heavier around the middle, he opens his eyes. He doesn’t believe what he sees and lopes out of the room. “It must be the long trip down here. Driving day and night. And those bright headlights. No sleep. A rough season at Jellystone.” Smith decides Yogi’s a figment of his imagination until he goes back to the room and is greeted by the bear. Don Messick as Ranger Smith lets out a little “eek.” Just perfect. The ranger passes out.
Yogi and Boo Boo are “government property” so Smith’s stuck with them for the rest of his vacation. But what about Charlie and Marilyn? Where are they going to stay? I can picture asking that of Warren Foster and getting the answer “Does it really matter?” I guess it doesn’t. So the cartoon carries on. Cut to a pool. Yogi attempts “a double Dutchman with a flyin’ twist.” He lands on Ranger Smith (great high leg kick by Carlo). Yogi stuns the ranger by ordering everything on the hotel restaurant menu twice. And he uses a dump truck to bury the ranger (still wearing his uniform) with sand on the beach (“It would take hours the old way,” Yogi observes).
The scene moves ahead in time two weeks and back to the Park Superintendent’s office at Jellystone. For some reason, there’s a flap over Yogi and Boo Boo missing. The Superintendent turns on the TV. The news announcer has the thick glasses that Tony Rivera put on some incidental characters. He talks about the “hilarious antics” of Yogi and Boo Boo in Miami Beach. The Superintendent is clearly angry. “Get me a plane to Miami Beach right away!” he growls. But wait a minute. In the next scene in Florida, he’s not angry at all. He’s happy. This bugs me again. Suddenly there’s a mood change. Yeah, I can see why he’s happy, good publicity for Jellystone and all that, but it comes out of nowhere. Much like the closed-eyed ranger, it’s solely a convenient plot device. It’s a contrived way of inserting a plot twist.
The Superintendent arbitrarily announces Smith will spend a two-month tour with Yogi and Boo Boo. The ranger cant handle it and runs away. The ranger can’t handle the idea and runs off down the street (Carlo gives him a four-drawing run cycle on ones where the ranger’s butt turns toward the camera). Yogi and Boo Boo run after him, so we have yet another Hanna-Barbera cartoon that ends with a chase.
Incidentally, in the last scene, Yogi mentions the title of the cartoon, which conjures images of anything but a Yogi Bear cartoon.
The sound cutter has decided to be neat and tidy. Each music cue fits into a scene.
0:00 - Yogi Bear Sub Main Title Theme (Curtin-Shows-Hanna-Barbera).
0:30 - ZR-51 LIGHT ANIMATION (Hormel) – Jellystone scene.
1:52 - TC-437 SHOPPING DAY (Loose-Seely) – Shot of hotel, desk clerk scene.
2:58 - LAF-7-12 FUN ON ICE (Shaindlin) – Hotel room scenes.
4:29 - LAF-2-12 ON THE RUN (Shaindlin) – Diving board scene.
4:42 - L-80 COMEDY UNDERSCORE (Moore) – Restaurant scene, sand scene, rangers watching TV scene.
6:02 - L-75 COMEDY UNDERSCORE (Moore) – Superintendent talks to Smith on street.
6:29 - LAF-72-2 RODEO DAY (Shaindlin) – Ranger turns and runs, chase.
7:10 - Yogi Bear Sub End Title theme (Curtin).
Credits: Animation – Carlo Vinci, Layout – Tony Rivera, Backgrounds – Dick Thomas, Story – Warren Foster, Story Director – Alex Lovy, Titles – Art Goble, Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Voice Cast: Yogi, Southern Desk Clerk, Bellboy, Park Superintendent – Daws Butler; Boo Boo, Ranger Smith, Short Desk Clerk, Thin Ranger, TV announcer – Don Messick.
Music: Bill Loose-John Seely, Spencer Moore, Geordie Hormel, Jack Shaindlin.
Episode: Huckleberry Hound Show K-042, Production E-112.
First Aired: week of November 14, 1960 (source, Ft. Lauderdale News).
Plot: Yogi and Boo Boo think they’re invited on Ranger Smith’s Florida vacation.
So do you walk around with your eyes closed, throwing open doors, and complementing people on their appearance? Yes, with your eyes closed. Ranger Smith does it in “Gleesome Threesome.”
It really shouldn’t bother me. After all, I’m willing to accept that a bear not only talks but he drives a dump truck filled with sand (lord knows where he got it) onto a beach, which also happens in the very same cartoon. But I accept that because it’s in character for Yogi. I can’t picture any character walking around with their eyes shut and telling someone how great they look.
Well, something else bothers me about the plot in the cartoon. But we’ll get to that a little later.
“Gleesome Threesome” is a third season Yogi Bear cartoon. By then, animators seem to be hewing closer to Dick Bickenbach’s model sheets. Yogi looks more consistent from cartoon to cartoon, but I’m still fond of the variations in look that each animator brought to the character in the first two seasons. And the animation was much more uniform and more bland, at least to me, in the third season. So we get Carlo Vinci Light in this cartoon. You can still tell it’s Carlo. There’s one brief moment where Yogi develops a thick bar of teeth.
And Yogi has that three-drawing head tilt in dialogue that Carlo liked using.
It’s a cute little sequence. I like how Boo Boo looks completely embarrassed. There’s virtually no animation, but it gets the feeling across. And that’s all you need. (Note how the TV show is appropriately in black-and-white).
Carlo also likes walk cycles where Yogi moves his shoulders and his butt up and down. He’s animated this one on twos, eight drawings. Again, it’s not as distinctive as walks in earlier seasons and the studio had long eliminated the distracting bongo sound effect during Yogi walk cycles.
The background artist is Dick Thomas. Here’s about half of his first background painting that panned across at the start of the cartoon.
And here’s his drawing of the modern Miami Beach hotel where some of the action takes place.
The cartoon starts with Don Messick’s narration informing us it’s winter at Jellystone Park. Yogi decides before he and Boo Boo hibernate (“Nothin’ left to do but hit the sack-aroo”), they should wish the Ranger a happy vacation. The bears overhear him on the phone to a hotel in Miami Beach making sure his room his room is next to Charlie Behr’s. “The ranger is talkin’ about us,” says Yogi as neither he or Boo Boo seem to be able to spell.
The next scene finds Yogi and Boo Boo checking into the hotel. How did they get there? I can picture asking that of Warren Foster and getting the answer “Does it really matter?” I guess it doesn’t. Anyway, the main desk clerk is a Southern colonel and he has a line I like. “Weren’t those last guests a little odd?” asks a slightly-drawling little desk clerk. “They’re Yankees, son,” observes the colonel. “And all Yankees are odd. Cold drives them down from the North every year.” I suspect some Southerners still feel that way.
Ranger Smith arrives and cracks a corny “lonesome ranger” pun before heading up to the Behrs’ room (in the meantime, we get the old “give you a tip” gag between Yogi and the bellboy). This is where Smith walks in with his eyes closed and tells “Carolyn” (Boo Boo) how lovely she looks. Boo Boo even tells him he’s not Carolyn but the ranger’s developed some kind of hearing loss. Finally after telling “Charlie” he’s a little heavier around the middle, he opens his eyes. He doesn’t believe what he sees and lopes out of the room. “It must be the long trip down here. Driving day and night. And those bright headlights. No sleep. A rough season at Jellystone.” Smith decides Yogi’s a figment of his imagination until he goes back to the room and is greeted by the bear. Don Messick as Ranger Smith lets out a little “eek.” Just perfect. The ranger passes out.
Yogi and Boo Boo are “government property” so Smith’s stuck with them for the rest of his vacation. But what about Charlie and Marilyn? Where are they going to stay? I can picture asking that of Warren Foster and getting the answer “Does it really matter?” I guess it doesn’t. So the cartoon carries on. Cut to a pool. Yogi attempts “a double Dutchman with a flyin’ twist.” He lands on Ranger Smith (great high leg kick by Carlo). Yogi stuns the ranger by ordering everything on the hotel restaurant menu twice. And he uses a dump truck to bury the ranger (still wearing his uniform) with sand on the beach (“It would take hours the old way,” Yogi observes).
The scene moves ahead in time two weeks and back to the Park Superintendent’s office at Jellystone. For some reason, there’s a flap over Yogi and Boo Boo missing. The Superintendent turns on the TV. The news announcer has the thick glasses that Tony Rivera put on some incidental characters. He talks about the “hilarious antics” of Yogi and Boo Boo in Miami Beach. The Superintendent is clearly angry. “Get me a plane to Miami Beach right away!” he growls. But wait a minute. In the next scene in Florida, he’s not angry at all. He’s happy. This bugs me again. Suddenly there’s a mood change. Yeah, I can see why he’s happy, good publicity for Jellystone and all that, but it comes out of nowhere. Much like the closed-eyed ranger, it’s solely a convenient plot device. It’s a contrived way of inserting a plot twist.
The Superintendent arbitrarily announces Smith will spend a two-month tour with Yogi and Boo Boo. The ranger cant handle it and runs away. The ranger can’t handle the idea and runs off down the street (Carlo gives him a four-drawing run cycle on ones where the ranger’s butt turns toward the camera). Yogi and Boo Boo run after him, so we have yet another Hanna-Barbera cartoon that ends with a chase.
Incidentally, in the last scene, Yogi mentions the title of the cartoon, which conjures images of anything but a Yogi Bear cartoon.
The sound cutter has decided to be neat and tidy. Each music cue fits into a scene.
0:00 - Yogi Bear Sub Main Title Theme (Curtin-Shows-Hanna-Barbera).
0:30 - ZR-51 LIGHT ANIMATION (Hormel) – Jellystone scene.
1:52 - TC-437 SHOPPING DAY (Loose-Seely) – Shot of hotel, desk clerk scene.
2:58 - LAF-7-12 FUN ON ICE (Shaindlin) – Hotel room scenes.
4:29 - LAF-2-12 ON THE RUN (Shaindlin) – Diving board scene.
4:42 - L-80 COMEDY UNDERSCORE (Moore) – Restaurant scene, sand scene, rangers watching TV scene.
6:02 - L-75 COMEDY UNDERSCORE (Moore) – Superintendent talks to Smith on street.
6:29 - LAF-72-2 RODEO DAY (Shaindlin) – Ranger turns and runs, chase.
7:10 - Yogi Bear Sub End Title theme (Curtin).