Egghead

[Madison Carter]

This is one of my favorite WB characters, and yet, I know so little about him.

For a character that got quite a bit of exposure in his brief existence, Egghead is still an enigma to me. Did the studio ever intend to try to jumpstart a series for him, or was he basically just used for the occassional gag role? Virtually none of his appearances that I have seen of his can even be considered the same character almost. While many of his shorts have him in his traditional green jacket and derby, it seems like every short gave him a new personality and speech pattern. It's hard to see the Egghead from "Daffy and Egghead" as the same character from "A Day at the Zoo" or "A Feud There Was" (and forgive me if I have the titles slightly off, it's 4 in the morning). Did they see him in the same light as they had Porky or Bosko before him in terms of an ongoing series?

His evolution into what would be Elmer Fudd. Was this a conscious effort to discard and/or give the character a set personality? He goes from one short as almost typical (well, as typical as Egghead gets), just with the Elmer name (A Feud there Was, I believe), and then the "real" Elmer has Egghead's clothes in "Elmer's Candid Camera," but little else of the character.

Any insights would be appreciated.

[Marty26]

I'm pretty sure it was a conscious effort. Perhaps WB decided there was little that could be done with Egghead so they made him plumper, gave him that speach impediment, and renamed him "Elmer Fudd." Egghead was generally just used for running gags like in The Isle Of Pingo Pongo and Believe It Or Else. He was never really given any character to speak of (he even had a different voice with every cartoon). So I agree that he was a pretty enigmatic/eerie character.

[frizfrelengfan]

Perhaps Egghead would have lasted longer had Avery stayed at the studio.

Interestingly, Elmer's voice first was spoken by the dog character in Avery's "Dangerous Dan McFoo" (1939).

[J Lee]

This is one of my favorite WB characters, and yet, I know so little about him.

For a character that got quite a bit of exposure in his brief existence, Egghead is still an enigma to me. Did the studio ever intend to try to jumpstart a series for him, or was he basically just used for the occassional gag role? Virtually none of his appearances that I have seen of his can even be considered the same character almost. While many of his shorts have him in his traditional green jacket and derby, it seems like every short gave him a new personality and speech pattern. It's hard to see the Egghead from "Daffy and Egghead" as the same character from "A Day at the Zoo" or "A Feud There Was" (and forgive me if I have the titles slightly off, it's 4 in the morning). Did they see him in the same light as they had Porky or Bosko before him in terms of an ongoing series?

His evolution into what would be Elmer Fudd. Was this a conscious effort to discard and/or give the character a set personality? He goes from one short as almost typical (well, as typical as Egghead gets), just with the Elmer name (A Feud there Was, I believe), and then the "real" Elmer has Egghead's clothes in "Elmer's Candid Camera," but little else of the character.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Interestingly, according to Michael Barrier, Tex Avery didn't even see Egghead as being Egghead in half the cartoons he's credited as appearing in in most studio filmographies! He said the true Egghead character was only used by Avery in two cartoons, "Egghead Rides Again" and "Daffy Duck and Egghead". The character used first in "Little Red Walking Hood" and then "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" who was basically a walk-on visual gag in the middle of the rest of the cartoon was not considered to be Egghead by Tex, and had two different names in "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" -- studio publicity copy for the cartoon called him "Egghead's brother", while the lobby card for the short dubs him for the first time as "Elmer". Since the lobby card was probably done for the cartoon at the time "A Fued There Was" was in production, it would seem Tex settled on the new name sometime in mid-1938.

Avery's original Egghead was used twice more, by Cal Howard and Cal Dalton in "A Lad in Baghdad" and then by Hardaway and Dalton in "Count Me Out." Like Tex's first two cartoon, the character is central to the plot throughout both shorts, as opposed to just being a walk-on character, which seems to be the way the studio differentiated between true and mock Egghead.

Confusing, Ain't It? ;)

[Daffysleftfoot]

Perhaps Egghead would have lasted longer had Avery stayed at the studio.


Actually, I believe it was Avery himself who spear-headed to notion to redesign the character so really Egghead would have been gone either way.

[rex racer]

Interestingly, according to Michael Barrier, Tex Avery didn't even see Egghead as being Egghead in half the cartoons he's credited as appearing in in most studio filmographies! He said the true Egghead character was only used by Avery in two cartoons, "Egghead Rides Again" and "Daffy Duck and Egghead". The character used first in "Little Red Walking Hood" and then "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" who was basically a walk-on visual gag in the middle of the rest of the cartoon was not considered to be Egghead by Tex, and had two different names in "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" -- studio publicity copy for the cartoon called him "Egghead's brother", while the lobby card for the short dubs him for the first time as "Elmer". Since the lobby card was probably done for the cartoon at the time "A Fued There Was" was in production, it would seem Tex settled on the new name sometime in mid-1938.

Avery's original Egghead was used twice more, by Cal Howard and Cal Dalton in "A Lad in Baghdad" and then by Hardaway and Dalton in "Count Me Out." Like Tex's first two cartoon, the character is central to the plot throughout both shorts, as opposed to just being a walk-on character, which seems to be the way the studio differentiated between true and mock Egghead.

Confusing, Ain't It? ;)

Not totally. He does get some strong roles as you mentioned. I'd also credit my favorite Egghead film "Cinderella meets Fella" as a definitive appearance!

I view his gradual evolution to being "Elmer" to be similar to that of Bugs Bunny, a bit of experimentation by various directors and animators, in this case finally solidifying once A.Q. Bryan's was tied to the character....