Animated 3 Stooges

[trevthetoonfan]

Who holds the DVD rights to The Three Stooges cartoon show? I know Rhino Home Video released a couple volumes of it, but I'd like to see the complete run of the show in one set.

[Dell Comics Fan]

C3 Entertainment, Inc. owns most (if not all) Stooges merchandise. You can
write to them at this address:
Comedy III Productions, Inc.
P.O. Box 10666
Glendale, CA 91209-3666

[absolutpaul]

I believe the entire series is in the public domain. It was filmed in 16mm, which is why even the best master copies still look kind of junky. The sound is also terribly muddy in most of them. As bad as they are, a restored box set would be cool. The main problem would be that the 40 wrap-around segments were repeated 3 or 4 times in the series, which would make watching a bunch of them in a row kind of boring.

[trevthetoonfan]

It would be cool. The cartoons themselves were produced by two different studios it looks and sounds like, Hanna-Barbera and either DePatie-Freleng or Format Films. Neither studio is credited because Cambria TV Productions owned and financed the films, but judging from crew credits and SFX all of those studios could have been involved.

[dandu]

I think they were also done by Jay Ward and Larry Harmon studios.

[Geezil]

I think they were also done by Jay Ward and Larry Harmon studios.

Jay Ward?!??!!??? on "The New 3 Stooges"? Please, no. The very historical fabric of animation studio integrity (such as it is) would be at stake if that were so.

That said, I'm 99 1/2% certain the Bullwinkle Factory never went within a thousand miles of that project.

On the upside, and in the interest of fairness, I'll mention once again that if nothing else, one New 3 Stooges toon exists that's just about tolerable to watch: "The Noisy Silent Movie," which at least breaks up the monopoly of talking (sorry) with some authentic-looking silent film clips at intervals.

And that's saying a lot for Cambria Studios, the birthplace of Clutch Cargo! :p

[absolutpaul]

Actually, the pilot cartoon, "Little Old Bomb Maker", was contracted out to Jay Ward, who in turn sent it to TV Spots to do. It's the only cartoon that's actually funny. Paul Frees is the featured voice, and if the whole series had been done in that style of animation, it would have been a fairly good show.
The wrap-around segment was filmed in Moe Howard's den, giving us a glimpse into his own home!

[Geezil]

OK, so there are two watchable ones. :o (I just dug out Cartoon Craze #12 to get a fresh look at "That Little Old Bomb Maker" ... thank you, Digiview!)

And the soundtrack of that pilot toon, it seems, does indeed have a Ward-esque feel to it thanks to Paul Frees (and to the Stooges themselves getting wholly into the spirit of things), even if TV Spots' visuals still whisper "pale shadow."

A Cambria Studios release (other than the Alex Toth-designed Space Angel) done well. I'll be...!!!!!!! ;)

[Studio Toledo]

I think the only decent releases of these cartoons I ever saw were from the Embassy Home Entertainment VHS releases in the 80's (not sure if they were in the Public Dormain then, but they had them out on tape anyway with the live-action wraparounds).

http://i16.ebayimg.com/03/i/08/16/90/08_1.JPG

[absolutpaul]

That's another problem with why the cartoons are so bad. The Stooges were either just not into it, or they were poorly directed. Their line readings are just that - flat line readings. They probably recorded them all in a couple of days, mostly in one take. In Bombmaker the boys really Perform their dialogue, giving the cartoon much more life.

[The Silver Fox]

That's another problem with why the cartoons are so bad. The Stooges were either just not into it, or they were poorly directed. Their line readings are just that - flat line readings. They probably recorded them all in a couple of days, mostly in one take. In Bombmaker the boys really Perform their dialogue, giving the cartoon much more life.

wasn't there a Stooges remake done by HB that was
with Wonder Wheels (the series with the moped that morphed in to a full 70's chooper), called Robotic Stooges?
the Seires if i remember right was part of the Skate Birds series on CBS in the mid 1970's (approx 76 or 77).
i remember seeing the series as a kid, and later as a teenager on USA when they reran sections of Skate Birds series on USA Cartoon Express.

[trevthetoonfan]

Nice video pics, Chris. I used to rent those now again in the late '80s and early '90s. Looks like that tape came out in 1990.

[cbrubaker]

Yes, there was another animated "3 Stooges" from Hanna-Barbera called "3 Robotic Stooges", where the stooges were cyborgs, and of course clumsy, like Inspector Gadget.

Designs were similar to the Cambria version, although they changed it a little.

[detroittvguy]

The correct title was the Three ROBONIC Stooges. Not that it really matters. The less said about that one, the better.

[Shemp]

I think the only decent releases of these cartoons I ever saw were from the Embassy Home Entertainment VHS releases in the 80's (not sure if they were in the Public Dormain then, but they had them out on tape anyway with the live-action wraparounds).


The Embassy tapes contained 155 of the series' 156 cartoons (*).

21 Embassy videos were released, with the first seven tapes containing 4 episodes each, cartoon episode #s 1 - 28. The subsequent 14 volumes were theme-packaged, e.g., "Get That Job," "Nutty Nature Lovers," "Bear Necessities," etc., with 9 to 10 episodes per volume. Volumes 1 and 2 were also released as a Laser Disc.

* The cartoons were originally syndicated in 1965 as 39 half-hours with 4 toons/each. One of the toons, # 150 SUPER EVERYBODY, received a trademark infringement complaint from National Periodicals (aka DC Comics). When the the distributor, Heritage Productions, decided to re-syndicate the series in 1966 as individual cartoons, # 150 was omitted from the package. Subsequent syndication packages in the 70s & 80s did include it, but SUPER EVERYBODY was not among the prints provided to Embassy.

Three Stooges Videography (volume and content details for the Embassy home videos)
http://threestooges.net/videography.php

THE NEW 3 STOOGES Filmography (work-in-process)
http://threestooges.net/episode.php?id=237

[Daffyfan2004]

It's actually interesting to start a thread like this since my grandparents lent us a copy of The New Three Stooges the other day. I'm assuming Hanna Barbera had something to do with it since they appeared on The New Scooby-Doo Movies. It doesn't really say on the copy of the DVD I have who exactly the animators were though.

[gilligan fanati]

On a somewhat similar note, has anyone seen the original shorts colorized? They actually did a really good job on them. They got a demo of it here http://www.legendfilms.net/

[Shemp]

I'm assuming Hanna Barbera had something to do with it since they appeared on The New Scooby-Doo Movies. It doesn't really say on the copy of the DVD I have who exactly the animators were though.

Hanna-Barbera had nothing to do with THE NEW 3 STOOGES. The studio was Dick Brown's Cambria Productions, the same company that produced CLUTCH CARGO, SPACE ANGEL and CAPTAIN NEPTUNE.

The credits for THE NEW 3 STOOGES can be found on the filmography link I provided above...


THE NEW 3 STOOGES (1965) Filmography (work-in-process)
http://threestooges.net/episode.php?id=237


In regard to the 1972 Scooby Doo appearances, the Stooges were selected as "celebrity" (the Stooges did not provide their own voices) guest stars for a very simple reason...

Moe's son-in-law and 1960s Three Stooges film producer/director, Norman Maurer, worked at Hanna-Barbera in the 70s and those two episodes were his storylines.

[Sogturtle]

Hanna-Barbera had nothing to do with THE NEW 3 STOOGES. The studio was Dick Brown's Cambria Productions, the same company that produced CLUTCH CARGO, SPACE ANGEL and CAPTAIN NEPTUNE.

The credits for THE NEW 3 STOOGES can be found on the filmography link I provided above...



Shemp~

The 'work in progress' on "The New 3 Stooges" toons is a nice site:cool:Buuuuut the credits on the cartoons varied with each cartoon i.e. most all were different... Surprising to see who was animating (and directing).:)

[ltnut]

The Robonic Stooges occasionally show up as filler on Boomerang. They have what appears to be the real Curly character rather than Curly Joe.

I have several New 3 Stooges cartoons on PD tapes, and a lot of them have a problem with dull color that I've also noticed from other cartoons from the 60's. Was there a different process used for the film at that time? I've noticed that on the versions on the Digiview DVDs that the color is better on a lot of them. I'd hope the Rhino version would also be restored as well.

[Daffyfan2004]

In regard to the 1972 Scooby Doo appearances, the Stooges were selected as "celebrity" (the Stooges did not provide their own voices) guest stars for a very simple reason...

Moe's son-in-law and 1960s Three Stooges film producer/director, Norman Maurer, worked at Hanna-Barbera in the 70s and those two episodes were his storylines.

Okay. I think I see what you mean. I thought I read somewhere that Hanna-Barbera had rights to a lot of cartoon characters that appeared on the series such as "Josie and the Pussycats." I was just assuming that this was the case with the stooges. Anyway, thanks for clearing that up.

[trevthetoonfan]

If H-B wasn't involved, then why were H-B SFX used on later cartoons? The first cartoons had Joe Siracusa/Jay Ward/Pink Panther sounds, then somehow the H-B SFX are heard on later episodes. Who did the sounds? Was it Siracusa and then H-B sound man Richard Olson?

[The Silver Fox]

I wonder if they will release the SkateBirds series to dvd

cause it was on the air 3 seasons, be nice to see
the filler cartoons of robotic stooges and Wonder Wheels again.

[trevthetoonfan]

I've got an idea. Someone on this forum must have contacts somewhere. Why don't we, as a group, try and find the original materials of The New 3 Stooges, make a deal with Comedy III, and produce our own DVD set of the complete series of The New 3 Stooges restored and remastered? Jerry Beck, are you there you could help us.

[Studio Toledo]

Nice video pics, Chris. I used to rent those now again in the late '80s and early '90s. Looks like that tape came out in 1990.
Actually these tapes started coming out around the mid 80's from what I understand, and this was not my pic as well (having found one on eBay).

[Studio Toledo]

The Embassy tapes contained 155 of the series' 156 cartoons (*).

21 Embassy videos were released, with the first seven tapes containing 4 episodes each, cartoon episode #s 1 - 28. The subsequent 14 volumes were theme-packaged, e.g., "Get That Job," "Nutty Nature Lovers," "Bear Necessities," etc., with 9 to 10 episodes per volume. Volumes 1 and 2 were also released as a Laser Disc.

* The cartoons were originally syndicated in 1965 as 39 half-hours with 4 toons/each. One of the toons, # 150 SUPER EVERYBODY, received a trademark infringement complaint from National Periodicals (aka DC Comics). When the the distributor, Heritage Productions, decided to re-syndicate the series in 1966 as individual cartoons, # 150 was omitted from the package. Subsequent syndication packages in the 70s & 80s did include it, but SUPER EVERYBODY was not among the prints provided to Embassy.
Thanks for such an in-depth review of these tapes. Didn't think Embassy was able to pull off that many videos in the series.

If I had the nerve, I'd be buying everyone of these, DivX-ing the heck out of 'em and throw them into a BitTorrent bundle for all to get!

[Studio Toledo]

I've got an idea. Someone on this forum must have contacts somewhere. Why don't we, as a group, try and find the original materials of The New 3 Stooges, make a deal with Comedy III, and produce our own DVD set of the complete series of The New 3 Stooges restored and remastered? Jerry Beck, are you there you could help us.
I wouldn't mind the help! Too bad I don't have any real contacts or resources to go by, but it would be a nice effort among the fans to see a decent release of these cartoons if the original materials are still in existance.

[Dell Comics Fan]

Setting the record straight: Moe Howard himself, in his autobiography "MOE
HOWARD & THE THREE STOOGES" (published in 1977, about two years after
his death) mentioned THE NEW THREE STOOGES cartoon series: "After com-
pleting 'The Outlaws Is Coming,' we made a deal with Heritage Productions in
1965 to do a series of animated color cartoons, called THE NEW THREE
STOOGES. Some 156 five-minute cartoons were produced for TV and are still
in release."

The Stooge cartoons are described in much detail in "THE THREE STOOGES SCRAPBOOK" by Jeff Lenburg & Joan Howard Maurer (Moe's daughter), on pgs. 163-171. Briefly, Norman Maurer (Joan's husband and Moe's son-in-law) and the Stooges "pooled their resources" and began work on
what was to be 39 shows (consisting of 78 cartoons that combined live segments with animated cartoons produced by TV Spots, Inc. (who had produced CRUSADER RABBIT). That show was to be called THE THREE STOOGES SCRAPBOOK and would have featured Benedict Bogus (a character in the first series of THREE STOOGES comic books, published by St. John in 1953). For several reasons (sponsors were unable to acquire
good time slots from the networks and the show had very poor production
values), that first Stooges cartoon series was permanently shelved.
Apparently no great loss, for Lenburg describes it as "bottom-of-the-
barrel animation which makes the Stooges' Cambria-produced cartoon
series of 1965 look like an award-winner."

That brings us to the 1965 cartoon series THE NEW THREE STOOGES:
"... Normandy Productions agreed to work in association with Heritage
Productions and Cambria Studios on 156 five-and-a-half minute color
cartoons called THE NEW THREE STOOGES. ... Budget was set at $1.5
million and the Stooges and Norman Maurer received $163,000 in advance
of their efforts. Forty, live-action wraparounds, some of which were filmed
at the Balboa Bay Club in Balboa, California, contained many of the Stooges'
traditional routines. These segments were used to open and close each
cartoon. The Stooges began filming on July 13, 1965, averaging four live
shows per day and completed filming 40 segments in six and a half weeks,
an incredible job." (Familiar character actor Emil Sitka--who appeared in
many of the Stooges' shorts--played a variety of roles in most of the live
sequences.) Norman Maurer was executive producer of the live-action
segments and Edward Bernds directed them and also wrote many of them.
Animator Dick Detiege, from Warner Brothers, served as animation director,
while Lee Orgel secured distribution of the cartoons to over 45 TV stations.
The films were syndicated by Heritage Productions in October 1965. "In
accordance with their contract, Cambria's distributor was supposed to
forward quarterly statements to the Stooges reporting the series' profits.
Norman Maurer recalls receiving only one or two statements over a period of five years. As a result, the series became grounds for a law suit filed by the Stooges--which they lost. It was a bad break for the Stooges, as the
presiding judge knew absolutely nothing about the film business and ruled in
favor of Cambria's distributor.
"Losing the initial court battle, the Stooges appealed to a higher court in
1975 and won. Despite this belated victory, nothing changed with regard to
the distributor's failure to provide statements."

In Jeff Lenburg's "THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANIMATED CARTOONS," he states
that Dick Brown (producer of CLUTCH CARGO and SPACE ANGEL) produced
the NEW THREE STOOGES; and that the 40 live-action segments were
rotated throughout the package's 156 cartoon episodes. Moe Howard,
Larry Fine and Joe DeRita supplied their own voices.

The actual Stooges had no involvement, however, in Hanna-Barbera's THE
THREE ROBONIC STOOGES (1978-1981), which first aired almost three
years after Moe's death. The voices for that version were provided by
Paul Winchell (Moe), Joe Baker (Larry) and Frank Welker (Curly). In fact,
Winchell (best remembered as the ventriloquist who worked with Jerry
Mahoney, the voice of Tigger, and the inventor of an artificial heart) grew
up in Brooklyn only a few blocks from Moe Howard. Joe Baker often appeared as Curly on Rich Little's prime-time TV series. Frank Welker used
the Curly voice again as Jabberjaw, a talking shark. Norman Maurer (Moe's
son-in-law) wrote the series, which was spun off the cancelled SKATEBIRDS
because the Robonic Stooges drew the best ratings in that show on CBS.

[The Silver Fox]

i found recently a tv Guide from 76 and Skatebirds started in 76 and ran to the 78 season.

[MarkTheShark]

The Robonic Stooges occasionally show up as filler on Boomerang. They have what appears to be the real Curly character rather than Curly Joe.

I have several New 3 Stooges cartoons on PD tapes, and a lot of them have a problem with dull color that I've also noticed from other cartoons from the 60's. Was there a different process used for the film at that time? I've noticed that on the versions on the Digiview DVDs that the color is better on a lot of them. I'd hope the Rhino version would also be restored as well.

The Rhino ones are licensed by Comedy III, which is the corporate entity controlling the trademarks, names and licenses of Moe, Larry and Curly. The Rhino DVDs are probably the best versions of these cartoons you're going to find, except for the opening and closing titles. They have a superimposed copyright notice, are out of focus, and the closing credits are cut by a few seconds, I think to take out a distributor name.

From what I understand, the masters used for the Rhino DVDs still originate from 16mm film, but the colors are indeed better. Also, there is an option for foreign-language versions, which I believe are of original vintage (1965) though not performed by Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe DeRita.

The cartoons themselves are actually public domain, due to improper copyright notice when first released.

[cbrubaker]

I uploaded the "3 Stooges" cartoon that was contracted to Jay Ward on YouTube. No live-action segments (wasn't included in the public domain DVD I bought), which is a shame, since the live action segment included in this episode was never used again in other episodes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3zW_jxCVdbo

[MarkTheShark]

make a deal with Comedy III

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahaha!

[MarkTheShark]

I uploaded the "3 Stooges" cartoon that was contracted to Jay Ward on YouTube. No live-action segments (wasn't included in the public domain DVD I bought), which is a shame, since the live action segment included in this episode was never used again in other episodes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3zW_jxCVdbo

The complete cartoon, including the live-action intro and outro, is on the Three Stooges Cartoon Classics Vol. 1, released by Rhino.

[MarkTheShark]

There are actually 41 live-action "wraparound" segments. Lenburg/Maurer/Lenburg missed one. More info is available at The Three Stooges Online Filmography:

http://threestooges.net/index.php?main=/forums/index.php&topic=548.msg2900

That is, if you can get it to work. I am not able to navigate it too well at the moment. Hope the vultur...I mean lawyers haven't swooped down on them.

[MarkTheShark]

I uploaded the "3 Stooges" cartoon that was contracted to Jay Ward on YouTube. No live-action segments (wasn't included in the public domain DVD I bought), which is a shame, since the live action segment included in this episode was never used again in other episodes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3zW_jxCVdbo

I'm slightly confused. There was a pilot film done for the proposed TV series, "The Three Stooges Scrapbook," which included a cartoon segment commissioned to TV Spots Inc. (which did a lot of work for Jay Ward). This cartoon was produced in 1960. I have a dupe of a version of "Scrapbook" but it's missing the cartoon. There is a picture of the cartoon Stooges in Moe's autobiography, captioned as being from the 1965 series, but actually from "Scrapbook." (As I recall, it seemed like at least half of the captions in Moe's book were wrong, saying stills were from the wrong film, etc.)

Haven't watched the first segment of "The New 3 Stooges" ("That Little Old Bombmaker") in some time, but from memory, the Jay Ward studio certainly could have had a hand in it. I think by that time (1965) they were pretty much finished with doing TV shows, and were mostly concentrating on commercials (and some pilots that never went anywhere).

[Studio Toledo]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahaha!
In a perfect world, we would think that! :cool:

[Sogturtle]

....
Haven't watched the first segment of "The New 3 Stooges" ("That Little Old Bombmaker") in some time, but from memory, the Jay Ward studio certainly could have had a hand in it. I think by that time (1965) they were pretty much finished with doing TV shows, and were mostly concentrating on commercials (and some pilots that never went anywhere).

MarktheShark~

Well almost... In '65 Jay Ward's company (Bill Scott et al) were still hard at work creating series concepts, the last one that sold was "George Of The Jungle" (1967 as memory serves). And "George..." at Jay's insistence was animated by some great American animators, Scribner amongst them (rather than that wretched bunch in Mexico). Thus the costs soared and...:rolleyes: Well, THAT was what ended TV show work for Ward... And he found he could get mega-sums of money for well-animated Cap'n Crunch commercials and not fight with a network over costs... [All as I RECALL].

[Jon Cooke]

Wow, you learn something new everyday here on GAC.

I had NO idea Jay Ward ever did an installment of the Three Stooges cartoon! I don't even recall reading that in Keith Scott's book. I can't say I pay much attention to them when they show up on PD collections, so I had never seen the "Bomb Maker" cartoon before. It DEFINITELY looks like the Jay Ward studio style from around that time (there are some Dudley Do-Right and Fractured Fairy Tales that look like that). Thanks for posting it Charles!

[Studio Toledo]

MarktheShark~

Well almost... In '65 Jay Ward's company (Bill Scott et al) were still hard at work creating series concepts, the last one that sold was "George Of The Jungle" (1967 as memory serves). And "George..." at Jay's insistence was animated by some great American animators, Scribner amongst them (rather than that wretched bunch in Mexico). Thus the costs soared and...:rolleyes: Well, THAT was what ended TV show work for Ward... And he found he could get mega-sums of money for well-animated Cap'n Crunch commercials and not fight with a network over costs... [All as I RECALL].
Should've came up with stating this too. Shame to think hiring guys like Scribner caused them the eventual end of their TV work in favor of doing the ads from then on (still the animation on the George series was terrific over the previous Mexican involvements). They could've went into the indie film circuit if they didn't mind shooting off a few ideas that get seen in film festivals but that's just my thought.

Still, I don't think I ever saw that episode of the animated New 3 Stooges before, so that was neat to see the Ward staff pull off that one quite good.

[Studio Toledo]

Wow, you learn something new everyday here on GAC.

I had NO idea Jay Ward ever did an installment of the Three Stooges cartoon! I don't even recall reading that in Keith Scott's book. I can't say I pay much attention to them when they show up on PD collections, so I had never seen the "Bomb Maker" cartoon before.
You only wish more infomation of this was known than just finding out about it right now. This was a surprise to me too. The regular episodes were all generally bland and indistinguisable I felt compaired to the wilder nature of this one.

It DEFINITELY looks like the Jay Ward studio style from around that time (there are some Dudley Do-Right and Fractured Fairy Tales that look like that). Thanks for posting it Charles!
I felt the backgrounds gave it away for me personally.

[Shemp]

I'm slightly confused. There was a pilot film done for the proposed TV series, "The Three Stooges Scrapbook," which included a cartoon segment commissioned to TV Spots Inc. (which did a lot of work for Jay Ward). This cartoon was produced in 1960. I have a dupe of a version of "Scrapbook" but it's missing the cartoon. There is a picture of the cartoon Stooges in Moe's autobiography, captioned as being from the 1965 series, but actually from "Scrapbook." *


The dupe of SCRAPBOOK that you saw was one of two short subject versions distributed to theaters in September 1963.

Filmography details...

The original 1960, 25-minute television pilot
http://threestooges.net/episode.php?=236

The 1963, 14-minute short subject
http://threestooges.net/episode.php?=426

The 1963, 10-minute short subject
http://threestooges.net/episode.php?=229

The 1960 TV pilot was edited into two shorts:

- The first contains the first 14 minutes of SCRAPBOOK, ending with the Stooges fleeing from Creepy Manor.

- The second, 10-minute short picks up the Stooges hosting their THE THREE STOOGES SCRAPBOOK children's series. It segues into a live-action intro with them as 15th century Spanish sailors, and then leads into the cartoon THE SPAIN MUTINY. It wraps up with more live-action of the Stooges in the TV studio. Mel Blanc provided voices for the cartoon, as 'Christopher Columbus' and 'Feathers the Parrot.'

Approximately one minute of footage was lost to continuity editing creating the shorts. That minute, with the Stooges entering their TV studio, can be seen in b&w stock footage in their feature film THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962).

You may notice an awkward edit/cut in the 14-minute short's ending credits... that's where the TV Spots credits originally were. The 10-minute short concludes with the complete credits.

THE SPAIN MUTINY credits:
TV Spots (Animation provided by...)
Al Bertino & Dick Kinney (Story)
Sam Nicholson (Animation)
Fred Madison (Animator)
David Weidman (Backgrounds)
Norm Gottfredson (Layouts)


* That particular caption error was corrected in SCRAPBOOK's filmography entry in the identically-titled 1982 book The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff & Greg Lenburg and Joan Howard-Maurer. The error was repeated just last year, in the trading card set issued by Breygent.

[MarkTheShark]

MarktheShark~

Well almost... In '65 Jay Ward's company (Bill Scott et al) were still hard at work creating series concepts, the last one that sold was "George Of The Jungle" (1967 as memory serves). And "George..." at Jay's insistence was animated by some great American animators, Scribner amongst them (rather than that wretched bunch in Mexico). Thus the costs soared and...:rolleyes: Well, THAT was what ended TV show work for Ward... And he found he could get mega-sums of money for well-animated Cap'n Crunch commercials and not fight with a network over costs... [All as I RECALL].

D'oh! Of course...how in the world could I forget George Of The Jungle?

Just some more useless Chicago TV trivia here. My first exposure to "George Of The Jungle" was on "Cartoon Town" (later known as "The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show") on WFLD-TV Channel 32 in Chicago. The host was Bill Jackson. He was bounced around from one station to another, eventually ending up at WLS-Channel 7 (Chicago's ABC affiliate) where he produced a later version of the show called "Gigglesnort Hotel," which was an episodic 30-minute show with no cartoons. Meeting the demands of the time, this version of the show had a definite educational emphasis, and Jackson designed it to fulfill FCC requirements that stations had to have X number of hours of educational programming. "Gigglesnort" ended up being syndicated internationally and several episodes were released on video. Jackson has some available at his website, www.dirtydragon.com (http://www.dirtydragon.com)

Jackson's puppets now reside at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications. After Jackson got the bum's rush from WFLD around 1973, the cartoons from "George Of The Jungle" showed up on another show, called "Cartoon Circus," which aired weekdays at 11:30 a.m. The show featured Beany & Cecil, George Of The Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken (in that order). They had a taped opening with some calliope music and a merry-go-round, with cut-out drawings of all the characters. Later on, Channel 60 (WPWR-TV, later Channel 50) aired "George Of The Jungle" in the 1980s. Oddly enough, the show's closing credits appeared three times in each half-hour, once after each of the cartoons. Still later, I saw the cartoon segments individually on TBS, I think on their Tom & Jerry show (which was a grab bag of pre-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons, Popeye, Three Stooges shorts and other stuff alongside Tom & Jerry). For those showings, TBS used 16mm prints of the individual shorts, but each one had a late 1980s Worldvision logo at the end (on film). I thought that was unusual. (It looked like that was how they received them; i.e. they didn't have the episodes in a half-hour format.)

Your useless local syndicated rerun trivia fact for today.

[cbrubaker]

Glad you guys liked this episode.

So, Ward assigned the animation duty to TV Spots (aka Creston Studios), huh?

TV Spot's other Jay Ward connection is the color revival of "Crusader Rabbit", which was Ward's first foray in animation. Ward, however, wasn't involved in the revival, since he and Alex Alexander lost the rights in 1950s.

Did Spots animate any other Ward cartoons?

[Studio Toledo]

After Jackson got the bum's rush from WFLD around 1973, the cartoons from "George Of The Jungle" showed up on another show, called "Cartoon Circus," which aired weekdays at 11:30 a.m. The show featured Beany & Cecil, George Of The Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken (in that order). They had a taped opening with some calliope music and a merry-go-round, with cut-out drawings of all the characters. Later on, Channel 60 (WPWR-TV, later Channel 50) aired "George Of The Jungle" in the 1980s. Oddly enough, the show's closing credits appeared three times in each half-hour, once after each of the cartoons. Still later, I saw the cartoon segments individually on TBS, I think on their Tom & Jerry show (which was a grab bag of pre-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons, Popeye, Three Stooges shorts and other stuff alongside Tom & Jerry). For those showings, TBS used 16mm prints of the individual shorts, but each one had a late 1980s Worldvision logo at the end (on film). I thought that was unusual. (It looked like that was how they received them; i.e. they didn't have the episodes in a half-hour format.)
I think I saw the same thing from a station in Detroit as well (seemed rather neat to see a filmed version of the Worldvision logo). Used to see odd though the way they would throw in George along with the other classics like that. If there had to be a good name for such a variety sampler like that, I'd suggest "Toon Slush"! :p

Your useless local syndicated rerun trivia fact for today.
Thanks! I still wish it was like this again.

[absolutpaul]

TV Spots did some of the Fractured Fairy Tales for Jay as well.

[Bobby Bickert]

Used to see odd though the way they would throw in George along with the other classics like that. If there had to be a good name for such a variety sampler like that, I'd suggest "Toon Slush"!


WTBS's Tom & Jerry show at one point added 1960's Terrytoons to the package, including a certain flying horse...

[Studio Toledo]

WTBS's Tom & Jerry show at one point added 1960's Terrytoons to the package, including a certain flying horse...
Oh yeah, Luno! Remember those too.