Who's the kid in Pigs Is Pigs?

[cutejuicyjojo59]

You know that title pig in Pigs is Pigs? He looks a lot like Porky, but I'm kind of sure he's not.

[ALK]

I don't think the pig has a name but I'll tell you that it's definately not Porky.

[cutejuicyjojo59]

I don't think he even had a name. I know that Porky was DEFINITELY around (1938 was when the cartoon was out) by that time, so it has to be him. I don't know why they'd do some character that looks like another one. I did make up a name for him-- "The Porky Poser". He's just like Porky, but he's not.

[J. B. Warner]

His mother calls him Piggy at one point in the cartoon.

My guess is that they didn't use Porky for this cartoon because Tex Avery and Bob Clampett had already set the character firmly in the state of adulthood, so placing him in a role made for a child character would seem too awkward.

[Sogturtle]

I don't think he even had a name. I know that Porky was DEFINITELY around (1938 was when the cartoon was out) by that time, so it has to be him. I don't know why they'd do some character that looks like another one. I did make up a name for him-- "The Porky Poser". He's just like Porky, but he's not.

Cutejuicyjojo59~

Welllllll it's not Porky.:) But it's NOT Porky for a very good reason. At the point when Friz made this cartoon (rel. Jan. 30, 1937) he had been doing only color Merrie Melodies for two plus years. While Porky was solely the black and white Looney Tunes star (excepting his debut in "I Haven't Got A Hat"). Tex Avery was just in the process of bursting OUT of black & white Porkys (leaving them to Tashlin, and then Hardaway & Dalton and the Katz unit). Soooooo no way was Friz in 1936 going to have Porky starring in one of his color Merrie Melodies. Solution?? Just go ahead and make the pig cartoon BUT make the porcine creature:p DIFFERENT enough so that nobody (including Leon Schlesinger) would think Friz was making Porky cartoons.:ham:

And "Piggy" was a literal childhood friend of Friz Freleng's...!

[Jon Cooke]

Cutejuicyjojo59~

Welllllll it's not Porky.:) But it's NOT Porky for a very good reason. At the point when Friz made this cartoon (rel. Jan. 30, 1937) he had been doing only color Merrie Melodies for two plus years. While Porky was solely the black and white Looney Tunes star (excepting his debut in "I Haven't Got A Hat"). Tex Avery was just in the process of bursting OUT of black & white Porkys (leaving them to Tashlin, and then Hardaway & Dalton and the Katz unit). Soooooo no way was Friz in 1936 going to have Porky starring in one of his color Merrie Melodies. Solution?? Just go ahead and make the pig cartoon BUT make the porcine creature:p DIFFERENT enough so that nobody (including Leon Schlesinger) would think Friz was making Porky cartoons.:ham:

And "Piggy" was a literal childhood friend of Friz Freleng's...!



Friz had also used the same pig family a year earlier in "At Your Service Madame".

[Sogturtle]

Friz had also used the same pig family a year earlier in "At Your Service Madame".

Yep Jon he had!!! The things SOME people will do to avoid using Porky! :D:p;)

[J Lee]

Actually, the pig is called "Sammy" by mom when he wakes up from the dream (reused audio from Freleng's "Toy Town Hall"). Both "Pigs Is Pigs" and "At Your Service, Madame" called for more of a mischevious/troublemaking character than the stuttering Porky was, which is probably the main reason why Friz didn't consider using his earlier creation in either of those shorts (yes, the Looney Tunes were for continuing characters, but Friz didn't see any problem turning Buddy and Cookie into merman and mermaid two years earlier for "Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name", so even then the rule against continuing characters in the Merrie Melodies wasn't airtight).

[Jack G.]

While Porky was solely the black and white Looney Tunes star (excepting his debut in "I Haven't Got A Hat").Why would Porky be restriced to B&W? If he was a star, he would be considered a boost to some color cartoons. No? I realize the MMs were one-shots, but it doesn't make sense to me.

[Mr. Semaj]

Took me awhile to remember who this pig in question was.

As much as I liked the dream sequence from Pigs is Pigs, I personally wouldn't want our favorite pig falling into the animal's greed stigma.

[Sogturtle]

Why would Porky be restriced to B&W? If he was a star, he would be considered a boost to some color cartoons. No? I realize the MMs were one-shots, but it doesn't make sense to me.

Masked Stinker~

It was just how the studio was set up in the beginning. There were to be NO continuing characters in the COLOR MMs...

It was Tex Avery who finally dragged a black and white star (one Daffy Duck:daffy: briefly into a color Merrie Melodie. And after Daffy escaped his creator and flew back to the Katz unit:p, Tex created MM's inestimable star:D Egghead, to inhabit them. Chuck Jones then followed suit with the creation of Sniffles:sniff:.

Porky and the b&w Looney Tunes really were viewed as the poor relation. Freleng, Tex, and Tashlin graduated out of the black and white toons and had no desire to go back in any way. Leon of course went so far as to name his yacht "The Merrie Melodie", while the dinghy on it was "The Looney Tune", showing the owner's true feelings.

Chuck was given the Schlesinger-inspired Merrie Melodie that became "Old Glory" to direct, and that was the Porkster's only other color appearance till up in the Forties. Like I said once before here, you can ALMOST hear the storycrew debating who-in-the-world to stick in that cartoon as a framing device, and finally nixing all other potential candidates except Porky. Because Porky could be a child and was pliable... Imagine if you will Daffy or Sniffles in the role:D Or even more colorfully, envision EGGHEAD!! :daffy: Sooooo it just had to be Petunia's boyfriend Porky!:ham:

[Jack]

Also, keep in mind that color film was still a sort of novelty to people in the 1930's - color cartoons didn't need a well known character to boost their popularity, the color itself was the boost.

[Fibber Fox]

Masked Stinker~

It was just how the studio was set up in the beginning. There were to be NO continuing characters in the COLOR MMs...

Sog, isn't this what Disney was doing? Mickey was in black and whites; the one-shots were in colour, right?

Mickey didn't need the added attraction of colour - he was a star in his own right. But colour would help the one-shots to attract an audience, at least in the mid 30s.

FF

[Sogturtle]

Sog, isn't this what Disney was doing? Mickey was in black and whites; the one-shots were in colour, right?

Mickey didn't need the added attraction of colour - he was a star in his own right. But colour would help the one-shots to attract an audience, at least in the mid 30s.

FF

Fibber Fox~

Well, that's generally true, but the earliest Silly Symphonies were in black and white also:mickey:. Disney went to great trouble (and expense) to WASH the black and white paint off all the cels of "Flowers And Trees" so that they could then be painted and filmed in color. And reputedly from that point on, the people within Disney viewed the Mickeys as "sausage mill" work, and the COLOR Silly Symphonies as the real films of note. And that the crews assigned reflected that viewpoint.

That same thinking was mirrored at Schlesinger's (the talented Freleng on MMs and less-talented King on LTs). This even held true at Mintz's, where the talented Art Davis and Sid Marcus were given almost exclusively color films to make while Allen Rose, Lou Lilly and Harry Love got the black and white films).

And of course the original Harman-Ising and earliest Schlesinger Merrie Melodies were done in black and white right alongside the black and white Looney Tunes.

By the time you get to the Avery (and even Jones) color Merrie Melodies of the late Thirties you'll find mini-reviews by theater owners raving about them and utterly ignoring the black and white Looney Tunes. The myth of the bland early Porky's great stardom back then is just that, a huge myth.