tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post2529380405854300955..comments2024-03-27T01:19:56.698-07:00Comments on Tralfaz: Woody in the PoorhouseYowphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264605351878574044noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-46166311918449674562013-03-10T12:13:20.224-07:002013-03-10T12:13:20.224-07:00NBC always seemed to be the network least interest...NBC always seemed to be the network least interested in kids programming, and by the end of the 1960s in situation comedy in general (really they never seemed to fully recover from Bill Paley's 1948 raid on the comedy front until Grant Tinker took over 33 years later). <br /><br />Their early cartoon efforts were stop-and-go at best; NBC basically grabbed Disney from ABC as a marketing tool for RCA color sets (and then in Year 1 paired him with Jay Ward's crew, apparently not realizing the animosity between Walt and the ex-UPAers), and their move into Saturday morning was less pro-active than reactive to CBS and ABC. They'd occasionally get a hit comedy or cartoon, but it never felt like either item was high on their 'to-do' list.J Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15175515543694122729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-8539082076735215952013-03-10T08:05:29.032-07:002013-03-10T08:05:29.032-07:00I wonder how interested NBC was in animation at th...I wonder how interested NBC was in animation at the time. Other than the old 'NBC Comics', the only indication I can see that NBC wanted cartoons was in October 1957 when it began negotiating with Screen Gems for what I can only assume ended up being Ruff and Reddy.Yowphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09264605351878574044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-83953326621367860242013-03-10T07:26:25.378-07:002013-03-10T07:26:25.378-07:00I believe that was the quote Leonard Maltin noted ...I believe that was the quote Leonard Maltin noted in his book that Terry said in a 1970 interview. The interesting thing about the timing of this interview by Lantz is that of the four major independent producers left in 1956, he was the last one to make a deal to peddle his wares directly to television. <br /><br />Terry had jumped in with CBS in 1953 with the Barker Bill Show, and ended up selling out to the network, but CBS also was working with UPA by 1956 on "The Gerald McBoing Boing Show" and Disney had begun his TV relationship with ABC the previous year. So Lantz was ahead of the three studio-owned animation divisions (Warners, MGM and Paramount) in selling directly to television to net additional income for the studio, but he lagged the other producers who could make deals on their own, for whatever reason, and was the only one of the four who couldn't (or wouldn't) swing a deal with a network.J Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15175515543694122729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-67391594146827376702013-03-09T23:53:01.388-08:002013-03-09T23:53:01.388-08:00I don't know how much merchandising Lantz did ...I don't know how much merchandising Lantz did once he got TV exposure, but he would have been as crazy as a 1940 woodpecker not to have expanded that end of the business.<br />Didn't Paul Terry even say that TV was the saviour for cartoon studios with old negatives gathering dust?Yowphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09264605351878574044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-86184236985143889042013-03-09T09:08:41.550-08:002013-03-09T09:08:41.550-08:00Getting Woody to TV with the Kellogg's deal in...Getting Woody to TV with the Kellogg's deal in 1957 no doubt helped Lantz keep going for another 15 years -- he'd even get the show to NBC's Saturday morning lineup just prior to closing his studio -- though there's not that much the studio produced after 1957 that stands up to repeated syndication viewing.J Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15175515543694122729noreply@blogger.com