
UPA’s Mr. Magoo cartoons had sight gags (in more ways than one), but what really benefited them was the vocal performance of Jim Backus.
How much of the dialogue was improvised is unclear, but Backus could go from sweet to annoyed to emphatic. He gave Magoo’s personality some colour amongst endless sketchy backgrounds and a continual inability to read signs.
The TV writer for one of the newspapers in Memphis gave a short report on Backus and Magoo in its edition of September 5, 1961. He didn’t actually speak with Backus. Charles Collingwood did. The writer simply relayed parts of their conversation from the September 1 edition of
Person To Person on CBS. There is a mention of how Backus was making his big money from Magoo—not on the cartoons, but on a series of animated commercials for General Electric light bulbs. It ran for several years and we can only imagine the Thurston Howell-like residuals they brought in.
The column ends with words about prime-time cartoons that were to start the 1961-62 season. The trend came and went quickly. As prime-time programming, it was a failure. However, reruns on weekend mornings were welcomed by kids everywhere and kept the characters living. And making money for their owners.
In T-V Cartoons, Voice Comes First
By ROBERT JOHNSON, Press-Scimitar Staff Writer
When Person to Person cameras peered into his home the other night, Jim Backus answered a question which had never worried me it all, but which in retrospect seemed interesting.
Jim had one of his greatest successes as the Voice of Mister Magoo, the near-sighted little bumbler who won an Academy Award and is now one of the busiest salesmen in the commercials.
The question: Which comes first in an animated cartoon, the figure or the voice?
It’s the voice, said Backus. He gets a script, studies it then puts his part on tape. The pen-and-ink fellows then have to do the hard part— matching the animation to the voice.
Altho I have been around cartoon studios numerous times, I had somehow just always taken it for granted that they made the cartoons, then the actors match the voices in.
Saves Actors a Lot of Work
The way they do it not only makes sense, but it must save the actors who are voices for cartoon characters a lot of work. It's almost like working radio, with a script there to read from.
Backus was one of the best subjects Person to Person has ever presented, I thought. He is not the biggest of stars, but certainly he has been a successful one, and financially he must be far ahead of some of the glamor faces which grace the magazine covers.
At least, judging from the luxury apparent in the Backus home, and the first view we got of him walking through some manicured grounds which might have gone well with Windsor Castle, and two servants who appeared on cue, being a cartoon voice has done quite well for Backus.
The only trouble, he said, is that he works so hard to be able to afford his luxury that he seldom gets a chance to enjoy it. It even costs money to be on Person to Person, he said wryly, because his wife had their home redecorated and got new drapes.
But Backus also has another gold mine—the residual payments he gets from I Married Joan, one of the first successful situation comedies. The series has been rerun numerous times in this country, is now in the foreign market, which is turning out to be important for t-v film makers just as it was for the Hollywood feature film makers. The series turned out even more popular in England than in this country, Backus said, because in England the idea of a judge being kept on even keel by a somewhat haywire wife was even more ludicrous, because the English hold their judges in somewhat more awe than we do, and the aggressive wife is not so common.
Wears His Success Well
Backus is one of those happy-go-lucky fellows who seem to be able to have success and still do what they want and continue to be highly individualistic in personality—altho sometimes in their moments out of the public eye they are not quite as happy as they seem.
Backus is a strong, unconventional personality. He still wears suits, in Hollywood, and says that his swimming pool is rectangular, not one of those exotic shapes. He was an interesting subject for Person to Person, despite the stilted stiffness which so often pervades this program, because he insisted on being himself. He is humorous without effort, and he had a driving energy. He and Mrs. Backus write in their spare time, turned out one book, "Rocks on the Roof," and are now working on another, which he was persuaded with difficulty from not titling "Son of Rocks on the Roof." He says they have discovered the ideal collaboration arrangement. In bed.
I shall miss Person to Person when it leaves us after this summer run of shows which were made some time ago. It is interesting to see the surroundings in which well known people live.
10 New Cartoon Series Coming
The cartoon voices will really come into their own this fall, because among the major trends in programming cartoons are making a strong showing.
There will be at least 10 new cartoon series coming on, largely as the result of success of The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Rocky and His Friends.
The cartoons have undergone a big change from the old format, when cats banging mice around and then getting caught in the vacuum cleaner, etc., was the standard procedure.
Sometimes I have watched curiously as Heckle and Jeckle or Bugs Bunny set various characters on fire, lured them over cliffs, banged them with clubs, etc. It seems like concentrated sadism.
But the trend now is toward sophistication, toward derisive satire. Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound have more adults than children watching, and the appreciation of Huckleberry has become a sort of highbrow status symbol.
Arnold Stang as Top Cat
Top Cat, from Screen Gems, which will debut on ABC at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, is from the Hanna-Barbara Studios, which have had the Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound and Flintstones hits in three years. The voices include some of the most successful character actors, with Arnold Stang in the title role, Allen Jenkins, Maurice Gosfield (he was Doberman in the Bilko show), Marvin Kaplan, Leo De Lyon and John Stephenson.
Beatrice Kaye, the singer, will be the voice of Alvin in The Alvin Show, based on the chipmunk recording stars.
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll (Amos and Andy), whom I would have thought would be content to sit around and count their millions, will be the voices of Calvin and the Colonel, a cartoon about a bear and a fox.
Now Screen Gems, which seldom moves except from strength, announces a new technique called Tri-Cinemation. The company has made a deal to produce a series in which life-like dolls, described as "exactly like human beings, down to the most precise detail, from the wrinkles in the skin to the inflection of a finger," will be made to move on film.
People—who needs them? Except for the voices.

The critics’ attitude toward Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear was fairly consistent. They, and parents groups, cried against what they saw as too much violence in old theatrical cartoons (and Three Stooges shorts, for that matter). Yes, there were dynamite explosions and, yes, Quick Draw McGraw would shoot himself on occasion. But these were different. They were less frenetic than the old Warner Bros cartoons and seemed a lot less painful than what Famous/Paramount had been pumping out. The characters were amusing, clever or funny, so they got a passing grade.
The idea of “protecting” children from seeing cartoon characters engaging in slapstick violence strikes me as pointless. So does emasculating animated characters to become educators for whatever causes parental pressure groups want. Let funny characters be funny.