Sunny California

Tex Avery sets up Cellbound with a simple premise: escaped prisoner Spike is trapped in the warden’s TV set and has to enact something on the screen so he won’t get discovered. What we don’t know is how Spike will do it.

The warden looks through his newspaper’s TV listings. “Ah, horse racing,” he says.



Reaction take.



Spike reacts with a convenient watering can (filled with water) and a sign.



“Sunny California,” mumbles the warden. And it’s on to the next gag.

The Avery unit was gone almost 2 ½ years before this cartoon was released. Avery used his regular gagman, Heck Allen, and layout artist, Ed Benedict. But his animators were gone, except Mike Lah, who finished up the picture as Avery looked for work. The Hanna-Barbera unit’s animators were brought in—Irv Spence, Ken Muse and Ed Barge, with Lah animating as well.