Psst! Wanna Buy A Cartoon?

Crowd-funding is a way for modern-day cartoonists to get money to finance their films. But the idea isn’t really new. The same sort of thing was tried almost 60 years to create one of most disreputable TV cartoon series ever made—Spunky and Tadpole.

In the 1950s, movie studios didn’t see any value in their old theatrical cartoons, so they sold their television rights to distribution companies who proceeded to make fortunes from stations eager to fill kiddie programme time. But there were only so many old theatricals to go around, and parents groups were already beginning to complain about the violence in them. So new producers climbed out of the woodwork to figure out a way to make cartoons specifically for TV that allowed them to turn a profit. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera did it by going into hock, climbing in bed with Columbia Pictures and quickly started minting cash with Ruff and Reddy and Huckleberry Hound. But a chap named Ed Janis decided to go a different route.

In 1957, Janis formed a company named Beverly Hills Productions. The company doesn’t appear to have any money for its own. Instead, it advertised on TV for people to buy stock in its cartoon venture. Variety reported how it worked in its August 2, 1957 issue.

RAISE TV PROD'N COIN VIA SPOTS

Reportedly the first time it's been done on tv, a BevHills brokerage house offer of stock in a telefilm cartoon venture, made during past two weeks on KTTV, has been completely subscribed to tune of $125,000.
Principals in experiment are Beverly Hills Productions, cartoon firm headed by Edward Janis, with Corinne Calvet and husband Jeffrey Stone as veepees, and Howard Bierman as secretary-treasurer; and brokerage house of H. Carroll & Co.
Reports attorney Ralph Frank, of law firm of LeMaire & Frank, repping Carroll firm, on the tv stock sale: "We've had fantastic results. To sell a similar issue (by more conventional means) in three months wouldn't be unusual."
Calif. State Commissioner of Corporations has issued Carroll firm a permit to sell the shares. Since this is an offer only in this state, to bonafide residents. SEC jurisdiction has been almost entirely eliminated.
Actually, offer on KTTV was only an offer to send a prospectus. However, Frank states, California law holds that this is really a stock offer. Carroll firm already has contracted for a schedule of further spots on Tom Duggan's KCOP show and KTTV, and finds itself in pleasant position of continuing with stock already completely subscribed. However, since it's likely that about 10% of subscribers won't redeem pledges (a normal depreciation, Frank holds), Duggan spots will probably be used to clean up $125,000 offer.
Spots were started last week, and by early this week, $82,000 was subscribed. Rest of issue was subscribed by yesterday, at $1 par and same cash value. In one case, a client came to Carroll office as result of teleblurbs, with $1,000 in hand. He left after reading prospectus, with $3,000 order.
Actually, $125,000 offer represents 50% of available stock. Other 50% still resides in BevHills Productions firm.
Janis, formerly with 20th-Fox, has plans to package five-minute color cartoons, approximately 50 in number, for a daily telepix strip. However, he was unavailable for comment on actual production start.
But successful result of BevHills Productions issue has aroused enthusiasm of Carroll house in further use of tv spots to sell stock, in both entertainment and other ventures. Already on the drawing boards are plans to sell stock in "one or two" feature pictures, and firm has been approached to finance a Broadway show in a similar manner.

Something about this was skunky, not Spunky, to the Better Business Bureau. It decided to look into the “TV pitch for production coin.” Variety did its own investigation, too. In its August 6th edition, after noting a similarly-funded stage musical several years earlier had seen more than $165,000 in investments disappear, reported:

An analysis of the company's figures, as presented in the brochure, indicates an ignorance or at least an unfamiliarity with the field in which they seek to raise money, unless the firm has a secret formula which it isn't mentioning.

The Bureau told Variety it was trying to “develop information on the firm and its principals.” Variety did some digging and the results weren’t all that complimentary.

President of Beverly Hills Productions is Edward Janis, 35, one time staff cartoonist for 20th-Fox who "entered the television field in 1953." DAILY VARIETY has found no record of any credit for Janis in the tv field during the last four years and Attorney Ralph Frank, representing the firm, said he "didn't think" Janis had any. Actress Corinne Calvet and her husband, actor Jeff Stone, are vice-presidents of the firm, the only members of the outfit's top quintet whose names are familiar to show business. Secretary is Howard Bierman, a commercial artist and the treasurer is Emil Gillman, who last year sold his share of a family furniture business and "entered the television industry, utilizing his business knowledge and administration (sic) ability in the production of telefilms." DAILY VARIETY has found no credits for Gillman, either.

Trying to find biographical information about Janis today is a little difficult even today, at least using on-line sources. Janis could have been born in 1922 according to the Variety story. FamilySearch.org has records which show an Edward L. Janis was born on January 26, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois to Jack and Rose Janofsky. He had legally changed his name to Janis by 1946 when he married a Lillian Snyder in Los Angeles. At the time, he was unemployed. Whether he worked at Terrytoons or was a publicity artist at Fox is unknown.

As for the cartoons themselves, the brochure from Beverly Hills Productions outlined their financing. Bear in mind that Hanna-Barbera’s first Ruff and Reddy cartoon had a budget of $2,700.

Firm estimates $100 per film each for director, writer, narrator, voice, background artists, inkers and painters, and $200 per film for animators—and reports that it can turn out each five-minute color cartoon for $1,850. Salaries quoted are, in the main, below minimum scales, at a time when, the Screen Cartoonists Guild reports, there is a labor shortage in the trade and most people are drawing more than scale pay for their work. As to the total cost, one veteran teleblurb producer estimates that using slide animation (the cheapest form), a five-minute cartoon would cost at least $3,000 in color—at the going commercial rates; for full animation the cost would be around $18,000. Another reported that for limited animation, the cheapest possible price is around $1,000 per minute; full animation, $5,000-$8,000 per minute.

The trade paper also reported Janis would get one free share for each share sold to the public, meaning he didn’t need to put up a cent.

It seems Variety and the Better Business Bureau weren’t the only ones having suspicions about the financing of Beverly Hills Productions. So were some of the principals. From the December 16, 1957 issue of Variety

Calvet Jeff Stone Wash Hands Of TV Cartoonery Using Names To Sell Stock
Corinne Calvet and Jeff Stone, the pic couple who were v.p.’s of Beverly Hills Productions cartoonery, over the weekend resigned their posts and informed Calif. Commissioner of Corporations they did so because they were denied info on the firm's financial dealings.
Beverly Hills Productions recently came under fire, including investigation by the Better Business Bureau and the LA. Police Bunco Squad, following DAILY VARIETY story disclosing inconsistencies in group's brochure accompanying public sale of stock.
Via pitches, mainly over tv, group sold nearly $100,000 in stock to the public. Labor and other estimated costs listed in brochure were considerably below established scales in the cartooning field. Consensus of expert opinion from reputable firms in held was that Beverly Hills Productions couldn't deliver proposed color cartoon strips at prices quoted.
In their letter to the Corporations Commissioner, Miss Calvet and Stone admitted they knew that their names would be used in stock solicitations. However, " . . . we feel it imperative that our names not be used for any purpose which may in any way affect our reputation.
At the time, we permitted the use of our names because representations were made to us that the corporation's purposes . . . warranted our support, and we were guaranteed we would be active in the company's affairs, so we would be aware of how monies collected as a result of stock sales would be used . . ." Letter asserts that when the couple requested such info last week, firm's directorate not only refused it, but voted them out of office.

The woes weren’t over for Ed Janis. A piece in Variety of March 19, 1958 reveals Janis, basically, sold a cartoon idea to himself before he decided to sell shares in a company that gave him free shares.

Janis, Prod'n Firm Over 'Fish & Chips'
Suit asking $66,250 assertedly due him from a deal with Edward Janis was filed yesterday in Superior Court by Philip Nasser against Janis and Beverly Hills Productions. Nasser charged that he and Janis had entered into an agreement whereby he was to devise and work on an idea for a tv cartoon series originated by Janis in November, 1956, "Fish and Chips," in which they were to split 50-50 on all proceeds.
However, he claimed, he was excluded when Janis sold rights to the idea in February, 1957, to Beverly Hills Productions for 125,000 shares of stock, at $1 per share, in corporation, plus $7,500 per year. Two defendants, according to complaint, "conspired to exclude Nasser from deal."

What were “Fish and Chips”? Beats me. Janis is on record as copyrighting, on February 27, 1957, artwork for something called “Storybook Adventures,” including a walrus, a goofy bear and a German scientist. This could have been S & P; at the end of each cartoon, the narrator urged kid viewers to join Spunky and Tadpole next time “in storybook adventures.” However, the current Copyright Catalog on-line reveals that all Spunky and Tadpole cartoons were copyrighted on July 15, 1956—even though it’s clear the cartoons hadn’t been finished by that date. The trades began talking about the series of June 19, 1958, when Janis managed to finalise a distribution deal for the cartoons, which were already in production, with Guild Films.

Guild was set up in 1952 (around May) by Reub Kaufman, the former owner of a Chicago-based ad agency, to cash in on the growing need for low-cost syndicated programming. His first distribution efforts were “Lash of the West” starring Lash LaRue and “Beam It Up” with Chick Chandler, but then he hit the jackpot in February 1953 by offering to stations a show featuring a Los Angeles lounge act pianist named Liberace. More to the point, Guild had some success with animation, acquiring the TV rights in February 1955 to 191 black-and-white Warner Bros. cartoons. Variety gave a progress report on June 27th.

New Cartoon Deal For Janis, Guild
Beverly Hills Productions, which last week inked a $125,000 deal with Guild Films for distribution of its new "Adventures of Spunky and Tadpole" cartoons, is now negotiating a new deal with Guild which calls for production of 150 of the three-and-a-half-minute shorts, according to Beverly Hills prexy Edward Janis.
New deal, which would supersede the first, would also give Guild options on 350 more of the color cartoons under a long-term lease arrangement involving flat payment of $4,000 per subject plus a participation in merchandising rights. New pictures would be budgeted at $2,500 each, as compared with the $1,850 per-pic budget which pertains on the 50 Guild has already purchased.
Beverly Hills, which was launched last summer via a $125,000 public stock issue, got back just that amount via its initial Guild deal, which called for a guarantee of $2,500 per pic for the 50 cartoons. Janis has 40 of the 60 in the can and is wrapping up the rest.
He started production on the cartoons last November, and without a studio himself, has sub-contracted the various animation and recording elements while retaining production control. Films, which can be combined into 15 and 30-minute packages, are done in limited-animation style.

Guild started aggressively advertising the cartoons in the trades. When “Spunky and Tadpole” first appeared on TV is almost impossible to say but the series had been sold to KHJ-TV by September and was picked up by 20 stations by the end of November. And Beverly Hills Productions started paying dividends to shareholders. But things weren’t altogether rosy. On May 5, 1960, it was reported Janis was no longer the company president. Official Films took over distribution from Guild in August, the same month Herts-Lion International struck a deal for a 30-day option to buy Bev Hills (“Spunky and Tadpole” was now airing on 37 stations). On October 7, Janis resigned from the company altogether. Beverly Hills Productions hung around until June 5, 1964 when it was purchased by Beverly Hills Film Co. Its only asset was “Spunky and Tadpole;” Janis had copyrighted, on March 28, 1960, something called “The Genius”—cartoon characters included characters named Homer, Wentworth and Bingo—but the series was never developed. He also developed a character named Don Coyote, apparently in 1962; it was signed over to UPA in 1988. Ownership of “Spunky and Tadpole” changed hands at least twice more in the ‘60s. Eventually, they ended up in the hands of Ziv International, which sold home video rights to Media Home Entertainment (1981) and All-Seasons Entertainment (1984). In 1992, the 150 cartoons were swallowed up by Time-Warner.

I suspect that’s more than you’ll ever want to know about the series’ back story. Let’s give you a bit of information about the cartoons. If IMDB is correct, the animation was done by Arthur Moore Studios. Moore had worked at Disney from 1939-41 after a career drawing for the Los Angeles Examiner. After serving in the war, he opened a studio called Royal Titles with two ex-Disney buddies. Moore died in 2005. Moore is credited as “director.” No animators are credited. The only other artist’s name is Bob Caples, who was responsible for backgrounds. He, too, worked for Disney in the late ‘30s after graduating from Chouinard. A bio at CalArt.com says he painted backgrounds for Warner Bros. in the 1950s (was he ever credited?) and then worked at Hanna-Barbera; Jonny Quest was among his shows. He died in Mesa, Arizona, in September 1996.

Music was provided from a stock library. The main theme is “La Vitrine Aux Jouets” (“The Toy Shop Window”) by the prolific Roger Roger, who seems to have composed for at least a half dozen libraries. It was released in England in the Chappell library and in the U.S. by Sam Fox.

The series’ main voices are by Janis himself, along with Joan Gardner and Don Messick. Both Gardner and Messick had worked in the 1950s for Bob Clampett, providing voices on his puppet shows. Messick apparently didn’t stay for all 150 episodes; word is Janis took over his roles. Janis and Gardner also married in Nevada on December 8, 1960. They went into production of live action films, most famously working on that underfunded 1965 cult classic “The Beach Girls and the Monster.” In 1973, Janis (with Gardner writing) proposed a movie called “Scavenger’s Gold,” to be shot in Oregon. It was funded by selling 350 units in a limited partnership (sound familiar?). But—oops!—the Bend Bulletin reported on December 3 that shooting had been delayed. Janis hadn’t convinced enough Oregonians to pony up $1,000 for a unit.

Janis survived Gardner. When she died in 1992, her career was written up in the Los Angeles Times. When he died in Los Angeles on August 19, 2000, there was no lengthy celebrity obit. He had drifted off into obscurity, much like his cartoon creations.

Warners Gags Travel East

You know how Wile E. Coyote used to draw a tunnel or a landscape, the Road Runner would zip into the picture as if it were real, but when the coyote did it... well, sure, you’ve seen it countless times.

I’m too lazy to look up when Wile E. did it for the first time, but I know his debut cartoon was in 1949. But three years earlier, the same gag was used in the Terrytoon “The Tortoise Wins Again.”



And you’ll remember the closing gag in Tex Avery’s “Tortoise Beats Hare” (1941). It’s classic Avery; he used it at the end of “The Blitz Wolf” at MGM. Bugs contemplates whether he’s been tricked by the turtle. A gaggle of turtles pop up and chime the Mr. Kitzel catchphrase “Mmmmm...it’s a possibility!” The same thing happens in this cartoon, except the turtles use Kitzel’s other catchphrase “Mmmmmm...could be!”



John Foster received the mandatory story credit.

Octopus Olive

Olive Oyl’s spaghetti arms multiply in “The Spinach Roadster” (1938).



Willard Bowsky and George Germanetti get the animation credits.

Warming Up With Johnny Olson

Johnny Olson was a daytime host on network radio and early television who saw his career somehow take a turn and ended up as an announcer on a pile of TV game shows. Olson’s voice was well-known to audiences long before he came up with “Come on down!!!” when The Price Is Right was re-worked and returned to the tube in 1972. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best announcer in game-show history.

One of Johnny’s talents the home audience never saw was his warm-up act, where he got everyone in the studio all hyped for the taping of the programme that was to follow (or a live broadcast, in the case of the 1950s Goodson-Todman shows). His abilities as a mood-setter were praised on the air by John Daly, Gene Rayburn and Jackie Gleason, who would have no one else warm-up his audience, and flew Johnny to Miami Beach for tapings of his shows in the ‘60s.

Here’s Johnny in a UPI column I found from August 7, 1966. His last name seems to be have misspelled on far too many occasions. He talks about the dos and don’ts of audience warm-ups.

Warm-Up Man Rates Gleason Job Best
Johnny Olsen, 25-Year Veteran, Does 14 Shows a Week
By JOHNNY OLSEN
By United Press International
NEW YORK — I've been an announcer and studio warm-up man for many years now, and one of the most enjoyable assignments I have had is doing Jackie Gleason's "The American Scene Magazine" comedy-variety show.
It was a problem fitting it into my busy schedule — I do 14 shows a week, including "What's My Line?", the daytime and nighttime "To Tell the Truth" programs and "I've Got a Secret."
When I stepped to the microphone onstage in the Miami Beach Auditorium and said these familiar words — "and away we go!" — some 3,000 people in the audience exploded and burst into a solid roar of applause, shouts and cheers.
PRODUCTION - Those words signaled the call to action of more than 100 people involved in the production of the show. As usual, June Taylor's lovely dancers started things off with a fast, lively routine to the rhythm-packed tunes of Sammy Spear's orchestra. And this set the stage for Jackie's first appearance when he walked on, beaming amid the rising roar of approval that came to a climax when he spread his arms and said, "How sweet it is!"
That's when I knew I had done my job well, because for about 15 minutes before that electric moment, I had the studio audience in my charge, making them happy and comfortable, and putting them in a warm, receptive mood.
The art of "conditioning" an audience for Jackie's type of show requires specialization and tact in convincing 3,000 persons how important they are to the show—and they are!
BASIC RULES - I have developed a few basic rules for myself over the years in warming up a studio audience and keeping it warm, and I guess I've been lucky—they've worked well.
First rule is: Don't take the edge off the show itself. In other words, don't try to be too funny; don't overpower the audience; don't sell yourself—sell the star and the show that's to follow.
Second rule: Keep the star out of the warmup. I had to talk Jackie out of wanting to come out before each taping to chat with the studio audience. He gets more reaction, more excitement, when the audience sees him for the first time.

NEXT RULE — Don't have too many things around that clutter the stage and distract an audience from concentrating on the star and his supporting players. Of course, this is not always easy to accomplish because of the great variety of technical gear needed for a television show. But it helps if the producer and director keep things to a minimum. And don't overdo your warmup. Don't exhaust the audience and get them fidgety before the show starts. Say or do what you're going to — concisely, clearly and enthusiastically. And bring them to that magic level, of great expectations. Then, they're ready to give the show a terrific response.
COMMUNICATE — Oh, yes, I have one more rule for myself. I never sit down, from the moment I get on the stage until that very last moment when the show is over I like to stay on my toes and keep in tune with Jackie while he's on. This way, I'm able to sense his every move and the nuances of his laugh-provoking "bits" — and I try to communicate this to the studio audience.
Last year, on one occasion, I was flying back to New York on a Sunday afternoon and had to make the "What's My Line?" show that evening. A storm blew up, and we couldn't land in New York, Philadelphia or Washington. So, we flew back to Florida, then turned around and finally landed in Baltimore.
I raced for a New York train and made it to the studio less than half an hour before air time. I must have flown 4,000 miles that day.
USES SCOOTER — Another time, leaving New York. I had to catch a plane at Kennedy Airport following a taping of "To Tell the Truth." Knowing in advance that I had a touch-and-go time and traffic situation, I had a friend whisk me to the midtown tunnel on his scooter. There, I transferred to a waiting sports car — another good friend helped me on this one — and I made it to the plane just on time.
Oh, yes. It was winter in New York, and I had to carry summer clothes in a bag and over my arm and change into them while en route to Miami Beach.
GREAT NAMES — But it's all part of the business, and I love it. I've worked with many top names in my more than 25 years in the radio and television business — Mayor LaGuardia, the great singer Madame Schumann-Heink, Ameila Earhart, President Herbert Hoover, President Franklin D. Roosevelt —and, yes, Jackie Gleason. He makes you feel great when he says, after a good job, "You're beautiful, pal."
And it certainly beats working in a drug store. I started working in a drug store in my hometown of Windom, Minn. But here I am in show business.
It's just as well—I never could make sandwiches.

Sneaky Car

The Southern Wolf puts his jalopy into sneak gear to catch the title characters in Tex Avery’s “The Three Little Pups.”



The car stretches its body and its wheels like it’s tip-toeing. Here are a few drawings to give you an idea.



Avery and writer Heck Allen pulls the old “hide-behind-tree” gag except phone poles are used this time. And the car hides, too.



Walt Clinton, Mike Lah, Grant Simmons, Ray Patterson and Bob Bentley are the credited animators.

It’s Hummer Time Backgrounds

The Bob McKimson short “It’s Hummer Time” (Warner Bros., 1950) is known for the somewhat sadistic penalties a cat is forced to pay by a bulldog (“No! Not happy birthday!”). But the cartoon opens with some attractive backgrounds over which the hummer (ie. a hummingbird) swoops.



The hummingbird reads the slogan of Arrid Deodorant.



The bird zooms up to the bird bath. You can see how the animator has stretched him.



Dick Thomas painted the backgrounds from layouts by Cornett Wood.

But I'm An Actor

Seeing is believing. That’s why TV and movie actors get typecast. After a while, TV and movie actors get tired of a successful role and want to try something else, but the fans won’t accept them as anything but what their eyes have seen. So the typecasting continues.

The cast of the Jack Benny show—the main members who stayed for years—dealt with the same thing. Their characters were so ingrained in American culture. One wonders if Benny himself would have had a more successful movie career if people expected something other as a vain miser whenever they saw him on the screen. Don Wilson saw himself as more than an announcer—he started in show business as a singer—and tried to bust out of his stereotype. He wasn’t really all that successful. The only non-Benny role I saw Wilson in was as a news reporter covering a fight on “Batman.” As Wilson did play-by-play football before being hired on the Benny show, it wasn’t much of a stretch.

Here’s a wire service report that appeared in papers starting August 3, 1959. Interestingly, the same month Dennis Day tried his hand at drama on “Suspense,” playing a hitch-hiking beatnik forced to face reality when a “square” involves him in murder. Can you picture Dennis Day in that part? See what I mean about stereotyping?

Don Wilson Tries His Hand at Western Drama
By VERNON SCOTT
UPI Hollywood Correspondent

HOLLYWOOD (UPI) – Jovial Don Wilson, longtime (25 years) announcer for Jack Benny, is turning his bulky talent to drama this week in a segment of TV’s “Death Valley Days.”
Not that the hefty Wilson hasn’t branched out in the past. He’s appeared in movies without benefactor Benny, but always playing an announcer. This time Don portrays a con man parading through the Old West disguised as a preacher.
“It’s a very fat part,” said fat Don.
“I hope this departure will open new avenues of performing. It’s just possible the character I’m playing will become the lead in a new series. I want people to look on Wilson as something more than an announcer.”
Appears In November
The show, titled “Gates Ajar Morgan,” hits the airlanes next November. Between now and then Wilson will be seen regularly on Benny’s program.
“I began with Jack on radio in 1934,” he recalled. “My work was restricted to announcing and reading commercials. As we moved along Jack made me a regular member of the cast—a character. For 17 years I was voted most popular radio announcer.
“It’s been many years since I’ve done outright commercials on the show. Now I guess I qualify as an ‘actor.’
“All of us with Jack are fortunate to have been associated with such a great guy. He’s always interested when we do other things.”
Portly Don was encouraged by Benny earlier this year when he and his actress wife appeared together in “The Great Sebastians” at the Laguna Beach Playhouse. It started him off on the dramatic kick.
TV Types Announcers
“Television has worked a hardship on announcers,” he said. “We’re typed as commercial pitch artists and that’s it.
“In radio all of us used to work steadily playing hundreds voices of roles. Our voices were such that we weren’t identified with our regular jobs. On TV we’re immediately recognized.
“Harry Von Zell, of the old Burns and Allen show, became a terrific comedian in his own right. He has established himself as a performer who can do anything. The late Bill Goodwin was another announcer who switched to playing comedy, straight roles and drama.
“Frankly, I’d prefer to play comedy roles myself. Thanks to Jack, most of the things I do on his show are humorous—and he invariably gives the funny lines to members of his cast while he plays straight man.”
“Jack used to bawl me out for not consulting him before declining other offers,” he grinned. “He urged me several times to take additional shows. I still don't think it would be fair to Jack.
“I’ve studied voice since I was a kid, and made my professional debut on radio when crystal sets were the rage. But my timing and other tricks of the trade were picked up from Jack Benny. As far as I’m concerned he’s tops, and I’ll go on working for him as long as possible.”

The Appeal of Underdog

Remember how someone got the bright idea to make a live-action version of “Underdog” with a real dog? It came out in 2007, was panned and bombed.

The producers could have avoided all that had they listened to the man who inspired the name of another cartoon character.

Peter Piech was the executive producer of the original Underdog TV cartoons through his part-ownership in Total Television Productions. Prior to that, he was president of Producers Associates of Television, which handled distribution of “Rocky and His Friends,” and had an interest in Gamma Productions, the cartoon studio where “Underdog” and a good percentage of “Rocky” were animated.

Here’s Piech talking about Underdog in this unbylined feature story published in the Rome Daily Sentinel, March 19, 1965. Underdog had debuted the previous October. We can only imagine what the late Alex Anderson would think of Piech getting credit for Rocky being “among his creations.” About the closest he got to creating anything on that show is the character of Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz, whose name—not coincidentally—is close to a certain producer’s. And we’d like to know more about those Farmer Brown cartoons he talked about.

‘Underdog’ Creator Says Children Tough Audience; Not Easily Fooled
"There is no set pattern or guideline for writing humor for children, particularly in cartoons. The only thing we are concerned about is producing a good cartoon sequence.”
The man who made this statement is Peter Piech, executive producer of the color cartoon series, “Underdog” seen Saturdays, at 10 a. m.
One of the most experienced men in cartoon production, Pete has produced approximately 3,000 minutes of cartoons since 1959, more, he claims, than any other animation studio in the world. Among his creations are “Rocky,” “Tennessee Tuxedo,” “Leonardo the Lion,” “The Hunter,” and “Go Go Gophers.”
Pete believes that both children and adults are fascinated by the supernatural and super powers; “Underdog” fits into both of these categories because of his super abilities and the supernatural powers of his enemies.

While he feels that there are no guidelines for writing humor for children, Piech is quick to add that there are definite elements that a cartoon should have to capture their interest and imagination.
“Children are paradoxical in that they are captivated by both the familiar and the unknown,” says Pete. “They know, for instance, that Underdog is always going to catch the bad guy and bring him to justice in the end.
"They also know that he is going to rescue the heroine, Polly, from the teeth of a whirling circular saw or from the beam of villain Simon Barsinister's snow gun. The fact that they know this doesn't make the final rescue any less exciting.”
Kids love repetition, according to Piech, “but a producer can't just come up with one formula and then keep using it indefinitely.”
Pete also maintains that children appreciate the same elements of humor that make adults laugh.
They love Wally Cox as the voice of Underdog because it is very comical to hear such a meek voice coming from such a super-powered hero. They also like the unexpected situation that pops up, and this too is an element in all forms of humor.
Says Piech, “Children today are much more sophisticated than they used to be, and demand more from cartoons than they used to, because they want to use their knowledge more.
It's no longer enough, to give them a ‘Felix the Cat’ or a ‘Farmer Brown’ musical cartoon with singing flowers and cows that kick over milk buckets. “Today's kids are science-oriented and they want to use their knowledge. They can do this while watching Underdog fight the underwater Bobble-Heads and their tidal wave machine, but they can't if all they see is Felix trying to catch a mouse.”
Pete is adamant in his feelings that there are many topics that cannot be animated, and anything that can be done using live actors and live situations should not be done in cartoon form. In cartoons, everything is much bigger than life, very exaggerated.
"Can you imagine Underdog being played by a real dog, like Lassie?” asks Pete. “It would be impossible!
“And it would be just as ridiculous if Mr. Novak was a cartoon instead of a live person.”

Well, Mr. Piech is being a little disingenuous about “Mr. Novak.” It wouldn’t work in animation in 1965 because it was a drama; cartoons were still pretty much comedies then. But he makes valid points elsewhere in the interview.

If you want to learn the whole story behind the “Underdog” show, you can do no better than read Mark Arnold’s book Created and Produced by Total Television Productions. Check out more here.

To Hare Is Human Backgrounds

Phil De Guard painted from Maurice Noble’s layouts in “To Hare Is Human,” a 1956 Warners cartoon from the Chuck Jones unit. I can’t get a clear shot of Bugs Bunny’s bed with the carrot-shaped posts but here are some other backgrounds.



Critics claim Jones starting making Bugs far too self-satisfied and flouncy. You might detect some of that in this cartoon.

A 1938 TV Set

Yes, there was television in the 1930s. In 1938, New York City was the home of NBC’s W2XBS. It had also been the home of the Terrytoons studio a few years earlier. So it’s not a surprise Terry and his story department tossed in a TV gag in the short “Bugs Beetle and His Orchestra” released that year.

The evil spider is awoken by the NBC chimes and tunes in his set.



He spots a luscious female bug. He kisses where she is on his set.



Her boy-friend bug violates the confines of the TV set and slugs him.



The angry beetle cracks his TV screen in response.



Whether this is the first TV gag in a cartoon, I don’t know, but it must be one of the earliest.

Fittingly, when W2XBS began somewhat regular programming in 1939, it featured Terrytoons.