Top Cat's Debut and What Arnold Stang Hated

Top Cat debuted on the ABC-TV network on Wednesday, September 27, 1961 with the episode “The $1,000,000 Derby” and it seems prints of the 60-year-old series are out there.

Read more here.

Wide Vs Academy

Not all cartoon studios succumbed to the 3-D gimmick in 1953 but most of them resigned themselves the following year to jump into a wide screen format.

See a comparison here.

Mixed Penguin Drink

“Give me a scotch and soda and a pinch of lemon,” orders the penguin. So the bartender does. But he doesn’t waste time with glasses, he mixes it right in the penguin.

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Building Comedy and Demanding Truth

It wasn’t third time lucky for Jack Benny.

Read more here.

Stop Mel Blanc!

How could anyone be upset with the Man of a Thousand Voices, Mel Blanc? The man who gave us Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker and Jack Benny’s Maxwell?

Some people, it seems.

Read about it here.

Shrink Take

Jim Tyer's distinctive animation at the Terry studio has its devoted fans. He loved changing characters into either jagged or floppy takes. He also did a take where body parts shrank.

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Who is on Flip's Red Carpet?

Movie stars drop by for the opening of Flip’s drug store/cafeteria in Flip’s Soda Squirt (1933). See more here.

The Butt-ram of Jokes

At the start of 1960, CBS was gamely hanging onto shreds of its radio network programming. Read more here.

No Product Placement Here

It’s fun, at least for me, to watch cartoons from the 1930s with punny labels or inside gags on product packages. But they didn’t appear all the time.

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More Inside Warners Gags

I get a kick out of seeing references no one in the theatre is supposed to get in Warner Bros. cartoons.

See more here.

Is There a Plumber in the House?

Fans of early Hanna-Barbera cartoons are the best.

See more here.

Benny and Connie

Jack Benny’s treatment of guest stars on his television show got a ringing endorsement, but it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.

Read more here.

Explaining Magoo

UPA set out to tell animated stories with a more modern drawing style than generally seen on the screen, with mature characters (that is, no funny animals).

It succeeded.

Read more here.

Leap Frog Backgrounds

Animated cartoons were moving into representational background art as the 1940s moved toward the 1950s. Even an industrial studio like John Sutherland Productions, founded by a former Disney-ite, realised stylisation was the way to go.

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An-Udder Gag

An out-of-control airplane takes aim at a cow in Plane Crazy (1928).

See more here.

The Fickle Finger That Touched Mary Hilt

This is the story of a woman who went on a TV show she didn’t watch and didn’t even like.

Read about it here.

Tex Cracks Him Up

Perhaps it’s because he grew up in an era of silent films, but Tex Avery avoided dialogue when it really wasn’t necessary. This blog has all kinds of examples where we’ve shown one of his gags with frames and no commentary.

See more here.

Books by Bob Clampett

Bob Clampett’s Book Revue features—surprise! Books by Bob Clampett.

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Jack Benny on Mary and Mary Jane

Jack Benny toking up?

Read more here.

Musical Miniatures

The Walter Lantz studio may have reached its peak in the late ‘40s. The irony is the peak suddenly ended with the studio being closed for more than a year.

Read about the Musical Miniatures here.

Puzzled Pals

One has to wonder whether the family life wasn’t the life for Van Beuren animators, judging by Puzzled Pals (1933).

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Lo, the Shameless Cartoon Thefts

The Warner Bros. cartoons provided more than inspiration at Columbia/Screen Gems. They were the targets of outright thievery.

See more here.

Tonight! An All-New Fantasy Island! Then At 9...

You can hear his voice when you read the words: “The Loooooove Boat!”

Read more here.

More Eyes, More Feet

Daffy Duck takes on a Hawley Pratt-designed dog as he tries to get a home for the winter in Cracked Quack (1952).

See more here.

Barn Dance

Lem and Daisy Goon square dance in a barn in Tex Avery’s The Hick Chick (1946).

See the full pan shot here.

Sex, Shoes, Benny, Burns

Jack Benny talking about s-e-x?

Read more here.

The Captain's Inside Jokes

Does this strike you as being from an MGM cartoon?

Read more here.

Thirsty Tulips

Betty Boop waters her plants on her penthouse as she sings “Penthouse Serenade” by Jason and Burton.

See more here.

Willie Or Won't He

In the less-than-halcyon days of quiz shows, contestants were coached on how to give the correct answers. On at least one show, though, they were coached on how to sound like they were giving the correct answers.

See more here.

Watch Out For That...

“I’m the guy that’s going to catch the fox,” says Willoughby to the theatre audience viewing his cartoon, “because I know every tree in this forest. Every single tree.”

See more here.

Happy 90th Jack Benny

Jack Benny likely never thought that people could listen to his first show 90 years after it aired.

Read more and see a special interview here.

Pigging the Cab

Porky Pig develops a huge mouth to imitate Cab Calloway singing “Chinatown, My Chinatown.”

See more in this post.