Everything’s Ducky
Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!
Our last Saturday Morning entry featured the work of Howard Morris. Most recognizable as Ernest T. Bass from the live-action ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW (previously seen on this channel), but also the voice of many cartoon characters including Jughead from the ARCHIES (also on this channel) and ATOM ANT.
Another recurring troublemaker for Andy and Barney was Allan Melvin, best known as Sam the Butcher from the live-action BRADY BUNCH (animated spin-off previously featured on this channel). He was also seen on damned-near every TV show from the ’50s through the ’80s, as well as doing a boat-load of cartoon character voices.
These two Mayberry misfits were bound to cross paths in the world of animation voice-overs. They did so most famously on MAGILLA GORILLA for Hanna-Barbera. But first they did our entry for today!
As covered here previously, POPEYE THE SAILOR was a long-running, highly popular series of theatrical shorts for Paramount Studios in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. But they didn’t own the character. King Features Syndicate, who published the THIMBLE THEATRE newspaper comic strip where he first appeared, did. When his pictures were syndicated to television and became a hit all over again, King Features wanted a piece of that action. Paramount had relinquished its license, so KFS was able to produce (through an assortment of sub-contractors) a couple hundred shorts specifically for TV between 1960 and ’63. While inferior to the theatricals, these went over well-enough for KFS to try making more ‘toons based on their comic strip properties.
BEETLE BAILEY’s newspaper comic started out with him as a college kid in 1950, but he got the bright idea to drop-out and join the Army in 1951, where he’s been a perpetually loafing, humorously incompetent Private ever since. Somehow he never got sent to Korea or Vietnam, but Camp Swampy was dangerous enough, between his own ineptitude and the savage beatings inflicted upon him by Sgt Snorkel.
Beetle was one of three print properties developed for the animated KING FEATURES TRILOGY for TV distribution starting in 1963. More from the OldHorseman.
