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Archive for the tag “King Features Syndicate”

12 Jun 2021

Bungle In The Jungle

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

A couple weeks ago we covered SNUFFY SMITH, and a fortnight earlier we hit BEETLE BAILY. These two were part of King Features Syndicate’s follow-up to their successful batch of made-for-television POPEYE shorts, created to capitalize on the popularity the Sailor Man had enjoyed with the release of his earlier Paramount theatrical pictures to TV. Now we see KRAZY KAT, the third wheel of the “King Features Trilogy”, and it’s an odd one for a couple reasons…

First, Snuffy and Beetle were current funny papers strips in the ’60s. (And still are today, for that matter!) The KK strip ended almost two decades before these cartoons were produced. Kids had no clue who these characters were.

Second, KK was just odd by nature. The cat was non-binary gendered way before it was trendy. Mostly treated as female here, it was way more ambiguous in the source material… Instead of chasing and trying to exterminate the mouse (Ignatz), the cat is in love with the rodent, and takes his constant attempts to murder her with a brick to the braincase as some kind of S&M show of affection. Meanwhile, the bulldog, rather than menacing the cat like a normal canine, is in love with KK, and acts as a cop to protect her from the mouse!

This weirdness predates the start of the KK newspaper strip in 1913, as the Krazy and Ignatz were spun-off from the earlier DINGBAT FAMILY strip, where they were originally a fringe element. Never a huge hit, their series managed to stand-out with its avant-garde content and format. Maybe that’s why KFS decided it was suitable for TV in the Beatnik-Early Hippie era.

KK’s history in animation goes back the to the primordial silents in 1916. These early works reflected the general weirdness of the comic strip. But, in the 20s, animated KK devolved into a knock-off of FELIX THE CAT, who was the first really big animated cartoon series star. Despite transitioning to talkies, these ‘toons petered-out at the end of the ’30s.

Aside from a few tribute cameos, this series was the last new KK material created to-date. From 1963. More from The OldHorseman.

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29 May 2021

Snuffy’s Turf Luck

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

It’s a oft-seen trope in popular culture. A minor character ‘blows up’ and ultimately becomes the star of a series that wasn’t meant to be about him or her. HAPPY DAYS (previously featured on this channel in both its original live action and cartoon spin-off forms) had Fonzie. FAMILY MATTERS was cursed with Steve Urkel… But it goes back way before television.

FRITZI RITZ and BLONDIE were part of a genre of newspaper comics that served as excuses for depicting hot gals (hey, we didn’t have Internet then either!) before the former got her strip usurped by her niece NANCY and the latter got married and the focus shifted to her husband Dagwood. THIMBLE THEATRE ran for a decade before POPEYE joined the cast.

BARNEY GOOGLE started way back at the dawn of the newspaper comic strip medium, actually starting on the sports page before the comics page was a thing. This little guy’s adventures were enormously popular, and he was celebrated in song and (silent) films… Then, in 1934, Barney’s travels brought him to North Carolina, where he met ornery little hillbilly SNUFFY SMITH, who soon became the star of the series.

King Features Syndicate, purveyor of newspaper comic strips worldwide, had enjoyed considerable success releasing a big batch of newly-produced Popeye cartoons to television starting in 1960. So they followed-up by trying the same with other comic strip characters. We covered BEETLE BAILY week before last. Now it’s Snuffy’s turn. Although he was rarely seen in the funny pages by this point, Barney Google turns up as a supporting character in this ‘toon.

BTW, after nigh-on three dozen years livin’ amongst Tarheels, I’ll attest that their depiction here is pretty much spot-on.  More from the OldHorseman.

 

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15 May 2021

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.

 

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