Television Oddities: Inner Tube (1987)

 

Television Oddities title card

Okay! So, my series Cartoon Stars Re-Animated continues apace. But it seems that there's a real lack of variety on this blog. So, I have an idea. Why don't we have a series about TV shows that never happened?! Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we now have access to many things that either were shown only once or weren't meant to be seen at all. By that, I mean failed pilots and pitch reels. Here I will draw attention to the existence of such things, talk about them and give my two cents on why they might have failed to become a series. And I call this series (for lack of a better name): Television Oddities.

I thought I'd start with something fairly safe and familiar . . .

Actually, no, I'm starting off with something that may be one of the strangest things you've seen on YouTube in a good, long while.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jim Henson's Inner Tube.

Inner Tube started as an idea titled In-TV. The basic idea was meant to be an update of the Muppet variety show concept, but with some parody and satire of the then-current state of cable television (it was 1987). The idea is that instead of being on a vaudeville-esque show with a bunch of oddballs, the guest star would get sucked into the TV and would then have to traverse from channel to channel in order to eventually get out. And it would be as they jumped from channel to channel that they would find themselves in the various sketches and musical acts. At the center of the show would be two characters, mechanics Henry and Jake who run their own fly-by-night cable channel out of the back of an electronics shop.

Jake and Henry from "Inner Tube"

A script for a pilot was written by David Misch with John Candy written in as a possible first guest star (no guest star actually appeared, though). Jim Henson had issues with the original script, though. And creative consultant Larry Mirkin called the original pilot “consistently dark, victimized and pessimisstic” and emphasized that it also seemed unfunny. But Jim Henson thought it still had potential and cut down the script to a ten minute pitch reel which was filmed to be shopped around to different networks.

The pitch reel itself establishes the satirical tone right off with an introduction of the “Inner Tube System” by Kermit the Frog (who assumedly would not be in the regular show), selling us the idea that Inner Tube would have “1500 channels so you can find the right channel to match your mood, your IQ, your income bracket and your clothes”. We're also introduced to the mechanics Henry and Jake. The former a younger, thinner, less savvy fellow and the latter older, fatter, mustachioed and with more of a grasp of the situation they're in. There's also a band of characters playing a wonderfully late-80s song which I'd assume is the theme song. And there are three antagonistic characters introduced. One is Crasher, a violent, punked-out fellow who channels his frustration at not being able to star in every show by jumping from channel to channel and literally crashing their shows. Another is Glitch, a msichevious animated glob-like thing that runs from channel to channel and which Henry and Jake seem very concerned with catching (I'm not sure why). And last was Zaloom, a “channel pirate” played by a human actor (or at least his head and hands), who takes over channels to spread his message about the dangers of technology through unusual means (fun fact: Zaloom is actually played by Paul Zaloom, who went on to play Beakman in the kids' science show Beakman's World).

Glitch

One thing I can't help noticing is that with Kermit's whole spiel and Henry and Jake's whole channel-hopping escapade to catch Glitch, the premise of the pitch reel seems to vary from the confirmed premise that's been chronicled online. Instead of two mechanics running a public access channel out of the back of their shop, Henry and Jake seem more like two technicians for the whole Inner Tube System. Perhaps the change came with Jim Henson's tweaking of the pilot into a pitch reel.

The show itself never came to pass. It was pitched to networks like NBC and nobody bit. Henson gave it one last go, pitching it as part of The Jim Henson Hour, now with the name changed from Inner Tube to Lead Free TV. Still didn't happen. The blue screen graphic of the main setting with all the TV screens would be reused for the MuppeTelevision portions of TheJim Henson Hour, and the band's keyboardist Digit would also appear on the show as a supporting player. But that's it.

Digit.  Originally created for Inner Tube, but officially from The Jim Henson Hour

Why did networks pass on it? I don't know for sure, but I can take a coupld of guesses.  For one, a television series that actively makes fun of your product was going to be a hard sell. Even if he only shopped it around to networks like ABC, CBS and NBC, most people were now accessing those channels through cable packages and the networks were benefitting from it. There have been episodes of TV shows that have poked fun at cable, certainly. But an entire series playing off the notion of “cable TV is weird and kind of excessive” probably wasn't going to fly.

Also, well, you've seen what the puppets on this show looked like. One of the unfortunate things about puppets is that they generally seem to fall into the categories of either “cute” or “creepy” with little space in between. And the more human you try to make the puppets, the creepier they seem. These are definitely falling more into the creepy category.

Still, if you can get past that, the pitch reel is an interesting snapshot of a specific time in media technology. The days when cable was king. Nowadays, the common criticism is now that “everyone has a streaming service”. But even before streaming, many of the jokes presented in the pitch reel became outmoded. For example, one of the main jokes seems to be how amazingly specific each channel has to be to justify its existence. But I remember a time in the late '90s or early 2000s when that hyper-specificity was starting to be done away with as cable channels started focusing more on demographic rather than genre. I remember when Cartoon Network started playing live action shows. I remember when the Sci-Fi Channel (later SyFy) started playing non-science fiction programs like the WWE. I remember when American Movie Classics (AMC) stopped focusing on airing classic movies. The days of a channel being focused on something like science fiction are now long gone in favor of being a channel focused on adult males aged 18-35.

Anyway, that's it for the first episode of Television Oddities. I have some idea of what I'd like to do for the next installment. But if anyone knows of a failed pilot or pitch for me to check out, please let me know in the comments.

Next time: more cartoons.

Cartoon Stars Reanimated: Mr. Magoo

 

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated title card.

So! Let's just dive into this one, shall we?

Mr. Magoo was the flagship character of United Productions of America, commonly known as UPA.

Classic Mr. Magoo.

UPA was born in the aftermath of the animators' strike that took place at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1941. At which point a number of animators left the company. (Didn't know old Uncle Walt was an attempted union-buster? Yeah, life is full of little disappointments). Among those leaving Disney was layout artist John Hubley, who was not happy with Disney's animation philosophy, which involved painstaking imitation of reality and lots of minute detail. Hubley believed that animation didn't have to be a total imitation of cinematic reality in order to work, and that animation could use simpler designs and more abstraction in its art and still work. Hubley, Bobe Cannon and others at UPA aimed to create animated films that could experiment in design. Though Hubley and Cannon contributed to UPA's experimentation in style, UPA actually started as Industrial Film and Poster Service, founded in 1941 by Zack Schwartz, David Hilberman and Stephen Bosustow. They did a lot of work with the U.S. government. They would soon make two films sponsored by the United Auto Workers, at which point, the company was rebranded UPA. Eventually, in the shadow of McCarthyism, government contracts dried up as the government started severing ties with Hollywood. UPA would eventually make a deal with Columbia Pictures, who were dissatsfied with their existing animation studio, Screen Gems. And it was under Columbia's aegis that UPA made the majority of its theatrical cartoons.

There is a lot more to this. There's a lot more to the history of UPA and their creative endeavors in general. If you want to read more about it, I suggest you seek more information out. But I had to get you to this point.

Because in 1949's short The Ragtime Bear, UPA created its most famous character, a crotchety, near-sighted old man named Mister Magoo (probably their second most famous was a character named Gerald McBoing Boing, who was actually based on a story record by Dr. Seuss).

Mr. Magoo, for those not in the know, is a rich, stubborn, self-important, extremely nearsighted old man who constantly gets into and out of bizarre and dangerous situations due to his poor eyesight while being completely oblivious to the situation. Why? Well, Mr. Magoo (full name Quincy Magoo) is too stubborn to wear his glasses or admit that he even needs glasses in the first place. So, he generally just convinces himself that he's seeing what he wants to see. I find it to be a rather well-constructed character in communicating his upper-class stubborn pride. Anytime he percieves any kind of injustice, Magoo always seeks out the highest office he can in order to complain (Magoo is, in fact, a bit of a “Karen”). He also laughs at his own jokes all the time. I knew such a practice was frowned on, but had never noticed how self-congratulatory it can seem until I saw Magoo do it. But he's not necessarily a bad fellow. He loves his nephew Waldo. He loves his alma mater. And he's usually trying to do right by something despite being all wrong. And in his theatrical outings, he's perfectly voiced by actor Jim Backus (also famous for portarying Thurston Howell III on the TV show Gilligan's Island).

In the earliest Magoo cartoons, Magoo was more of a gruff, hard-nosed reactionary type. One can see a bit of political satire built into Magoo. A bit of a poke at the conservative upper class who, like Magoo, can be short-sighted and see things they want to see them. Even after Magoo got revised into more of a friendly, avuncular sort, some of that still remained. The cartoons frequently emphasize Magoo being a proud alumnus of Rutgers University, a famously conservative university at the time (whether it still is, I don't know).

Magoo had a long and distinguished cartoon career. UPA won two Academy Awards from the Magoo shorts When Magoo Flew from 1954 and Magoo's Puddle Jumper from 1956. In 1959, Magoo was featured in UPA's first feature length animated film 1001 Arabian Nights. In the 1960s, Mr. Magoo made the leap to television with a show aptly titled Mr. Magoo. Along the way, Magoo's one major supporting cast member, his nephew Waldo, was spun off into his own subseries of cartoons. Waldo's absence was largely accomodated by the introduction of Charlie, Magoo's servant who was an unfortunate Asian stereotype. Not long after, in 1962, Magoo would star in the first ever animated Christmas special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. And TV would remain a home for Mr. Magoo for a long stretch. Magoo's brush with Dickens would lead to a new series The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, which would cast Magoo as numerous famous characters from literature and history. In 1970, Magoo would star in another TV special, Uncle Sam Magoo. After that from 1976-77 would come the new series What's New, Mr. Magoo. By this point though, UPA had given up in-house production. What's New, Mr. Magoo was produced by DePatie-Freleng, the same people who animated the Pink Panther.

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

But positive vibes toward Mr. Magoo didn't last forever.

In 1997, chasing the success of Universal's live action The Flintstones movie, Disney put out a live action Mr. Magoo film starring Leslie Nielsen. The film actually met with a great deal of controversy from the National Federation of the Blind and was released with a disclaimer at the end (for more on that production, see the Mr. Magoo video by Hats Off Entertainment.

Disney's live-action Mr. Magoo.

Since then, Magoo projects have been few. A straight-to-DVD movie entitled Kung Fu Magoo was released in 2010. In 2019, a French animated series produced by Xilam Animation SAS was produced, first premiering in Portugal then on Boomerang Africa HD and then in the UK on CITV and the ITVX streaming service. Neither seem to have produced much in positive accolades.

The 2019 version of Mr. Magoo.

So, does Mr. Magoo still work in 2025?

Well, I still think his cartoons are funny. But that's not worth much. I find Magoo's bumblings and mistakes amusing. And I tend to find this sort of bumbling due to a combination of pride and nearsightedness a lot easier to forgive than bumbling and stumbling out of sheer stupidity (for an example of this type of stupid character, see Inspector Gadget). And his bumbling is in large part due to Magoo's pride and stubbornness. Because if Magoo just chose to wear his glasses, he'd have no problem. But it's still a hard sell. It's the pride, the stubbornness and the visual impairment that make the comedic situations happen. But a lot of people are just going to see it as laughing at an old man's disability.

Unfortunately, not every character can make it into modern media. Some of them are just better to leave where they are.

The odds of seeing anything new Magoo-related are slim anyway. Near as I can tell, the rights to the original theatrical shorts and the 1001 Arabian Nights movie are with Sony Pictures, the entity that swallowed up Columbia Pictures some time in the 1980s. But the rights to UPA's various TV shows and the character himself fall under the umbrella of Dreamworks Classic, just like Casper. That puts ot under the auspices of Comcast/Universal.

That's all I've got here but I thought I'd put a companion piece up on my other blog Fairy Tale Fandom, where I look at Magoo's 1001 Arabian Nights film. Check it out if you're interested.

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated: The Pink Panther

 

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated title card

I think first thing people remember about this cartoon is the groove.

That specific groove comes to the world via composer Harry Mancini (the same person who composed “Baby Elephant Walk”). And it wasn't composed for a cartoon originally. It was originally created for a 1963 mystery spoof about a bumbling detective searching for a stolen pink diamond that had a flaw that, when viewed closely, looked like a leaping panther. The film was, of course, The Pink Panther, created by Blake Edwards and Maurice Richlin, starring the incomparable Peter Sellers and produced by The Mirisch Company and United Artists (note: United Artists will sometimes be referred to as UA going forward). That movie went on to be a comedy classic and spawn eight sequels and two reboot films. But a funny thing happened along the way.

The movie had an animated opening title sequence in which an anthropomorphic pink panther meant to represent the villains of the story and the stolen diamond, repeatedly get the better of a cartoon inspector. The intro was made by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, a studio founded by executive David H. DePatie and animation director/composer/producer Friz Freleng after the closing of Warner Bros. Animation in that same year of 1963. And while the Sellers movie was popular, the animated opening sequence was surprisingly well-received. So immediately well-received that actor David Niven, who played the film's villain nearly sued for being upstaged by a cartoon character. Anyway, this convinced Depatie-Freleng and United Artists that people might want to see more of this cool cartoon cat.

The Pink Panther

The first of The Pink Panther's theatrical shorts was titled The Pink Phink and it ranwith UA's film Kiss Me Stupid in 1964. It was also the only Pink Panther short to win an Academy Award. The Pink Panther starred in 92 theatrical shorts, though it wasn't always clear sailing. By the 1970s, the family audience which was the main audience for the cartoons was in decline at cinemas and UA considered ending the series. However, the series was saved when a backlog of DePatie-Freleng cartoons were licensed to NBC and aired as The Pink Panther Show. After that, they started making the shorts for TV and putting them out into theaters afterward.

The Pink Panther and the Little Man

But before moving on to the Pink Panther's cultural legacy, let's focus on what the appeal of the Pink Panther cartoons is. They're hardly the first cartoons to star a non-speaking animal protagonist. But there's a certain something that's different about them. Probably because of the era and the conditions under which he was first created. The art is more abstract. The music is jazzier and more laid-back. The main character isn't as manic as most cartoon animals. There's a certain vibe of 1960s cool that pervades them even as the jokes start flying. And they don't necessarily shy away from hallmarks of that era, either. In 1968, there was actually a cartoon entitled Psychedelic Pink. And going into the 1970s, they would have cartoons like 1976's Rocky Pink which made fun of the Pet Rock fad. The most well-remembered Pink Panther cartoons are probably the ones where he has to deal with the ever-uptight Little Man (yes, that's the official name of the character). Sometimes the Panther is just pranking him for an entire cartoon. Other times, the Panther has his own goal but ends up getting in the Little Man's way by accident thus evoking his very petty wrath, resulting in a duel of wits. One thing that surprised me is that the Pink Panther is notg always cool and in control, which is what I remembered. He's often bothered by any number of annoyances ranging from fleas, scientifically-altered fruit flies, vicious dogs, yowling cats and many other things. He also seems to be down-and-out a lot, being broke and living in what's basically a shack. Though, I wonder if the collective memory of him being cool and unflappable (or at least unflapped) is what makes the cartoon work. Like we're all watching to see if the Pink Panther regains his chill. I mean, cool and unflappable is pretty uch the only vibe that matches with the voice Rich Little gave him.

Yeah. The Pink Panther has a voice. Are you surprised?

The truth is that nearly every classic wordless cartoon character has talked at some point in their existence, either on screen or on the printed page. Tom & Jerry both talked in the 1992 film Tom & Jerry the Movie. Snoopy talked, or rather his thoughts were heard, when they adapted the musicals You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy the Musical into animation. Heck, the Road Runner would talk in rhyme in the old Gold Key and Dell comic books he was adapted into. And in the early days of the Pink Panther, he was voiced by impressionist Rich Little doing an impression of David Niven (the actor who wanted to sue for being upstaged by a cartoon). He first talks at the end of the cartoon Sink Pink, and it serves as a really great surprise. The problem is that the more the Pink Panther talks, the less it works. Which is something I think cartoon studios had to figure out the hard way.

Pink Panther's short-lived TV sons Pinky and Panky

The Pink Panther Show is not the end of the Pink Panther's TV career. In 1978, The Pink Panther Show changed networks and changed its name to The All New Pink Panther Show. There was a series of television specials. In 1984, there was the cartoon Pink Panther and Sons, starring the traditional Pink Panther but also his sons Pinky and Panky. The Pink Panther parts were what you'd expect, but the Pinky and Panky parts were the usual slice-of-life kids adventures you'd expect from early '80s cartoons. Then in 1993, there was a new show entitled The Pink Panther. Once again, the Panther has a voice. This time it's provided by Matt Frewer (the guy who played Max Headroom back in the '80s, though his voice pops up in a lot of places). The show wasn't bad, but Frewer's voice doesn't really feel like it adds anything to the show. They could have kept the Panther silent, and it wouldn't have been much of a problem. And in 2010, Cartoon Network aired Pink Panther and Pals, which featured an adolescent version of the Pink Panther.

Pink Panther Flakes box

The Panther also journeyed into the realms of merchandising and endorsements. There was a Pink Panther Flakes cereal from Post. I believe the pink food dye from that cereal was eventually banned by the FDA. He also had his own Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, like a lot of the characters I cover in this series. And he's been a pitchman for IBM, Safeco Insurance, the Virginia Lottery and Owens-Corning Insulation (I remember that last one from when I was a kid. Back then, I thought it was a bit odd that they were using a cartoon to try and sell insulation to all the hardware store-going dads out there).

So, is there a future for the Pink Panther in today's media landscape? Well, maybe. Not necessarily under the same hands as the ones who started it. UA has since been absorbed into MGM. DePatie-Freleng got bought out by Marvel in 1980 (yes, that Marvel), at that point it became Marvel Productions and started to produce a lot of cartoon tie-ins to popular toy lines. Marvel Productions then got bought up by Saban Entertainment, which in turn got bought up by Disney. And at this point, who knows what's left of it. The character's rights remain at MGM, though.

Pink Panther and Pals

There is one bright spot. One of the problems with past Pink Panther revivals is that even when they were pretty good, they didn't necessarily feel like Pink Panther. They were either too chatty or shifted the focus to new side characters. But the thing is, 2010's Pink Panther and Pals was actually pretty good and felt pretty close to classic Pink Panther. Sure, the premise of “classic cartoon character as a teenager” has come to be a red flag for cartoon fans that the studio is trying too hard to be hip. But this time it works. It's the good old silent Pink Panther only now he's a bit more sprightly and a bit more mischevious, and his comic situations include youthful activities like going to the skate park, playing video games or delivering pizzas. Plus, it also gives us a new take on another DePatie-Freleng cartoon, The Ant and the Aardvark. Give it a try if you're interested. The show is available on Amazon Prime Video (naturally, considering they own MGM now) and you can watch samples of it on the Official Pink Panther YouTube channel.

So, we might not see a Pink Panther revival all that soon. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. But the last attempted revival actually wasn't that bad. And it feels like they've finally got a grasp of what makes the character work. So, here's hoping MGM keeps it up next time we see this cool cat.

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated: Casper the Friendly Ghost.

 

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated

This post probably should have gone up on Halloween, but we'll have to settle for early November.

Title card for Famous Studios' Casper

Casper the Friendly Ghost is a character that originated at Famous Studios, the cartoon studio that usaed to be Fleischer Studios after it was purchased by Paramount. The details of his creation are debated, but he was created by either Seymour Reit or Joe Oriolo. Oriolo claimed he created Casper to ease his four-year-old daughters fear of the dark. He created a cardboard cutout of a friendly ghost to hang from a tree to show his daughter that not all ghosts were scary. Reit claims that he created Casper for a short story andgave the story to Oriolo to illustrate. They intended to sell the initial story to Fleischer Studios where they both worked or to a children's storybook publisher. They eventually did line up a deal with the publisher Grossett & Dunlap. While Reit was away doing military duty, Oriolo sold the rights to the book to Famous Studios (formerly Fleischer) for $175. That one time payment was the only pay Oriolo received for what would eventually become a series of animated cartoons. Reit didn't receive any money at all.

An early sketch of Casper.  Possibly for the storybook?

Under Famous Studios and later Paramount Cartoon Studios, there were 55 Casper theatrical shorts produced and released. The grand majority of them follow the same formula. Casper is lonely because he wants a friend and other ghosts tease him because he doesn't want to scare anyone. He sets out to make a friend, encounters some trouble, but then saves the day from some calamity and makes multiple friends in the process. So, despite him making a whole bunch of friends in each cartoon, the status quo would reset by the next cartoon. While formulas are common in theatrical cartoons, this one has received some criticism for feeling repetitive.

Casper's first design, as a roly-poly little fellow.

Now, Casper's cartoon stardom would not live forever, but he would find another platform. Casper first started appearing in comic books in 1949 from St. John Publications. But it was in 1959 that Harvey Comics started publishing Casper comic books. It was in these comics that Casper's current design was formed and where they started using what I refer to as the “Casper rule”. Basically, the idea that Casper was not the ghost of a dead child (hinted at in Famous Studios cartoons) but that ghosts were just a type of magical creatures separate from humans and that ghost children are simply born from ghost parents. This rule comes in and out of vogue with different versions of the character. Anyway, in 1959, Harvey Comics bought the character of Casper outright, along with other Famous Studios characters like Little Audrey, Baby Huey and Herman and Katnip. They would join the stable with Harvey in-house creations like Little Dot, Little Lotta, Hot Stuff and Richie Rich. Casper was a very prolific character under Harvey Comics, having 36 different titles over the course of his run there (note: the record for highest number of different comic titles for a single character actually goes to Casper's Harvey Comics compatriot Richie Rich, with over 50 different titles). Anyway, it's such that more people probably know Casper as a comic book character than as a character from theatrical cartoons. It also led to spin-off characters like Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch and The Ghostly Trio (note: The Ghostly Trio's names seem to change frequently. Originally they were Fatso, Fusso and Lazo. Then Eeko, Stretcho and Fatso. Then in the 1995 film, Stretch, Fatso and Stinkie. Fatso remains constant). After Harvey's run ended, Casper would appear as a licensed character in some other comics like Arden Entertainment's 2009 miniseries Casper and the Spectrals (I actually rather liked that one).

A typical Harvey Comics Casper title.

Casper has also had his share of television cartoons. Five in total. They are Matty's Funday Funnies (sponspored by Mattel, hence the name), The New Casper Cartoon Show, Casper and the Angels (a Hanna-Barbera production that starred Casper but also tried to capitalize on the popularity of Charlie's Angels and ChiPs but set in the future. I'm not even kidding), The Harveytoons Show, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (this one was a spin-off from 1995 Casper movie, which I will talk about further on.  It also apparently doesn't have an intro, so I linked a compilation of clips) and Casper's Scare School.

Casper and the Spectrals.  Featuring new takes on Casper, Wendy and Hot Stuff.

People around my age and a bit younger will probably remember Casper best from Amblin and Universal's 1995 film Casper. The film was popular and was one of the first to feature a CGI main character. One of the memorable things it did was discarding the previously mentioned “Casper rule” and gave a back story to who Casper was before he became a ghost. In this version, he was a 12 year-old boy who died of pneumonia which he caught after he stayed out playing in the snow too late. Loss, grief and having trouble moving on become central themes of the movie. The film also made some odd choices with the character. Like playing the friendship between Casper and Christina Ricci's character Kat Harvey (Ha! I see what you did there!) as something more akin to a romance. I guess they decided that if they were going to bother going dark and grown-up on the origin story, they might as well pull the trigger on that too. Anyway, the movie spawned two straight-to-video prequels Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy. The latter of which featured future Disney Channel star Hilary Duff as fellow Harvey Comics character Wendy the Good Little Witch. It also spawned a sequely cartoon on Fox Kids which was apparently called The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (I watched that cartoon when it aired and don't remember anyone ever calling it that). Anyway, it followed the events of the movie and included other Harvey characters like Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost and his girlfriend Poil (not Pearl. Poil. The Brooklyn accent is built into her name). It also followed the movies vibe of having a more adolescent Casper. Not by playing up any romance this time, but by hgaving Casper be a bit more of a little smart aleck.

Casper and Kat Harvey (Christina Richie) from the 1995 Casper movie.

Casper's appearances have been sparing over the past few years since Casper's Scare School ended in 2012. He appeared in a Geico insurance commercial in 2019. He also appeared in an episode of the Netflix cartoon Harvey Girls Forever which stars other Harvey Comics characters Little Audrey, Little Dot and Little Lotta. But that's about it.

So, is there a future for Casper the Friendly Ghost in the current media landsape?

Well, first let's figure out where he is. He started at Famous Studios, which was owned by Paramount. Then he got bought by Harvey Comics. Then, Harvey Comics got bought by Classic Media (an IP firm that has also bought up the Jay Ward library, UPA, Veggie Tales and Western Media. Western Publishing being the parent company of both Dell Comics and Little Golden Books. Along with probably others). Then Classic Media was bought by Dreamworks, which is currently owned by Universal Studios. So, Casper is ultimately owned by Universal (the same studio that made the 1995 movie) but is specifically part of the Dreamworks stable.

Casper.  Just a friendly little guy.

As for Casper's future? I don't know. Looking at the character's history, specifically the story about him being made for a four-year-old girl, the initial sale to a storybook publisher, the pro-social nature of the character and the simple story formula, I can't help but think the best recourse would be to skew even younger. He feels like a character designed especially for little kids, unlike other theatrical cartoon characters that were designed for kids and adults alike. Casper as a preschool show? Why not? I could see him talking to his TV friends from behind the screen like some sort of spectral Dora the Explorer. And if that route can be taken with franchises like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Star Trek and Doctor Who, it seems like an easy leap for a friendly little ghost.

I do hope Casper has some kind of pop culture future. I can't help but root for a character whose own theme song says they're “kind to every living creature”.

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated: Popeye the Sailor.

 

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated

Well, it's about time I returned to the series I started on classic cartoon characters (Besides, the way things are going in the world, it would be nice to talk about a character who would likely punch a dictator in the face. Or “paste them in the mush” as Popeye himself would likely say).

Popeye the Sailor

Popeye the Sailor is a creatin of cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar for his comic strip Thimble Theatre. Thimble Theatre started as a parody of stage and screen melodramas, but once the character of Popeye was introduced, he struck a chord with readers. Pretty soon, Popeye himself became the star and title character of the strip and while Olive Oyl and a few other Thimble Theatre regulars would carry over, a new cast would start to grow around the titular sailor man, including town mooch J. Wellington Wimpy, Popeye's adopted boy-kid Swee'pea, and Popeye's own irresponsible 99-year-old father Poopdeck Pappy.

In 1932, Segar signed a deal with Fleischer Studios to adapt Popeye into a series of cartoon shorts. Unlike the comic strips, which had gotten more complex and serialized over time, the set-up of most of the cartoons was fairly simple. Popeye and his rival Bluto are competing for the affection of Olive Oyl. Bluto does something underhanded to get Popeye out of the way and claim Olive as his own. A fight breaks out between the two. Popeye ends up on the ropes until he eats a can of spinach to power up, beats Bluto and wins the day. It's simple, but it worked and allowed enough variability within a format that the cartoons could still feel fresh. Sometimes the characters would take on different roles, but it still kept the formula. One of the great strengths of the cartoons was the ability to turn a fistfight into a series of sight gags (who can forget the scene of Popeye socking a bull so hard it changed into a butcher stand filled with steaks and hot dogs). The cartoons also managed to break from formula enough times to introduce a surprising number of the comic strip's side characters, including the aforementioned Wimpy, Swee'pea and Pappy, but also the magical creature Eugene the Jeep and hulking race of Goons. The other big thing that the cartoons added was voice. The Popeye cartoons made Popeye's mangled English dialogue come to life and created his trademark laugh. There's also Olive Oyl's trademark voice, which was performed by a number of actresses but is largely associated Mae Questel, who channeled the vocal affectations of a popular actress named Zazu Pitts into her performance.

Popeye and Swee'pea

There are other differences between the comic strip and cartoons to make note of besides the length and complexity of the stories. Segar's version of Olive Oyl was more headstrong and willing to throw hands herself. Also, Popeye's strength originally came from stroking the head of a bird called a Wiffle Hen. Then it became just an intrinsic trait of the character. Then, as something of a ploy to get kids to eat their veggies, it came from eating spinach. The comics would use it sparingly but it became a mainstay of the cartoons. The cartoons would often depict Olive Oyl as Swee'pea's primary parent and Eugene as Popeye's pet, even though in the comic strips it was the other way around. Probably the biggest difference is how much Bluto was used. Bluto first appeared in the comic strip as Bluto the Terrible and was the villain of one story during Segar's run. However, he became the primary antagonist of the cartoons. Bluto appeared so sparingly in the comics that King Features Syndicate seemed to think that Fleischer Studios created him. It was to the extent that when they tried to make their own Popeye TV cartoon in the '60s, they created a very similar character named Brutus to take his place in order to sidestep any IP law infringement. Popeye's biggest villain in the comic strips is actually a piarte witch named the Sea Hag. The cartoons also did end up introducing their own characters. Namely four mischevious nephews for Popeye named Pupeye, Pepeye, Pipeye and Poopeye (kind of taking a page out of the Disney playbook, but it's nice when Popeye gets a challenge he can't solve with his fists. Just for the novelty).

The Sea Hag, Popeye's big comic strip villain

They lasted through the 30s and 40s. They lasted through the Second World War, where they became propaganda for the Allied cause. They lasted through the break-up of Fleischer Studios and the buyout by Paramount that transformed it into Famous Studios. And all the while, the comic strip kept going as well, being taken up by succesors after Segar's death.

There's a very basic appeal to Popeye. It's very similar to the basic appeal of Superman (another classic character adapted by Fleischer Studios). There's a basic righteous juvenile power fantasy at the core of it all. The idea that there's a very strong fighter out there whole stand up for what's right and sock ne'er do wells in the jaw. Because, no matter the situation, Popeye is always standing up for someone weaker. Some cartoons even had him standing up for animal welfare in an era where that didn't really seem like it was much of a concern (yeah, he fought a bull in “Bulldozing the Bull”, but he spent most of the cartoon saying he wouldn't do it because it wasn't right. Until he had no choice in the matter). The difference between Superman and Popeye is that Superman is a good-looking, some may even say godlike, alien in a circus acrobat outfit while Popeye is . . . not. Instead, Popeye is a sailor, a profession that doesn't always have the most moral of reputations. Sailors have long been associated with fighting, drinking and womanizing. On top of that, he's kind of an ugly cuss with one eye, no teeth, a voice like he's been gargling gravel and a questionable command of the English language. And yet, he's still the guy who saves the day. That's the appeal of Popeye. He's a pug-ugly, one-eyed seafaring roughneck with a good right hook and ultimately a heart of gold. The ultimate unexpected hero.

Poster from Robert Altman's Popeye movie

And Popeye continued on as a household name for decades. He had multiple cartoon series, including the 1960 one with Brutus, 1978's The All New Popeye Hour and 1987's Popeye and Son. In 1980 there was a Popeye feature film musical starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall and directed by Robert Altman. There was nearly an animated film by Genndy Tartakovsky but that fell through. He was even adapted into a ride at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure named Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. Popeye's popularity even went international. The Japanese were apparently very fond of Popeye for a long time. There are numerous Popeye video games that were only released in Japan. Heck, the game Donkey Kong started out as a Popeye game before evolving into something else (don't worry, Popeye would get his Nintendo game later).

Eye Lie Popeye #1, a more shonen action take on Popeye.

Nowadays, though, Popeye is often thought of as a dead property. Which is weird because he's not really gone. He just sunk from a level of popularity where awareness is high to one where you have to seek Popeye stuff out. He still appears in things. A series of shorts for kids titled Popeye's Island Adventures started being posted to YouTube about five years ago. In 2023, Massive Publishing started publishing a manga-influenced comics miniseries named Eye Lie Popeye which makes lots of sense when you realize how much Popeye DNA is in stuff like One Piece). And his comic strip still appears in newspapers almost every day (check it out on www.comicskingdom.com). And at this point, the first strip Popeye appeared in has actually gone into the public domain, causing the character to get some renewed attention for a little while. (Though, note that the public domain is a mixed, complicated blessing in this case. Olive Oyl's first strip had been in the public domain for years already. But King Features Syndicate still legally owns the trademarks to both characters).

The first comic strip to feature Popeye.  Which I can now legally post here.

It shows how a property can be considered “dead” but not really be “gone”.

I kind of glossed over the history of Popeye, but you can go out and read more about it if you still need more depth. Personally, I still think the basic character concept still has gas in the tank. The appeal of a rough-and-tumble hero with a heart of gold isn't going to go out of fashion quite so completely. The right Popeye project just needs to come along. And hopefully one comes along. I'd like to see new adventures of Popeye socking no-good palookas in the kisser.

Into the Retail Wilderness.

 I know I started off a series about cartoons. I will get to that. But how about a brief detour to the worlds of outdoorsy specialized retail instead?

You see, in my job as a library assistant I was helping process book orders when I came across this book: Shopping all the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America by Rachel S. Gross. And it looks like an interesting and funny take on an unfortunate trusim: In order to enjoy nature for any extended period of time, most human beings must first engage with the very manmade world of retail.

Shopping All the Way to the Woods by Rachel S. Gross

I've been encountering that some myself lately. Over the past few years, largely as an attempt to find some escape from the chaos of social media while getting some more exercise, I've been trying to change myself slowly and clumsily from someone who leans toward being an “indoor person” to being more of an “outdoor person”. It has largely manifested in the form of seeking out parks and nature preserves and going on short day hikes. And the process of figuring out what exactly I need for my outdoor adventures has had a bit of a learning curve. Especially as there's a difference between someone who will go on a hike for a whole weekend and someone who will go on a hike in the morning and be home a little after lunchtime (the latter is me).

So, I've found myself in various “outdoor gear” stores over the last few years. Four that come immediately come to mind. Three of those four only opened in the last couple of years.

And I thought I'd break them down and give my assessment of each of them.

L.L. Bean logo.

L.L. Bean

L.L. Bean is the outfitter I've had the longest relationship with. Their catalogs used to come to the house when I was a kid. I had an L.L. Bean backpack for most of my school career. And they're the store that's been in my local mall the longest. Now, if I had to sum up the vibe of L.L. Bean in one sentence it would be . . . “James, bring the car around. I'm going camping”. There's just something very preppy and polished about L.L. Bean. In the form it's in now, it's really more of a clothing store that also sells fishing rods and sleeping bags. The prices also hold to that posh image. With the one caveat that, their products may actually be worth the extra scratch. The backpack I got from them for school as a kid lasted my entire school career. It's why, when I decided to buy a raincoat not long ago, I ended up getting one from L.L. Bean. So, far, no complaints.

Sierra logo.

Sierra

Sierra is like what would happen if the outdoor section of a big box store collided and fused with a Marshall's or T.J. Maxx. They do have outdoor stuff. They have day packs and some fishing gear and trekking poles and a whole bunch of stuff for cooking outdoors. But a whole bunch of the store seems to be given over to mismatched racks of clothing, not to mention pet supplies and holiday decorations. I did manage to pick up a collapsible fishing pole there (haven't had the ability to use it yet, though. So I can't speak for quality). It's certainly not a place you could go for high end stuff like kayaks, mountain bikes or even tents. Overall, it just gives off distinct suburban strip mall vibes.

R.E.I. Co-op logo

R.E.I. Co-Op

The best way to describe R.E.I. (or Recreation Equipment Incorporated) compared to the other stores is “sportier”. As well, as maybe . . . “crunchier”? R.E.I. Has a lot of typical camping gear, but it really seems to go in for the more sporty outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, mountain biking and other stuff like that. They have a bike shop right on the premises and a whole wall full of packs for hiking. Both great, big packs for multi-day backpacking trips and small day packs (I bought one of the latter from them). They also sell a lot of activewear to be used these activities. And underneath the whole thing is that slightly hippie-ish vibe that you get at pretty much any kind of co-op. Nothing against member-owned stores, but the vibe is pretty much always there.

Bass Pro Shops logo

Bass Pro Shops

This is one that you just have to see once. Just, aesthetically, it needs to be seen. When you pull up, in addition to the standard store sign, you'll see a sign welcoming “All hunters, fishermen and other liars”, which seems funny but also oddly specific. But then you step in and are blown away by the theming. The whole shop is themed and decorated to look like a giant cabin/hunting lodge. There's a fireplace with a fire going, worn-in looking old chairs, shelves of books and other ephemera. And that's in the part before you get into the actual store. But the whole store is like that. The theming is just short of the level of immersiveness you might expect from a Disney park. And it all seems specific to the region you're in. All the trophy animals seemed to be ones that could be found in New York State. One of my favorite features was a tank full of live fish that can be found in New York's lakes and rivers, complete with being signed off on by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. It's all really something else. And then you look around the store itself and realize that unless you're a specific type of outdoors-person, this store might be of limited utility. Remember that sign welcoming “hunters, fishermen and other liars”? Well, unless you're a hunter or fisherman, you're likely not the main focus here. The camping section is small. The hiking gear section is smaller. The hunting section and fishing section are both MASSIVE. And while they may sell kayaks, they seem much more interested in selling fishing boats. And unlike R.E.I., they don't seem to sell bikes at all. Even that tank of fish is apparently more about demonstrating rods, reels and lures than anything else. The theming is still amazing, and they've apparently partnered with a bunch of conservation organizations, but the store itself is much more interesting to those whose primary outdoor activities involve killing animals.

A shot of a wooded trail.

And that's it. All the outdoor outfitters I've been to. And each one seemingly having their own vibe and focus. From upscale and expensive to cheap and suburban to sporty to . . . predatory (sorry, hunters and fishermen, I don't know how else to say it). I haven't read Gross's book yet. It might hold more insights. But it doesn't escape me that all this stuff that's supposed to help humans enjoy the outdoors more will likely end up in landfills someday. So, if you're going out there, be careful. Figure out what you really need before buying anything. And hopefully, I'll see you on the trail somewhere.

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated: Betty Boop.

 

Today, we look at a character that was involved in one of the most famous rivalries in popular culture. It's right up there with the New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox or Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi. That's right: Walt Disney vs. Fleischer Studios!

Okay, so maybe the idea of that rivalry isn't springing immediately to mind for people. If you're thinking it's about who has the most iconic cartoon character in the U.S., you might think the real rivalry is Disney vs. Warner Bros. If you think it's about theme parks, you might think it's Disney vs. Universal. Or if it was about animated movies, you might think it's Disney vs. Dreamworks (which is also, technically, Universal at this point). Heck, when I was a kid, that rivalry was between Disney and Don Bluth Studios. The thing is that Disney's been able to hang in there so long and other animation studios have changed hands, changed names or gone under so often that Disney has had a lot of rivals. But back in the days when cartoon shorts were still in black and white, the Fleischer Brothers were some of the biggest movers and shakers in animation.

Max, Dave and Lou Fleischer were children of Austro-Hungarian immigrants. Max was an artist and inventor and nominally the head of the studio (it was actually cofounded with Dave). He invented the rotoscope, a device used in animation and special effects studios to this day. Dave was a performer of many stripes and was usually the director of the Fleischer shorts. And Lou was a music arranger and composer and worked in Fleischer Studios music department. While Disney's shorts reflected a sort of Midwestern, country aesthetic, Fleischer's shorts had a sort of urban grit. Probably because they were being made in New York City during the Great Depression.

And one of the characters who gave it that vibe is the one and only Betty Boop.

Betty Boop

Betty Boop first appeared in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes and she was a dog. Not an insult. She was literally designed as an anthropomorphic dog. You see, she was originally created to be the girlfriend of the studio's star Bimbo, who was an anthropomorphic dog living in a world of anthropomorphic animals. In about a year's time, though, Betty had evolved into the human character she's known as today. At that time, Betty became a star and both Bimbo and Fleischer's previous star, Koko the Clown, became Betty's sidekicks.

Betty Boop in her earlier canine form.

Betty was designed as something of a parody of singer and actress Helen Kane. Though, Helen Kane's act and vocal style were themselves stolen from an African-American nightclub singer named Esther Jones aka “Baby Esther”. This actually came up when Helen Kane tried to sue Fleischer Studios for stealing her likeness. Betty was also voiced by a number of different actresses. There was Margie Hines, Little Ann Little, Harriet Lee, Mae Questel and Bonnie Poe during the original Fleischer run and a whole lot afterward. Mae Questel actually got to revisit the role when she voiced Betty for a few lines in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

I don't think a lot of people have actually watched Betty Boop cartoons, just knowing her as more of an iconic image. And in that sense, what most people talk about is her design. Which is understandable, considering how other than her big, cartoon head, she's designed as a leggy woman in a short dress, usually with one garter showing. There was definitely some thought of sex appeal going into that design. But those cartoons, at least the ones from roughly 1931 to roughly 1933, are something else. The thing to remember about Betty Boop is that she's not really the main source of comedy in these shorts, the world is. Betty lives in a world of anthropomorphic animals and surreal rubber-hose style sight gags that looks like 1930s New York City. Crazy things happen around her. Sometimes inanimate objects will be alive for a minute or two for the sake of a joke. This isn't anything unusual for cartoons in the 1930s, but the Fleischers managed to put a nominally human character in the center of it all as kind of an anchor. And Betty just rolls with it. Sometimes she even seems to be thriving in it. She even ran for president in that world.

Betty Boop title card, with subcredits for Bimbo and Koko

The music is also worth mentioning. Fleischer made good use of the music scene that was available to them working in New York City. They even got famed blues artist Cab Calloway to provide tracks for a couple of cartoons, including his famous song “Minnie the Moocher”.

But things don't always last. Those surreal early 1930s shorts went away around 1934 with the introduction of the Hays Code, a set of rules that was applied across the whole movie industry. Betty and her world ended up being toned down. Betty's looks and actions became less sexy and flirty. The surreal animal world ended up being replaced with one largely populated with other humans. And Bimbo and Koko were replaced by a more normal human supporting cast. There was Betty's pet dog Pudgy, her nephew Junior, an erstwhile love interest named Fred and an old inventor called Grampy. The old surreal stuff still popped up every now and then. In the 1934 cartoon There's Something About a Soldier, she recruits soldiers to fight a war against giant mosquitoes. In “The Swing School” she teaches a class full of animals, of which Pudgy is a student. But overall, it all just got kind of boring.

Betty Boop and Pudgy

And so, Betty Boop began to fade as a cartoon star. Which wasn't a big blow to Fleischer because they had a new star by the name of Popeye the Sailor (we'll talk about him next time).

So, what happened to Betty Boop since then?

Well, barring some of the music from her cartoons being released on vinyl in the '60s and '70s, the biggest thing is that she became a merchandising powerhouse. Marketers rediscovered Betty Boop in the 1980s and before long her image had outpaced her exposure in film. She's benn put on pretty much any consumer good that could be marketed to women. Everything from purses to jewelry to pajama pants to a cuckoo clock. (I'd say she's kind of become the American Hello Kitty, but that's a discussion for another time).

And what else?

Oh, yeah. She went to Broadway! A musical titled Boop! The Musical with music by David Foster, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead and a book by Bob Martin debuted off-broadway on November 19, 2023. It would open on Broadway officially on April 5, 2025. The musical starred Jasmine Amy Rogers as Betty and chronicles an adventure where she travels from “Toon Town” to the real world's New York City. Reviews were positive-to-mixed.

Boop! the Musical

So, Betty's been around even if she's not likely to headline any new cartoons in the near future. In general, she's transformed into more of just a pop culture image. But don't write off those peak era Betty Boop cartoons if you like surreal visual humor (though, all the old disclaimers apply regarding depictions of sexism and racism in old cartoons).

Until next time.