Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - "Salute to Saturday Morning TV" with Jerry Beck and Bill Leff

Episode Date: February 28, 2022

Gilbert and Frank are joined by animation historian/author Jerry Beck ("The 50 Greatest Cartoons," "The Hanna-Barbera Treasury") and TV host/presenter Bill Leff (Me-TV's "Toon In with Me") for a nostalgic look back at the kiddie show hosts of their youth and the glory days of Saturday morning television ("Looney Tunes," "The Flintstones," "Jonny Quest," "The Jetsons," "Underdog," "Wacky Races," etc.) Also, Daffy Duck meets Jack Benny, Gomer Pyle "inspires" Milton the Monster, Jackie Gleason (almost) sues Hanna-Barbera and "Batmania" inspires a wave of super-knockoffs. PLUS: The genius of Jay Ward! The art of Dave and Max Fleischer! The Three Stooges go robonic! Ronald Colman joins the Beatles? Jerry hangs with Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng! And the boys praise the talents of Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Paul Frees and Paul Winchell! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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the single malt whiskey that started it all for a balanced flavor and smooth finish. Just sit back and listen to the music. This single malt scotch whiskey is guaranteed to impress dad. This father's day, the Glenliv. Live original. Please enjoy our products responsibly. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.

Well, every now and then, Frank and I like to take a deep dive into one of our passions, such as Boris Karloff, the Marx Brothers, the Twilight Zone, and this week, we're cranking the time machine way back to the 1960s and 70s, and what many people consider the golden age of Saturday morning TV. Here to help us regress even further into our childhoods are two people who share our particular dysfunction. Jerry Beck is a historian, a producer, a prolific author and blogger,

and one of the world's leading authorities on the history of animation. He's written, co-written, and edited over a dozen books on classic American animation and characters, including the 50 Greatest Cartoons, The Animated Movie Guide, The Hanna-Barbera Treasury, The Pink Panther, The Ultimate Guide to the Coolest Cat in Town, and Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies,

a complete illustrated guide to the Warner Brothers cartoons. guide to the Warner Brothers cartoons. He's also co-produced and consulted on home is a founding member of the cartoon networks adversary board as well as a what well that's when they're against each other they're an adversary. See, this is all the people who are currently fighting and they're on an adversary

because they're adversaries. I got it now. I stand corrected. Okay. Plow through it. As well as a presenter and moderator of hundreds of panels and live events. and classic TV fanatic who studied improvisation at Chicago's Second City Theater, performed

comedy nationwide in clubs and on TV, hosted a successful radio shows, and appeared in films including Major League, Major League Two, and he's interviewed some of the most prominent names in Hollywood, including yours truly, Gilbert Gottfried. He's also the host of MeTV's original morning show, Tune In With Me, where he performs in comedy sketches and introduces many of the greatest cartoons ever created featuring warner brothers superstars bugs bunny daffy duck porky pig and the roadrun, and other fan favorites, as well as beloved cartoons

featuring Tom and Jerry, Droopy Dog, as well as Popeye cartoons from Max Fleischer. He's also a lifelong collector of memorabilia and has amassed thousands of vintage toys and figurines, including a Joseph Wiseman action figure. Not another one. Let's welcome to this show Jerry Beck and Bill Leff. Hey, Bert. I love you. How are you?

Welcome, Bill. So I would imagine, would that be from Dr. No? He did play Dr. No. Yeah. But the action figure. It's from Dr. No. No, it's the action figure from bye-bye braverman yeah it was the first in a series and that's as far as they went

they didn't do uh they didn't do george seagull they didn't do anyone else no there's no jessica walter no it was horrible no No Sorrel book. No. No. What Gilbert is referring to as we put it into the intro, which, by the way, took 78 minutes to read. You guys won't be hearing that. We were referring to Bill's extensive toy collection and collectible collection. That's redundant. How long have you been doing it, Bill?

Is it thousands of items, literally? I've got just over 30,000 items in the collection. Good God. It takes up two rooms in my house, and then there's a lot of other stuff in storage I just don't have space for. You're a sick man. When I was a little kid, I loved pop culture so much. I loved the memorabilia that would come out

for any TV show or movie. And I would just buy it and sock it away. And then all of a sudden you got 30,000 pieces. And the thing that Gilbert, the item Gilbert is referring to is in your James Bond collection is a Dr. No. Yeah, I have a couple of them. And, you know, every time I go in there, and this is the hope I have for anybody that sees my collection. It serves as a time machine, you know, because you see all these figures and collectibles and it puts you back to when it was a simpler time. You were a little younger. You see all the James Bond figures and you remember all those movies so fondly.

And I just love that stuff. I love being in my office is just wall to wall glass cases filled with that stuff. that stuff. I love being in my office is just wall to wall glass cases filled with that stuff. Now, I believe the last time we spoke, I brought up a cartoon that it was an old Warner Brothers. I think it was Warner Brothers. And it was as a kid, very disturbing. And as an adult, very disturbing. And I think I sent a copy and I forgot the name and lost the copy. Oh. This was one where Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd become old men. Yes. Yes.

And yes, and Bugs Bunny is digging a grave for Elmer Fudd. And I'm going, wait a minute. This is just wrong. Jerry, you can certainly speak to this cartoon. I think it's the old gray hair, I think is the name of it. And yeah, that's one where they flash forward into the future. They also flash back to when they're babies. And it's Bob Clampett cartoon.

Yeah, that's a pretty bad taste. But the thing is, people don't realize that these cartoons were never really aimed at kids in the first place. They were shown in movie theaters and they were aimed at the adult audience, believe it or not. So as dark as that sounds, you know, So as dark as that sounds, you know, it's really not that, you know, it was intended for a certain adult audience, believe it or not. See, I think even though it was for adults, it's still disturbing. Yes, to have bugs digging Elmer's grave. Yes, that's horrible. It's Tarantino-esque.

Oh, and the other thing I brought up is there was that cartoon about a caveman and his pet dinosaur. Oh, yeah. Yeah, where it's like they're doing a Jack Benny imitation. Yes, that's right. That's exactly what it is. Here I am. You just remember them, and I'll give you the titles and what year they came out. You know, that was an early Chuck Jones. It was Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur. I know they show it on me TV. And you're right. They are doing a Jack Benny parody in that cartoon because, well, Jack was the biggest radio star of that era and people knew who he was.

radio star of that era and people knew who he was and uh and what happens is we as kids growing up watching those cartoons we had no idea who who they were imitating or what they were doing they were just funny anyway and it is disturbing because there's this crazy there's like a a giant dinosaur that's being blown up i think it is or is it a duck oh yes a giant duck or something that's being blown up uh and it's bigger and bigger and it looks mean. And anyway, that's, again, these things are nightmare fuel for our generation. And who was doing the voice of Jack Benny? Believe it or not, I believe it was Jack Lasculli, who was a NBC host. He was one of the Today hosts back in later in the 50s.

But he was a radio performer back then. And that's what they used. They used a lot of people off of radio. The Warner Brothers studio back then was on the Warner Brothers lot. And also on the lot next door to the cartoon studio was KFWB, which was one of the big radio stations in L.A. KFWB, which was one of the big radio stations in LA. And so they had access to all of these radio people that came in and out of the studio there. That was an excellent Jack Benny imitation in that cartoon.

I would like to see you tour with Jerry, Gil, where you just say, what was the name of that cartoon? And you describe it. Jerry knocks him down. Who knew that that would come in handy someday in my life you know two hours of that in an amphitheater what were you gonna say bill i was just gonna say it was very commonplace back then to take matinee idols comedy stars like the marx brothers wc fields frank sinatra and incorporate them into the storyline of cartoons you saw that quite a bit back then right j, Jerry? Well, yeah. There was a famous one, or maybe more than one,

where they go into a Hollywood restaurant, and Bogart and Bacall are there, and I think Clark Gable. Yeah. I mean, even as a kid, I sort of knew who some of those people were. But when you, you know, this generation today, I don't know if they'd have any idea what was going on. The great thing is about the Warner Brothers cartoons, though, is as dated as some of them are, as we don't understand what's going on as some of them are, they still work. They're still funny. There's a cartoon.

Let me mention this. There's a cartoon I love, a Bob Clampett of Looney Tune one called Book Review. And it's one of those cartoons where they go into a bookstore and all the images on the covers come to life. And it's all Hollywood caricatures. But the thing is, if you really step back for a minute, look at that cartoon. It's all books from 1945. Nobody would understand this cartoon today. I didn't understand it when I first saw it as a teenager.

this cartoon today. I didn't understand it when I first saw it as a teenager and yet it works as just a complete work of bizarre filmmaking. But it works. What's the bogey thing? Then there's that one where Humphrey Bogart

as his character in Treasure of Sierra Madre. I was just going to ask that question. He keeps begging for the coin. Can you stake out a fellow American to a male? Exactly. That was 8-Ball Bunny. And by the way, I do

think this is the beginning of a new radio show. It's something that we can do. You know, the other one is, for some reason animators love to parody of Mice and Men, the Steinbeck novel of Mice and Men. Yeah. Why did he go, George?

Why did he go? Sure. Well, people used to read, but also that movie, the movie came out, you know, with Lone Chaney Jr. Yeah. And Burgess Meredith. And that was a big hit. And so, you know, they went with those broad characters, you know, that that movie had and many other movies had. I mean, that's what's great about the Warner Brothers cartoons, again, is that they're really a reflection of the pop culture of that time.

You know, I mean, archaeologists can just go right to social archaeologists can just go right to those Warner cartoons. And, you know, they can see what was what was popular in the day and what was on people's minds. You know what's interesting about that, though, is if you look at the content of that novel and the movie, it's not particularly fodder for a cartoon. And yet they jumped on it. We've got to make this into a cartoon. What's the one? Go ahead, Jerry. I was going to say there's a screwball squirrel cartoon, screwy squirrel cartoon that MGM made, Tech Savory, where there's this dumb dog who's very much like Lenny,

like the big dumb Lenny character. And through the whole cartoon, he's got a dead rat in his pocket. Wow. That's in this cartoon, which I think they show on MeTV. Yes, we do. Yeah, because in the movie, he has like they show on MeTV. Yes, we do. Yeah, because in the movie, he has like a dead bird he's carrying with him. Bill, what's the one, speaking of celebrity voices, what's the one you showed on Tune In With Me?

Is it a mouse doing Jimmy Durante? Boy, I'm trying to remember. I think Hippity Hop. Hippity Hoppity. What's that character's name? What is it? It's not Hoppity Hooper because that was a different cartoon, but it's similar. Different cartoon.

But it's – because I always thought Augie Doggie was doing Durante. Yeah. Yeah. But this is a character doing Durante. Oh, yeah. There's a couple of – there's one called the Hep Cat with two cats trying to impress a bird or something. And one of them is totally a Durante. One for the money, two for the show.

You know, that kind of thing. And then there was what, Babbitt and Catstello? Yes. Remember that one, Gilbert? Did you show that last week? Yeah. And then there was the famous rooster that was... Foghorn?

Jimmy Durante. Well, Foghorn Lycorn was Senator Claghorn. Yes. Right, right, right. I think there was another cartoon that it was Jimmy Durante. Oh, there's this one cartoon that they run. Here we go. With Bugs Bunny with Beaky Buzzardard and I believe at the end of the cartoon

just at the end Beaky Buzzard does a uh uh Jimmy Durante you know kind of thing at the very end of it maybe I'm wrong about that and you were talking about like how they would take current topics and uh and throw them into the movies And when they try to do new versions of the Warner Brothers cartoons and they'll throw in like a new or allegedly hip thing, it seems like being forced down your throat. Like you're supposed to go, oh, that's so hip. I get that one.

But it's not landing. the punch is not landing no no no no of their time there was one where he's on the phone like with a producer one and he goes uh someone says sid scheinberg on line three and i'm thinking OK, if you're a kid, you don't know who Sid Sheinberg is. If you're an adult, you have to be in show business to know who Sid Sheinberg is. It's a Spielberg homage. And if you're in show business, you don't think it's funny anyway. You just go, oh, I know who that is. How come they can't, like with the Space Jam and all those kind of things,

it feels like the characters are totally off. Well, my personal belief is that the Warner Brothers, the great, the classic Warner cartoons from the 1940s and 50s, and I'll even give the 60s in there. I think that was like the Beatles. It was like something that the right people at the right time and the right place created the cartoons, those cartoons that we love. And it's really hard to recreate that magic. You know, that's my personal feeling.

I also feel that way about like the old Marvel comics from the 60s and things like that. It's certain people, certain place, certain time period. I mean, even just recording of Mel Blanc. I found out in some interviews he did that they didn't actually have a recording booth. They actually just took him out to a stage and had him record, you know, on the same stages that they're filming Casablanca, like they're all off to lunch. And they have the boom mic. And that's how they get this great sound in those cartoons.

A little bit of an echo in there that you just don't hear anywhere else. Doesn't sound like it was recorded in a booth. And it's things like that, little things like that. Carl Stalling and the Warner Brothers Orchestra. A friend of mine who's a musicologist, historian, he came out here one day to LA, went to, I forgot what it was, ASCAP BMI, their archives on Vine Street. And he's digging through this stuff. And one day I come down with him, meet him for lunch. And he said, what are you doing? He goes, oh, look, I'm digging through. They've got like, he shows me, they've got like the complete list of the

musicians who worked at Warner Brothers on like, you know, July 10th, 1943. And then he goes, look, and this is for this movie. And then at the bottom, it says, we stayed to do cartoon, you know, and it tells you, so, so we know we actually have a list. We have the list now of who the musicians were in the cartoons, but that's the thing. They did the cartoons, you know, like at the end of the day for the last half hour, Carl Stalling would take the podium and relieve, you know, Michael Curtiz or no, who would be the, you know, Steiner or somebody like that who was a great musician. And they would then just go right into the Looney Tunes. And the story is, is that the musicians loved it.

It was like goofing off for 10 minutes or a half hour. I can imagine. I can imagine. I can imagine. And now when I watch the current ones, I always think like Bugs Bunny wouldn't say that. And Dabby Duck would not react that way. Well, you know, it's just a different take. It's kind of like Spielberg doing West Side Story or, you know what I mean? It's a different take on a different take. It's kind of like Spielberg doing West Side Story or, you know what I mean? It's a different take on a classic property. You know, the latest batch that they made recently,

you know, for HBO Max, I give them a lot of points for trying their best to try to recreate that feel. And I think they did a pretty good job. Oh, that's my opinion. You have to check those out. Bill, let's talk about Tune In with me a show that gilbert a show that gilbert was on and jerry both and jerry excuse me you're the only one frank who's not appeared on the show that will change i'm i'm holding out all right uh gilbert's performance uh and appearance on that show was so memorable even he doesn't remember it. But it earned him an Emmy nomination. Let me tell you.

The show, which I've heard you describe at one point as a cross between, as Pee-wee's Playhouse meets Sea Hunt. Yes. Meets all, which I love. Thank you. It's a throwback, and you're really a man after our own hearts and the heart of this show, because it is a throwback to what Gilbert and I, and Jerry, all three of us being New Yorkers and you being from Chicago, we grew up on these kiddie show hosts presenting classic material, whether they were cartoons of the day, whether they were stooges. In our case, it was Officer Joe Bolton. Yeah.

What's the, what's the genesis of Tune In With Me? I mean. The genesis is based on what you just said in that we all had this, this growing up period where on a daily basis, a lot of times before school, a city would have a show

that would show cartoons and you had a personality with some puppets or sidekicks. And then after school, you certainly had that. And then on the weekends, you had a personality with some puppets or sidekicks. And then after school, you certainly had that. And then on the weekends, you had the networks providing you with, you know, cartoons. But there was something so magical for anyone who remembers those times. It was just the most carefree, perfect thing before school, after school, and on Saturday mornings to just sit back and let the world fly by and just have such a good time watching these

characters. And here in Chicago, we had some that were just so inspirational. And for years, people said, why can't that work anymore? That should still be around today. And the bosses here at MeTV said, yeah, let's make that work again. And a little over a year ago, we put it up. And from day one, the response was, I thought I was 58 years old. I thought I was 62 years old, but suddenly I'm 11 again. I feel so good watching these shows. And we're trying to capture the essence of what the hosts did, but we're updating it. I've had this theory all along about how attention spans have changed. And maybe that's for the good and maybe it's not for the good, but you really have to pack more punch into everything you do now just to keep

people's attention. So we're trying to make it a throwback show, but with today's sensibilities, it's a mixture of the two. And I remember there was a captain Jack McCarthy. Yeah. Three bells and all as well. Zachary Lee.

Yeah. Well, he did, he did a horror show like Sven Gulli, right? Yeah. Right. Yes,

absolutely. Yeah. Well, we all, we had officer Joegoolie, right? Yes, absolutely. Well, we had Officer Joe Bolt and Gil. Oh, yes, yes. And two people we had on this show, they were different kinds of kiddie hosts, but we had Chuck McCann here. And we had the late great Sonny Fox. Sonny Fox, sure. Who we just lost, who was an institution. And you just lost a Chicago institution.

Yeah, Bill Jackson, who was BJ on Cartoon Town, just passed away about a week or so ago. And he I can't tell you how many people I've met in my life who said I was so inspired by that guy. I didn't want to be a cartoonist. I didn't want to be in show business. But he just said, whatever you want to be, you can be there's a way to be whatever your dream is. And that stuck with us forever. And I remember the host every now and then would like stop in the middle of the show and show you how to comb your hair. Sure. And brush your teeth. Sure. Bill does that. Yeah. Not even on the show. I just walk up to strangers. You walk the kids through a light flossing, don't you, Bill? I've done that, yeah. What kind of mail are you getting? I mean, is it mostly people like us?

You know, throwback people? Retro people? Are you turning kids onto a new product? I play this game with myself, Frank, is I look at the envelope and I try to figure out what the letter inside will be. Will this be somebody our age? somebody younger, somebody older combination. And it's been such a nice cross section of people. And the one that I love the most is it's adults who say,

I watched the show because it transforms me into a kid again. I see these cartoons that I grew up with. I feel like I know you guys from watching every day. I feel like it's a it's a it's a bridge to what I used to watch as a kid. And then the kids watch it because they're discovering these cartoons for the very first time, you know, and they're they're so used to one kind of show or animated program. And they're really seeing the classics. They're seeing the Looney Tunes classics and the Popeye classics and the Betty Boop. And they can't. It's shocking for a kid to see that much animation because they don't do it that way anymore.

Of course. It's shocking to me that someone's sending you physical mail. We'll come back to tune in with me because we all have a fondness for that kind of show. And, you know, and Gilbert was a, he was a presenter on Up All Night. Oh, is that right? Yeah, USA, yeah. I mean, he wasn't a monster host and he wasn't a kiddie host, but he was a, and I wrote for a show called Commander USA's Groovy Movies that only Jerry remembers. Yes, I remember it.

Wait, what took place on that show? Because the name is familiar. It was a show. It was on USA, it was on USA Network. It was a guy named Jim Hendricks who was like a, he was a low-rent superhero who drew on his own mask and smoked a stogie. Yeah. And we would show grades,

we'd show the same stuff that was in rotation that Gilbert showed. Yeah. Right. Yeah, because it was the same, we were pulling from the same library.

It was usually the ones USA Up All Night showed were like these really bad tits-and-ass teen comedies with all the tits-and and ass cut out of them. Oh, all right. So you could concentrate on the dialogue. Well-written dialogue.

By the way, Jerry, on the subject of politically incorrect cartoons, we had Al Roker here, another New Yorker, was here about four months ago. We were talking about those Dick Tracy cartoons. Oh, yeah. Which are practically unshowable now because his whole police department was stereotypes, including Hippocalorie, who's like fat shaming.

You know, you can't do it. You know, what did we have? Gogo Gomez and Joe Jitsu. That's right. Joe Jitsu and Gogo Gomez. It was a Chinese one. There was also a Spanish one, I think. And there was, of course, a beatnik.

There was Nick, the beatnik. You remember that? Yeah. I think Officer Joe Bolton presented those, Gil. Yes. And he did it. You know what? He did a tag.

He would go, Dick Tracy Tracy and then it would cut to the cartoon like Dick was talking to him oh cool on the on the radio and that the voice of Dick Tracy was Everett Sloan that's right very good Gilbert how the mighty had fallen yeah from Citizen Kane to racist Dick Tracy what's really funny is you got to find this. There's a Soaky Toys commercial that you can find on YouTube. And they used to mix up and make, you know, cartoon characters as Soaky Toys. And they would mix up different studios and make commercials with them together. So there's a Dick Tracy one with Everett Sloan's voice. And he's talking to Muskie from the Deputy Dog Show.

I don't know if you remember that one but musky's like this you know kind of a uh redneck character from the deep south the whole thing is weird you got to check it out deputy dog was that the one imitating andy griffith oh no you're thinking of huckleberry hound maybe maybe? Oh, Huckleberry Hound. But I think the idea of Deputy Dog is definitely, there's an influence from the Andy Griffith show. Yeah, I definitely remember. Now, also, because I was always a Monster fan, I used to watch Milton the Monster.

Oh, yeah, that was great. I warned Jerry about this, yes. Yeah. Milton the Monster? Yeah. And without further ado five drops of essence of terror six drops of sinister

sauce when the stirring's done can I lick the spoon ha ha of course better hold your breath it's starting to tick better hold my head I'm feeling sick what have I done it's Milton It's starting to tick. Better hold my head. I'm feeling sick. What have I done?

It's Milton, your brand new son. Oh, that was beautiful. Very strange. That was stunning. Oh, Gilbert, I'm crying. Bill, do we remember Milton the Monster? I sure do. Most people cry when I sing.

Bill, he also can sing the theme song to Roger Ramjet, which will come later in the show. Oh, I can't wait to hear that. Yes. I'll do it now. Go ahead. Where Roger Ramjet and his eagles fighting for our freedom. We fly with him throughout a space not to help but to feed him. Roger Ramjet, he's our man, hero of our nation.

For more adventures, just make sure to stay tuned to this station. Aw. Gilbert, here's an idea. It's you at Madison Square Garden just singing cartoon themes for two hours. People would love that. I would go. To an empty arena. Bill, you can tackle this one.

Why the hell, Milton the Monster from Hal Seeger Studios, right, Cherry? Why on earth was the decision made that Milton the Monster should sound like

Homer Pyle? pile on top of old horror hill in a secret laboratory professor weirdo and count kook were in their monstrous glory six drops of the essence of terror Five drops of sinister sauce When the stirring's done, may I lick the spoon? Of course, ha-ha, of course Now for the tincture of tenderness But I must use only a touch For without a touch of tenderness It might destroy me

Looks too much Better hold your breath, it's starting to tick Better hold my hand. I'm feeling sick. Hello, daddy. What have I done? I'm Milton, your Brian Newsome. I don't know. You know, they tried so hard. There have been so many Saturday morning shows that have tried to capture the essence of scary movies. And Groovy Ghoulies is a great example of that. Yeah, Groovy Ghoulies.

King Kong is a great example of that. King Kong, you know the name of King Kong. You know the fame of King Kong. Ten times the size of a man. You guys are touring. Forget Jerry. Forget me. We're the new Sonny and Cher.

Without the skis. Yes. I just think that's a good target. You go after something people already know. Remember the Monster Squad was on for a while? Sure. The Drack Pack.

Oh, the Drack Pack. Absolutely. There was a Daffy Duck one, too. Oh, right, right, right. I like that Hanna-Barbera hit gold with Scooby-Doo and then kept ripping themselves off with Goober and the Ghost Chasers and Funky Phantom. Funky Phantom.

Exactly. Gilbert gets a kick out of the fact that you had real celebrities playing themselves right yeah next to a talking dog yes here's a talking dog here's mama cass and they were never doing anything funny right like i remember they had jonathan winters on jonathan winters did a thousand different voices, and he was really quick with improv, and he'd be there talking and goes,

oh, hi, welcome to my house. Yes, yes, that's how I will help you on your plan. Oh, my God, that's the second half of your act at Madison Square Garden is doing the voices of the celebrities in Scooby-Doo. One of the characters, I think Hebe, the ghoul, the monster, was a Peter Lorre. I think it was Bob McFadden, actually.

Gilbert, give the boys a little bit of your Peter Lorre because that's what they came for. No, it's you who ruined it. You and your stupid attempt to buy it. Kevin found out how valuable it was. No wonder we had

such an easy time getting it. You idiot! You bloated fathead! Do Chuck Lorre. What? Oh, that's so good, Gilbert. That's so good.

That's so good. One former guest we had on was Bela Lugosi Jr. Oh, what was that like? And Bela Lugosi Jr. is a lawyer, Junior. And Bale Lugosi Jr. is a lawyer and he cracked down on just using celebrity

voices without paying them. He's part of the Three Stooges thing, right? Isn't he the Three Stooges lawyer? Yeah, he got the heirs and the family some money. Some residuals.

You know, who's going to say no to the son of a vampire? Yes. On the subject of voices, another one, since now we're segueing to Saturday morning here, another one that Gilbert is obsessed with, Gilbert, if I may speak for you, are the voices on the 1960s Beatles cartoons? Oh, yeah.

Oh, really? Yeah. Paul Freeze, right? Paul Freeze. It felt like not even an effort was made to make it. It was like one of them was like Ronald Coleman. And it was like, I'm Ringo Starr. And I'm your drummer.

It was in the contract. They can't sound at all like the Beatles. But you know what's weird about that is, if you watch Yellow Submarine, the Beatles weren't doing their own voices for most of Yellow Submarine. Sure, sure. So you could certainly have found those actors or similar actors. Yeah. Probably didn't want to pay them. No, that was Yellow Submarine.

Most people don't realize was actually made by the same studio that made the Beatles TV cartoons. It was an attempt to keep the cartoons going. And I believe it was one of those things where the Beatles had a deal with United Artists for three pictures and they didn't want to do the third one because now they were visiting the Maharishi a lot and all that. And so the, somebody got the brainstorm to, to fulfill the contract and also keep the Beatles cartoon studio going. And apparently the story is they knew when they started making a feature, it was a feature and they, they upped their game. They hired some really top directors and designers. And apparently the Beatles couldn't care less about this. They contractually obligated to check it out at one point way deep into production.

They saw it and they were like, this is good. We want to be in it. And that little – that thing of them at the end was added on their insistence. They wanted to be in the movie. They didn't realize it was going to be actually a good film. That's why the other story on that film is that they gave the producers, they were under contract to give them four new songs. So they gave them four B-sides that they had no intention of putting on disc at all. Like Hey Bulldog and All Together Now were not meant,

they were like cast-off recordings. And they just, those, of course, have become classic tracks for the Beatles. Sure. Let's point out some more trivia. I remember when I found out years ago that that wasn't the Beatles. Yeah. I think everybody, everyone assumed that was, they were really good. It's the same year everybody was shocked that the Monkees didn't play their own music.

And the Beatles aren't the Beatles. Gil, were you also shocked to find out that the Ronald Coleman guy wasn't really John Lennon? I think it's Paul Freese doing a weird Ronald Coleman thing coleman thing as john which i really cannot explain frank that's strange because paul freeze is a very talented voiceover artist and yet with the beatles he just didn't make any sense plus almost everything else about those cartoons was done in england except paul freeze i don't understand that either you know and our friend jack mendelsohn our late friend jack mendelsohn somebody somebody that jerry and i both knew was a writer on those cartoons and a writer on yellow submarine well you know okay i can give you some backstory on it just that the uh uh king features syndicate

the people who own popeye um uh they bought quickly in like 1962 63, the cartoon rights to the Beatles, the animated and that King Features put on that show and the infamous Al Brodax. And we all know from the quickly made Popeye cartoons of the 60s and he made Beatle Bailey cartoons and things like that. And Paul Freese was part of the voice cast of all of those things as well. So I kind of think there was a connection between, you know, Paul Freese, Al Brodax, and he was the producer, Al Brodax, of the feature Yellow Submarine. So there's a connection there. And I think Paul Freese did the voice of the Cyclops in the Cyclops.

Oh, did he? With Lon Chaney Jr. The voice was just basically It basically sounded like the dogs in the Soupy Sales Show. Right. White Fang. Gilbert, what if he would have nailed

John Lennon's voice for the Cyclops movie but he couldn't get anywhere near it for the I wonder if they're still using Paul Freese. The last time I was in the Haunted Mansion Lennon's voice for the Cyclops movie, but he couldn't get anywhere near it for the biggest person. I wonder if they're still using Paul Freese. The last time I was in the Haunted Mansion in Disney World, Paul Freese's voice is still being used all these years later.

Sure. And another cartoon that I would watch, and that was Top Cat, which was basically like... Bilko, Sergeant Bilko. Bilko with Arnold Stang as Phil Silvers. Now there, once again, why didn't they get Phil Silvers?

Well, they were ripping it off. Yes, I guess that's... Why didn't they get Jackie Gleason to play Fred? I was going to say that. And I heard with that, Gleason was going to sue the Honeymooners. No, sue the Flintstones. Gleason was going to sue the Flintstones, and somebody said to Jackie,

do you want to be known as the man who killed Fred Flintstone? We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. But first, a word from our sponsor. Here's a question for you, Bill. I'm going to give you your choice. All right. Do you want a question about a bizarre cartoon called Colonel Bleep? I don't know Colonel Bleep. Okay. How about this one? This is from Marty Richardson. What about

the superhero cartoon from the 60s called Super Six? Oh, yeah. Where did it go? Jerry, help me out on that one. Where did it go? Well, the Super Six is a cartoon MeTV should grab because it's from MGM. It was a parody of superheroes in 1966, and it was done by DePatty Freeling. It was the first TV cartoon done by the same people who did the Pink Panther. And

it was super boring. Anybody remember this? Granite Man? I do. I'm trying to remember the names of the characters. There was Granite Man. There was oh God. There was, oh, God. There was the... Super Boing. Elevator Man. Elevator Man, Granite Man.

Yeah. And Captain Zamo. It was originally in the first episode of the show that was aired. It was called Captain Wham-O, and then the Wham-O toy company sued them immediately, and they had to change it to Captain Zamo. But again, nobody remembers this cartoon anymore, but it's actually pretty funny. Paul Freese is all over it. Of course.

And, you know, it's good. The other cartoon, I don't know if somebody mentions it or not. I have to mention it here. My favorite, the second Patty Freeling cartoon for Saturday morning, Super President. Oh, yes. Somebody here, one of our listeners brought it up. Wow.

Super President needs to be revived. That's the flip side. Super 6 was intentionally funny. This one was unintentionally funny. It's about the president of the United States is a superhero. He puts on a mask and his his chief of staff is his sidekick. And they start and they infiltrate other countries and, you know, blow people up, you know, and he's the president. It's like they know who he is.

He says it's in his name. Just go to the White House to pick up this psychopath. By the way, Super 6 had a bitchin' theme song by Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Yep, it does. Really? Yes, Bill. We want you to check that out,

and I'll make a segue here because I brought up Gary Lewis, and we were talking before we turned the mics on about his daddy and the cartoon. Will the real Jerry Lewis please sit down? Yeah. And Bill, you were starting to tell us a story about that one. Jerry was very fond of that show. I was fortunate enough to interview him several years ago and we talked about that cartoon. I said it was a favorite favorite of mine. And he got very angry. And he said, the network pulled it too soon. He was very upset. And I said, yeah, that could have. And I was kidding. And I go, that could have gone 10 or 12 years easily. He goes, maybe longer. You know, he was very upset that they pulled that cartoon. But I have a similar story. You know, when they did Stoney Curtis on the Flintstones,

a parody of Tony Curtis, Tony Curtis found out about it and called them and said, I want to play myself. I want to be Stoney Curtis. And he was. He did his own voice on that show. Wow. Yeah. It was Stoney Curtis and Ann Margret.

Ann Margret. Yes. Yep. Yeah. And do you remember who the Jetsons had? They had a similar star that was parodied. Gina Lola Jupiter. Oh, my God.

Bless your heart, Bill. Yeah. And now I remember a cartoon vaguely, and I want to see if either one of you know the title of this. I think it took place either probably in the jungle, and there was a bird that sounded. It was a Jack Lemmon imitation. Wow.

Wow. What would that have been? I think that might be Linus the Lionhearted as the show. I could be wrong. I'd have to I have to research it. Wow, Gilbert. That is a stumper. Yeah, that is a stumper.

If these guys don't know it, it can't be known. I have my books behind me, but I don't have any. I have to look everything up. You will hold. You mentioned 66, Jerry, all the superheroes.

Batman was the big thing in popular culture that year. So many superhero shows. I mean, not just the Super Six, which we talked about, and Super President. The New Adventures of Superman, using Bud Collier's voice, the old Superman from the radio. Right. And the Mighty Heroes. Oh, yeah. That was Ralph Bakshi. Ralph Bakshi. One of his first creations sold out to CBS. He was part of the Terry Toons studio. That was also the end of the line of the Terry Toons studio.

Terry Toons was the studio most famous for Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jekyll, Deputy Dog, we mentioned before, and dozens of other characters that are forgotten today, unfortunately. Do you remember they tried to make the Harlem Globetrotters into superheroes in their cartoon? Yes, of course. Another one where they didn't fight guest stars on. Sure.

They did a strange thing. They had a superhero show in the 60s and one that was called The Impossibles. Oh, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles. Right, those two separate cartoons on one half hour. Yeah. And the Impossibles were like Multiman. Coilman.

Coilman, right. And Fluidman. Fluidman. And so when they decided to do the Harlem Globetrotters, the superheroes. I love them well. They reused the animation. So one of them was Fluidman and one of them was Coilman. It didn't make any sense.

And then I could be wrong about this. Somebody else out there will refresh my memory. But they also did like the three robotic stooges later on. Remember that, Gilbert? They also reused the animation from The Impossibles for that. Yeah. Presenting Frankenstein Jr. at The Impossibles. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go.

Impossibles. Coil Man. He makes the scene when things look mean. Impossibles. Fluid Man. Impossibles. Fluid man. Stays on the spot, the spot that's hot.

Impossibles. Multiman. Makes like a crowd, no crooks allowed. Impossibles. Impossibles. Impossibles. I would assume there were no real stooges providing their voices. They were robotic stooges. And I remember, this is before Lugosi Jr. cracked down on it.

There were those two, there was Count Chocula and Frankenberry. Yeah. It had like Karloff and Lugosi imitations. Frankenberry voiced by Bob McFadden. And Boo-Berry and Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy. Yes, very good. And Boo-Berry was Peter Lorre. Yeah.

Imitation. And there was Quisp and Quake. And Quake, I think, was John Wayne imitation. And Quisp was a Jerry Lewis. Oh, there it is. Oh, shit. Frank is wearing a Quisp T-shirt. I'm jealous.

I'll send you one. I put it on for this special episode. Here are some more superheroes, guys, from 66, and it carried over to 67. Jerry, we were talking about Batfink and Karate. Oh, yeah. Yeah, from Hal Seeger. Spider-Man debuted in 67 and the Fantastic Four. And from Hanna-Barbera, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio.

Yeah. Mitor, the Herculoids, and, of course, Space Ghost. Right, which have all been immortalized by being parodied Yeah. MyTor, the Herculoids, and of course, Space Ghost. Right. Which have all been immortalized by being parodied on Cartoon Network. You know, the Hanna-Barbera superheroes are pretty cool in a way. Space Ghost. They're cool to me now. Yeah.

Space Ghost was very original. You know. Yeah. That's right. Gary Owens. And then both Abbott and Costello and the Three Stooges had cartoons made. The real Abbott was in the Abbott and Costello one. Yep.

And Abbott was like, hey, Lou. Yeah, well, I was on first. Hey, Gilbert, Beatrice Arthur did the voice for Abbott and Costello? Come on. No, no. Was it Stu Irwin doing Lou Costello, Jerry? Yes, yes. Yeah, those are funny.

I mean, the Three Stooges ones were actually produced by that same studio that did Clutch Cargo, but they spared us the live-action lips. And they had the real Moe and Larry were in in it i think the real mo i think you're right yeah and curly curly joe i did not know that and curly joe this is what drives me crazy yeah curly joe in one of the lawsuits curly joe wound up with all the three stooges money And I'm saying Curly Joe, I keep hearing stories like, oh, you know, on his own, he made films, he was hysterical. And I go,

well, how come he didn't show any of that in the Three Stooges movie? It just looked like, oh, this guy's fat, he's bald. All you need. If Curly Joe's middle name was Shemp, you know, think about it.

Curly Shemp Moe. Yeah, everything's there. Yeah, Joe Besser, you know. All right, here's a weird twist on the Three Stooges. There was a cartoon in the 60s called Genie about a young genie and her genie family, and the voices were provided by Joe Besser of the Three Stooges and Mark Hamill,

who I think went on to play Luke Skywalker. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Bill, that is good stuff. And when was this on? In the early 60s, 64, 65. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. More like the early 70s.

Oh, was it that late? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was before Star Wars, but yeah. Was Mark Hamill born? Yes. No, not yet. Yeah. It was the idea of Mark Hamill doing the voice.

Mark Hamill is major big in voiceovers. Now he really is. He does the Joker. A wonderful job as the Joker in the animated Batman. Really good in that. Bill, were you a Johnny Quest guy? Very much. One of my all-time favorites. We had Tim Matheson here on the podcast.

Oh, wow. I would argue that that theme song, that jazzy riff they play at the beginning is one of the best theme songs of all time. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think Tim, if you talk to him and check out our episode with him, I mean, he has very

fond memories of working. Was it Don Messick, Jerry, and all of those people, um, he was, uh, people forget that was also a primetime series. Yeah. That one season that it was on, it was not, again, it wasn't really aimed entirely at children, but, uh, that's the strangest thing though, is, is that show and there's other shows like it that only last a season or maybe two. And yet they're just, they're in your head forever yeah part of it's because they immediately went

to saturday morning with the jetsons and and johnny quest and literally ran them forever for like 10 15 years on saturday morning so people grew up with those shows you know it's it's it's it's pretty incredible was it one season of theetsons recycled over and over and over again? Yes. Somewhere around 1985 or something, they wanted to syndicate them and you needed 65 episodes to syndicate. And they realized they only had like 26 episodes of the Jetsons. So they made like another 34 or something like that. And the difference is, you know, very noticeable, you know. And there's a famous story about the time that Mel Blanc got into a car accident that nearly killed him.

And it was, you know, he was at the height of his career. Yeah. And he was in a coma. Yeah. And now, could either one of you tell that story? It's a very touching story. Well, I think what you're going for is, he was in a horrible car accident.

He was bandaged from head to toe. He almost died. He was in a coma, right? And they tried to revive him at the hospital. I mean, talking like a month, you know. Yeah, they kept saying, Mel, Mel, Mr. Blank, Mr. Blank. And finally, I think the doctor said something to him as he said, Bugs Bunny or something like that. And he addressed him as Bugs Bunny.

And Mel, I think, responded like saying, what's up, doc? He responded in the voice of his character. And that was the beginning of him. They also recorded him in the hospital in bandages, photographs of this, doing the Flintstones, doing Bugs Bunny cartoons and Kool-Aid commercials and things. And eventually, obviously, he recovered. By the way, I want a postscript story to that. I thought you were going for this. We were talking about the Jetsons.

But George O'Hanlon, who is the voice of George, he was the star of those Joe McDowell's comedies, if you know those. And he literally died in the booth, I believe. Now, again, I'm probably somebody's listening say that's not exactly right. But wow. But he basically they were doing these new uh uh Jetsons I believe he he worked also on that Jetsons the movie that came out if you remember that it was not a big in the 80s maybe or yeah I think it was the last thing he did and he died like right at the end and I think he recorded either all his lines or maybe he had one one or two more lines to go and

they got somebody in to match him but that's a case where right up to the end doing a voice like that. It's funny, it's like I think with Jan and Dean, like one of them got brain damaged. Yeah, in a car accident. Jan Barry. What they said

was he had a lot of trouble talking. He couldn't speak, but he was able to sing the songs. God, I hope that never happens with you, Gilbert. He can still do his imitations. I speak for America. Yeah, and so I think it's kind of the way with Mel Blanc. Like, a separate part of his brain had those characters.

Wow. Well, there's a story, and Jerry, you can confirm or deny this, but I've heard this story for years, is that when they're making feature-length films, they record the older actors and actresses first, just in case. You know, they just want to make sure they do that. Ever since the Jetsons movie, they definitely do that. That's true about this podcast.

There are a lot of famous actors and I don't have the list. One of the readers will. But there are a lot of famous actors and I'm talking like Leonard Nimoy, Orson Welles. Their last movie was an animated feature of some sort. If you look on IMDb, you'll see. Orson Welles. Their last movie was an animated feature of some sort. If you look on IMDb, you'll see.

Orson Welles, I think it was Transformers. Yeah, I think that might have been his last movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk about Everett Sloan, you know. No, I hope that's true. I heard like Humphrey Bogart toward the end. He was sick and I guess he was having trouble, you know, with his pronunciation and they wanted to find

a Humphrey Bogart impersonator to fill in certain lines and according to what I heard the Humphrey Bogart impersonator was Peter Sellers really? yeah that's amazing wow that's interesting I know Rich Little loops David Niven in the last Panther.

Oh, yeah. Yes, I think David Niven and then later on, as Clouseau. Interesting. This is from Mike Herman. He says, you guys will love Bill Leff, a great Chicago radio personality. Oh, that's so nice. It's true. We do love him.

And Richie Lomano, I love Bill and I love Tune In With Me. Please have Bill tell us one dream cartoon he would like to present on the show one day, but has not had an opportunity to. One that you don't have the rights to, I think is what they're implying. Yeah. That's a tough one. You know, there was a cartoon that has been parodied before. Does anyone remember C-Lab 2020? Sure. Yeah. Right. So when I was a kid, to me, that's really

what the year 2020 was going to look like. I 100% bought in. And we, of course, don't look anything like that. But I always thought, oh, man, the future's going to be so great. It's just like CLEP 2020. So I would love to run an episode or two of that. I'm sure we wouldn't be able to but that would make me smile really big. Imagine what you could do with TuneIn if you guys got some stuff from the Hanna-Barbera library.

You thought that in 2020 the world would be submerged underwater? Yes. That could never happen, could it? Uh-uh. Because both of you were saying, when's Gilbert going to sing again? Yes. Yes.

When criminals in this world appear and break the laws that face us here and frighten those who see and hear, the cry goes out for far and near for underdog. Underdog. underdog. Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, frighten those who rob or blunder, underdog, oh, underdog. Beautiful. Gilbert, first of all, amazing. Second of all, would you agree that that was one of those cases

where when you saw Wally Cox, because he used to be on Hollywood Squares all the time, your brain would not accept the fact that that human being could be underdog. Yes! Right? I was like that with Alan Reid. He was in some movies, and every time Alan Reed would show up in a movie,

he's the voice of Fred Flintstone. Sure. You'd say, there's no way. That's a guy. That's a real guy. He can't be a prehistoric guy. I remember when I was a kid watching The Postman Rings Twice on TV, and I remember going, wait a minute.

That's Fred Flintstone. Jerry, tell us about Underdog since he brought it up. Was that my research that it was it was a show created basically because a New York ad agency got the got the General Mills account. And they created these characters really as an excuse to sell breakfast cereal. Of course, that's absolutely what happened. No, and NBC got all behind. It's amazing that that cartoon had a balloon in the Thanksgiving Day parade for decades, it seemed. Yes.

But it was produced in New York. Total Television was the name of that studio. Total Television, that's right. And I don't even know what much more to say except that I enjoyed it at the time. I really liked that show. Jerry, the same thing happened with the Sugar Bear cartoon, right?

That's right. They made a cartoon. Good point. This is all leading to the fact that a few years later there was like a major government crackdown on that sort of cartoon. But, yeah, Sugar Bear was part of the Lion. Oh, gosh. Linus. Linus the Lionhearted, right.

And the whole cast of that show. Two things about that. Every one of the characters fronted their own cereal, you know, including the racist Hilo, who is the Chinese character who for sugar crinkles. Oh, yeah. I remember those. And there was there was the postman for alphabets. And, you know, it was all sorts of things. And the sugar bear postman for alphabets. That's right. That's right. It was all sorts of things. And then Sugar Bear became a superstar from that show. He was a bit player. But the other thing about that show, if you look into it, was that the voice cast is unbelievable.

It was like Sheldon Leonard and Carl Reiner. It's like a who's who. Which show are you talking about? I'm talking about Linus the Lionheart. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Look into that. Sugar Bear was made to sound like a who's who. Which show are you talking about? I'm talking about Linus the Lionhearted. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Look into that. Sugar Bear was made to sound like Bing Crosby.

That's right. Very good. Oh, here comes that singing bear again to steal my post-Sugar Crisp cereal. I'll change my house into a haunted house and scare him away forever. Granny! Ah, haunted house. Here you are, Lancelot. Hey, Spook, come back with that post-Sugarcrisp series.

Sugar Fair? The Sugarcrisp is in the grandfather's closet. Thanks, Spook. Whoever you are. Surprise! Easy, Batboy. I got very little flying experience. Thanks, Spook. Whoever you are. Surprise! Easy, Batboy. I got very little flying experience. Ah, safe landing.

Granny, fancy meeting you here. I'll take that. Sugar crisp. Honey of a snack. Honey-flavored wheat that's sugar, sugar, sugar, sugary sweet.

Oh, I can't get enough of that sugar crisp. Sugar crisp. You've got a nice thing for sugar. You can get sugar crisp in post-t. Sugar crisp. You've got a nice thing for sugar. You can get sugar crisp in Post-10s, too. Post cereals make breakfast a little bit better. And Simon Barr Sinister on Underdog was made to sound like Lionel Barrymore.

Yes, he was. Yeah. It even had Lionel Barrymore's bushy eyebrows. Let's talk a little bit about Jay Ward, which, you know, I labored under the misconception for years, Jerry, that Underdog was a Jay Ward production. Yeah, I don't think they shared any designers, or maybe they did, but Jay Ward was in L.A., and I think the connection was General Mills and the cereal. Remember, the original Rocky and His Friends was brought to you by Cheerios and things like that. And so there was some kind of a sponsor connection to those shows. And in fact, one of the shows, Uncle Waldo or Hippity Hopper, they had a special show that was a combination of Total Television cartoons and Jay Ward cartoons.

So people like us could be completely confused decades later. They had Hippity Hopper and Hoppity Hooper. Those coexisted. They did. Well, one of them was Warner Brothers, and the other one was Jay Ward of some sort. And let's talk about all the people who worked on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

Geniuses. Yeah. Billwinkle cartoons. Geniuses. Bill Scott. Bill Scott. The announcer. He was a detective in a series. William Conrad was the announcer. William Conrad, yes. Jake and the Fat Man.

Paul Freese. Paul Freese and June Foray. And Dawes Butler. One of the main voices on there as well. And I believe Alan Burns, I believe, who went on to do like the Mary Tyler Moore show. Yes, in fact, we just lost Alan Burns last year. Was George Butler the voice of Droopy Dog? He might have done it once.

Mostly the voice was done by an actor named Bill Thompson, who most people might remember his voice in many, many Disney features like he was the Cheshire Cat. Oh, wait, wait, let me get, hold it, hold it. He was, no, he was the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. And he was a great radio actor

who did a lot of stuff. But Droopy is probably his most famous part well on the subject of george of the jungle uh tom slick which was one of the characters i think on the george of the jungle show yeah if i have this right it's yeah was dawes butler doing a crazy guggenheim impression gilbert Gilbert. You're not going to sing the Tom Slick song? He doesn't know Tom Slick. Tom Slick.

Tom Slick. No. And Super Chick. Don't forget Super Chick. I was going to say Super Chicken. Look at this. Jerry just pulled out his Super Chicken doll. That's right. And do you remember Big Daddy Ed Roth?

Sure. Of course. He Big Daddy Ed Roth? Sure. Of course. He designed cars. Yeah. Yes. He designed, and there were all those weird characters along with the cars. The model, he did a lot of model kits. I'm not sure if he was, I remember the model kits you're talking about.

You're talking about like, you know, oh man. Red Baron, Pennywagon. Yeah, that kind of thing. Leaky Boat Louie was the one that I remember buying when I was a kid. Crazy things with big bloodshot eyes. You know, anyway, that kind of thing. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Here's a segue, because you're talking about wacky cars.

And this is, Bill was saying, certain shows stick in your head. Wacky Races. Love it. Love it. Love it. From 1968. That's actually a pretty good show. 68. And the brilliance of Paul Wenschel

is really on display in that show. He was Dick Dastardly. Yes, and the Dastardly and Mutley spinoff. But what a clever show. You know what's funny about that is that's one of those shows,

and you could also put Scooby-Doo Laugh Olympics in the same category. And there's other shows where it was basically the same premise every single week. If you were watching Wacky Races, they had the same race every week. And yet you were glued to your TV. There was something magical about it, even though it was so repetitive. Yeah. What happened with that show, it was actually a very expensive show because most cartoon shows in that period were trying to be as cheap as possible. And so one way to do that is to have the same characters in the same locations, like Augie Doggies in that house they live in, and that's all they really do. And in the case of Wacky Races, they kind of painted themselves, no pun intended, into a corner because each episode is the same,

but they were in a different location. They were always somewhere else. So they had to do new layouts, new paint jobs. So it actually cost them a lot of money. They must have been furious. I remember when they used to have the Marvel comics. Oh, yeah. And those, they would have like a still picture of Spider-Man. Somebody wrote us about those.

And they'd zoom the camera in and out on it. There would be no actual animation. Dr. Z, Dr. Eric Z, MD, medical deviant. He's one of Gilbert's favorite listeners. Yes. He says, were there any cartoons more wretched and disappointing than those Marvel Comics 60 ones where they use still images and move the camera around? Yeah. Was that Grant Ray Lawrence?

Grant Ray Lawrence was a studio that did TV commercials, but they didn't do anything that looked like Marvel superheroes. That was obviously done at a very, very low, low, low budget. Strangely enough, Stan Lee was very much in charge of the dialogue. But then again, most of the show was taken right from the comic books. Exactly. There was a lyric in the Hulk series of that where they'd say, Doc Bruce Banner jolted by gamma rays changes into the Hulk. And then they'd say, ain't he unglamorous?

Yeah. And I don't even think that's a word. Very upsetting to me. But it rhymes. It rhymes, sort of, yeah. One of the great things you can ever see, and I love actually, you know, I love those cartoons. Those theme songs are great, though. Those theme songs are

great, and the guy who wrote them, I think his name is Jack Airbon. The only reason I know this. That's right. And the only reason I know that is because he put out a video. It's fantastic of him singing each song. Oh, wow. And he sings them with such reverence, you you know uh you know like

you say doc spanner i mean he's just he loves every when captain america throws his mighty shield all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield i wonder if jack urbans is still with us i don't know i don't know yeah let me let me plow through some of these 16 now i'm moving through the year 69 was the the debut of the Pink Panther. On TV. Jerry, yeah, on TV. With our friend John Beiner doing both the Ant and the Aardvark. We had John here. It's also

the year Sid and Marty got into the act with Puffin Stuff. Oh, I love that show, actually. It's moving into live action stuff. We had them on this show as well, and boy, oh boy, are they fun. Can I tell you something really quick about John Beiner? The other night I watched on HBO, there's a documentary about Super Dave Osborne. Yeah, it was great. Really good. So he's in that. John Beiner's in that

because one of Bob Einstein's first jobs was working for John Beiner. For Bazaar. So the thing I wanted to bring up was they're talking about where did Bob Einstein's genius come from? And Albert Brooks says, I think it's from Looney Tunes. He goes,

if you watch Super Dave Osborne, a lot of his moves and cuts are exactly like Looney Tunes. That's fascinating. Yeah. That's actually fascinating. I think there's something to it. It may very well be.

Here's a couple other ones. Let's see. From 70. Now, Jerry, my research was that parents groups were complaining about violence by 1970, which led to a phasing out of superhero and action-themed shows. And that year we got Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the Groovy Ghoulies. The Bugaloos from Sid and Marty.

Loved it. That was hot. Josie and the Pussycats. One that Gilbert pleasured himself to. And a personal favorite of this show, Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. Yes. And Mata Hari, his girlfriend.

With Dayton Allen doing a Bogart impression. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah. That's above my pay grade. I can't comment on that. There was also one right around that era called Electro Woman and Dyna Girl. You bet. That was hot, too.

You bet. 1970 brought, let's see, the debut of Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, which we talked about, with David Lander, squiggy, providing Jerry's voice. And then in 71, Bill brought up Funky Phantom, which had Mickey Dolenz in the cast.

He did a lot of those. And Don Messick and Dawes Butler. The debut of the Jackson 5 cartoon, Gilbert. Oh, yeah. Yes. Our friend Sally Struthers in the Pebbles and Bam Bam show. She was Pebbles. Yes.

She told us she used to goose Jay North while they were doing the shows. And Butch Patrick in Lidsville with Charles Nelson Reilly. And Jerry, Chuck Jones hosted a live-action education show that year called Curiosity Shop. Yeah. Was he on screen? He was definitely the producer of that show. Maybe he's produced it. He was actually in charge of the whole Saturday morning lineup that year, believe it or not.

Unbelievable. Very strange. And 72 gave us the Osmonds and the Brady Kids. Everybody was waiting for those. Sure. And, Bill, you got it. Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Oh, yeah.

There you go. How about that? That's when I started to lose interest. I hung in there for the Smurfs, but that's about it. Frank, what you just said reminded me of something. This is the funniest thing my brother Adam Adam, has ever said in his life. We would every Saturday morning, we would never miss Scooby-Doo. And you know how ridiculous Scooby-Doo is.

And then when Scrappy-Doo was added to the cast, my brother stopped watching. And I asked him why. And he goes, because now that Scrappy-Doo is on the show, it's kind of fakey. Jerry, talk a little bit about meeting Bill and Joe, because we both met them, Hannah and Barbara. I spent I had the luxury and the pleasure of spending two days with them. And I sang the banana splits theme in Joe's office. And that's what got you thrown out. Yes.

After he wanted to throw me out. But is there a Jack Nicholson story? Yeah, well, most people don't know that Jack Nicholson's first job in the motion picture industry was as a gopher at the MGM studio for Bill and Joe and the cartoon unit in roughly 1955, 56. That's great. 1956 is when the studio completely closed and then Hanna-Barbera went into TV cartoons. Nicholson went into AIP Westerns and movies, and Bill and Joe built their TV career. So when I one time interviewed Bill and Joe, I was talking to them. I said, do you have any, did you ever run in? And all of this time, Jack Nicholson's become a big movie star.

This was about 20 years ago or more that I talked to them. And I said, do you ever run into him at like an industry function or something? Do you guys communicate? I just wondered what, if any, relationship, didn't, why didn't Jack Nicholson show up on Scooby-Doo? But he said that one day. Or at least Dennis Hopper. One day, so Joe said one day he was sitting at the Director's Guild in LA waiting for some screening of a movie to come on and coming in, in the row right in front of him and sitting right in front of him was Jack Nicholson. And he tapped him on the shoulder and he said something like, you know, hey, boy, or something like that.

And Nicholson literally turned around and said, can I get you a Coke, Mr. Barbera? You know, and that's my story. That's great. Did you know Beverly D'Angelo was a storyboard artist at Hanna-Barbera? Really? I did not know that. Very early in her career? I did not know that.

She told us on this show. Is it true Hanna-Barbera, they worked in the same building, but they had separate flaws and wouldn't speak to each other. Sort of, yeah. I don't think they hated each other. I think they just had different personalities. I mean, to be honest, I think they just, they just were not people who were going to be best friends, you know, off camera, so to speak.

But yeah, there's, there's a little bit of Fred Nethel there. Joe's a wonderful character. Gene Beretta, can you guys talk a little bit about old cartoon hosts that showed up in local markets? We did that before. I can't remember names, but Philly had one for the Three Stooges cartoons, and they even threw in some Doodles Weaver shorts. Oh, yeah. Bill, I heard you eulogizing on one of your shows Tom Hatton out of L.A. Yeah.

Who's another person worth mentioning? You know, there was a time where, I don't know, you might've had 30, 40, 50 of these hosts from coast to coast, uh, more times than not, it was a localized show. It didn't run nationally. So only people in that particular city would know them, but it was commonplace for every major city had one or two or sometimes three of them. Yeah. And Tom Hatton was an actor. He was an artist. And he apparently, I think most of these hosts, I could say the same thing, but based on the ones I've met, he really loved these cartoons. I mean, they love these things and they knew about them and they knew a little bit of the

history and they would they would tell the kids, you know, about what they were and who they are. That reminds me of when you were saying before a lot of these older TV cartoons, you couldn't pitch today, but I keep thinking about Popeye. Imagine that walking into Nickelodeon and trying to pitch, you know, a 40 year old, you know, grizzled guy with one eye punched clothes. He's got a pipe in his mouth because he's smoking. I mean, anyway, you'd never be able to get that on the air. Well, he's got a tattoo. You wouldn't be able to get it. And he punches people. You know, Bill, when I watch those cartoons,

and I know that one of the things you wanted to talk about was sort of the decline of the quality and the decline of the quality of the art and the production. When you watch some of those Fleischer cartoons that you guys show on the show, they're beautiful to look at. I am stunned. They're slices of heaven. Oh, they're just perfect. And there's so much going on in every part of the frame. There's no downtime in any of these cartoons. And, you know, it's little things. I'll use this as an

example. If Popeye's driving a car and he hits a bump, he pops up way in the air and then he lands back in the car and he keeps on driving. There's just those little details that as animation has progressed, I will use that word incorrectly. Right. They wouldn't show that anymore. It's a waste of time. Just get from point A to point B, get them there.

That's it. And there was something kind of like nightmarish about the Fleischer ones. Yes. A little disturbing. There was, they were the, the anti Disney intentionally. I think, back then. They were produced in New York City, in Times Square,

believe it or not, the Fleischer studio, whereas Disney was in sunny California. It was two different points of view. The Fleischers were very, you know, streetwise. And I remember hearing Betty Boop originally was a girl dog. And then they changed it to a girl, but the boyfriend they kept as a dog. So this girl was going out with a dog. Sure.

What's more New York than that? I can't remember which one it was, Bill, but it's Popeye winds up underwater. He's trapped underwater and the animation is just beautiful. Yeah, the bubbles. And the detail. And when you watch those old Fleischer Supermans, you can't believe the amount of effort and craftsmanship. I can't believe the amount of effort and craftsmanship. Well, they really, they were, Superman was a big fad, you know, in 1938, 39, 40, 41.

It was one of the biggest things in the country. It had a radio show almost the next year, 39, for the next 10 or 15 years. They had a big radio show, which later became the movie serials and the TV shows. Superman was just a gigantic character that we don't even know. As big as Superman still is, we don't grasp how big of a character he was. He literally started the comic book business. So when there was a bidding war for the rights to Superman in the movies, I wish they had made a live-action movie back then,

but they ended up with Paramount, a big studio, Paramount Pictures, bought at great expense, gave the Superman character to the Fleischer studio. The Fleishers were in the midst of doing Gulliver's Travels, their feature film. They were competing with Disney. When those cartoons came out in 41, the first one, to me, that's the golden age. They talk about 1939 for feature films. 1941, 42 for animated cartoons. Every studio is at the top of their game. Amazing stuff. I am very proud to say, as of yesterday,

we at TuneIn With Me have the rights to the Fleischer Superman cartoons. We'll be showing them on our show. That's wonderful news. We're making news here. And the funny thing, getting back to Betty Boop, how sexual that cartoon was.

Very much so. Yeah. I mean, it was amazing. I remember this one where she's doing like a strip tease on stage or something. And the audience is made up of animals. Right.

And they're all hooting and hollering. You know how animals are. That's very New York. I mean, those were pre-code. I mean, most of the hot Betty Boop cartoons, Betty's reputation are from the ones from 1930 through 33 or 34. Then the production code came in. They had to clean up her act.

They gave her Grampy and a little dog named Pudgy, and she became very domesticated. But before that, the cartoons are pretty hot. But look at in Popeye, Jerry, they've never really said where Sweepy's origin is. We know that Olive Oil's his mom, but the father is a little, you know, bleary. Exactly.

I don't even know if I couldn't, I couldn't confess to knowing that, uh, that olive oil is his mom. I don't even know if that's been established. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. He's a foundling. I think there's a point in, in some tune in with me episodes, uh, bill where you'll, you'll, you'll just stop and talk about things like memory, wonderful memories, things like Lincoln logs. Yes. You know, is, is, is that kind of a, uh, an excuse for you to talk about things that, that you're in love with things from your personal collection? You know, some of the writers said, we do a thing on Friday called fantastic Friday and Fridays are paced differently than the rest of the week. Because on Friday we said, we want the show to be more the decision of the viewers.

Like you pick the cartoons, uh, you write us some letters and we'll read you the letters. And one of the writers suggested because of my collection, every Friday bring in something from the collection based on what the people want to see. So people write in and they say, you have any monster collectibles? Or I used to watch this cartoon or this show. Do you have anything? Please bring it in. And people have loved it. You know, it's a lot of, again, it's a memory from memory from your childhood oh i had that as a kid or i wanted that when i

was a boy or a girl and he's got it let's take a look at it so it's fun that that aurora set the aurora monster set that oh yeah that i had all of that was really oh man really so i got the display i used to see this when i was a kid and There was a shopping center near me called Ford City, and the Pennies, the JCPennies, had this in their toy department. It was this dungeon, and then all the monsters were set up in the dungeon. You couldn't buy the dungeon.

It was just for a display, but I looked for it, and I looked for it, and I looked for it, and I finally got it. It's one of my favorite pieces. Next time you come back, we'll go through the collection. Remember when the Aurora monster models made the monsters in cars?

Yes. Boy, was that a rip-off. Yes, it was. Here's another question from a listener, David C. Smith. Can Jerry or Bill tell us about the wonder of Synchrovox? Well, Synchrovox was the patented technique of that studio that did Clutch Cargo and Space Angel and Captain Fathom. They had actually several of these shows.

That's the still picture drawing with live action lips. And that was their innovation. Every cartoon producer of the 1950s, when TV suddenly started paying for some animation, they were doing a big race to who can do the cheapest thing. The producers wanted to produce the cheapest possible cartoons because the money wasn't really there. And so almost every studio had their own crazy, wacky idea of what to do. And that included things like, you know, just farming out animation to other countries

and, you know, just all sorts of things. But Synchrovox, well, my good friend, she's still alive. She's in her 90s, Margaret Carey. She's an actress. I can go on and on about her career. She's been on everything, including the Andy Griffith Show when she was younger. And she was on The Lone Ranger.

She was in the original The Old Rascals in very small parts. And she was also the actress model for Peter Pan for the Disney Studio and many other credits. And she married a guy who was in the TV business and he was interested in producing cartoons. And they came up with this crazy idea. And she was the one, she would sit in this chair, bolted in like an electric chair, where they'd photograph her mouth for all the characters. So it's a woman's mouth on Clutch Cargo, even if it was a male dubbing in the actor. And she's the voice of any female.

She's the woman in those Three Stooges cartoons. Remember those start off and ended with live action, new footage of the Three Stooges? Yes, yeah. Remember that? Yeah. If there's ever a scene where they're you know they're going out to eat or they're visiting the dentist if there's ever a woman in any of those

and there's usually only one woman it's margaret carey she's uh because she was the producer's wife and uh she told me all about doing that stuff and she's living still in florida by the way people in animation seem to live forever ruthieie Thompson, the Disney animator, just died at 111? Wow. Unbelievable. Do you guys remember on Clutch Cargo at the beginning they'd say, Clutch Cargo, with his pals Spinner and Paddlefoot. And I'd always say,

sure, that's believable. A grown man would pal around with a five-year-old boy and his dog. Why wouldn't he? Of course. I get it. Bill, before we get out of here, let's shout out some of your colleagues on TuneIn with me. And it's a show that's clearly a valentine to the past and a labor of love like this podcast. Kevin Fleming, Mr. Quizzer, and I love his extra long Jean Rayburn mic. Yes.

Isn't that great? And Layla. Layla's. How should I say her? Layla Gorstein. Layla Gorstein and anybody else deserving of kudos for bringing this show to life every week. It's such a fun little party. I have to say I've been blessed and given a couple of cast members and certainly all the people behind the scenes

who are just so passionate about their work and so good at what they do. And it really it's one of those jobs that you pinch yourself and you go, I can't believe I'm doing this because this is just so passionate about their work and so good at what they do. And it really, it's one of those jobs that you pinch yourself and you go, I can't believe I'm doing this because this is just so much fun. And hopefully that carries over. But yeah, the two people you just mentioned are certainly forces to be reckoned with in this business. They're both going to go on to very big things in their careers. I'm positive.

It's a fun show. And I also want to shout out Mike Schmiedler. Am I saying his name right? Yeah. Mike Schmiedler is the showrunner and our producer and director, and he does an amazing job. And Brenda Lowry, who pulled this whole thing together and had the patience of a saint as she waited me out and waited out the holidays. And I'm really glad we finally put this one together. And Gilbert and I are suckers for anybody in a gorilla suit. Yes. By the way.

Who is Sventuni? I did not see the sven toony episode all right so sven toony is our tribute to our friend sven ghouli who who also taped his show here at me tv so uh sven our toony our tuna fish on the show is an admirer of his and does his own horror show called Sventuni. Makes perfect sense. Oh, and what can you tell us about Mae Quetzel? Mae Quetzel. Yeah, she was a great. What a great voice. Fantastic.

What a career. She was in Funny Girl. Wasn't she in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, I think? I think she was. She was in New York Story. Lydia Allen's movie. That's right. That's right.

I mean, and she was Aunt Bluebell or whatever for the paper towels in the 60s. And anyway, she was great. She was a performer who did that act, you know, that same Helen Kane act, and got the gig. And it lasted her whole life. She was Betty Boop in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Yeah. You know, that obviously the last thing she did. But she was also Little Audrey in all those cartoons. She was olive oil, obviously.

And on and on and on. I met her once, a sweetheart, a wonderful person. And, you know, a wonderful person. And, you know, I love watching it for her or hearing her voice. She's in a lot of old commercials, too. So, Jerry, you met everybody in this business. And tell us before we get out of here, tell us one thing about the great Chuck Jones or Clampett or Bob Clampett. Two guys you knew.

Two legends. They were real people. They were people whose names I knew and grew up with seeing their names on. And you knew Frizz Freeling too. Yeah, I got to meet Frizz in his condo in LA. No, they were great. They were real.

Clampett is one of us. That's the thing that I got. Not that the other Clampett is – Clampett was one of us. That's the thing that I got. Not that the other guys weren't, but Clampett was a fan of animation, cartooning. He loved what he did himself, but he collected all the artwork at the studio and kept it. I love that he did that. I don't have any funny stories. I think they're just great, great guys.

They all had different egos about what they were doing. I think one of the things that made the Warner cartoons great was they were kind of all competing with themselves. You know, they didn't get the feedback that we get, the instant feedback. Today we have, you know, Facebook and Twitter and all of that. They barely got fan mail back in those days. They were making these cartoons because they wanted to make themselves or their companions laugh. Always a good place to start. Yeah.

Yeah, when creating comedy. Okay, last question before we go back to Gilbert. And let me, this is a bit of a cliched question, but one desert island cartoon for each of you. God. That you have to take with you and watch over and over and over. Gilbert, do you want to chime in as well? Oh. Would it be Bugs trying to dig Elmer's grave?

Yeah, I guess. Well, I do like, and even though Bugs is the old Bugs Bunny, the freakish one, I like the one because I love the closing title, the closing line. Because it's supposed to be that Elmer Fudd goes crazy or something, and they keep telling him, now repeat after me, I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht. And then they do something where they switch them, and these guys go, which one of you is Elmer J. Fudd? And Bugs Bunny goes, I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.

And they say, well, we're putting you away for owing the tax department millions of dollars. And Elmer Fudd at the end says, I may be a screwy wabbit, but I ain't going to Alcatraz. Right. What cartoon is that, Jerry? Oh, finally I'm getting stumped. I know it's off the top of my head. It's Frizz Freeling and directed it. Frizz Freeling. And it's great. It's one of those cartoons that the title has nothing

to do with the plot. Yeah. There's many of those. Try to tell me like a Roadrunner cartoon. None of the titles have anything to do with it. I'm going to jump in. I kind of like the titles of most Three Stooges. That's true. I'm going to jump in, too, here and make a clichéd choice.

I'm all about clichés tonight, and pick One Froggy Evening. That's a good one. Because I'm a Chuck Jones guy, and to me, the timing, the deadpan, everything about that cartoon clicks. It's a symphony. Yeah, I agree. Oh, by the way, I just found it really fast. It's Hairbrush.

Hairbrush, Gil. He happens to have that at his fingertips. I happen to have it, yes. Jerry, you're a miracle man. Here's something else. I heard the studio put all their money into Mr. Bugs Goes to Town. Okay. Mr. Hoppity Goes to Town or Mr. Bugs?

Maybe it was Mr. Hoppity. All right. Allow me to straighten it out. Okay. No. It's the Fleischer studio. It's the second animated feature they made after Gulliver's Travels. Paramount put a lot of money because Gulliver made a fortune.

They put a lot of money in their next feature, which came out in America as Mr. Bug Goes to Town. It was supposed to be like a Frank Capra film. That was the idea of it. And it was released around the world as Hoppity Goes to Town, and it's still in circulation that way. The film is great. It's actually a great Fleischer. If BTV ever runs features, you should definitely seek this film. Paramount owns it and they restored it recently. And the thing about it was it's a very good film. It just happened to have the misfortune of being released like on December 6th, you know, 1941, like the day before Pearl Harbor. And so nobody cared anymore. You know, it's like Pearl Harbor Day, the world's going to war. And this movie tanked. It was playing with, you know, Hopalong Cassidy movies is a double bill, you know,

in about a month. So and it was kind of forgotten for years and decades later. But it's it's it was shown on TV a lot when we were kids. And it's been it's pretty inspirational to a lot of people, actually. So movie worth seeking. There you go, Gil. OK, you guys get you guys aren't getting off the hook. What's your desert? You're your single desert island cartoon. Jerry, go ahead.

I know it's impossible, Jerry. But well, you were me. Yeah, I know it is impossible for me, but humor me. Yeah, I know. It is impossible for me. I love so many of the cartoons. Quite frankly, that first Superman cartoon. Well, I think I was going to give you a Bugs Bunny, but you know what? I'm going to go with that first Superman cartoon, the one with him and a mad scientist and the electrothanasia ray and has a big ray gun, a death ray. And it's a little corny here and there. The building kind of moves like butter. It kind of falls, and Superman has to erect it up again.

But the animation in it is fantastic. One of the best things in it is the musical score in that film. When they play it on MeTV, just listen to the music on that film. I know the one you mean. Yeah, it's just amazing. It's the first one. So they actually draw the character to look a little bit like the Siegel and Schuster comics of the day before they standardized his model and all that. And it's a little mini feature film.

By the way, here's a real ridiculous trivia question or answer. It's the only cartoon, short cartoon ever, at least back then, I don't think anybody's ever done it since, that they actually made a trailer. They made a trailer for the Superman cartoon for the first one. That's incredible. It played in movie theaters. It's online. Somebody found it. And it's, no, Disney never did that. You know, that's pretty crazy, but that's how big Superman was. They wanted people to know. It's a great choice, by the way. It's a great answer to the question. Okay, William, William Leff.

Yeah, that's me. All right. Did you know that William is his first name and his middle name? No. All right, so it isn't really. I was joking around on the show once and I said I bought it. We said that my mom got to pick my first name and my dad got to pick my middle name and they both like the same name. And I said it as a joke. And then it was all over the Internet.

Can't trust that goddamn Internet. It's the worst. All right. So for me, this is very, very obscure. But about 30 years ago, England, not everyone in England, but the animators of England, made a movie called The Snowman, which is about 25 or 30 minutes. It's an animated short called The Snowman. And for the reasons that were just mentioned about the score, the music is stunning. It's just a beautiful piano playing throughout. There's little to no dialogue in the entire cartoon. It's just about a kid and a snowman. And it's so touching and moving. And the music just makes the entire cartoon. It's just about a kid and a snowman. And it's so touching and moving.

And the music just makes you so emotional. It's flawless. I've seen it so many times and I just love it. Good answer. You're waving it. I know. It's my wife's favorite cartoon. Good answer.

I believe it was made in England. Yeah. Raymond Briggs is the cartoonist. And in animation circles, it's considered a classic too. Yeah, it's so good. Oh, and what did the two of you think of Fantasia? Well, I love Fantasia. Now, I think when I saw it when I was like nine, it bored me out of my skull, you know, at the time.

But I've grown to love it. I actually show it in my animation history class that I teach, and I show it every year to my students, and it's a tour de force. It's an amazing thing. There's a big story behind Fantasia that we won't waste our time with here, but Disney had bigger plans. It wasn't just going to be the way you see it. It was going to be roadshowed in a very special way. It was the first film to use stereo, special way. It was the first film to use stereo, stereophonic soundtrack. And it's a masterpiece of animation. It's not commercial. And it was a flop. It was Disney's first big flop in its day. But it made its money back in the psychedelic 60s when they, you know, they reissued it as a head picture, get stoned and watch this. And it made a fortune. And that's been, you know, considered one of the great Disney classics ever since.

But it's, is there a specific question about it? Because the whole film is good. No, no, it's just curious. Gilbert likes to keep the show going seven times after I say it. After I say it. As we wind down, I just want to say one thing here, guys,

and I think you'll agree with me on this. Let's all take a moment to praise and remember the work and the talents of these great artists who gave us decades and decades of pleasure and happiness. Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Fritz Freeling, Tex Avery, Paul Terry, Bill Hannett and Joe Barbera, Jay Ward, Max and Dave Fleischer, Bill Scott, June Foray, Doug Wildey, Jack Mercer, we'll throw Sid and Marty in there, Mel Blank, Dawes Butler, Don Messick, Paul Freese, Carl Stalling, White Curtain, throw in Gary Owens and Paul Winchell, and the list could go on and on and on. But these are people that help make

our lives so much more enjoyable as kids. I think we're really indebted to them for the gifts they gave us. Would you agree? No question. Those are just giants among giants, every one of those names you mentioned. And a lot of times, you know, as a kid, maybe you don't pay special attention to the credits.

They just kind of fly by. But take some moment to just enjoy the people who made them for you. Yeah, look them up. Do the research. It's Yeah. Look them up. Do, do, do the research. It's, it's rewarding.

And final question. Is Iago the greatest animated character in the history of Disney? In the history. Yep. Absolutely. Yes. No question. There you go,

Gil. Nothing but honesty from these two. Yeah. Now, if you had mentioned the character in thumbelina that would be different what about jerry the button the belly button elf that he played on oh yes oh yeah and and uh uh digit the bird and cyber chase okay all amazing Digit the Bird, and Cyber Chase. Okay. All of these. Gil, you were up here, and now you're down here. The producers of the Beatles cartoons are calling. Yes.

Guys, come back, and we'll do more another time. Excellent. Anytime. Bill wanted to talk about the old Friday night primetime preview shows that they don't do anymore. The fall previews will do that next time and we'll get into a lot of other stuff. But this was a blast and it's just fun

to remember. It is. Thank you so much, guys. This was so much fun. Thank you. Thank you for all you've done. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre and we've joined Jerry Beck and Bill Lepp in our time machine back to the golden age of Saturday morning TV.

Gilbert, that was a lovely closer. See? I'm not stupid. I'm smart. Not like what people say. I'm smart. Not like what people say. I'm smart. A movie turning 50 in a couple of weeks, by the way. Really?

How about that? We're going to have to do a Godfather episode. Take us out with a little Roger Ramjet reprise. Where Roger Ramjet and his eagles fighting for our freedom. We fly with him through outer space not to join him, but to feed him. Roger and Jet, he's our man, hero of our nation. For more adventures

just make sure to stay tuned to this station. Beautiful. Good night, everybody. Good night. Banana monkeys go, coming up to bring you the banana split show. Making up a mess of fun, making up a mess of fun. Lots of fun for everyone. Tra-la-la, la-la-la-la, tra-la-la, la-la-la-la. Tra-la-la, la-la-la-la, tra la la, la la la la.

Four banana, three banana, two banana, one. All bananas playing in the bright warm sun. Flipping like a pancake, popping like a corn. Flingo, bingo, drink your eggs strong. Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la.