Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Bear Necessity

I dunno the release date yet but Warner Home Video is preparing DVD sets of the first seasons of The Huckleberry Hound Show from 1959 and The Yogi Bear Show from 1961. That is to say, one set of Huck, one set of Yogi. These are some of my all-time favorite cartoons, especially due to the superior vocal performances of Daws Butler, but also because the timing and gags are often quite wonderful. So I was delighted that they asked me to appear for an interview that will be part of a documentary for the Yogi set. Also appearing in supplementary material on one or both will be Earl Kress, Nancy Cartwright, Charlie Adler, Corey Burton and Tom Kenny, plus some other folks. That's what I did today: Drove through pouring rain to be videotaped for this project.

(Confidential to Fred Hembeck: Tom "Spongebob Squarepants" Kenny told me to tell the world that your review of the songs he co-authored for the Spongebob movie and/or CD — the review is somewhere on this archived page — was uncanny in that you nailed all the "in" references. Nice job, Hembeck.)

I have another public appeal to animation buffs here. As you might just recall, The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Yogi Bear Show once featured little segments (they call them "interstitials") of Huck and Yogi and everyone before, between and after the cartoons. They were discarded later when the cartoons were repackaged a dozen different ways for syndication...but when they were part of these half-hour shows, these short segments were part of the experience.

Warner Home Video would like to include as many of these bridges as possible on their forthcoming DVD sets of those programs. Problem: They can't find all the interstitials. Even as I blog, grown men are combing through warehouses for this footage which hasn't been broadcast in umpteen years. They've found a number of them...and in a few cases, they've located the audio but not the video of one, or the video but not the audio. Anyway, this is a real longshot but does anyone reading this have any old 16mm prints or VHS tapes of whole episodes of The Yogi Bear Show with the interstititials? They've located all or most from ol' Huck's show but some of the Yogi spots are missing in whole or part. Even if you just have a bad quality videotape, the audio may be usable to dub over footage that is lacking a soundtrack. If you have anything of this sort, please drop me a line and I'll forward it on to the appropriate folks...but hurry. There isn't much time before the DVDs have to be finalized. Thanks — and if you're on an animation discussion board, please copy this paragraph and the one before and post it, or just direct people to this item.

• Posted at 9:15 PM · LINK

Amazing Bagdasarian Fact

Came home from something I'll describe in the next posting to find no less than fourteen messages reminding me (or asking me if I knew) that Ross Bagdasarian (aka David Seville) had a nice role in Mr. Hitchcock's esteemed Rear Window — playing a songwriter, no less. Yes, indeed.

• Posted at 8:19 PM · LINK

Alvin's Dad

A couple of folks wrote to ask if I was kidding when I said that "David Seville" created Alvin and the Chipmunks. One wrote, "He was a cartoon character, wasn't it?" Well, yes, he was...but he was the alter ego of Ross Bagdasarian, the songwriter-singer responsible for the Chipmunks records. Even before Alvin squeaked into existence, Bagdasarian had hits (like "Witch Doctor") under the Seville name. He used the two monikers rather interchangeably — I have an autographed Chipmunks album he signed as D.S. — and that's how I was using them. So, no, I wasn't making a joke...and yes, he was also Ross Bagdasarian...and, hey, isn't it about time for a CD of his non-Chipmunk recordings?

• Posted at 2:29 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

David Brooks, who does a column for the New York Times, is the Conservative that Liberals most often cite when they want to prove they're fair-minded enough to not write off everything any Conservative says, just because he's across the aisle. I'm not sure who the Liberal is that Conservatives would cite as fair-minded. Some, of course, would argue it's an oxymoron.

Brooks, of course, occasionally inflames The Left with things he writes but they seem to be cheering this column, which is about the nasty (and lucrative) ways The Right has co-mingled lobbying and governing. Worth a read.

• Posted at 12:54 PM · LINK

Just in Time

Warner Home Video has finally issued a DVD of the 1960 movie version of Bells Are Ringing, starring Judy Holliday and Dean Martin, complete with a glorious hunk of bonus material. There's a short "making of..." documentary, there are cut numbers and alternate takes...and if you have any fondness for this film adaptation of a hit Broadway show, you'll want to order it, which you can do from Amazon by clicking here. I always found the film quite entertaining, if only because it captured the wonderful performance of Ms. Holliday. I never got to see her on stage but there was something so delightful about her screen appearances that I'm sure I missed out on something.

I have two special interests in this movie. One is purely nostalgic: In 1960, I was eight years old and my mother took me on a two-week trip to New York, Hartford and Boston — the first two towns were because I had relatives to meet. In Manhattan, we stayed at the Taft Hotel, went to the Statue of Liberty, attended a live broadcast of the game show, Concentration...and took in two movies. One, which bored me silly, was The Nun's Story. I think my mother didn't like it either, and we walked out on it. The other, which I enjoyed, was Bells Are Ringing, which we saw at the Radio City Music Hall. I liked the film and I liked the fact that there were scenes of walking around New York City, and then when the movie ended, we went out and walked around New York City. When you're eight, as I was, that kind of thing can impress you.

I'm also, as you can see from this site, fascinated by the contribution of great voiceover actors, and Bells Are Ringing has fine, uncredited performances by June Foray, Paul Frees and Shepard Menken. You all know June and Paul from their many appearances, most notably in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, but the late Mr. Menken was equally ubiquitous. (He did almost all the extra voices on The Alvin Show, including the great inventor, Clyde Crashcup.) In Bells Are Ringing, Shep was the announcer in the opening fake commercial, and he's heard in a few other spots. Paul and June provided most of the voices that are heard in phone calls, of which there are many in the film. In the "Drop That Name" musical number, there's one point where two on-camera actors are dubbed by Paul and one actress is dubbed by June. This may not matter to you but when you're fifty-three, as I am, that kind of thing can impress you.

• Posted at 9:38 AM · LINK

Rich and Happy

At least, we hope Stephen Sondheim is both on this, his 75th birthday. He should be. I mean, he's only our greatest living Broadway composer, and a lot of people think he's the best ever. He probably won't read this but maybe, if we all think good thoughts in his direction, he'll sense them, enjoy the day...and then go back to writing his next show. We can't get enough out of this man.

• Posted at 12:05 AM · LINK