Gritty, Grimey, Greasy Goo

Who else but the writers of Rocky and Bullwinkle would make fun of the Cold War, over-budget movies and TV commercials at the same time?

Boris Badenov comes up with a plan to beam three hours of Pottsylvanian TV commercials to unsuspecting Americans—who will eventually pay millions to get them off the air (once they eventually notice they’re not the Late Movie, Boris adds). He turns on the set.

We’re treated to a duet of Paul Frees and Bill Scott singing these lyrics to the old Pepsi-nickle jingle of Austen Croom-Johnson and Alan Kent...



Itchy dandruff, falling hair,
A dried-up scalp and a dome that’s bare,
Gritty, grimey, greasy goo,
That’s what’s in our new shampoo!

And the gag gets topped by a shot of Cleopatra on the tiger-skin rug, giving her endorsement.



The cartoon series was around the time of Liz Taylor shooting “Cleopatra,” with endless cost over-runs and production problems. Whether a trade ad for the movie showed Taylor in costume on a tiger-skin rug, I don’t know, but judging by the Jay Ward writers’ desire to puncture the excesses of show biz, I wouldn’t be surprised. (An alternate theory is suggested in the comments. My thanks to Keith Scott for fixing the singing voice IDs).

A Subliminal Moose

Jay Ward’s writers didn’t waste time.

‘Rocky and Bullwinkle,’ ‘Dudley Do-Right,’ ‘George of the Jungle’ and ‘Super Chicken’ may have been the funniest cartoons on TV. For one thing, they didn’t fill seven minutes like a theatrical cartoon or what Hanna-Barbera was putting out. The cartoons were half the length. That allowed Ward’s great writers to come up with joke after joke after joke, one quickly after the other, with the cartoon ending before the audience got worn out.

We don’t write much here about the studio’s cartoons because Keith Scott said it all in his book The Moose That Roared. Anyone who has ever laughed at a Jay Ward cartoon should own the book. Ward’s publicity team put together stunts that may have been crazier than anything in the cartoons. And they also made sure the press was told someone was available to be interviewed. Here’s Bill Scott talking with a syndicated columnist in 1960. The theme of “the network won’t publicise us” was not unusual in media interviews. And if you’re wondering about references to Marvin Miller and Louis Nye, Ward had several projects in development that never panned out. Super Chicken finally got on the air a number of years after Ward’s team came up with it; Nye was involved in the original version, if I recall.

This version of the column appeared in the Binghamton Press on August 20, 1960.

Rocky Is 'Subliminal' Cartoon
By CHARLES WITBECK
Special Press Writer
THE Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw TV cartoons are big hits and receive ample publicity. Grownups know about them and many watch the series with their kids. That's fine, but there also happens to be another expertly made cartoon series featuring a squirrel and a moose, called Rocky and His Friends, on the ABC network, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 p. m.
Rocky and His Friends is called a "subliminal" cartoon series by its producers Jay Ward and Bill Scott, because apparently nobody has ever heard of it, though Rocky has been on the air since last November. General Mills, the sponsors, do not seem to care about publicizing it end are apparently happy about all the kids who do watch the show, because the publicity budget hasn't increased.
But the sponsors did try something. Rocky and Friends was put on at a later time, 7:30 p. m., in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the squirrel walked off with a whopping 30 rating. By a simple deduction the producers feel that with a time change and a little publicity, Rocky might jump into the limelight. However, no changes are in sight.
As long as the sponsors are happy, Ward and Scott are in business and trust to kids' word of mouth to turn Rocky into a draw. Their main problem is just to get the cartoons out and they go about it in a strange but commendable way.
For instance, their animating plant, with 70 workers, is situated in Mexico City. The idea, of course, was to put out shows at a lower cost. The writers think up the stories in Hollywood and the animators do the drawing below the border.
The funny thing is that it is working, not perfectly, but working. Co-producer Scott says the plant is turning out an adequate product. "It's like the story of the talking dog," Scott explained. "The wonder is not what it says, but that it talks at all.

"When we began down there," Scott continued, "the artists were wonderfully polite. Of course, they could turn out this staggering amount. Because of lack of experience there were pitfalls. Retakes were needed, but this is slowing down and the politeness and friendliness are still on a high level."
Says Scott, a former writer for Mister Magoo, Gerald McBoing-Boing and Bugs Bunny: "If we had a brilliantly trained crew, it would still require a miracle to maintain the output we really need. But we don't hire only people we like. We've even turned down money."
Scott maintains most of the people in the cartoon industry like each other. He feels it's an industry in which the kidding is on a kind level. There are a lot of "kooks" in the business, but they have big hearts.
"First of all, the people in the cartoon industry are smart," said Scott. "Secondly, they're doing satisfying work and have a chance to compete. Another pleasant thing about it is there is nothing on film that we did not put there. In no other business do you have such absolute control."
With the success of Huckleberry Hound and other cartoons, Scott feels that the TV cartoon industry can only grow. He only wonders where the new talent is going to come from.
"It should come from the kids who draw funny jokes in school magazines," said Scott. "But I haven't met any for a long time. I think those boys have become shoe salesmen or have gotten into public relations. We need them."
Most of the staff members of Jay Ward Productions have put in time at UPA, Disney, or one of the movie cartoon outfits. Co-producer Jay Ward created the first TV cartoon series, Crusader Rabbit, director Pete Burness handled many Magoo shows for UPA, and director Bob Cannon won two Academy Awards plus those from Venice, Cannes and Edinburgh.
Probably the most familiar thing about the Rocky shows is the voices. The nervous voice of Edward Everett Horton cheerfully takes over at times. Hans Conreid, Marvin Miller from The Millionaire series, Don Knotts and Louis Nye from the Steve Allen Show can be heard. Besides these names, add the two most talented "voice men" in Hollywood, Daws Butler and Paul Frees.
"Butler and Frees have as much control of-their pipes as a jet pilot does with his intricate plane," says Scott. "They never stop learning. Both sit home with tape recorders and listen to voices on TV. The next day a perfect imitation is forthcoming."
This kind of talent does seem to be wasted at 5:30 p. m. But still, better a "subliminal" show than none at all.

Son of Beauty and The Beast

Some character designs from the Fractured Fairy Tale “Son of Beauty and the Beast.” The tall woman in the fourth drawing below looks a little related to Mr. Magoo.



And there’s nothing like a camera error. The cop’s mouth vanishes for two frames.

Jay Ward Backgrounds

Backgrounds in the Fractured Fairy Tales produced by Jay Ward hewed to the two-S principle: “stylised” and “sparce.” Sometimes, a coloured card sufficed in medium shots.

Here are some stylised backgrounds from “Son of Rumpelstiltskin.” You won’t find these in a Disney cartoon.



This cartoon was contracted to TV Spots, the studio owned by Shull Bonsall, who had grabbed ownership of “Crusader Rabbit” from Ward and Alex Anderson. Bob Ganon was the supervising producer and Bob Bemiller was the studio’s director, but I couldn’t tell you who was responsible for the backgrounds. TV Spots later spun off Creston Studios, responsible for the King Leonardo and Calvin and the Colonel series.

Day-Night Fight

How did the Jay Ward production crew fill seven seconds of screen time with just six drawings? Let Mr. Peabody provide the answer.

During the climax, if you want to call it that, of “The First Indian-Head Nickel,” engraver Talbot Heffelfinger fights a bear. The fight consists of three drawings of clouds, stars and fists, shots over and over again (two frames per drawing). They’re used over two background drawings, one depicting day, and the other night. The camera simply fades one background over the other, making day become night and night become day. Peabody and Sherman are on a separate cel that simply stays put.3 + 2 + 1 = 6 drawings.



By the way, “Improbable History” is putting it mildly. The Peabody cartoons are based on historical figures—but not this one. The Indian Head nickel was designed by James Earle Fraser and not by some guy named Heffelfinger. And it was done after the turn of the century, not 1869 like in the cartoon. We await a huge outcry on the internet about the lack of factuality just like that which greeted the Disney-P.L. Travers movie.

Crusader Rabbit

“Crusader Rabbit” wasn’t the first made-for-TV animated cartoon series but it was arguably the first popular one. Crusader appeared on stations across the U.S. through the 1950s. And Hanna-Barbera borrowed the Crusader cliff-hanger format when it came up with “Ruff and Reddy” in 1957; whether it was coincidental, we’ll let you decide.

The book every TV animation fan should own, Keith Scott’s The Moose That Roared, has a full chapter on Crusader. I don’t think you’ll read anything in this post that Keith didn’t research first-hand, but I needed an excuse to put up the Crusader trade ads you see below. So allow me to pass on some little notes about the show.

Keith’s book reveals that Jay Ward and Alex Anderson, living in the San Francisco Bay area at the time, took their idea for Crusader Rabbit to NBC. The network sent them to Jerry Fairbanks, who won two Oscars producing shorts for Paramount and had signed a television film production contract with NBC in January 1948. In the financing deal to get Crusader made, Fairbanks ended up owning the negatives to the cartoons.

The trades started taking notice. This story is from January 25, 1949 and appears similar to a Daily Variety blurb from the 14th.

New Cartoon Series Set By Fairbanks
West Coast Bureau, RADIO DAILY
Hollywood — Series of 130 open-end five minute films employing a newly-developed animation technique will be made available to stations and sponsors within a few months by Jerry Fairbanks Productions, it was announced yesterday.
The method eliminates many of the most costly features of theatrical animation, Fairbanks said, yet retains the illusion of movement. Closeups are featured, with backgrounds kept to a minimum.
Titled “Crusader Rabbit,” series will be animated by Television Arts Production, new Berkeley, Calif., firm headed by J. Troplong Ward, San Francisco radio producer, and Alexander Anderson, formerly with Terrytoons Films, will be completed at the Fairbanks studios here.

Things seem to have sat for a bit until Daily Variety reported on September 7th that production was about to begin.

Crusader didn’t make it on the air in 1949. Radio Daily reported on February 17, 1950:

New Cartoon Series Set By Fairbanks Making Another TV Series
Hollywood—Filming of 65 additional "Crusader Rabbit" video programs was scheduled yesterday at Jerry Fairbanks Productions following completion of the first group of 65 five-minute shows. The series, designed as a daily program for children. is being readied for early distribution.
Television Arts Productions of Berkeley is doing the animation and films are being completed at the Fairbanks studios where scoring, voice-dubbing, editing and narration are added.

The publication further announced on June 30th:

Film Cartoon Series To Be Sponsored On KNBH
West Coast Bureau of RADIO DAILY
Hollywood — "Crusader Rabbit," first series of cartoon programs filmed especially for television, will make its video debut July 15 under the sponsorship of Carnation Milk Company. Program will open on KNBH in Hollywood with additional bookings throughout the nation scheduled to follow sometime during the Autumn.
Starts August 15
Starting at three showings a week on KNBH, the program is set to be telecast five times weekly beginning August 15th. Jerry Fairbanks Productions has completed 130 releases of the series and has started work on a second weeks' supply. The children's show is being placed by the Erwin Wasey and Company advertising agency.

But there was a delay for some unknown reason. The show debuted at 6 p.m. on August 1, 1950. Now NBC Films was ready to sell Crusader (and other Fairbanks productions, including musicals and sitcoms) to its affiliates. Here’s part of a trade ad below.



Weekly Variety only had one review of the cartoon. The DuMont station in New York City, WABD, bought Crusader to air on its “Funny Bunny” programme starring Dick Noel in a full-sized rabbit costume, puppets and a record-playing pumpkin. In its April 21, 1954 edition, Variety liked the costumed rabbit but not the animated one. It decided: “Here, though, show planners made an unwise move in choosing material of that ‘to be continued’ variety. Small kids are wont to forget what the story line was yesterday, but they will note that the story seems incomplete today.”

There was a legal mess ahead for Crusader’s creators. Jay Ward and Alex Anderson’s company TAP sued Fairbanks, his company and NBC. The network had bought the cartoons from Fairbanks, then sold them back for $175,000 but Fairbanks defaulted on the payments. So NBC decided to sell the cartoons. TAP sued to stop it and demanded $500,000 in damages (Broadcasting, June 1, 1953). A company called Consolidated Television Sales agreed to make the payments for Fairbanks (Broadcasting, July 6, 1953). TAP responded by suing Fairbanks’ company, Consolidated and NBC for $400,000 (Broadcasting, Oct. 26, 1953). Things got more complicated when Shull Bonsall bought Consolidated (Variety, March 3, 1954), meaning he now owed the 195 Crusader cartoons which were still being sold across the U.S.

Blocks of old theatrical cartoons started making their way onto TV and they proved to be a gold mine for syndicators like Associated Artists Productions. No doubt seeing those dollars floating around, and the fact his original cartoons (now owned by Shull Bonsall) were still being shown, Jay Ward got the idea to revive the rabbit. Billboard reported on October 20, 1956:

Filming Starts on Crusader Rabbit Again
NEW YORK---Crusader Rabbit, the indestructible cartoon character that sneaked onto TV about four years ago and made something of a hit in syndication about two years ago, is now back in production. The group that originated the show has just set up Crusader Rabbit, Inc., to distribute the new series. They are said to be planning production of about 260 more five-minute episodes, of which six are said to be in the can already.
They are reported to have sold the new show to American Bakeries for about 15 markets, with the possibility of 20 more. They have also sold “Crusader” to the RKO Teleradio stations. WOR-TV here plans to use them on its 7-7:30 p.m. show, “Crusader Rabbit and Terrytoons,” which also uses the “Baker Bill Terrytoons” [sic] bought from CBS-TV Film Sales.
The new Crusaders are being produced in color at a cost said to be around $4,000 an episode.
Bagnall Pix
The original group of 190 films is still being distributed by George Bagnall Associates. Bagnall acquired distribution of the series about three years ago, when Shull Bonzall bought Consolidated TV Sales and turned its catalog over to him. Consolidated acquired it from Jerry Fairbanks, who had become associated with the production of the animated show after NBC turned it down.
“Crusader” was probably the first and is still one of the few animated programs produced specifically for TV.

Billboard of December 29, 1956 revealed the series had gone into full production, would debut in February, cartoons had been sold in 53 cities (American Bakeries sponsoring in 28 of them) and 46 items, including games and stuffed toys, were being merchandised.

That’s when Shull Bonsall decided to play hardball with Jay Ward.

Money talks. And Bonsall had more money than Ward. Money to spend on lawyers. Bonsall threatened to bleed Ward financially dry by tying up Crusader in court—unless he handed over the character rights for a nominal fee. Keith Scott’s book says the fee was only $50,000. Ward had no choice but to accept.

Billboard from September 9, 1957:

260 ‘Rabbit’ Cartoons Put Into Product’n
HOLLYWOOD—A new series of “Crusader Rabbit” cartoons are being put into production by Shull Bonsall and TV spots. Total of 260 of the episodes, each four minutes in length, will be turned out on 35 mm. color.
Bonsall bought all the rights to the series, including the characters, merchandising, and 195 films now in syndication, from Alex Anderson and Jay Ward’s Television Arts Productions last week.
Films will cost about $3,500 per episode, or $900,000 for 260 segments. They can be used separately, or be put together into 15 or 30-minute shows. Merchandising deals have been made with Dell Productions and others. First of the new films will be ready for showing the end of this month. No distribution has been set so far.

TV Spots was a company incorporated in 1951 by Bob Wickersham as an outgrowth of his own company. He had been a director at Columbia’s cartoon studio. Bonsall apparently bought it in 1954.

Here’s another Billboard story, this one from February 10, 1958.

Tv Spots Inc. to Produce New 'Crusader Rabbit' Series
A new Crusader Rabbit animated tv series, designed to appeal directly to adult as well as juvenile viewers, is being produced at the Hollywood studios of Tv Spots Inc. and will be offered to stations and sponsors by Regis Films. Both companies are owned by California industrialist Shull Bonsall, onetime associate of Jerry Fairbanks, from whom the rights to Crusader Rabbit were acquired. Tv Spots also is active in producing filmed commercials, such as the "Mr. Moo" spots for American Dairy Assn.
The new series is being filmed in 35 mm Eastman color film, from which 16 mm prints are available in both color and black and white, under the supervision of Mr. Bonsall as executive producer. Two units now are turning out 1,400 feet a week of completed animated cartoon film, said by Mr. Bonsall to be the highest output of any company in the country. By March 15 a third unit also will be on the job at Tv Spots, a total of 60 artists, scripters and animators turning out an unprecedented total of 2,400 feet of complete animation or six five –minute episodes, per week.
A total of 260 episodes will be produced, William H. Buman [sic], vice president and general manager of Tv Spots, said. Each story sequence will comprise 20 five -minute episodes, or they can be combined in units of four into five 15- minute programs if desired. Production cost for the full 260 –program series will total about $1 million, he estimated.

Bill Bauman quit a year later and was replaced by Bob Ganon, who was in charge of the “Calvin and the Colonel” cartoons in 1961 after Creston Studios spun off from TV Spots.

To the right, you see a trade ad from 1958 selling Crusader. No, that’s not Shull Bonsall on the phone. But Lucille Bliss, the original voice of the rabbit, didn’t mince words about him years later when she related how she refused his offer to voice the character after Ward and Anderson were knocked out of the picture. She, more or less, accused him of maliciously trying to ruin her career.

Competition became pretty fierce for TV cartoon syndicators. Crusader was up against A.A.P. and its hugely popular old Warner Bros. and Popeye theatricals. Felix the Cat was brought out of retirement. UPA decided to get into the TV animation business with Dick Tracy and a watered-down version of Mr. Magoo. Hanna-Barbera eventually produced cartoons (Wally Gator, Lippy the Lion, Touche Turtle) that weren’t part of a sponsored half-hour. Ken Snyder came out with the educational “Funny Company.” Al Brodax had sub-contractors churn out new Popeyes and several other series. Crusader changed hands. Below you see a 1967 trade ad from Wolper Television Sales offering the old TV Spots cartoons. They moved into the hands of Metromedia in 1969, and were still being offered to stations five years later.



Crusader appeared in Japan in the mid ‘60s and Australia and Germany (on an Armed Forces TV station) in the early ‘70s. But by 1975, the cartoon was being talked about in nostalgic terms in newspaper columns looking back at kids shows of a whopping 20 years earlier (which, somehow, doesn’t seem as ridiculous as “‘90s kids” being nostalgic for the past 20 years later).

Meanwhile, back in 1957, Bonsall made one mistake. His deal was for the Crusader Rabbit show alone; he let Anderson and Ward keep all their undeveloped properties that TAP had hoped to put on the air some day. One involved a dopey moose and a flying squirrel. They went farther than Crusader Rabbit ever did.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the first Crusader Rabbit cartoon.

Fractured, Not Tangled

Random character designs from the Fractured Fairy Tale “Rapunzel.” The witch is lots of fun and I like the orange inks in Rapunzel’s hair.



I like how the witch escapes from the tower on her broom. A drawing with a new word is held for three frames.



The cartoon was animated at Ward’s own studio (credit to Keith Scott’s book The Moose That Roared).

The Moose Who Fell to Earth

Bullwinkle comes in for a crash landing before the closing credits of “Rocky and His Friends.” Everyone says how lousy the Jay Ward animation is but I really like these drawings.



Judging by Keith Scott’s book The Moose That Roared, the original opening and closing animation was done by freelancers in Hollywood, meaning Ward hired veteran theatrical animators who knew what they were doing. Bullwinkle has long, slender fingers that whoever animated this used to his advantage.



Even Rocky twiddles his fingers.



Mind you, Rocky really didn’t need interesting poses or even good animation. The quickly-paced comedy and top voice acting carried the cartoons. That’s why they’re loved today. And the Ward studio’s political satire could be used today, too.

Beast of Rectangles

Here’s a little bit of inventive limited animation from the Fractured Fairy Tale “Beauty and the Beast.”

The Beast (who sounds like a cross between Joe Besser and Blabber of Snooper and Blabber fame) is going door-to-door to get a beauty to kiss him. One potential amorata slams a door on his foot.



The Beast turns into three different odd shapes that are alternated as a pain take, two frames per drawing.



Keith Scott’s invaluable history of the Ward studio, The Moose That Roared, says this cartoon was made in Ward’s own studio. I don’t know who was animating for him then; Bill Littlejohn and Ben Washam both did work for him. (Note: See the comment section for the animator).