Happy 100th Birthday, Friz Freleng

On August 21, 1906, Isadore Freleng was born. In an era when the greats of animation are slowly slipping into obscurity, the name and works of Friz Freleng endure. As one of the very few men whose tenure with Warner Bros. Animation spanned from the beginning to the end of the studio (except for a brief respite at M-G-M), Freleng adapted to the style of the day, whether it was dancing and singing rubber-hose characters designed to be as much like Mickey Mouse as the law allowed, or the sophisticated character comedy of later years. Of course, after WB closed down, Freleng formed his own studio and his own stable of characters, and even kept ties to the WB characters, producing a brace of "gee-we-should-never-have-closed-the-studio" theatricals in the mid-1960's, and then producing works for a revival of the characters in the 1980's. Freleng remained the studio's elder statesman well into the 1990's, when ill health eventually curtailed his activities, until his death attributed to natural causes on May 26, 1995.

We join the blogoverse in celebrating the man in his works, and our contribution is an in-depth look at what Freleng termed one of the most "dangerous" cartoons he ever made.




Released in the Looney Tunes series on April 30, 1949, it is important to first put this cartoon in proper historical perspective. Across the hall, Chuck Jones had been plotting the first Road Runner cartoon, "Fast and Furry-ous" concurrent with the production of this picture. The reason Freleng termed this picture "dangerous" (in an interview with Greg Ford) was that the cartoon essentially had one gag: Yosemite Sam wants to see a high diving act, so instead of the advertised talent, he shoves his sixguns at Bugs Bunny and tries to make him go off the deep end. However there is some turnabout and Sam winds up taking the dive. This is much like the structure of the Road Runner pictures: you know the Road Runner's never going to get caught and the Coyote is going to be somehow impaled, immolated, or destroyed in some fashion. However, in Freleng's picture, Bugs is a much more active participant in Sam's dives; things just happen to the Coyote because they do.

It does take Freleng some footage to get to the meat of the situation: a traveling carnival, with Bugs as carny barker, advertising Fearless Freep, the high diving sensation. Yosemite Sam takes more tickets than he needs (paying in cash, unbelievably) and takes a seat inside. The background painting of Paul Julian deserves mention for always appropriately setting the scene.






Through some quirk, Fearless Freep is delayed getting into town and so Bugs must reluctantly announce the cancellation, which ires Sam. He aims to see some high diving, so it's up to the platform for Bugs.








Bugs craftily pivots the diving board and feigns a dive, having changed into turn-of-the-century swimwear. But it's Sam who's off the deep end has he makes his first descent, with Bugs taking a seat in the audience to watch the action.











Bugs' trickery is now aided by liberal application of our old friend, Cartoon Physics, in the two gags that follow. First, Bugs manages to catapult Sam off the platform end of the diving board, but Bugs can't let poor old Sam dive into an empty tank. He throws down a bucket of water, which manages to pass Sam on the way down and settle into the tub. In spite of Bugs' best efforts to provide a safe landing, Sam misses the mark...







Then Bugs, hanging upside down on the underside of the diving board, manages to successfully convince Sam that he's actually upside down, and he takes the plunge once more...







From this point in the picture, now that Freleng has established the basic premise - that Bugs is never going to take the dive - he can be a little faster and wilder with the gags. There's the "I dare you to step over this line" bit, which I believe was taken from Bob Clampett's "Buckaroo Bugs", an "Open The Door, Richard" bit, and a fake "they went thataway" bit with Bugs in Indian dress.









Eventually, all Freleng needs to do from this point on is show that whatever Bugs does, Sam will dive and ascend the ladder once more for more medicine. This gag shows Freleng's sense of timing, his major asset as an animation director, as Freleng repeats the gag faster each time (with the same musical cues) until there's a delay in Sam's fall...






...because Bugs is now tied to the diving board, with Sam sawing it off. But with Cartoon Physics dictating the order of the universe here, Sam's entire platform falls. Bugs ends the cartoon with the classic line, "I know dat dis defies the law of gravity...but, I never studied law!" That's All, Folks!




All of Freleng's animators (including swing animator Pete Burness, a recent addition to the crew) rise to the occasion here and submit great action scenes. This is rightly one of Freleng's greatest moments in the Sam-Bugs battles, with Sam being a relatively recent discovery (having first appeared in 1944's "Hare Trigger"). More were to come (cartoons like "Mutiny On The Bunny", "Big House Bunny", "Sahara Hare" and "Bunker Hill Bunny"), but this boiled everything down to essentials.

Go to the "Hell On Frisco Bay" blog for more links to Friz fans on this, his 100th birthday.

7116: Greetings From Section 309!

I wasn't able to more instantly post the update to the ever-increasing string of Mets games without a no-hitter today, because I had the pleasure of actually watching the Mets game in person today at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, a very nice ball park, but a bitch to get out of the parking lot of.

It makes me more anxious to experience the Mets' new ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2009 and replace the soon-to-be-demolished Shea Stadium. I like the more angular, more square-ish design of these new stadiums, with crazy angles in the outfields that long balls can just carom around in like pinballs, and think the old round-style, symmetrical ball parks are so dull and passe. Citizens Bank Park, which I have never attended before, has very nice sight lines throughout, a neat center-field concourse named for the late Richie Ashburn, a beloved Phillies figure even though he spent time with the Mets early on, and a restaurant honoring sportscaster Harry Kalas. Even though the Phillies aren't my team (especially in the last week, where they took three of four from the Mets), I can appreciate the contributions of the great Phils over the years including Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski. It was great to soak in their history for a day, but I couldn't show up wearing anything but a Mets shirt - and thankfully, I had lots of company.

Tomorrow, it's back to watching the game on TV...

It's Back!

We figure you've waited long enough to see the Public Service Buses on this site again.

We've also updated the Music page to reflect the current performance schedule. Parades, concerts, plays, I got em coming out of my ears (or my horn) over the next couple of months.

Something To Think About While You're Going Through Airport Security

From Mark Evanier:

You can't bring a bottle of Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water onto an airplane in this country. But you can bring a Dell Laptop with a battery that can explode and burst into flame. Fill in your own snide remark.

Think Before You Send!

The incredible shrinking Mark Evanier on e-mail hoaxes. This past year, I got one from a well-meaning teacher friend that she was sending around our entire school system. I had to politely rebuke her and tell everyone that it was a scam.

Mark recommends the use of snopes.com to see if that e-mail you received about cell phone numbers being released to telemarketers is truly legit (which in most cases, it isn't). That site's kept me from sending a lot of get well cards to alleged "kids with incurable diseases" as well.

If You're Not Going To See "West Side Story" At The Stafford Performing Arts Center Tonight At 7:30 P.M., May I Recommend...

The Newark Bears "Britney Spears Baby Safety Night."

I'm not making this up.

See blog item below for more info on WSS. We opened last night and boy howdy is this a fine production.

On August 21, It's All About Friz

We have been reminded by this blog that August 21 will be the centennial of the birth of esteemed Warner Bros. cartoon director Friz Freleng (1906-1995). (Some references actually cite 1905 as being his birth year, but I've long stuck by the 1906 date, particularly in light of a fall 1964 profile that gave his age at the time as 58.)

We will indeed be participating in the blogathon on that date. I haven't decided on what aspect of Friz Freleng's career we'll touch on - something he did at his own studio, or one of his Warner Bros. classics, or perhaps one of the obscure cartoons he did on a brief flirtation at MGM in 1938.

Nothing's Sacred... Not Even Monopoly!

First they decided to give the board a makeover by redoing all the place names so it isn't so Atlantic City, now Hasbro wants to do away with paper money.

Back On The "West Side"

A year and a half ago, I worked with the Our Gang Players on a little show called "The Music Man", and swore up and down that if I ever had the chance to work with this company again, I would.

I had done "West Side Story" almost a decade ago to the day for a group called Dream Street Productions, and swore up and down that if I ever had the chance to play WSS again, I would.

The conclusion: Our Gang is doing "West Side Story". So, I'm the "old man" of a pit of mostly college age players under the direction of the remarkably talented Steve Strouse, with whom I worked a couple of winters ago on "The Music Man". And we have a terrific cast of dancers and actors and singers who will wow you with their talent and tightly choreographed street fighting.

"West Side Story", in all its Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim glory, will play August 3, 4, 5 and 6 at the Ocean First Theatre at the Stafford Township Arts Center.

Now THAT'S Hot!

Get ready... something approaching intellgience has emerged from the mouth of Paris Hilton. She recently was interviewed about her reality show, "The Simple Life", and told the interviewer at one point, "All reality shows are fake, basically."

Thank you.

"Go Get 'Em, Billy!"

Nice to hear Bobby Darin's swingtime version of "I'm Sitting On Top of The World" - complete with Mr. Darin's acknowledgement of arranger/conductor Billy May - in promos for Fox's coverage of the baseball All Star Game, which is guaranteed to be Soaking With Mets this year! Go get em, Carlos, Paul, Jose, etc.!

I Get One Of My Gifts from Comcast...

A while back (maybe a year and a half ago) I asked a couple of pretty coy questions about channels that Comcast could add to its cable, including "What do you do when you like to go places?" And the answer to that is Channel 188... The Travel Channel, now on our Toms River system.

Perhaps I'll be watching just the one show I'm interested in on that channel (the one that starts with "World" and ends in "Tour" and has a whole lot of "Poker" in the middle), but at least it's another viewing option.

Probably less viewed will be some other channels being added... Oxygen, CSPAN-2 and TNT HD. Hey, it's more choices... and hopefully more will be added so I can finally justify my $141 cable bill....

Lennie Weinrib 1935-2006

Actor/director/writer Lennie Weinrib, an ubiquituous presence in cartoons of the 1970's (including many DePatie-Freleng productions) and a featured actor on several Krofft television shows, has died at a hospital near his home in Chile at the age of 71. Mark Evanier has more details and stories about this remarkable performer on his blog.

My Computer Nightmares Are Over!

No, I didn't toss them all out the window, but, eerily parallelling my recent weight loss (about 19 lbs. and counting), I have reduced the number of computers in my house by one - but not in the way I wanted to do it. And along the way, I had to wrestle with a nasty adware virus on my primary machine.

Since Nancy passed away, I have been doing the bulk of my computer work on her machine, which is conveniently located off the living room. A few days ago I noticed the computer powering down on its own quite often. I purchased a new mouse, thinking that was the culprit. However, last night, while I was away from the machine, something else happened. I think the power supply or the motherboard might have said "no mas" in its own electronic way and turned what I had been working to into toast. (Between problems that Robair and I have both had with this brand, it's obvious that the "e" stands for EVIL.) Therefore, it was time to bring the computer I had been using as my primary computer upstairs.

But first, I had to rid it of a persistent adware virus I picked up from somewhere. God knows where I picked it up, but my computer was insisting that I had a bunch of spyware on this machine and I needed to get this wonderful program called Spyware Sheriff that would get rid of my woes once and for all. I knew something was up when my computer would not let me change my start page from an obvious ad for Spyware Sheriff, and the fake security alerts which were popping up. Sure enough, through some research I had to do on my notebook (which thankfully is in tip-top shape), I confirmed what I had suspected: not only is Spyware Sheriff no good at removing spyware from your computer, but it IS spyware in and of itself!

Through a variety of products including the excellent Spyware Doctor and the wonderful free Bazooka utility from kephyr.com, all traces of Spyware Sheriff were removed. Spyware Doctor additionally found bits and pieces of many other spyware-adware "products" picked up in my surfing.

Nancy's old computer is in bits and pieces in the living room, with most of the surviving pieces destined for Robair's use with my old notebook (the one I did the $38 patch on a while back). But now I feel more at home using my own computer on a regular basis once again.

Red Sox Radio Station To Bastardize History

Per this page regarding the 1986 World Series (which, of course, was won by the New York Mets),

The 10th inning of Game 6 will forever be remembered as a low point in Boston sports history. But what if you could re-write history? WEEI wants to know what "Your Dream Ending to '86" would be.

Now you all remember game 6, right? Bottom of the 10th at Shea, score tied 5-5. Red Sox have a 3-2 series lead. With two outs, the Red Sox have blown a 5-3 lead thanks to Gary Carter and Kevin Mitchell. Now Ray Knight is on second, and Mookie Wilson at the plate. Wilson hits a slow dribbler to first base, which (in the immortal words of the late Bob Murphy) GETS BY BUCKNER! Knight scores from second and the Mets win, 6-5, evening the series 3-3.

Now, WEEI, in their own twisted way, wants to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest seasons that the Mets have ever had and give the Boston fans one chance to get their jollies as if they had won the Series that year. WHICH THEY DIDN'T. The station will select a winning entry from those e-mailed to the station and will re-create the final inning of the broadcast as if the ball had not gone by Buckner's legs.

Actually, there's a lot more to it than that.... the winner would have to craft a complete eleventh inning with Red Sox scoring and Mets failing to score to create a Sox win in the inning. So someone is going to have to do a lot of work to make the Sox win, if you are using Buckner's error as a launch pad.

So, in that spirit, we present the play to you, as it really happened. Vin Scully with the call. (But here's Murphy's call if you like that one instead.)

And screw you, WEEI, and your attempts at revisionist history.

Website Update

At the urging of one of our longtime readers, we've reestablished our archives for this blog, now going all the way back to 2001. That was about three or four service providers ago.

Bear in mind that because of the way Blogger archives, some site areas referenced may be unavailable, some links may be out of date, and some other material may now be all together wrong. Tread with caution!

Update: We have fixed some of the broken images.

More Brookers

Wanted to share two more incredible YouTube videos from the talented Brooke Brodack (see below).

The first one, "The Invention of Mr. Buckett" (sic) is Brooke's tribute to the 80's-90's game Mr. Bucket, by Milton Bradley. Brooke makes a number of attempts to sink a ball in the bucket, then finally gives up.




And in "Everything Changes", we see a little of the real Brooke as she discusses her bright future, peppered with clips from some of her earlier work.

A Very Special Edition Of YouTube

You may have heard the news last week that one of the more popular contributors of original content for YouTube, Brooke Brodack, has been signed by Carson Daly to a talent and development deal.

Brookers' videos have been noted for their professionalism, with multiple camera cuts and very good use of archival clips and music. Brookers herself is an amazingly good performer. Skimming through her oeuvre, I'm most struck by this video, which combines a fake commercial for Herbal Essences and a audition tape for "America's Next Top Model", which is inexplicably played back at twice regular speed and is frequently interrupted by her dog. Is this intentional? With Brookers, who at the age of 20 already has the skill of a filmmaker twice her age, you can never tell....

Welcome To Summer Vacation

Monday, June 19. In a less than perfect world, I would be in school today. However, due to the total lack of snow days this year, we got out one day early. (The administration has since wised up and has now built no snow days into future calendars.)

I have a busy summer planned. Lots to do around this house, and a few other commitments. We'll keep you posted on some of the more interesting things that I've done this summer.

Equal Time For NBC

And now, a flock of peacocks. The original NBC Peacock from the late 50's lives somewhere on Kris Trexler's website, but here are two others from YouTube.

This one is called the "Laramie Peacock" because the first program it was ever used on was the NBC western "Laramie". The music is a little different here, I believe it was used until 1968.


How about this oddity: a clip of the NBC peacock, with the later (1968?) music, and a custom voiceover by none other than the late Bill Wendell that the following SPORTS program is in Living Color?

People Magazine Names Taylor Hicks Hottest Bachelor Of 2006

Hey, I've got pretty much the same hair as him, girls.

Psychedelic, man!

And this clip is from the 1950's. It was the old CBS TV end of show ID that ran at the end of most of their shows in the mid-late 1950's. Sometimes GSN will screw up and you can see it at the end of "What's My Line" just before 4 a.m. That's probably where this clip came from, in fact.

7057: Oh, So Close

Two lousy freaking hits to deep center field were all that kept rookie pitcher Alay Soler, in just his fourth major league start, from becoming the first ever Mets pitcher to record a no-hitter and erase 45 years of frustration for fans of the Blue and Orange (and sometimes Black).

The last time I felt this good about a Mets season was exactly twenty years ago. This year the annual Old Timers Day (which I think is now called something more PC) will honor those World Series winners of 20 years ago and gather as many of them that they can (those that aren't in prison, anyway). And, refreshingly, this surge by the Mets may spell an end to the Braves' dominance of the division.

Do Some Research, WENN

There was a riotous post from the World Entertainment News Network (WENN), London-based provider of news and innuendo to IMDb. It was in response to the announcement that Warner Home Video would be bringing forth the first authorized DVD release of Popeye cartoons.

WENN decided to challenge the statement that there were 220 Popeye cartoons made for TV between 1960 and 1962. Guess what, Wenn? This is correct and is an irrefutable fact.

Al Brodax and King Features contracted with Paramount Cartoon Studios (then being run by Seymour Kneitel) for an impossible 370 cartoons to be released to television, including 220 Popeyes and 50 each of Krazy Kat, Beetle Bailey, and Snuffy Smith.

The cartoons were jobbed out to several studios around the world. There were three different production units in Los Angeles alone, headed by producers Jack Kinney, Gerry Ray and Larry Harmon, all doing Popeyes (Kinney's first Popeye, "Barbecue For Two", just may be the worst cartoon ever made). Gene Deitch's studio in Prague did some Popeyes and farmed others out to Halas and Batchelor in Great Britain. Deitch also did all but two Krazy Kats. H&B also did about half of the Beetle Bailey series.

For their part, Paramount did the balance of the Popeyes and Beetle Baileys, the two Krazy Kats that Deitch did not do ("Mouse Blanche" and "Keeping Up With Krazy") and all the Snuffy Smith cartoons - all the while maintaining a theatrical release schedule. And every single one of those cartoons was directed by Seymour Kneitel.

The whole project was finished by 1963.

The next year, Seymour Kneitel dropped dead of a heart attack.

Coincidence?