Request Page Archive Two

This is the second page of the Toon Tracker Request Archives. On this page are answers to requests received from April 9, 1997 through April 13, 1997

April 13, 1997
From: John M.
I'm looking for Hercules/Beany and Cecil/and Astroboy
cartoons-any info on obtaining videotapes would be
great.Thanks-John

Beany and Cecil, originally released on video by RCA/Columbia and later by Goodtimes/Kid Klassics, is no longer available. You may be able to find old copies for rent at video stores, or discounted in bargain bins at department stores like Wal-Mart or K-Mart.

The Mighty Hercules, produced by Joe Oriolo in 1963 for Trans-Lux, is available on video from Family Home Entertainment and is listed for sale in the current copy of The Whole Toon Catalog from Facets Multimedia. They have 3 volumes listed in their current catalog. They have a toll-free phone number, 1-800-331-6197, and will send out free catalogs.

Astroboy fares better than Hercules in The Whole Toon Catalog. There are 17 volumes listed, plus a special lost episode and two laser disc collections. Again, their toll-free number is 1-800-331-6197.

April 13, 1997
From: Glagola@Mindspring.com
Enjoyable - I'd forgotten how many of those cartoons I had watched as a kid
(and probably still would if time permitted!). I can rememeber trying to
get to the five minute slot to watch the Clutch Cargo cartoon every day.
I just came here to find out about Space Angel, but stayed to browse
the memories. I didn't remember the limited animation - I'd like to see it
now, just because.

Now a toon question - What was the name of the turtle that kept going
to Mr. Wizard? I associate it in my mind with Tennessee Tuxedo (which I
haven't checked out yet). The hapless turtle kept wanting to be some
occupation, which Mr. Wizard would obligingly turn him into. After
learning about the occupation, the turtle would get into trouble, shout
"Help me, Mr. Wizard! Help me!", and the wizard would chant in his German
accent "Drizzle-Drazzle Drizzle-Drone, Time for this vun to come home".
The turtle would return to the wizard's cottage, be told that being a ____
was not as easy as it looked, and we'd all be smarter.
Thanks for reading my ramblings - it's been enjoyble to reminisce.
Ed Glagola

Mild-mannered Tooter Turtle, voiced by Allen Swift, acted out his fantasies whenever he wished, through the sorcery of Mr. Wizard the Lizard of the Great Forest (voiced by Frank Milano). He invariably wound up in trouble, botching jobs and invoking the powers of Mr. Wizard to get him home.

Originally part of NBC-TV's 1960-1963 King Leonardo And His Short Subjects (later renamed The King And Odie in syndication.), the Tooter Turtle cartoons were repeated from 1963-1966 on CBS-TV as part of Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. Recently the cartoons have been part of several packages barter syndicated for General Mills by D-F-S Program Exchange.

Update - Toon Tracker now has a page devoted to The King and Odie, Tennessee Tuxedo and all the other Total TV/Leonardo cartoons Check out Toon Tracker's TOTAL TV PAGE.

April 13, 1997
From: uscian@darwin.upr.clu.edu
It was very nostalgic to see all of the old cartoons. I
especially liked Clutch Cargo because the title characetr
flew one of my favorite airplanes, the 1929 Bellanca c-27A
Skybus. Only about 20 or so of these planes were actually
ever made and the fact that Clutch Cargo flew this plane is
testimony that the person who made the cartoon sure knew his
planes. I would like to buy some videos of Clutch Cargo
cartoons. Does anyone know where I might get the videos. I
did try ordering two volumes of Clutch Cargo through a local
video store here in Puerto Rico soon found out that these
were no longer available. Also, I'd like to get some old
Diver Dan episodes. Any help on this would be much
appreciated. Thanks and great line!

There are two volumes of Clutch Cargo, the vintage animation with the living lips, available. Each tape contains a complete adventure and several serialized episodes. They are 30 minutes each and sell for $14.98. They can be ordered from the manufacturer, Streamline Pictures over the internet. Streamline also has Colonel Bleep, Space Angel and lots of anime available.

I have no idea if there are episodes of Diver Dan currently available. A company called TV Lost & Found put out several videos compiling old Chicago Television clips a few years back, and Diver Dan was one of the featured segments. I did see copies for sale at a toy collectors show in the Chicago area a few years ago, but I don't think it is available any more.

UPDATE - Dan McCormick e-mailed the following to me on August 1, 1997:

Hi again, Ron!

Movies Unlimited
3015 Darnell Rd.
Philadelphia, PA 19154-3295
1-800-4MOVIES

Thanks Dan. This is the same tape that I encoded the Diver Dan theme from. TV Lost and Found put out this tape and a companion tape, Chicago TV2. I'm glad to know that it's still available. Thanks again, Dan.

Hey, don't forget to check out Dan's GREAT Hoppity Hooper Homepage. It's full of lots of neat information and goodies pertaining to Hoppity, and to other Jay Ward shows!

Date: April 11, 1997 >From: bbrother@iconn.net
WoW..can you really help????
I used to watch this cartoon on the Globetrotters. Each week they'd face
another impossible opponent, and would only start to win when a song
began to play. I bought the album, 20+ years ago and have long since
gotten rid of it....where oh where do I find those songs again!!!??!
I remember them so well, and could probably sing along now, I miss
them!! Oh help me Obiwan Kenobi, you're my only hope!
Ira Goldwyn

Well, a good place to start would be Goldmine Magazine, the collectors record and compact disc marketplace. Krause Publications, the fine people who put out the magazine, have a neat web site that's worth checking out. Good luck in your search.

As for the Globetrotters cartoon, it first arrived on CBS-TV on September 12, 1970, and ran through May 20, 1973. Produced by Hanna-Barbera, it featured the voice of Scatman Crothers as Meadowlark Lemon, Richard Elkins as Gip, Eddie Anderson as Bobbie Joe Mason, Stu Gilliam as Curly Neal, John Williams as Geese Ausbie, Robert DoQui as Pablo and Nancy Wible as Granny.

Based on Abe Saperstein's team of highly skilled exhibition basketball players, The Harlem Globetrotters cartoon featured their comic mis-adventures on and off the court while on tour.The Globetrotters were always on the side of the underdog, helping right wrongs and outwitting countless crooks. The cartoon's climax was always featured as part of the weekly basketball game, set to a catchy pop music tune. They had a mascot, Dribbles, a humorous ball-handling pooch wearing basketball shoes. Granny, a white-haired, young-at-heart senior citizen drove their red, white, and blue team bus and was their head cheerleader. The original Globetrotter cartoons were rerun on NBC-TV beginning on February 4, 1978 as part of the two hour Go Go Globetrotters.

The success of the reruns persuaded NBC-TV to comission a new Globetrotters series from Hanna-Barbera. The Super Globetrotters appeared on September 22, 1979 and featured a new cast of basketball-superheroes who fought crime and corruption around the world. Summoned into action by an orbiting satellite, the Crime Globe (voiced by Frank Welker), the Super Globetrotters assumed their alter-egos in lockers conjured up by an amulet worn by Nate Branch (voiced by Scatman Crothers). Curly became Sphere Man, with a large basketball-like head that transformed into any round ball. Geese became Multi-Man, with the power to duplicate himself any number of times. Nate became liquified as Fluid Man, able to flow or ooze anywhere.Sweet Lou Dunbar (voiced by Adam Wade) became Gismo Man, with an assortment of practical gadgets stored in his large Afro. Twiggy Sanders (voiced by Buster Jones) could extend his limbs to near infinity as Spaghetti Man. In November, 1979, the Super Globetrotters were combined with reruns of Godzilla to become The Godzilla/Globetrotters Adventure Hour. The cartoons lacked the spirit of the original series and left the air on September 20, 1980.

April 11, 1997
From: cooke@megalink.net
Just some questions I've been wanting to ask you about the cartoons
cover on your wonderful pages:

Do you know what companies currently own the rights to the certain
shows (Beany and Cecil, The Alvin Show, Linus the Lionhearted, Hoppity
Hooper, etc., etc.?)

The television rights to Beany and Cecil were held by Worldvision. I'm not sure if they still retain the rights. Worldvision was originally ABC Films, and was spun off from ABC in the early 1970's due to the FCC's concerns about monopolies in the broadcast business. ABC Films had acquired syndication rights in the early 60's as part of their deal with Mattel and Bob Clampett for the original cartoons. The rights may have reverted back to the Clampett family by now.

The Alvin Show (original) rights are held by Viacom (formerly CBS Films...same type of deal as with Beany and Cecil.)The newer Alvin cartoons are held by Warner Brothers. They were originally assigned to Telepictures, but when Warner purchased Telepictures they got the rights.

Linus the Lionhearted is owned outright by General Foods. I doubt if that will ever be seen on TV again, even if they drop the characters from their cereal boxes (which has already happened with most of the characters). The last time the series was seen in syndication it was a barter deal through their advertising agency, Benton & Bowles.

Hoppity Hooper and most of the Jay Ward (pre-George of the Jungle) and Total TV stuff are held by Saatchi and Saatchi, General Mills advertising agency and they are released through the Program Exchange. It's a barter deal whereby the local station gets the shows in exchange for commercial time. Several Hanna-Barbera cartoons and Woody Woodpecker are also handled by Saatchi and Saatchi.

UPDATE - May 16, 1997 - Jon Cooke, who puts up the GREAT Beany and Cecil, Chipmunks, Looney Tunes and Muppets pages, e-mailed me with some additional information he received regarding these questions he had raised. Here is a portion of that e-mail:

"...Concerning, the Chipmunks, I recently got some e-mail from Tom Watkins, who was involved with the production of the Chipmunks episodes when they started their association with DIC. He told me that: "The shows that Warner Brothers has were purchased by them for Syndication release. Bagdasarian Production still owns the shows outright but Warner has the syndication rights only. During the Ruby-Spears run of the show there were not enough episodes produced to create a 65 half hour package. This is the reason why the Murakami-Wolf shows were made. We needed them to fill out the 65 show package." Tom also mentioned that Ross Bagdarsian, Jr. was in the process of buying back the rights to the orginial "Alvin Show" material back when he left, but wasn't sure what became of it.

And, finally, a couple weeks ago I was searching through the discount bins at a local Woolworth store and found a copy of a tape titled "Crusader Rabbit and the Goofy Gophers and Friends" for $1.88. It's EP speed, public domain tape. In addition to the Looney Tunes "Lumber Jerks" with the Goofy Gophers (incorrectly called "Bargin Lumberjerks" on the back), it features 4 unrealated "Crusader Rabbit" segments, since I'm unsure of the correct titles the back of the package lists them as "Spongefish Lumber Party", "Shanghied Showboat", "Showboat Showdown" and "Roman Ruined". Put out by a company called Alpha Video Distributors Inc, 1991..."

April 11, 1997
From: O8000LR9@dreampo1.dreamworks.com
I am trying to find old "Beatles" cartoons.
Any suggestions??
thanks
Peter Stougaard

Check out The Beatles Cartoons web page. D. English, who does the page, apparently has copies of Beatles video tapes for loan. If you're interested, get in contact with him. He says the cost will only be for the postage from Australia. After you're finished with the tape (usually 4-5 days), he requests that you mail it back to him. He has 3 tapes available, one from each series.

Now that's a deal no one could afford to pass up!

April 11, 1997
From: Steve3KRZ@aol.com
Anybody remember the early 1970's cartoon version of Dr. Doolittle on
Saturday morning TV? Who produced this show and who provided the character
voices? I believe each episode featured a bubblegum tune by a band called
the grasshoppers, who were literally grasshoppers. I remember this show from
childhood but haven't seen a trace of it in 25 years.

The Further Adventures of Doctor Doolittle ran on NBC-TV from September 12, 1970 through September 2, 1972. It was based on Hugh Lofting's turn-of-the-century hero, who had also been the subject of a 1968 live-action film. The cartoon, produced for 20th Century Fox by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, pushed the good doctor forward into the twentieth century.

Doolittle, who had the ability to talk with animals, boarded his ship, "Flounder", and embarked on scientific travels to the far corners of the globe. He was joined in his adventures by Tommy, his fourteen year old assistant, and Mooncat, the lunar kitten. During their travels they were constantly beset by the villainous Sam Scurvy, a pirate who was out to discover the secret of conversing with animals. When things became overly humdrum, a rock group, The Grasshoppers, provided a big-beat tune.

The voices were provided by Robert Holt, Hal Smith, Lennie Weinrib and Don Messick. My various sources differ as to whom voiced what characters. The Grasshoppers vocals were by Ronnie Fallon, Colin Julian and Annabelle.

April 10, 1997
From: Bakton@msn.com
I would appreciate any information you may have about
"The Schmoo." I have looked in every video store I've been
in but I cannot find a thing! It was my favorite cartoon as a kid
(next to Scooby Doo of course), and it would mean a lot to me to find it.
Thanks!!!!! Julie F.

The New Shmoo was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was seen on NBC-TV from September 22, 1979 through December 1, 1979. On December 8, 1979, it was combined with Hanna-Barbera's Fred and Barney Meet The Thing to become the ninety-minute Fred and Barney Meet The Thing and The Shmoo. It ran through November 15, 1980. There were 16 half hour episodes, only ten of which were seen in the expanded show. Voices were Frank Welker as the Shmoo, Delores Cantu-Primo as Nita, Chuck McCann as Billy Joe, and Bill Idleson as Mickey. On November 22, 1980, the Shmoo character teamed up with Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble to become The Bedrock Cops, a segment of the ninety minute Flintstone Comedy Show on NBC.

The New Shmoo was based on Al Capp's Shmoo characters from the Li'l Abner comic strip. The original Al Capp Shmoos were the world's most amiable creatures, supplying all man's needs: they would lay bottled grade-A milk and packaged eggs; when broiled they tasted like sirloin steak, when fried they tasted like chicken. They became a menace to society, threatening the world economy, due to their non-stop reproducing.

The animated version differed from the strip as it placed the Shmoo in a setting with three reporters for Mighty Mystery Comics. The three, with the help of the Shmoo (who has the ability to change into virtually anything), investigated cases of psychic phenomena.

I don't believe there are videos available of The Shmoo, but there is no telling what Warner Brothers will do with the Hanna-Barbera properties now that they own them, so keep an eye out.

April 9, 1997
From: torianne@hotmail.com
Hi there - Great site!! I've been looking all over for a couple of things though and am
having no luck. First and foremost Touché Turtle (and Dum Dum of course). The other one is
Ricochet Rabbit. Do you have any idea where I can find anything on them? Again, major kudos
on the site, your hard work's really come through!!
Thanks, Vikki

Touché Turtle first appeared in 1962 as part of a syndicated package that also included Wally Gator and Lippy & Hardy. A dashing, saber-brandishing hero, Touché was joined in the hero work by his slow-walking, slow-talking buddy, Dum Dum. Touché Turtle was voiced by Bill Thompson, using nearly the same voice he had used for M-G-M's Droopy. Alan "Fred Flintstone" Reed provided the voice of Dum Dum

Ricochet Rabbit, the western sheriff, "ping-ping-pinged" his way onto the tiny screen in 1964 as part of The Magilla Gorilla Show. Joined by his sluggish deputy, Droop-a-long Coyote, Ricochet battled desperados using his lightning speed and cunning tactics. The cartoon, a satire of Gunsmoke's Matt Dillon and Festus, included the voice of Don Messick as Ricochet and Mel Blanc as Droop-a-long.

April 9, 1997
From: My Wife, Mary Kurer (Who so patiently puts up with my Internet/Cartoon obsession!)
"What about Breezly Bruin?"

Breezly and Sneezly began as a component of The Magilla Gorilla Show on January 14, 1964. Produced by Hanna-Barbera, the twenty three Breezly and Sneezly episodes were switched with Punkin Puss and Mush Mouse in the fall of 1964 and became a part of The Peter Potamus Show. (The Peter Potamus Show is sometimes erroneously referred to as Peter Potamus and His Magic Flying Balloon, which was the working title.)

Breezly Bruin, a big, goofy polar bear (voiced by Howard Morris) and his sensible arctic sidekick Sneezly Seal (voiced by Mel Blanc), spent their existance frustrating Colonel Fusby (voiced by John Stephenson), the commander of Camp Frostbite, an Alaskan Army Base. Breezly and Sneezly, hoping to share in the sumptuous Army meals, were constantly adopting all manner of guises in their attempts to gain enterance to the Base.

Breezly and Sneezly are also the subject of a Brazilian web page put out by Kywal Graphics. The site, Matraca Trica , is in Portuguese, which is the language of Brazil. My wife, Mary, should have no problem translating the site, as she was an AFS student in Brazil during 1977, and has visited there several times since.

I'll be adding more, so keep checking back!

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