Thank God for small favors… As far as I know this show doesn’t exist. Fred Grandinetti sent me this trade ad from Broadcasting Magazine (February, 1966) offering a Marx Bros. cartoon package from Filmation. Was there be a pilot? The ad offers a screening, so… could be? This was in the era when Hanna Barbera was producing Abbott and Costello, and Laurel and Hardy cartoons. In light of what Filmation would do to Jerry Lewis a few years later, let’s consider ourselves lucky the brothers Marx weren’t subjected to their cheapjack production methods.

Someone posted one of the shorts from The Cartoonstitute, Cartoon Network’s former shorts program. Since they are no longer running cartoons, we might as well embed it here and take a look. Note, the sound is bad and the ending is cut off. Regardless, the heavily Spumco-influenced Awesome Chronicles of Manny and Khan by Josh Lieberman and Joey Giardina has funny drawings and pleasing design… things no longer of interest to CN.

(Thanks, Joshua Bailey)

Just got word that Dallas McKennon passed away this morning. Sunday would’ve been his 90th birthday.

Dal was a prolific voice in animation, and you’ve heard him as the voice of Gumby, Archie, Buzz Buzzard, Ben Franklin at Epcot, the fox in Mary Poppins, and in numerous Sam Singer cartoons. He was an actor in many live action movies for Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, George Pal, and Anthony Mann, but was probably best known to people the real world as a regular on the TV series Daniel Boone, playing Cinncinatus the storekeeper.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dal nine years ago and hanging out with him during one of his visits to L.A. (photo above is of me, Dal, Will Ryan and Chuck McCann, July 3rd, 2000, having lunch at the Sportsman’s Lodge) and found him to be a wonderful person. My favorite role of his was as the old sea captain, polar bear and bulldog in Tex Avery’s The Legend of Rock-A-Bye Point. So in tribute… “Sing it again for me, will ya, Charlie…”

(Thanks, Gene Hamm)

Thurop Van Orman, the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, posted an entry earlier this week on his deviantART page, in which he wrote the following:

NO, CARTOON NETWORK isn’t changing its name. Not anytime soon anyways… they were gonna… But I think their reality show idea didn’t go as well as they had hoped, so… they’re kinda backing out of that idea. Yay for cartoons!

His perspective on what is happening at Cartoon Network is wildly different than that of Chowder creator C.H. Greenblatt. Care to make a guess which one of them still has a show at the network and which one of them has had their show cancelled?

Granted, it’s true that Cartoon Network has removed their Andrew W.K. video from YouTube (600 negative comments will do that), but I wouldn’t read too much into that token gesture. From where I’m standing, it appears to be little more than a carefully calculated effort to quell their viewership’s outrage and not representative of a meaningful shift in direction. If any doubt remains about the network’s true intentions, look no further than this recent Broadcasting & Cable article in which the architects of the live-action strategy speak about their goals. The piece details at length why they’re switching to live-action, and describes the network’s “360 degree” marketing campaign to usher in live-action, including the distribution of 8 million copies of a free CN Real magazine at theme parks and movie theaters.

One of the figureheads in their brand-wrecking transition is Stuart Snyder, executive VP and COO of Turner animation, young adults and kids media. The article states that Snyder made switching to live-action a priority when he came on board in 2007. “I think these new shows, whether reality or live scripted, really open up and broaden the audience, so you can be thinking about new advertising categories,” Snyder said. “It opens up more categories for us than just being in shows specifically [targeting] 6- to 11-year-olds.”

Cartoon Network’s Chief Content Officer Rob Sorcher acknowledged in the same article that inserting live-action into a brand called Cartoon Network will take time for audiences to accept: “Anytime you do something new at a network, particularly at one with a very specific niche, there will be a reaction. People will say, is this appropriate? We are doing something that is very different than anything in the nearly 20 years of history of the channel. It is possible that this is going to take a while.”

Animation fans meanwhile continue to mobilize. Over 2,500 people have now joined the Boycott Cartoon Network’s CN Real Block on Facebook. A new website has launched called “Stop the Madness” that encourages people to take specific actions to protest the network. A quick search for “Cartoon Network” on Twitter also reveals a steady stream of complaints. (Cartoon Brew suggests using the hashtag #CNFail to organize all the complaints on Twitter.) Finally, if you’d like to register your complaints directly with Stuart Snyder, try sending him a friend request on Facebook. I’m sure he’d love to hear from a few fans of the channel.

More to come…

This Saturday, July 11, in Minneapolis, the Pink Hobo Gallery (507 E. Hennepin Ave.) will host an art show “The Art of Yo Gabba Gabba!” featuring artwork from the Nick Jr. TV series. Among the items on display: never-before-seen original drawings and sketches from the show’s creator and lead designer Parker Jacobs, props used in the show, and original production artwork from the show’s guest artists including King Mini, Mark Mothersbaugh, Option-G, Panda Panther, Megan Brain, Aaron Stewart, Mitch Loidolt, Tim Sievert, Julia Vickerman, and Tanya Haden. The opening is between 5pm and 1am. The show will continue to run after this weekend, but beware that the gallery doesn’t keep normal hours because it’s located in the offices of the production company Puny Entertainment. More details are available on this Facebook invite.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants (who first appeared on July 17th, 1999), VH1 will premiere Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants, on Tuesday, July 14 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). This is an original SpongeBob TV documentary from producers Creadon O’Malley (Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A).

From the Viacom press release:

Commissioned by Nickelodeon to commemorate the anniversary of the series’ first episode, the documentary chronicles the beloved character’s journey to international pop culture icon status and showcases the series’ impact on everyone from President Barack Obama, kids across the globe and San Quentin inmates who readily sing its catchy theme song. The one-hour documentary, features an opening song from Avril Lavigne and commentary from creator Steve Hillenburg, cast and crew members, industry experts, fanatics and celebrities like LeBron James, Ricky Gervais and Rosario Dawson.

It also features several comments from yours truly - I wonder if I’m considered an “industry expert” or a “fanatic”? Tune in and find out.

How imbecilic is Cartoon Network’s new push towards live-action? Even the people who worked on this Andrew W.K. video promo think it’s stupid. Somebody who worked on it surreptitiously inserted the word “FAIL” into the piece at the 1:11 mark. It’s only there for a few frames, but the message comes through loud and clear.

(Thanks to YouTube user ColorTheBlue for pointing this out)

Here’s pop star Kaela Kimura with the Peanuts gang. I happen to like these Japanese TV spots (advertising Hot Pepper, a free coupon magazine). Annoying… or catchy? You decide:

(Thanks, Yaffle)