“Rugrats” Created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, and Paul Germain; Starring Elizabeth Daily, Kath Soucie, Melanie Charoff, Cheryl Chase, Jack Riley, Michael Bell, Christine Cavanaugh, David Doyle, Tara Strong, and Tress MacNeille; Originally aired August 11, 1991; Run time 23 minutes.
“Rugrats” was the second Nicktoon to air, following “Doug” and immediately followed by “The Ren & Stimpy Show.” The series was created for Nickelodeon by husband and wife team Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo with help from Paul Germain and followed the adventures of a group of toddlers through ordinary daily activities that were enhanced by visuals from the kid’s imaginations, similar to “The Muppet Babies.”
Klasky and Csupo were animating for “The Simpsons” at the time and decided to develop their own series when they heard that Nickelodeon was planning on creating their own line up of animation. The series events were loosely based on the antics of their own children who were toddlers at the time.
They enlisted the help of Peter Chung with character design. Chung directed the title sequence as well as the pilot which was never aired. Chung later went on to do “Aeon Flux” with an animation style that feels like it exists in the same family but as a distant cousin whom no one invites to family gatherings.
“Rugrats” held the title for longest running Nicktoon for years until 2012 when it was usurped by “Spongebob Squarepants” though the series remains one of Nickelodeon’s most successful creations. It ran for a total of 172 episodes, spawned two movies including a crossover with “The Wild Thornberries,” a spin-off series entitled “All Grown Up” which showcases the characters ten years later, comic books, video games, and merchandizing.
In each episode the babies get into some sort of adventure, usually aided by the fact that their parents are sort of inept and distracted. These adventures were sometimes aided by inventions created by Tommy’s father Stu who was a struggling inventor. The series also gave us the nested creation of “Reptar,” essentially a children’s version of “Godzilla.”
As recently as September of this year Nickelodeon has floated the idea of resurrecting some of its classic Nicktoons including “Rugrats.” Russell Hicks, president of content and development for Nickelodeon, told Variety “We are looking at our library to bring back ideas, shows that were loved, n a fresh new way.”
Hicks declined to mention specific series but it was implied that “Rugrats” and “Hey Arnold!” are under consideration, though it’s unclear if they would return as full series or as specials or one-offs, if they return at all.
In the meantime you can get your fix right here. See you next week.
“Eek! The Cat” Written by Savage Steve Holland, Bill Kipp, Kati Rocky, Henry Gilroy, Paul Germain, Sandy Fries, Pamela Wick, and Frank Santopadre; Starring Bill Kopp, Tawny Kitaen, Elizabeth Daily, Charles Adler, Gary Owens, Savage Steve Holland, and Dan Castellaneta; Originally aired September 11, 1992; Run time 24 minutes.
Have you ever noticed there are a lot of cartoons about cats? In the last couple months we’ve covered “Heathcliff,” “Fraidy Cat,” and now this. The only one missing is that whiny, tubby bastard you’ve probably heard of. What’s the deal with cartoons about cats? Does it speak to our inexplicable fascination with them.
Egyptians worshipped them and in a way we still do. They populate our homes in record numbers, we keep them around (myself included) even though for all accounts they’re furry dicks. They kill in astounding numbers making them one of the top predators even in this age of domestication, they might carry parasites that slowly make you go crazy, but we can’t get enough. They’re cute as hell so we forgive all of their short comings and turn them into memes, even when and especially they are grumpy, and we make them the stars of an unending array of comic strips, movies, and television shows.
I don’t have the answer to why we love cats so much. There’s one running laps around me right now, tossing a phone rocket through the air and stepping on my keyboard. She is, for all intents and purposes making my life hell but- excuse me while I pause to pet her, she’s a cute little asshole.
…
Okay, I’m back. “Eek! The Cat.”
The show stars a purple cat called Eek! He means well, always trying to help and constantly getting himself into trouble as a result. He lives in a cartoon world populated with toxic waste and rogue airplanes which makes for especially dangerous and hilarious situations. The titular character is based on, and named for, the creators own cat. The show went through a series of changes both in style and title beginning with full twenty minute episodes, then later changing to two nine minute segments and featured a companion cartoon titled “The Terrible Thunderlizards” which featured composition from Dee Snider. In the third season the title was changed to “Eek! Stravaganza” but kept the same format and added another show called “Klutter.”
The series, in its many incarnations, lasted five years and featured a number of celebrity cameos including William Shatner, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Tim Curry, Weird Al, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Mr. T, among others.
In 1994 Nintendo even released a video game which is the hallmark of a successful franchise. Watching the show now I can’t quite put my finger on why I enjoyed it as a kid, it isn’t bad, but it’s just another cat show with nothing incredibly fun to offer. My tastes were (only slightly) less discerning then I guess. I’d welcome you to watch it with me today, if for no other reason than to stroll down memory lane.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to put hydrogen peroxide on fresh scratches. Then the cat needs cuddles.
“Adventure Time” Created by Pendleton Ward; Directed by Larry Leichliter; Starring Jeremy Shada, John DiMaggio, HyndenWalch, Niki Yang, Tomm Kenny, Olivia Olson, Dee Bradley Baker, Pendleton Ward, Polly Lou Livingston, Jessica DiCicco, and Maria Bamford; Originally aired January 11, 2007; Run time 11 minutes.
I remember “Adventure Time” emerging from the ether some time in 2010 and not really getting it. Suddenly stores were filled with merchandise and I was hearing whispered conversations from a distance about this new cartoon. Even with my obvious love of cartoons I remember thinking that it was a “kid’s” show and that I wouldn’t like it. I had previously tried out “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” and just couldn’t mesh with the show’s sense of humor. I thought I was getting old (I probably am) and in a stereotypical way just couldn’t understand what these bizarre youths were up to these days, so I avoided “Adventure Time.”
One day my roommate forced me to sit down and watch an episode and by the time the episode was over something magical happened, no, not really. By the end of the episode I was almost convinced that my previous assumptions had been correct, I shrugged off my friend but she didn’t relent. I watched a few more episodes and by the time I was toward the end of the third or fourth episode something in my brain clicked. I was able to shift my way of thinking and understand, somewhat nebulously, what the show was. The problem at the root of my dislike of the show wasn’t anything to do with the show, it was what I was expecting of the show. My expectations, based on the kind of programming I grew up with and was used to, weren’t allowing me to open up to something like “Adventure Time.”
After I recalibrated I was in.
Since then I’ve been a pretty ardent fan and proselytizer of the “Adventure Time.” I like it quite a lot. Though it may be important to know this mental shift still doesn’t allow me to understand or enjoy “Flapjack.” Perhaps the wheel of time has rolled too far for me to dial back that much.
“Adventure Time” began originally as a pilot for Nickelodeon but the network (some might say foolishly) passed on doing a series. Once the rights expired Frederator Studios took the idea to a number of other networks and Cartoon Network agreed to do a series of creator Pendleton Ward could prove that the pilot could be expanded to support a series.
Ward was successful and he assembled a team of mostly previously unknown creatives along with a handful of Cartoon Network alumni to bring the land of Ooo to life. The series follows the adventures of Finn the human boy and his best pal Jake, a dog with the magical power to alter his size and shape at will.
Each episode centers on the adventures Finn and Jake have, along with other central characters Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen, in the various lands in the world of Ooo. According to the creator, Ooo is Earth a thousand years into the future after a global nuclear holocaust referred to by the characters as The Great Mushroom War. The post-apocalyptic nature of the series is only eluded to subtly with a mushroom cloud in the opening sequence and partially buried cars in some backgrounds. In fact the idea for the origin was only cemented after the show was in production when an episode featured an iceberg with frozen modern day business men inside necessitating that modern day Earth be in Ooo’s past.
The resultant destruction of the nuclear war reset to Earth to an earlier mode allowing magic to settle back onto the planet. The fate of humans in the land of Ooo is uncertain. While Finn isn’t the only human depicted in the series they are incredibly rare. The implication is that humanity was mostly wiped out in the Mushroom War, a majority of the humans seen are either holdovers from the past like the frozen businessmen or were previously human but have now become wizards, vampires, mutants, or other types of creatures.
The series also had an impact on the industry. Because Ward pulled so many unknowns onto his team, and the subsequent rousing success of the series, opportunities for indie creators to get into the business were suddenly available. In fact, a previous bot here on Big Shiny Robot, Derek Hunter, left the quaint confines of Utah and moved to Hollywood to join the staff of “Adventure Time” as a background artist. You can see some of his work here.
In an article on Slate, “Adventure Time” is credited with creating an animation gold rush to Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon as independent artists were being snatched up from the internet to helm new projects.
Despite some early hang-ups, “Adventure Time” eventually found its niche and has cemented itself as a part of popular culture not likely to go away any time soon, Finn and Jake even had a balloon in this year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. So far 214 episodes have been produced. The show is currently in its seventh season and has been renewed for an eighth. Additionally, in February of this year it was announced that a feature length movie was being produced under Frederator Fims and Warner Animation Group, as of yet there is no release date for the film.
“Fraidy Cat” Written by Michael O’Connor; Directed by Don Towsley; Starring Alan Oppenheimer and Lennie Weinrib; Originally aired September 6, 1975.
“Fraidy Cat” was a series of animated shorts produced by Filmation. The episodes open with Fraidy explaining that each cat has nine lives but eight of his are used up. As a result he is particularly cautious to preserve is his only remaining life, this is the source of his persistent fear.
Each episode features the titular cat getting involved in some scenario that threatens his life and his attempts to get out unscathed. Fraidy is haunted by the ghosts of his previous lives and each time he says any number from one to eight, or any word that contains or sounds like those numbers, the ghost of that life appears and attempts (but usually fails) to help him out of trouble.
The spirits of Fraidy’s previous lives consist of:
Elephunt Cave “One” Cat, a Saber-Toothed Tiger with a pet dinosaur Kitty “Two” Wizard, a bumbling magician Captain “Three” Kitt, a pirate captain Sir Walter “Four” Cat, a noble swordsman Billy “Five” the Kit, a western outlaw Jasper “Six” Catdaver, the undertaker Captain Eddie “Seven” Cattenbakker, an airplane pilot Hep “Eight” Cat, a hep cat, obviously. Complete with zoot-suit and, Cloud Nine, an ominous cloud that tries to kill Fraidy and complete his life cycle.
“Fraidy Cat” was eventually syndicated as part of the “Groovie Goolies and Friends” series. Not much else is known about the series, IMDB only lists the four above individuals as being involved and only 18 shorts were produced.
The series has a similar feel and animation style to early “Scooby-Doo” productions and relies heavily on macabre humor for entertainment value. Several episodes can be watched on YouTube and were also released as part of Mill Creek Entertainment’s compilation discs “200 Classic Cartoons” and “Giant 600 Cartoon Collection” as well as Allegro/Pop Flix’s “100 Family Cartoons Volume 3.”
Saturday Morning Cartoon! ‘Clerks: The Animated Series’
“Clerks : The Animated Series” Based on characters created by Kevin Smith; Created by Kevin Smith; Developed by David Mandel, Scott Mosier, and Kevin Smith; Starring Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Brian O’ Halloran, Kevin Smith, Kevin Michael Richardson, Alec Baldwin, Charles Barkley, Tara Strong, Walter Flanagan, Bryan Cranston, and Bryan Johnson.
In the early 2000’s I was recently graduated from high school, moved out, and building my DVD collection (hey guys, do you remember DVDs?). I was also in the throes of what bordered on an unhealthy obsession with all things Kevin Smith (an ailment I’ve never fully recovered from, and don’t really want to). As a result I made a stop after work to a Media Play (Hey guys, do you remember Media Play?) looking for a copy of “Chasing Amy,” the only hole in my otherwise complete collection of Smith’s work, or so I thought.
Unfortunately they didn’t have any copies of “Chasing Amy” I would have to wait to own what would become perhaps my favorite of all Smith’s films, but they did have a two disc set of the complete “Clerks: The Animated Series.” Not to be confused with the “Clerks” live action series which only went to pilot and was decidedly awful. You can watch it below if you want to, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
“What the hell is this?” I excitedly asked the store employee. He answered with a shrug and walked away in true Randal fashion. Needless to say, I bought the set and took it home, disappointed that I didn’t find what I was looking for (I feel you Bono) but glad that I had discovered something else, something of which I had not previously been aware.
Of course I went home and gobbled up all six episodes. Upset that the series, and subsequently myself, had been robbed of any further episodes. The series picks up after the events of the “Clerks” movie and showcases the continued adventures of Dante and Randall, as well as Jay and Silent Bob. Unlike the movie, the animated series is in full color. Other differences between the series and the movie include obvious tone and content changes (there is no cursing or nudity) and the dynamic dope-dealing duo exchange selling dope for selling fireworks.
The series took the titular clerks and put them in situations that commonly lampooned other popular movies and television tropes. Sadly it was cancelled after only two episodes had aired and only six episodes were produced. The network cited poor ratings as the reason for cancellation but that could have been due to their unexplainable decision to air the series out of order. They aired the fourth episode first, followed by the second episode. You’d think that with a cartoon this might not be an issue, but with “Clerks: The Animated Series” it absolutely was. The series was often self referential, relying on previous episodes for the humor to work. This is especially the case with the second episode titled “The Clipshow Wherein Dante and Randal are Locked in the Freezer and Remember Some of the Great Moments in Their Lives.” The episode may have a title that would make Fallout Boy blush, but it was funny, in that it lampooned the classis television trope of doing flashback episodes utilizing clips from previous episodes to fill a half hour.
Since this was only the second episode of the series, it utilized flashbacks from only the previous episode, as well as from the second episode itself. The joke doesn’t really work if you haven’t seen the first episode, which no one had, because the network hadn’t aired it.
After cancellation, the series went to DVD, where it did find a home, specifically in my home. The series was also aired in its entirety in several places, including Comedy Central, the channel that has a knack for taking unappreciated series and giving them a second life.
Smith has talked on numerous occasions about the possibility of bringing the show back to air, or even potentially doing a spin-off series. But due to problems with ownership between Miramax and Disney, nothing has as yet come to light and with Smith working on other projects like the upcoming “Yoga Hosers,” “Moose Jaws,” “Clerks 3,” and “Mallrats 2” the window of opportunity for more animated stuff may have closed.
The Constant Viewer can hope that perhaps the assured success of the latter two films might spark network interest in the material, or that Smith with do what Smith does and make the damned thing himself. Only time will tell. Until then, all six episodes are available on DVD or on YouTube, you can watch one of them below.
Every so often, when the planets align, and a black cat is born under a blood moon, Halloween falls on a Saturday. Today is one such day. To celebrate this momentous merging of two of human culture’s most wonderful inventions, the macabre and weekends, we’re having a special Saturday Morning Cartoon!
I’ve selected three animated shorts to get your Halloween started off right. Some of them are creepier than others, some of them rely on animation style over situation, but all of them will put you in the right mood to fight a monster, contact the dead, or just eat a lot of candy.
First up is…
“The Backwater Gospel” Directed by Bo Mathorne; Starring Zebulon Whatley, Lucien Dodge, Phillip Sacramento, Robert Bennett, and Laura Post; Run time 10 minutes.
“The Backwater Gospel” tells the story of a sleepy small town visited by Death. The faithful inhabitants of the town blame a lonely tramp and his musical musings for the visiting reaper. He may be the cause, or just an early warning system. The contents of this short film are enough to put it on this list, but the animation style lifts it above its peers.
Next up…
“The Maker” Written and Directed by Christopher Kezelos; Run time 5 minutes.
“The Maker” tells the story of a strange looking anthropomorphic bunny man in a race against time to create another of his kind. There is no dialogue but the short film makes use of music and visual storytelling to stunning effect. The final reveal gives a sort of symmetry that will make you want to watch it again and again.
Finally…
“Children” By Takuya Okada; Run time 4 minutes
“Children,” like “The Maker,” has no dialogue but instead uses implication to tell the story. The short opens on a series of factories cranking out carbon copied children. While the underlying message is ambiguous it gives the feeling that happiness is about free will, even if your choices leave you hurt.
“Babar” Based on the children’s books by Jean de Brunhoff (maybe); Directed by Raymond Jafelice, Laura Shepherd, Dale Schott, and Larry Jacobs; Starring Gordon Pinsent, Gavin Magrath, Dawn Greenhalgh, Stuart Stone, Elizabeth Hanna, Chris Wiggins, Lisa Jai, Stephen Oimette, Jeff Pustil, and Allen Stewart-Coates; Run time 30 minutes; Originally aired March 28, 1989.
I got up this morning, as I do every Saturday morning, on the hunt for cartoons. Generally I do this in an effort to start my weekend in a good place with a little innocent nostalgia. Most of the time it works, but today I plunged my hand into the murky waters of my childhood and was bitten and shocked by an electric feel.
Both the content of today’s episode, and the story of how it came to be, illustrate one unavoidable truth, sometimes life is confusing and sad. We’ll start with the history of the character and then move on to the episode that made a grown man (variable definitions) weep.
There is some contention over who is the true creator of “Babar.” Officially the books were created by Jean de Brunhoff, a French writer and illustrator circa the 1930s. It seems however, that the creation of the character and the world belongs to Brunhoff’s wife Cécile and the development of that world was a family affair.
The story goes that in 1930 the couple had two sons, one of whom was sick, and in an attempt to comfort him Cécile invented a story about an elephant who left the jungle and came to live in the city. The details of that particular story diverge slightly from the published version but it made enough of an impression that the boys took the story to their father, who was a painter remember, and asked that he illustrate it. The next year “Histoire de Babar” The Story of Babar was published.
Originally the cover page was planned to list both Jean and Cécile as the creators but she had her name removed as she thought that her role in the creation was minor. Talented and modest too. While Jean did go on to develop the series into seven children’s books and his role in the series can’t be understated, I think it would be inaccurate to say that Cécile wasn’t the creator of “Babar.” Sadly Jean de Brunhoff died of tuberculosis six years later at the age of 37.
Jump forward seven years, it’s 1946, the echoes of the second great war are still ringing in your ears, and Laurent de Brunhoff, the eldest son of Jean and Cécile decides to pick up where his father left off. Laurent trains himself to draw elephants in the style of his father so well that many readers don’t notice a difference and assume the seven year gap between books was due to the war and not to Jean’s tragic and untimely death.
Laurent would go on to create over 40 more “Babar” books, the most recent of which “Babar’s Celestville Games” was released in 2011. Laurent currently lives in New York with his wife and presumably (hopefully) continues his work with the characters his parents gave the world.
So that’s the sad but awesome and interesting story of the birth of “Babar” on the page. Then in 1989, almost 60 years after the brave little elephant first walked onto the page, he moved from 2D to… still 2D but moving, animated 2D, that can rip a man from his comfortable existence and remind him that the world is cold, dark, and unforgiving.
“Babar” originally aired on CBC and HBO as 78 half hour episodes, since then it has been translated into 30 languages and aired in over 150 countries. In 2011 a spin-off series was launched titled “Babar and the Adventures of Badou” which continues the story into the next generation of Babar’s family. There are new characters, the most prominent of which is Badou, Babar’s grandson.
I’d never seen or heard of the modern series, but I grew up watching “Babar” when I was a kid and had fond but vague memories of it. So today I thought I’d start where any reasonable person does, at the beginning. This was my first and most terrible mistake.
The pilot episode of “Babar” is titled “Babar’s First Step.” It begins with Babar as an adult and King of Celesteville, preparing to give a speech when he pauses to sit his elephant son down on his elephant knee and tell him a tale. Why in the name of Ganesha you would tell this story to a child is beyond me yet here we are.
SPOILERS BEYOND:
I’ve include the episode above, instead of its usual place at the bottom of the page in case you want to watch it spoiler free. This episode shows us the birth of Babar and his early formative years in the wild with his mother and the other elephants. Babar makes friends, plays, explores the world, gets in fights with a tree stump, and is highly regarded by both the adults and his peers. Everything is looking up for Babar until a strange noise rocks the jungle.
Some of the elephants want to leave, putting as much distance as they can between them and the monster as quickly as possible. Babar speaks up saying that this is their home and they shouldn’t leave it. It’s a powerful moment meant to illustrate that Babar is strong willed and unafraid, qualities that make him suited for greater things, like ruling an anthropomorphic elephant empire.
The monster returns and is revealed to be a human hunter who is a total dick by the way. You’d think maybe you’d stop shooting at the elephants when you hear them talking and notice that some of them are wearing glasses. I mean, these aren’t mindless beasts, they live in the mud but they have hopes and dreams.
Babar’s mom swoops him up on her shoulders and high tails it out of there, but not fast enough. She is gunned down, right out from under Babar and he shrieks over her fallen corpse. I know this is HBO but I didn’t think they would let George R.R. Martin write children’s programming. Animation hasn’t made me feel this way since that unspeakable scene in “The Land Before Time,” I still haven’t forgiven you Spielberg.
Babar leaves with the other elephants and in time his emotional wounds heal, but the hunter returns and this time Babar won’t let him hurt anyone else. Though he’s still a child, he breaks off from the group and confronts the hunter, breaks his gun, and gives him what-for. Though, when the confrontation is over Babar is lost and it takes him many years to find his elephant family again.
But that’s another story and shall be told another time.
“Bonkers” Created by Robert Taylor, Duane Capizzi, Bruce Talkington, Greg Weisman, and Robert Hathcock; Starring Jim Cummings, Earl Boen, Frank Welker, Jeff Bennett, Karla DeVito, April Winchell, Sherry Lynn, Ron Perlman, and Corey Burton; Run time 30 minutes; Originally aired September 4, 1993.
“Bonkers” was originally envisioned as a sort of homage to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and wanted to further explore the ideas of a world inhabited by both humans and toons. Production saw early trouble in that the human characters were also animated and they struggled to convey the difference in existence. Troubles with finding the right voice and tone for the series as well as a lackluster response on original episodes caused changes in the creative team which delayed the release of the series.
A new team was brought in and the show you know and love was born. The titular character was a washed up toon actor turned police officer and the episodes would focus mainly on Bonkers’ struggles to conform to normal human life and be useful in his job.
Though the cartoon most of you are familiar with began in 1993, the conception of “Bonkers” was long foretold and the eventual birth of the show was convoluted, resulting in a confusing timeline. The character, and the universe he inhabits, first saw the light of day as an animated short film titled “Petal to the Metal.” The short was theatrically released preceding “3 Ninjas” but by this time a 65 episode series had already been in production.
During the same time “Raw Toonage” was in development, Michael Eisner has purchased the rights to “Marsupilami” which, at the time, was known only via its Belgian comic strip and the two characters, along with the segment “Totally Tasteless Video” came together to become “Raw Toonage.”
It gets worse; the series itself contains two distinct sets of episodes, ones where Bonkers is partners with Detective Lucky Piquel, and ones where he is partners with Officer Miranda Wright. These two sections are distinct not only in the change of a central character but also in tone. The Lucky episodes feature a relationship wherein Piquel hates toons and Bonkers is constantly trying, and failing, to win his praise. Miranda is more kind hearted and because Bonkers doesn’t have to impress her the show becomes more slapsticky. In addition to the change in tone the design of Bonkers was changed slightly.
Because the team working on the shorts had a smaller task and shorter production schedule they were able to turn out the “Bonkers” shorts before the series could air despite the series’ long head start. This enabled the short film to be released with “3 Ninjas” the year prior to the premier of the series.
This is where the trouble peaked. The premise of the shorts was the “Bonkers” was a delivery person consistently fawning (heh heh) for the woman of his dreams Fawn Deer. This didn’t mesh well with the premise of the series and is made all the more confusing because the Miranda episodes were produced around the same time as the “Raw Toonage” shorts and they share the same design for Bonkers. The Piquel episodes have the newer design but were shoved at the beginning of the series. Meaning that for someone watching in real time they would see Bonkers in his original state, then updated, then changed back, with the tone and theme of the universe the characters inhabit changing each time.
Despite all the trouble with production the character went on to be successful, beloved, and well remembered. The shorts were explained away as having been films Bonkers made during his acting days and the changes in the series were mostly shrugged off. It is a cartoon after all, it doesn’t have to make complete sense as long as it looks good and is entertaining. While it’s fun to dig in and nitpick now, the average “Bonkers” viewer circa 1993 probably had less discerning views on the subject matter.
While cartoons are still going strong a decade and a half into the twenty-first century, they’ve changed. They no longer inhabit the toon world as Disney and Warner Bros. envisioned it where the laws of physics are different but well defined and anything can happy as long as it’s wacky. “Bonkers” represents one of the last bastions of the old ways before cartoons moved into their current state. Perhaps it’s appropriate that the transition happened with a show that included human characters, an omen to foretell what was coming. Or maybe not. It was fun anyway.
“Bob and Margaret” Created by David Fine and Alison Snowden; Starring Andy Hamilton and Alison Snowden; Run time 22 minutes; Originally aired Jun 22, 1998.
“Bob and Margaret was a joint production of Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It centered on the married life of husband and wife Bob and Margaret. The series explored the struggles of everyday life, specifically the unique struggles of middle age.
The pilot “Bob’s Birthday” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1994 and is provided below. The 11 minute short takes place on, as the title suggests, Bob’s birthday. Bob, a dentist, deals with patients while events around him and his looming birthday remind him of his own mortality. Meanwhile Margaret is at home preparing a surprise birthday party.
While at the office Bob hears a radio program discussing middle age while his assistant deals with a bug infestation in an office plant that results in the death of the entire plant. The culmination of the episode is when Bob arrives home, not knowing that all of their friends are hidden within, and proceeds to walk half naked around the house proclaiming his dissatisfaction with their lives, specifically his disappointment in all of their friends.
This scene features a perfect mix of humor and depression as Bob speaks openly about his feelings on their friends while his cartoon genitalia swing about and his friends sit in hiding, listening, unbeknownst to him.
The series went on to have 52 episodes that aired the world over. After season two a couple of major changes were made to the production. The titular couple moved to Canada where the show was able to explore culture clash and the voice of Bob was changed from Andy Hamilton to Brian George. This move was necessitated by funding pressures as certain Canadian tax benefits required there to be stories that took place in Canada.
“Bob and Margaret” ran for a total of four seasons from 1998 to 2001 and is still aired on various networks around the world. While the animation is lackluster and the situations mundane, the unique sense of humor makes the series entertaining and fulfilling.
“Heathcliff” Created by George Gately, Jean Chalopin, and Bruno Bianchi; Developed by Jean Chalopin, Alan Swayze, and Chuck Lorre; Directed by Bruno Bianchi and Michael Maliani; Starring Mel Blanc, Conna Christie, Peter Cullen, Stanley Jones, Jeannie Elias, and Danny Wells. Run time 22 minutes; Originally aired September 5, 1984.
The character of Heathcliff was created by George Gately as a newspaper comic strip debuting in 1973. He predates that other orange comic strip cat you may have heard of by five years. The strip featured Heathcliff getting into mischief in the town of Westfinster, annoying humans, and pursuing lady cats.
Two cartoon series were created based on the popular strip both named simply “Heathcliff” though the second, more popular series, was sometimes referred to as “Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats” a reference to segments in the show featuring those titular characters.
Though Heathcliff never spoke in the original strip he was quite vocal in the cartoons and was voiced by the beloved Mel Blanc in both series. The second series was produced by DiC Entertainment and their particular style is evident in both animation and sound. The characters of “Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats” would fit seamlessly in other DiC series like “Inspector Gadget.”
Though the series has been off the air for almost three decades, the strip is still produced, now written and drawn by Gately’s nephew Peter Gallagher and appears in over a thousand newspapers. A movie was produced titled simply “Heathcliff: The Movie” which was a compilation of segments from the animated series.
While the world created by Gately may not tackle any important social issues and is dated by the sentiments and styles of the time, it provides wholesome fun that still feels good all these years later. It has stood the test of time and it doesn’t look like it will be leaving the papers or our hearts and minds any time soon.
