Daws Butler Writes In

Today's post is going to be quite an interesting one. I've posted several newspaper articles on Daws Butler here, but what about a time Butler wrote in? Today's focus is on a piece from Butler himself, sourced from the October 9th, 1977 edition of the Los Angeles Times. Before I show it, let me give a quick backstory.

This writing is in response to a piece that ran in the paper a month earlier by Charles Solomon. He's a well-known animation historian, but the focus of this particular story was the state of children's animation. Solomon didn't hold back in trashing much of that season's programming and pointed out Hanna-Barbera as the most notable offender. Daws has his disagreements, but I find his response to be a very intriguing look at how much the television animation industry had changed since the fifties. I'll let him take over now.

    "I've got to take issue with Charles Solomon. He writes very amusingly, and he cites many truths—but there's more to it. I want to talk about funny cartoons—or when cartoons were funny—the early Huckleberry Hounds, Yogi Bears, Snagglepusses, Hokey Wolfs, Mr. Jinks, voices that I did, as well as the humorous product from the Jay Ward studios.
    I've been an actor in the animation field (among others) for many years. I was the original "Reddy" mentioned at the top of Solomon's article as being the template of the whole limited animation syndrome. Don Messick, a gifted colleague, was "Ruff." Charlie Shows wrote all of the episodes, funny concepts with comedy rhythms which today seem to be supplanted by a humorless quest for "continuity" and the dry pithiness of a mundane "storyline." Unfortunately, it is usually the same story, told again and again, year after year, with a "new" character doing an imitation of an imitation. Let the writer create.

    There are funny writers around. I can hear them breathing. I can sense their presence—but they aren't allowed to write "funny"—to create provocative character complexities, which sensitive comic-actors can interpret. Let the writer write."

                                                                                                                    Daws Butler
                                                                                                                       Beverly Hills

Advertising with Daws Butler

 As yesterday's post mentioned, Daws Butler lent his voice to numerous commercials throughout the years. He was Cap'n Crunch, the Rice Krispies elves, and the Raisin Bran sun, and that's just off the top of my head. Considering this is a notable but often overlooked part of his career, I thought I'd use today's post to spotlight a few of his appearances in TV advertising.

The first one I'll show is this 1966 commercial for Quisp cereal. As you'll probably notice by the art style, this commercial was actually animated by Jay Ward Studios, who were no strangers when it came to working with Daws. Also featured here are Paul Frees and William Conrad. 

Next, here's a 1970 commercial for Raisin Bran depicting Butler as the sun, who appears to be in a battle for the role of narrator. If you've never seen these ads before, you'll find that Butler's voice isn't too far off from a certain boy genius. 

This final commercial was broadcast in 1981 and centers on Daws' most famous commercial character, Cap'n Crunch. The captain was one of Daws' most enduring characters, especially in the world of advertising. He voiced the character in his initial appearances from 1963 until his passing in 1988.

Daws' Dominion

 Yesterday was the birthday of the one and only Daws Butler. As I've done in years past, I'm devoting this week to nothing but Daws. Call it a barrage of Butler if you'd like! Starting us off is this article on Daws that appeared in the March 14th, 1975 edition of the Richmond Times Dispatch. It covers his visit to the recently opened Hanna-Barbera area at Kings Dominion, as well as how and why he creates his characters.

Yogi Inspects New Cage

By Lora Mackie

    

    Yogi Bear walked into his new yellow cave at Kings Dominion, inspected the stalagmites, and said in his deep Art Carney voice, "Hey, hey, hey, this isn't bad, but where's the carpeting?"
    Actually, the voice was that of Daws Butler, who has become almost synonymous with the animated Yogi. For more than 14 years, he has been the voice for several other Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters as well.
    Butler and Bill Hanna, one of Yogi's creators, were at the theme park yesterday to help promote a new Hanna-Barbera section.
    Hanna admitted that Butler's voice, the only and original Yogi, cannot be replaced. "No one has been able to imitate Yogi yet," he said, explaining that they have auditioned several people for emergency stand-in parts for the famous 5-foot-6-inch bear. 

    Hanna also said, "Daws can change his voice so easily." 
    With that, Huck Hound came into the picture, threatening, "I'm going to say something cerebral," in his Southern hound dog dialect.
    A minute later, Butler became Mr. Jinks, the cat, and said, "I hate those meeces to pieces," referring, of course, to Dixie and Pixie. "These guys are getting rather bold," Mr. Jinks continued, "These meece are gonna take over the world."
    Butler has done more than 30 famous character voices, which are not all Hanna-Barbera characters. Some of them include: The Sun, in the raisin cereal commercial, Augie Doggie, Baba Looey, Snagglepuss, Blabber Mouse, Quick Draw McGraw, Wally Gator, and Cap'n Crunch, one of his favorites.
    Butler, 58, began his career when he was 18. "I learned everything by observation and from other actors." He explained that he was an only child and was "shy and withdrawn" and hated giving oral reports at school."
    As a type of "self-therapy," he entered himself in an amateur contest, finding that, "once I was in front of an audience, I was at ease."
    "I guess I had more talent than I thought because the next thing I knew, we hired an agent in Chicago and I was on my way," into show business.
    Butler is one of the first to do animated voices. He has enjoyed doing Huck and Yogi and is responsible for developing their personalities. He treats each character with a different "mental image" because, "each one has his own personality."
    "I put so much love and thinking into each of my characters," he said. "I'm thinking like Yogi when I do him."
    Butler describes the famous brown bear with the green felt tie and matching hat as "a big man on campus type."
    He thinks Mr. Jinks is a lot of fun because "he has a lot of variations since he is always trying to trick those mice. He is crafty."
    Contrary to popular belief, Butler is not the voice of Boo Boo, Yogi's little sidekick, although he does have some of the same characteristics. 
    Butler attributes some of his creativity to his training as a writer. "It helps me color the words, and that's where the humor comes in."
    Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., has a writing team that writes dialogue for the animated characters, but Butler does "quite a bit of adlibbing and interpolation. That's what gives their personalities a roundness, he said. Butler demonstrated how a handful of characters would say the same line. Quick Draw, the western horse, did it in a Western accent, but his Mexican friend, Baba Looey, gave the line a Spanish dialect.
    Butler gets "wrapped up" in his characters. He has found that when making the cartoons, "the energy you put in the character also helps inspire the animator." He said, "When you put energy in your voice, you and the animator become one." Sometimes he walks into the studio and lets out a loud "hey, hey, hey" in Yogi's voice and finds that the animator makes the bear raise his eyebrows a little higher or puts a little extra bounce in his gait. 
    For Butler, his work and hobby are the same, so in his spare time, he entertains at children's hospitals with Yogi and Huck puppets, and he teaches a workshop in his home in Los Angeles.
    He teaches about 15 persons, of varying ages, who want to profit from his experience in show business. They usually have had previous experience in commercials, on stage, or on television, and he coaches them in the areas of "cold reading" and polishing their acts.
    He is also working on a new character, Uncle Duncle, who he says, is similar to himself. Uncle Duncle is a slow-speaking, thoughtful man who gives advice to his nephew. Butler hopes the pair will soon be on radio.
    What has been the key to Butler's success in show business? "Basically," he said, "it's the heart and mind."

A Bag Full of Hanna-Barbera

Two years ago, I put out a post for Halloween, looking at just some of the many costumes Ben Cooper made for the Hanna-Barbera characters over the years (check it out here if you're interested). However, what I didn't mention is that they did dabble in more than costumes. For example, take a look at this Hanna-Barbera-focused Halloween bag from 1975.

Compared to the costumes Ben Cooper produced, these versions of the characters are a lot closer to their TV counterparts. We've got Fred, Yogi, and Scooby all present, which is a fitting trio as they are arguably the most popular characters from the company. The use of yellow, orange, and black is also quite fitting for the holiday. I have just one question: since when did Fred have his name plastered onto his tie? The other characters have that detail as well. Since the costumes often had the character's name thrown on, I guess they thought the original versions needed them too. A pretty odd addition, but also a very funny one.

What's the Deal with This New Jetsons Movie?

 You know, since I started this blog, there have been a few posts I never in a million years imagined writing. Yet, I think I've reached one even crazier than Huckleberry Hound coming to Blu-Ray.

In case you haven't heard, several entertainment outlets reported last week that Warner Bros. is once again attempting a live-action take on The Jetsons. It's far from the first time (check out this post to learn the history of this project), so who knows if it will actually see the light of day. But if it does, it will star Jim Carrey as George Jetson. Colin Trevorrow is in talks to direct the flick, while Joe Epstein writes.

Alright, that's a lot of info right off the bat, so let's get into my thoughts. I'll start with the casting of Jim Carrey as George. Straight-up, I don't like this choice. While I enjoy Carrey and many of his performances, he's the wrong choice for George. George is a typical sitcom straight man, which Carrey is anything but. I'm all for new interpretations and am no Jetsons purist, but this feels like a casting choice made solely because Jim Carrey is a box-office draw. Yes, Carrey has done more dramatic roles in the past, but let's be real, for a movie of this size, they'll want the typical Carrey shtick. Now, if he were cast as Grandpa Jetson, then they'd have been onto something!

In the director's chair is Colin Trevorrow. He's best known for directing some of the Jurassic World movies, and not directing the last Star Wars film. His Jurassic World entries are among some of my least favorite blockbusters in recent memory, so I'm not too excited with that choice, not that I was expecting Scorsese or something. That being said, his experience with VFX-heavy films may make him a good pick at bringing the futuristic Jetsons society to life. I'm at least sure it played a part in him landing the gig. He'll write the movie alongside Joe Epstein. Epstein produced the HBO series The Idol and wrote one short film. That's not a particularly inspiring resume, but everyone's gotta start somewhere I guess.

With the announcement of this new Jetsons film, I assume this also means that the animated feature that was announced in 2015 is no more. We haven't heard any updates on that in years, while the Flintstones animated movie that was announced alongside it is deep in development. Who knows if this one will even become a reality, but if it does, I'll be ready to talk about it. I'm already prepping for the inevitable Danny Devito as Mr. Spacely casting news!

Video of the Week: ToonHeads Presents the Worst of Hanna-Barbera

 Halloween is fast approaching, and as scary as ghouls and goblins can be, you want to know what's really scary? Bad cartoons. And as much as I love their early work, Hanna-Barbera probably produced more bad series than good ones. 

These shows, alongside drivel from competitors like Ruby-Spears and Filmation, were the focus of an episode of ToonHeads, an animation-focused docuseries that aired in the early years of Cartoon Network. If you watched ToonHeads back in the day but don't remember this episode, that's for good reason. Despite much of the work being done on it, the episode was ultimately scrapped. Apparently, the execs at CN weren't really comfortable with an episode that lampooned the Hanna-Barbera programs. A little odd, since this was post-Adult Swim, but at the same time, I do understand. Thankfully, the rough cut of the episode has been preserved and uploaded to YouTube.  Check it out below, and see what Hanna-Barbera shows were among the best of the worst cartoons.

Cartoon Network Presents: You Are Cartoons!

 There's no better time than this month to talk about costumes. And for today, I've got a special find related to the Hanna-Barbera mascot costumes. Below is the front and back of a Cartoon Network mascot guide book from 1995. This item was given to events and locations where the costumed Hanna-Barbera characters would appear, the most notable being Universal Studios. 

Here are a few shots of the interior pages. We get a shot of the character, alongside a few personality traits and details that the performer should keep in mind. There's a ton of characters covered, ranging from Hanna-Barbera's entire history. Honestly, I didn't even know there were SWAT Kats mascot costumes!

In addition to the profiles, the book also has sections dedicated to costume maintenance, events, and assembling the costume. It's definitely a unique item for any Hanna-Barbera collector, and a real treat if you're interested in finding out more about these costumes.