Yogi Bear Kellogg's Print Ads

Here's a lovely trio of Yogi Bear-centric Kellogg's print advertisements I discovered recently. All of them are from the early 1960s and depict Yogi Bear advertising Kellogg's cereal with a healthy amount of rhyming. Just take a look at this first image to see what I mean. It promotes not just Kellogg's products, but also the cost of food at that time, stating proudly that "food today takes less of your pay."

This second ad is a bit of a mouthful, and I mean that in the literal sense. Yogi's eating his own words, while the blurb at the bottom mentions that breakfast is a key part of a healthy day.

This final ad proves the previous entry true, as we see Yogi rollerskating after a hearty breakfast. And you've gotta love the "You'll go to town when breakfast is down" rhyme, contrived as it may be.

Penny Singleton Speaks

To cartoon fans and baby boomers, she was Jane Jetson, matriarch of the Jetson family. But to their parents and classic film fans, she was Blondie. Based on the comic strip, the Blondie series ran from 1938 to 1950, encompassing a whopping 28 films. Penny Singleton appeared in each entry and also portrayed the character in a radio series that ran in parallel with the movies. Even after her death in 2003, most outlets mentioned her role as Blondie before anything else. And, as this article in The Victoria Advocate from May 1978 declares, is still Blondie.

I haven't gotten to discuss Penny Singleton's career that much on this blog, mostly because interviews and articles discussing her relationship with The Jetsons are sparse. This piece doesn't mention the series at all, but it's a great look at her career at that point, and I felt a lot of you would enjoy reading it.

She's Still Blondie

By Joseph P. Mastrangelo

    The voice on the telephone sounded young and excitable with a slight hint of the familiar notes the way you remembered "Blondie" calling "Dagwood."  
    Penny Singleton, known to millions of moviegoers as the wide-eyed heroine of comic-strip artist Chic Young's slapstick family "The Bumsteads," has done a lot to reverse the "dumb blonde" image.
    "I am," she said, "still the executive president of the American Guild of Variety Actors ever since my 'write-in' election in 1958."
    "I am the only woman administrator and the only performer to hold the position."
    Singleton puts in a long day starting at 6:30 a.m. and sometimes lasting until midnight. She travels constantly, sitting across bargaining tables with theater and nightclub owners to win better contracts for performers. And usually, she wins.
    Her latest crusade is to merge the various performers' unions into a single one. "I hold four union memberships," she noted.

    "AGVA, of course, as well as SAG (Screen Actors' Guild), AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and Actors' Equity Association. We need a one-card union. It would help the welfare fund, the pension funds, and it would make more room for young performers."
    Born Dorothy McNulty in Philadelphia in 1912, she waited until she was 8 years old before making her debut in a vaudeville act.
    She wasn't much of a singer, and she danced in her very own manner, but she had a charm that generally won any audience. 
    Her real stage training began in Broadway Musicals "Good News" and "Hey Nonny Nonny!", where she met such greats as Al Jolson, Jack Benny, and Eddie Leonard.
    Her first Hollywood role was as a "gun moll" in a William Powell film called "After the Thin Man".
    In 1937, she married Dr. Lawrence Singleton. The marriage ended in divorce two years later, but she retained the name and added the "Penny".
    She later married movie producer Robert Sparks, a marriage that lasted 22 years until his death.
    Sparks suggested the "Blondie" series in 1939. The first one cost $95,000 to make and grossed $9 million. It was followed by many more until she said, "I began to feel like Blondie."
    A widow since 1963, she has two daughters and three granddaughters.
    Her only movie role since "Blondie" was in a supporting role in Henry Fonda's "The Best Man."
    In the fall of '71, she was back on Broadway in the revival of "No, No, Nanette," and did the role again in Milwaukee later, co-starring with Arthur "Dagwood" Lake.
    She speaks regretfully today of the paucity of parts for young people in the theater. "So many talented young performers. I see them everywhere I go, but there aren't that many jobs for them."
    "Show business is a luxury business, and performers are the first to feel the economic crunch," she said, and said she has no plans to retire. "There is just too much to do right now, too many people who need help."

A Great Day for the Great Gazoo

 It's Saint Patrick's Day yet again, and just as I did last year, I felt I should dedicate today's post to everyone's favorite Zetoxian, the Great Gazoo! This year, I'm sharing two commercials from Cartoon Network in the early 2000s featuring Gazoo, beginning with one from the year 2000 promoting a block entitled "My Favorite Fred". Gazoo gives us the lowdown on what the block is, and it even ends with a plug for the Viva Rock Vegas film, which saw the live-action debut of the Great Gazoo. Thankfully, they spare us from seeing any clips of that particular version of the character. 

The second ad aired in 2003 as part of Cartoon Network's "NBA All-Star Slam", which saw various NBA players sit down and chat with their favorite cartoon characters. In this particular promo, Latrell Sprewell talks with Gazoo, who, despite Gazoo's insistence, is not his favorite character. For more of these clips and Sprewell's actual favorite, check out this post from 2023. I'm also not entirely sure who voices Gazoo in these ads. I believe it's Jeff Bergman, but it may be somebody different.

Ted Nichols: 1928-2026

 Hoyt Curtin may have been the first composer for Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, but he wasn't the last. After Curtin left the studio in 1965 due to frustrations over residuals, another musician by the name of Ted Nichols took his place. From '65 to '72, Nichols composed the music for shows like Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Space Ghost, and many more. Though the quality of the shows is debatable, Nichols' arrangements proved to be every bit as catchy as his predecessor. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't know the Scooby-Doo theme song. 

It is with deep sadness that I inform you that Ted Nichols has passed away. He died on the ninth of January at age 97, though news of his death wasn't reported until this month. 

Born in Montana on October 2nd, 1928, Nichols' life took him many places, including time in both the Navy and Air Force. Above everything else, his passion for music was a constant in his career. He was a band director at numerous schools and also sang for Disneyland. Around 1963, he met an animator who worked for Hanna-Barbera, and after a phone call with Joe Barbera, he was writing cues for Jonny Quest. That kicked off an almost decade-long partnership between Hanna-Barbera and Nichols, seeing him compose music for virtually all Hanna-Barbera productions made in that time. 

In 1972, Nichols decided to leave Hanna-Barbera, and he moved towards working on religious projects and operas. Hoyt Curtin would return to take his place. Ted continued his musical career until around 2014, well into his eighties. The last project I found his name attached to was a Christmas choir performance in December of that year. The final opera he composed music for, titled Rendezvous with Destiny, premiered in 2012. To say he enjoyed composing and directing would be an understatement. 

Though Ted Nichols is no longer with us, his legacy will endure through the many compositions he brought to life, both for Hanna-Barbera and elsewhere. My thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time. 

Hanna-Barbera Heads for Tubi

 Ever since the official Boomerang app ceased operations in 2024, the Hanna-Barbera library has virtually disappeared from streaming services. Many thought the Boomerang titles would simply migrate to HBO Max, but that never came to pass. Instead, the task has fallen to the free streaming platform Tubi.

Last week, Tubi's official Twitter revealed a truckload of animated series from the WB library will be coming to the streaming service this year. You can see the full list here, but here are all of the Hanna-Barbera titles coming. Keep your eye out for one particularly shocking name.

• Abbott and Costello Cartoons
• The Addams Family (1973)
• Astro and the Space Mutts 
• Atom Ant
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
• Cow and Chicken
• Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines
• Dexter's Laboratory 
• The Dukes
• Dumb and Dumber
• Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
• Flintstones Family Adventures
• The Flintstones Kids
• Great Grape Ape
• Help, It's the Hair Bear Bunch
• Hong Kong Phooey
• Jonny Quest
• Magilla Gorilla
• New Scooby-Doo Mysteries
• Paddington Bear
• Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm
• Perils of Penelope Pitstop
• Powerpuff Girls
• A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
• Quick Draw McGraw (!)
• Ricochet Rabbit
• Smurfs
• Snagglepuss
• Super Friends
• 13 Ghosts of Scoobv-Doo
• The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley
• The New Fred and Barney Show
• Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
• Secret Squirrel Show
• Super Globetrotters
• The Tom and Jerry Show
• Tom and Jerry Kids
• Top Cat
• Wacky Races
• Yo! Yogi!
• Yogi's Galaxy Goof-Ups
• Yogi's Gang
• Yogi's Space Race
• Yogi's Treasure Hunt

That's a whopping 44 shows that will drop this year, starting with Powerpuff Girls and Yogi's Gang on March 1st. And yes, you saw that right, Quick Draw McGraw is among the shows slated to appear. Does this mean the show has been remastered and the music issues have been resolved? I have no clue, but we live in a world where Huckleberry Hound is now on Blu-Ray, so I'm optimistic. 

Tubi already has The Flintstones and Yogi Bear, so more of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons coming to the service isn't shocking. The sheer volume of titles arriving definitely is, though. They've picked an impressive lineup of shows from the studio's entire history, many of which have never been seen on streaming period. So if you love Hanna-Barbera but lack access to MeTV Toons, Tubi's got you covered and then some. 

Chatting With Janet Waldo

 This week would've been the 107th birthday of the talented Janet Waldo. In celebration of Hanna-Barbera's premier voice actress, below is a terrific interview with Waldo, conducted by the late, great Dennis Daily. While the interview does touch on her work with Hanna-Barbera, primarily on The Jetsons, there's also plenty of discussion about her other work. From her days as Corliss Archer to appearing on I Love Lucy, Daily left no stone unturned. Give it a listen at the link below!

The Almost Fred's

As a lot of Flintstones fans will know, today is the birthday of the one and only Fred Flintstone. I've made a post before covering some of the many actors who have voiced the character, but what about the men who almost portrayed him? 

Around sixty or so actors auditioned for The Flintstones. Of that group, we know of three that were considered for Fred before the role went to the great Alan Reed. I'll be going through all of them today, starting with the king of Hanna-Barbera voiceovers, Daws Butler. 

Daws voiced both Fred and Barney in the pitch film, The Flagstones. His performance as both characters is good, but nothing particularly special when compared to his other roles. That being said, this was a pilot, so who knows how he'd have sounded in the actual series. Daws would not voice either character when the show was picked up, supposedly because Joe Barbera felt the studio was stretching him too thin. Despite that, he'd go on to voice the occasional side character in the series, and famously filled in for Mel Blanc as Barney after his near-fatal crash.

For a time, the role was nearly George O'Hanlon's. If that name sounds familiar to you, it's because he would later voice George Jetson in The Jetsons. He had sent out a tape that Joe Barbera enjoyed, but there was one small problem: the network didn't, forcing Barbera to continue his search. Though O'Hanlon didn't get the role, Barbera kept him in mind and soon called on him for The Jetsons. O'Hanlon would also contribute to The Flintstones' later seasons as a writer. 

Though I love George O'Hanlon and his work, I have to go with the executives on this one. O'Hanlon's voice worked perfectly for someone like George Jetson, but he lacks the gruffness that Fred Flintstone needs. Funnily enough, that was the exact reason Bill Thompson was booted from the role. For a short time, Touche Turtle himself was going to play Fred Flintstone. He had recorded five episodes before being sacked. Hal Smith, the original voice of Barney, was thrown out with him. 

After a lengthy search, Alan Reed was finally chosen to play Fred Flintstone. Reed hadn't done much in the way of animation at the time (though he did contribute to Disney's Lady and the Tramp, which also featured Bill Thompson), but his voice had the grittiness Joe was looking for. Reed also chose to play the character straight, which I imagine put him above others auditioning for the role. And just like that, history had been made, and I don't think anyone can imagine anybody else voicing Mr. Flintstone.