A Chat With Daws Butler

 We're taking a break from the Jetsons for today's post. Well, sort of. Instead, it's time to highlight one of Hanna-Barbera's most celebrated voice actors, Daws Butler. Butler provided several voices for The Jetsons and essentially every other Hanna-Barbera classic you could think of. From Yogi Bear to Snagglepuss, from Elroy Jetson to Huckleberry Hound, the list of iconic cartoon characters Daws gave life to is truly immense. Daws Butler also influenced many modern voice actors through the workshops he held in the 1970s and 1980s. Actors like Nancy Cartwright, Corey Burton, and Bill Farmer are just three of the people who got their start through these workshops. 

Daws Butler sadly passed away from a heart attack on May 18th, 1988. Yet, even thirty-five years since his passing, Butler's legacy lives on through the characters he helped create, the voice artists he taught, and the memories he made.

Today, I'm going to share a short little interview with Butler that appeared in the Sandusky Register on September 11th, 1985. Here, Daws discusses both the then-upcoming Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera TV block, and also shares some insight on the thought process behind creating a cartoon voice. It's a very insightful piece, although be warned that there is an incorrect statement that the first cartoon voices he did were for Walter Lantz (he had done several Tex Avery cartoons before then). Regardless, I hope you enjoy this one!

His voices bring dozens of cartoon friends to life

    HOLLYWOOD (UPI) — Some of the most familiar voices to your child's ears belong to the same man.

    If your tots watch television on Saturday mornings or tune in animated cartoons often, they can hardly escape hearing the voices of Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Quick-Draw McGraw, Blabber Mouse, Huckleberry Hound, Wally Gator and a dozen others.

    Their vocal gymnastics are the product of Daws Butler, whose versatile voice will be a mainstay of "The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera," a new 90-minute syndicated series making its debut on more than 100 stations this month.

    The omnibus show involves three distinct segments — "The Paw Paws," "Yogi's Treasure Hunt" and "Goltar and the Golden Lance."

    All three will feature Butler's voices in familiar and new animated characters.

    "The Paw Paws" involves the hijinks of a family of tiny Indian bears in a verdant forest. "Yogi's Treasure Hunt" follows the adventures of Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo aboard the S.S. Jelly Roger, a marvelous machine that flies, floats and rolls into mischief. "Galtar and the Golden Lance" is a gothic tale of knights in armor and princesses in distress.

    Butler is one of a small company of vocal magicians — among them Frank Welker, Mel Blanc, Walker Edmiston, Paul Frees, June Foray and Don Messick — whose voices will forever be more famous than their faces.

    They supply dialogue for an army of beloved animated characters that entertain millions of kids around the world. They also provide thousands of radio and voiceover TV commercials familiar to millions of adults.

    Butler's longest-running commercial character is Captain Crunch, which he has been doing for 20 years.

    "It's a good and interesting living," Butler said the other day in a workshop behind his Beverly Hills home, where he holds classes for budding voiceover performers.

    Butler, a small, graying, energetic man, has been heard on more than 1,000 episodes of various cartoon series, among them Elroy in "The Jetsons," a Hanna-Barbera series returning with 41 new episodes this season.

    "I guess my best-known voice is Yogi," he said. "And the best-known line is Yogi saying, 'I', smarter than the average bear.'

    "But the one I enjoy doing most is Huckleberry Hound. I love Southern accents and he has a very funny one.

    "Animals are more fun than human beings because the exaggeration is greater. Also, humans don't animate as well as four-footed critters.

    "I try to give high energy to all the characters and provide a subtext to make them more believable to myself. I have to know them inside and out, how they react in different situations.

    "You don't just use your voice in this work. I employ my whole body, especially the diaphragm and chest. There's also a lot of head and body movement. There has to be when a five-foot-two guy like me is talking for an eight-foot bear.

    "For some reason, big animals are always sort of dumb, and the little ones are smart. Among the little guys I've done are Cogswell, Fibber Fox and Baba Looey."

    Butler began his show business career as a mimic with two other impersonators in Chicago, mostly on radio and later in clubs and theaters. In Hollywood he became a single, doing radio shows with far-ranging dialects.

    The closest he came to performing on camera was working hand puppets for Stan Freberg in an early TV series titled "Time For Beany." He began providing cartoon voices in the 1950s for Walter Lantz.

    His first distinguishable voice was that of Smedley (the dog) for Lantz. In addition to his long-standing association with Hanna-Barbera, beginning with the "Ruff and Reddy" series, he was the voice of several characters in the old "Rocky and Bullwinkle" series.

    "There's no telling how many voices I've done in my career," Butler said. "I can't think of how many possibilities remain."

Video of the Week: 1986 Jetsons Music Video

 Yesterday, I shared an article previewing the 1985 revival of The Jetsons. One of the things that caught my attention in the piece was a mention of an MTV-styled music video featuring the show's iconic theme song, and, after a little bit of digging on Youtube, I managed to find that video! First airing in 1986, this video got airtime on MTV, and was but one classic TV theme released on the album "Television's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1." The theme was later made available as a single in 1986, which led to this video being commissioned. According to this piece from the LA Times, the song soon reached number nine on Billboard's retail sales charts. Check out the video below, which features clips from both the original series and the revival!

The Jetsons Arrive to the Far-off Year of 1985

 As I mentioned in my previous entry to this blog, The Jetsons, in its initial form, only lasted one season back in 1962. After the show was canceled, the series began to play in reruns on Saturday mornings, and this schedule shift gave the show a second chance. Over the next two decades, The Jetsons was a staple of Saturday morning cartoons, entertaining generations of children during that time. Finally, in 1984, the decision was made to bring The Jetsons back, with the original voice cast and all.

Nowadays, reboots and revivals are all the rage, even in animation. Just last month, Clone High returned to TV after a similarly long gap between episodes. Next month, Futurama comes back (again!) to Hulu. But this was really the first time a cartoon was brought back just as it was when it ended. 

That's not to say that the 1980s run of episodes was entirely consistent with what had come before, however. These newer episodes focused a lot more on weird sci-fi stories, instead of the typical sitcom hallmarks the family went through in the original series. New characters like Orbitty joined the show's colorful cast of characters. George and Jane also took a backseat in these episodes, as it was believed that kids (the main target audience of the revival), would relate to the adventures of Judy and Elroy easier than they would their parents. From a technological perspective, these episodes were the first example of a cartoon using digital ink and paint, instead of the traditional way. The revival episodes were also aired in stereo, a first for the studio.

Nowadays, the general consensus on these episodes is pretty split. Some feel they lost what made the original show so memorable, while others see them as a worthy continuation of what came before. I think Judy Jetson herself, Janet Waldo said it best in an interview: "Some of them were great, and some of them were not-so-great."

Regardless of what you think of them, as the first major cartoon revival, the Jetsons' return generated a lot of press back in 1985. Here's an in-depth piece from September 26th, 1985, that appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette. Also check out an image of the main cast right next to their futuristic counterparts, taken from the recording sessions of the 1980's episodes!

'Jetsons' rescued from the land of reruns'
By Michael Yockel

    Meet George Jetson, his wife Jane, their teenage hipster daughter Judy, their little boy Elroy and their gravelly voiced dog Astro. After bouncing around cartoon purgatory for 23 years, "The Jetsons" has returned to television with 41 new episodes. Coupled with the show's original 24 episodes, they are on the air Mondays through Fridays (7:30 a.m. Channel 21). The program is already signed up for 80 U.S. markets, including all of the top 30.

    You do remember "The Jetsons"? Better than any other TV show, it depicted a vision of the future that is permanently imprinted on the collective mind of the "Big Chill" generation.

    The show took an optimistic, post-Eisenhower world view and projected it into the year 2000—a sort of futuristic "Father Knows Best." Jovial husband/dad George whisked to his job in an atomic-powered bubble car. Practical wife/mom Jane stayed home and did housewifey chores with the aid of Rosie the Robot. Antenna beany-topped Elroy whooshed to school each morning in a pneumatic tube. And pert and pretty Judy yammered on the viewer-phone and concentrated on getting her good foot down to the Solar Swivel dance. Things were future perfect, so to speak.

    When "The Jetsons" premiered in prime time Sundays (7:30-8 p.m.) on ABC in Sept. 1962, all was peachy with the American dream.

    Handsome John F. Kennedy was in the White House, preparing to stare down the Russians in Cuba. Space hero John Clenn jauntily cruised around the Earth. Likable Arnie Palmer won the Masters and the British Open golf tournies. And Chubby Checker's dance craze, "The Twist," was the No. 1 record of the year.

    Life was good. Simple, too. Hanna-Barbera, creators of such notable period characters as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw, took the upbeat spirit of the era and grafted it onto the futuristic nuclear family.

    Originally, "The Jetsons" was born out of the enormous success of another half-hour Hanna-Barbera cartoon, "The Flintstones"—the animated Stone Age version of Hacjie Gleason's "The Honeymooners." Hanna-Barbera reasoned that since the cartoon sit-com concept worked so well in a prehistoric setting, why not try something similar in the future.

    Well, what's good for the past isn't necessarily good for the future. "The Jetsons" was a commercial flop. Actually, it didn't have much of a chance, given the fact that it was up against the popular "Denni The Menace" on CBS and NBC's perennial kids powerhouse, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color." George et al., it seems, were victims of a tough time slot. And, according, to Bob Hathcock, producer of the new "Jetsons" series, the original show was savaged by the critics.

    After one season of 24 episodes, "The Jetsons" was withdrawn from ABC's prime-time lineup, and Hanna-Barbera ceased production of the series. ABC Shifted "The Jetsons" to its Saturday morning cartoon cavalcade for the '63 season, and the following year the show moved to CBS' Saturday morning schedule. Phew. George and family logged some serious network miles.

    "The Jetsons" stayed with NBC for three years before being dropped by the network, only to be resuscitated in 1971 for a 12-year run through 1983. Amazingly, the same original 24 episodes were being shown over and over again. Until last September, the show could be seen in 80 U.S. markets and 55 countries. Then Worldvision Enterprises, the show's new distributor, decided to pull it from the air waves, gearing up for the fall '85 "Jetsons" assault.

    Work began on the 41 new episodes late last year at a cost of approximately $300,000 per show, says Hanna-Barbera-spokeswoman Sarah Baisley. All of the actors and actresses who provided the voices for the original show have returned to work on the new episodes: George O'Hanlon (George); Penny Singleton (Jane); Janet Waldo (Judy); Daws Butler (Elroy); Don Messick (Astro); and the ubiquitous Mel Blanc (George's boss, Cosmo G. Spacely).

    Most are cartoon voiceover veterans, especially Blanc, who is responsible for the voices of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Roadrunner, Daffy Duck, and a gaggle of other Warner Brothers cartoon characters. Messick has done time as the voice of Bamm-Bamm on "The Flintstones" and as Dr. Benton Quest on "Johnny Quest," while 77-year-old Singleton is best known for her portrayal of Blondie in a slew of '30s and '40s films.

    Hathcock, whose father was an animator on the original show, says that because the actors are now older and their voices may have deepened, some "voice enhancement" could be required in order to match the sound of the old episodes with the sound of the new ones. But he's adamant that the look and attitude of "The Jetsons" be unchanged.

    "The spirit of the show will be the same," Hathcock explains. "It will still be offered as a sit-com. We want it to be true to the original, because there's an audience out there that almost constitutes a 'Jetsons' cult, and they want to see what they remember as 'The Jetsons."

    To that end, the family's new-wavey fashions will remain the same: above-the-knee dresses for Jane; triangular and circular stand-up collars for everyone, and miniskirts with Spandex leggings for Judy. Come to think of it, it's taken 20 years for women's fashions to catch up with Judy.

    Another constant will be Jane's character. Despite the omnipresent women's movement of the past 15 years, Jane will continue to be a space-age June Cleaver. "I think that the family relationship should stay the same," Hathcock says. "We haven't said, 'We have to get Jane a job.' However, we've avoided some of the things that we regard as the more negative aspects of the '50s culture, like 'the little woman.' There was one (original) episode called 'Jane's Driving Lesson.' You can imagine what that was like."

    Ditto for Judy. Says Baisley, "Judy isn't going to study to be a nuclear scientist. She's still going to get crushes on boys and be interested in the latest dance craze."

    The new "Jetsons" will feature one additional character—an interplanetary pet named Orbitty, who joins the family after being discovered by Elroy. Cute and cuddly, Orbitty sports springs for legs and changes color according to its mood. As Astro would say, "Rut-roh."

    Also expect some new gadgetry. The real doozy is a 3-D "holographic" TV. With it, viewer and viewee can jive, signify and flirt with each other as the latter's TV image materializes ghost-like from out of the screen. Outta sight. Then there's the Shapeupizer, a large contraption that whips your body into perfect condition.

    Look too for: the Memominder, a skeletal gizmo which hovers several paces behind you and bleats your daily appointments; the Clothing Vending Machine, which lives up to its name; the Dressing Cone, a vertically oscillating energy ring which attires you in the garb of your choice, and the sublime Judy's Diary, a hovering heart-shaped doo-dad which records Judy's love conquests and heartbreaks.

    Some familiar gadgetry will return, too. For instance, the family's Skypad Apartments will be raised and lowered to escape foul weather; Jane will choose meals from her automat-like "foodarackacycle" and call housekeeping shots with the seeing-eye vacuum cleaner and the voice-operated washing machine; and presumably, George will walk Astro on the pet treadmill—the same machine that trips him during the show's credits.

    The show's theme song—which has been revived and given extensive airplay on Los Angeles radio—will be re-recorded in stereo, and, according to Baisley, an MTV-style video is being created for it with clips from the series.

    Both Hathcock and Baisley are keeping mum on the content of the 41 new shows, although Baisley says that one episode will be a parody of "Love Boat," and Hathcock says another will be a take-off on "A Christmas Carol."

    So who is going to watch "The Jetsons" this time around? "Kids 2 to 11, of course," says John Riggio, Worldvision's director of creative services, "and if we can get women watching and other adults, then fine. Sure it's a kids show, but it also lends itself to adult viewing. After all, it is a sit-com and has broad appeal. You know, "The Jetsons" is mentioned in the Baby Boomer edition of Trivial Pursuit, and we're hoping to capitalize on the whole nostalgia renaissance."

    Baisley also is counting on baby boomers to watch the show. "The second you mention 'The Jetsons' to them" she says laughing, "they start singing the theme song."

That's it for tonight, but before I sign off, I want to recommend you check out the blog, "The Golden Age of Animation." It's only just gotten off the ground, but I'm always willing to shout out a blog, especially as someone who has similarly only gotten started.

Jettisoned Jetsons Projects Part One: Judy and Elroy, All Grown Up

 Jetsons June continues with part one in a series that'll run throughout the month that we'll call "Jettisoned Jetsons Projects". In today's installment, we'll look at the very first attempt to bring the Jetsons back!

As most of you may know, The Jetsons wasn't exactly an instant hit when it premiered back in 1962. The show was canceled after only one season following low ratings, and it remained that way until 1985, when the show was brought back for an additional 51 episodes. That isn't to say Hanna-Barbera didn't try to bring the Jetsons back sooner, however. The first notable attempt to resurrect the show came in 1974, but this wouldn't have been just an ordinary revival. Instead, it would have been a sequel set around a decade after the original series, and follow older versions of Judy and Elroy. At least, that was one version that was being considered. Mark Evanier, who helped develop this pitch, has a fascinating post on his blog that shares some insight on the abandoned series. Hanna-Barbera played around with the idea of replacing Elroy with a love interest for Judy. There was even the idea of retooling this character into the fan-favorite Jet Screamer, who was only featured in one episode of the original show. Astro would've also been along for the ride, and much like Elroy, his character evolved greatly during development. Some ideas played with would have seen Astro become an uncle to a miniature version of himself, who Evanier suggested be named "Tralfaz" in reference to the name Astro's initial owner gave him. Check out the image below to get a taste of what the show could've looked like. Big thanks to Yowp for this image, give his post on the show a look if you want to see some more art from this project.

So, what happened to this show? To put it bluntly, CBS just wasn't interested in more Jetsons. While they loved the idea of a show about teens in outer space, there was a feeling that reruns of the original Jetsons would be just as successful as this sequel show. As a result, the show was retooled into The Partridge Family, 2200 A.D. As you can tell by the image of the show shared below, it's pretty evident that the show did indeed start off as an extension of the Jetsons, rather than an original series. Partridge Family, unfortunately, didn't find much success, only airing for one season before it was canceled.  It wouldn't be until 1981 that the Jetsons would get animated again, and even then, it was little more than the similarly shortlived Astro and the Space Mutts.

Of course, that wasn't the last time the powers that be said no to a Jetsons revival. Next week, I'll discuss not one, but two attempts to bring the Jetsons back to TV screens in the 90s! Before I wrap this up, I also wanna give a shout-out to this great Partridge Family 2200 AD fansite, which was an invaluable asset in conducting research for this piece. If you wanna know more about this rather forgotten series in HB's catalog, look no further!

Video of the Week: The Jetsons Comes to ABC

 Jetsons June has just started, so why don't we head back to the very beginning of the first family of the future? Here's a neat 1962 TV promo highlighting the Jetsons premiere on ABC. All the footage is sourced from the very first episode, and it even features some nice narration from George Jetson himself, played of course by George O'Hanlon. Check it out, and see how the world was introduced to the space-age family!

So, Was George Jetson Actually Born in 2022?

 July 31st, 2022, the day George Jetson was born. At least, that's what the internet seems to believe. If you were active on social media at all during that period, I'm sure you saw at least one meme or news article discussing this. But how true is this really? As someone who finished rewatching the show recently and looked far and wide for any hints of his age within it, I thought I'd break this theory down piece by piece, and see how much of it holds weight.

The theory is simple to explain. Its widely believed that the series took place in 2062, one hundred years after its 1962 debut. In the season one episode "Test Pilot", George is told he could live to 150, which prompts him to say he still has 110 years ahead of him. Clearly, that means George's canonical age is 40, placing his birth year at some point in 2022. Case closed, right?

Well, not exactly. For one, it's never actually stated in The Jetsons that the series takes place in the year 2062. So why do people believe such a thing? I chalk it up to material released outside of the show. Several newspaper ads from before the show began (like the one below, which is sourced from Yowp's wonderful blog) explicitly said it took place in 2062, while others simply said it took place "a century or so into the future." Interestingly enough, Hanna-Barbera put out a greeting card for New Year's 1963 with the Jetsons family featured. In it, they celebrate the arrival of 2063. So while it is never stated in the show that it is set in 2062 (likely a deliberate move to help keep the show timeless), I think it's a safe bet that the show does indeed take place at this point in time.

Unfortunately, the case of George's age is not nearly as simple. While we can infer that George's age is 40 from what we're told in the aforementioned episode, another episode in the series flat-out tells us his age, and it is not 40. In the season two episode "Boy George", after being turned into a child, George tells an officer that he is really 38. Okay, so he's 38, right? That might not be the case, either! One of the bonus features included on the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of the original series is a collection of character bios for each member of the Jetsons family. These include their hobbies, occupations, and of course, their ages. George is listed as "mid-30s", which contradicts both of the previously mentioned ages. I don't know where this was sourced from, but given that the ages of the other characters line up with what we know from the show (for example, Elroy is listed as being 6 1/2 years old, which we know from the first episode), I believe there's got to be some sort of nugget of truth to this.

Lastly, this theory states that George was born on July 31st, and to be completely honest with you all, I have no idea where this comes from. The date holds no significance to the Jetsons in any way whatsoever. No episode premiered on that date, it doesn't factor into the story of an episode, and it doesn't even line up with the actual birthdate of George's voice actor, George O'Hanlon. Could it be that George was born on the 31st of July? Sure, but I see no reason to believe that's any more possible than him being born on any of the other 364 days of the year.

And there you have it. While it looks like the Jetsons did probably take place in 2062, George's actual birth year seems a lot sketchier. Given that two different official sources list him as still being in his thirties though, I think we can safely say he is not 40 years old, and as such, was not born last year. Remember folks, don't always believe what you see on the internet!

Video of the Week: Jetsons Toyota Commercial

 Jetsons June begins today with a new video of the week, something I haven't done in a while! From 1992, here's a commercial featuring the Jetsons family promoting Toyota. The Jetsons have appeared in plenty of TV ads over the years, from Radioshack to Cartoon Network and so on, but I only recently discovered this one. I really dig the animation in this commercial. I, unfortunately, can't find any info on what studio produced it, but I highly doubt it was Hanna-Barbera themselves. Besides that, how often do you see Mr. Cogswell in a TV commercial?