Popeye: Cartoon Icons of American TV

Created by American cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar, Popeye (also Popeye the Sailor) first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929, billed as a Betty Boop cartoon.  (According to the official Popeye website, Popeye is 34 years old and was born in a typhoon off Santa Monica, California.)  In 1933, Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre character and his cartoon buddies into a series of Popeye the Sailor animated shorts for Paramount Pictures shown in movie theaters.  These first Popeye shorts introduced the now-famous "I’m Popeye the Sailor Man,” song written by Sammy Lerner (loosely based on the "Pirate King" song in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Pirates of Penzance, that would eventually become Popeye’s theme song).  Read more . . .

Bugs Bunny: Cartoon Icons of American TV

The brainchild of cartoon director Tex Avery, Bugs Bunny is a world-famous cartoon character who starred in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became Warner Bros. Recognized by his trademark carrot, quick and often ironic whit, and his love for costumes, Bugs Bunny has been part of American pop culture for over 70 years, voted the "greatest cartoon character of all time" by TV Guide.  Starring in 167 film shorts during the Golden Age of American animation (as well as appearing in several non-animated films including Space Jam and Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Bugs evolved from a less developed character who first appeared in the 1938 Warner Brothers cartoon Porky’s Hare Hunt.   Read more . . .

The Flintstones: Cartoon Icons of American TV

The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American TV series that ran from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on the ABC network.  Produced by the team of Hanna-Barbera, The Flintstones follows the lives and adventures of two working-class Stone-Age families, the Flintstones and the Rubbles.  Though telecast in black-and-white during its first two seasons, it was filmed in color from the start.  A clever juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in a Stone Age setting, The Flintstones takes place in the "modern" metropolis of Bedrock.  (In some of the earlier episodes, it was referred to as "Rockville.”)  In this fantastic vision of the ancient past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long-extinct animals co-exist with barefoot cavemen who drive cars.  Read more. . .

Cartoon Icons of American TV: Heckle and Jeckle

Heckle and Jeckle are popular cartoon characters created by artist Paul Terry, and released by his own studio, Terrytoons, for 20th Century Fox.  Their names were inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novella, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Combining the wit of Bugs Bunny and a mischievous streak reminiscent of Woody Woodpecker, Heckle and Jeckle are a pair of identical magpies who calmly outwit their numerous foes in each adventure.  (Many viewers mistakenly think they are crows.)  In many episodes, however–“Moose On the Loose,” “Free Enterprise,” “The Power of Thought,” and “Hula Hula Land," their foes inevitably come out on top.   One magpie–Jeckle–speaks with a distinguished British accent, while Heckle, a Brooklyn, New York dialect. Heckle frequently refers to Jeckle simply as ‘chum’ or ‘pal,’ while Jeckle refers to Heckle as ‘old chap,’ ‘old boy,’ and ‘old featherhead’– indicating the close friendship between them.  Read more . . .