Chuck Jones Show

[Jack]

For Scent-imental Reasons, Academy Award winner of 1949

Gone Batty (what the!!!?????) Well, aparently CN can't tell the difference between a Chuck Jones and a Robert McKimson cartoon...

Rabbit Punch

Jack:D

[PorkyandDaffy]

Just goes to show you how much care CN puts into the Chuck Jones show.

[J Lee]

I assume next week, in tribute to his' great Road Runner-Coyote series of shorts, Cartoon Network will air "Rushing Roulette" on The Chuck Jones Show, followed, no dobut, on the June 10th show by one of Mr. Jones' equally-great Foghorn Legohrn cartoons.

Sheesh...

[PlopKat]

And maybe next week on the Tex Avery Show, they'll show some of the great Tom & Jerry cartoons Tex made ;)

Seeing "Gone Batty" air during the Chuck Jones show made me think something like the following happened:

The programmer for the Chuck Jones Show tells his assistant that he wants to show "Punch Trunk" this week. His assistant brings in "Rabbit Punch." The programmer decides he'll air "Rabbit Punch" anyway but tells his assistant to get "Punch Trunk" this time and adds that it's the one with the elephant. By the time the assistant gets to the tape library, he just remembers the elepahnt part and comes back with "Gone Batty."

Or maybe when the assistant was told to get "Punch Trunk" he misunderstood and got punch drunk instead.

Who the heck knows…

-PlopKat
hopes Turner Classic Movies gets around to showing some of those Myrna Loy westerns directed by Alfred Hitchcock

(That last bit and the one about the Tex Avery directed Tom & Jerry cartoons was plagiarized from Joe Adamson)

[Jack]

I personally prefer those Hanna Barbera cartoons with Yosemite Sam.

And maybe next week on the Tex Avery Show, they'll show some of the great Tom & Jerry cartoons Tex made
That brings up bad memories of a relentless debate I had with someone who was convinced Tex had directed Tom and Jerry cartoons, and that not every Looney Tune was made in 1963.

him: I love Tex Avery, he directed a few Tom and Jerry cartoons, didn't he?

Me: No, he never directed Tom and Jerry cartoons

him: I think he directed a few.

and so it went....



Jack:D
"But only a few have WWII references, the rest were made in 1963."

[Patrick McCart]

Did Jones direct Hobo Bobo? Maybe that's what they meant to show...

Still, that's a pretty bad mistake...It shows how much respect they have for Chuck Jones...they just want to get ratings off his name.

Didn't someone predict this would happen?

[PlopKat]

Hobo Bobo was also directed by Robert McKimson. It also features a cameo by the Minah Bird from Jones' Inki cartoons. Wonder if that was a source of the confusion since Hobo Bobo is a Blue Ribbon without its original titles.

Maybe Cartoon Network needs a copy of Jerry Beck & Will Friedwald's book to keep things like this straight.

-PlopKat

[snowpeck]

Most likely they have a copy of that book somewhere. But do they care enough to actually use it? Noooo...


gcb

[Eric B]

I saw when this came on, and was shocked as well, but I did see some Jones unit people in the credits, (forgot who) and perhaps this is why it was included.

[Jack]

It was a mistake, they don't show a cartoon on The Tex Avery show that wasn't directed by Avery, ditto with the Clampett show. They won't even show a cartoon the director had animated on, but not directed. A few people from the Jones unit doesn't make it a Chuck Jones cartoon.


Jack:D

[Matthew Hunter]

That is an easy mistake to make, because often the M-G-M cartoons tend to get grouped together. I remember a show a long time ago that aired the whole uncut glory of Tom and Jerry, (The only time I have ever seen "His Mouse Friday".) They also slipped Tex Avery and Harman/Ising cartoons in there . So that's where the mistake is made, people just figure it's all the same show, so yes, Tex Avery did direct many of the shorts this person would have seen on "Tom and Jerry", but he didn't direct any cartoons with the characters.
-Matthew

[Matt Yorston]

The member of the Jones unit from "Gone Batty" the person is thinking of is probably Ben Washam. Interestingly, though Washam's forte was obviously animating, on this cartoon, he actually appears as a storyman credited alongside Sid Marcus. It raises two questions: what was he doing at the McKimson unit and why was he writing instead of animating at the time? Oh, well.

[PorkyandDaffy]

Actually, I remember once when the Harman-Ising cartoon THE HUNGRY WOLF made it onto the Tex Avery show. Had to have been a goof.:p

[Sogturtle]

Jack~

Your friend likely did get his info that Tex directed "a few Tom and Jerry's" from a compilation show. However at least one book (respected at the time it came out) boldly pronounced Tex to be the director of all the Tom and Jerry toons!!!

I know it wasn't in the same book, but an author wrote about Hugh Harman's cartoon series, "LITTLE NEGRO"(!!!!) And that's what the guy believed the name of the character was supposed to be!!!

These jewels were de-composed ;) in the pre-Joe Adamson days (even before Maltin or Beck).

As for Jones top animator Ben Washam co-writing "Gone Batty" with Sid Marcus for Bob McKimson... The very next McKimson cartoon ("Quack Shot") features a story by McKimson animator Phil DeLara, his first and only. The studio was about to close down to gage the impact of 3-D and so, and appears to have been in a scramble with the departure of Tedd Pierce. A few months later Arthur Davis receives co-story credit on Freleng's "Sandy Claws"... Back to Washam, he was even allowed to direct by Chuck at MGM, so Chuck regarded him as creative and talented.

[daftchris]

It's a god-awful mistake, and in my opinion, inexcusable. It's a result of laziness, and nothing more. McKimson's name couldn't be more obvious in the cartoon.

To me, it's more than slipping in the wrong cartoon. The lack of background info next to the Clampett and Avery shows makes the show appear to have a real lack of respect. If they're going to call Jones "possibly the greatest cartoon director of our generation", then I think his tribute-show should maybe take a little more than five minutes to slap together, and should be thought out a little better. Or at all.

With the two back to back episodes- one with the Sniffles cartoon, the next with "The Bear That Wasn't" (which I found delightful), it seemed like they had a good formula. Two Jones classic/trademark/overplayed/whateveryouropinion cartoons and a third less-seen cartoon.

It seems that was an accident though.

Who could I write to about this? I guess I'm a little mad. :rolleyes:

Christine Gregory

[Jack]

I suppose you can e-mail this address, but don't expect a quick reply if any at all.

ToonNet@aol.com

Also, welcome to the Termite Terrace Trading Post Eric B and Christine!



Jack:D

[J Lee]

With the two back to back episodes- one with the Sniffles cartoon, the next with "The Bear That Wasn't" (which I found delightful), it seemed like they had a good formula. Two Jones classic/trademark/overplayed/whateveryouropinion cartoons and a third less-seen cartoon.

I guess, er, technically, "Gone Batty" would qualify as a 'never-before-seen' Chuck Jones cartoon -- I mean, until Sunday night, nobody ever before had seen it as a Chuck Jones cartoon, so I suppose that counts as a 'rairty' in CN's eyes. .;)