The Popeye Show 11/26/2001

[Dave Mackey]

"The Spinach Overture"
"It's The Natural Thing To Do"
"Hillbilling & Cooing"

[J Lee]

Well, we know for sure the middle cartoon was an AAP print and the last one had its original titles (and was one of the best of the mid-1950s Popeyes -- anytime you get a cartoon after 1948 with an original non-rehased Fleischer story, it's a bonus).

I kind of had a feeling they'd have a hard time finding the original titles to the four 1939 `oddballs' but since all four of them are excellent cartoons, it makes sense to air them even if the openings aren't perfect. (And I did get to see the "Aladdin" two-reeler they released at the same time with its original opening titles, but that was 32 years ago, so who knows where that print is today...)

[Argus Sventon]

It was nice of Cartoon Network to mention the different openings. We may never know how those four cartoons opened.

Before the final cartoon, they explained that Seymour Kneitel, who directed "Hillbillying and Cooing", was Max Fleischer's son-in-law.

During the end credits of the show, I noticed they acknowledged the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Seymour Kneitel picture.

I rewound the tape, and while the narrator was discussing Kneitel, there was a shot of Swee' Pea.

Come on, CN, if you aren't going to show us Kneitel's photo, don't bother mentioning it in the closing credits.

[Dub]

I missed the first five minutes of it and had assumed the Knietel photo was earlier in it.

Guess I was wrong. It was probably a jinx on somebody elses behalf

[Larry T]

J Lee, our resident Paramount expert, you probably know the answer to this:

Was "Hilbilling and Cooing" released BEFORE "Possum Pearl" or after... just wondering if there's a remote form of "rehashing" done for this cartoon.....??

[J Lee]

"Possum Pearl" was made after "Hillbilling and Cooing" much to my surprise, since an original Popeye story was a pretty rare thing by 1956.

The closest cousin to the Popeye cartoon from the Fleischer studio was probably the 1939 Betty Boop cartoon "Musical Mountaineers" -- different plot, but same song.

[bozo]

Unfortunately I had to pull the picture of Mr. Kneitel. Hopefully, it will appear in a later episode.