Questions on 1960's Popeye cartoon shorts

[John Doe]

Wasn't Popeye's foe named Brutus instead of Bluto? And weren't there a few brief instances where Popeye had TWO eyes instead of his usual one? It's been years since I've seen these King Features Syndicate shorts made in the 1960's, and CN doesn't currently have rights to them. Corrections are welcome, and Happy New Year!

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by John Doe
Wasn't Popeye's foe named Brutus instead of Bluto? And weren't there a few brief instances where Popeye had TWO eyes instead of his usual one? It's been years since I've seen these King Features Syndicate shorts made in the 1960's, and CN doesn't currently have rights to them. Corrections are welcome, and Happy New Year!

Brutus it was!! I believe there was even newspaper article published at the time about the "new"cartoons and Bluto transform!!! The easiest way for CN and Warners to ever resolve the Popeye issue is to buy Hearst (owner of KFS). 'Course that would give Warner's 50 % ownership of Betty Boop (the character not the cartoons), which would likely light a fire to work out a deal with Viacom to get the Boops on CN...

As has been discussed before the KFS (not to be confused with KFC :) ) Popeyes are a broad mix made by a number of studios, with some actually good and some shockingly bad. I have my personal favorites amongst them though!

[Bobby B]

Originally posted by John Doe
Wasn't Popeye's foe named Brutus instead of Bluto? And weren't there a few brief instances where Popeye had TWO eyes instead of his usual one? It's been years since I've seen these King Features Syndicate shorts made in the 1960's, and CN doesn't currently have rights to them. Corrections are welcome, and Happy New Year!


Popeye can be seen with 2 open eyes in some of the Famous Studios theatrical cartoons too. Famous also wasn't consistent with which eye was the open one, though this can be seen as early as the late Fleischer cartoon "Kickin' the Conga 'Round".

[Geezil]

Originally posted by John Doe
Wasn't Popeye's foe named Brutus instead of Bluto?

Yes, indeed, and for that as well as many other good reasons ... at least back in Rochester, NY, land of my childhood ... those KFS Popeyes were gone from our local airwaves completely within a year of their original appearance in syndication. (For another thing, I'd guess it quickly became understood in the Channel 8 mailroom that the kids wanted those Fleischer/Famous shorts back FAST! They'd been put on a very ill-advised hiatus in favor of the "new and improved," of course.)

Anyway, my true point here is that the late 1980s Ocean Comics Popeye series (in just two heavily "retconned" issues) poured more fuel on that "Brutus" fire by establishing that both Bluto and Brutus existed in Popeye's world. If you've never read these, they're at least worth a look as amusing curiosities.

And, yes, it was that same Ocean Comics that returned to the scene of the crime with its "Wedding of Popeye and Olive" 1999 one-shot issue. That time, at least, all rewritten history went out the window so, IMHO, the creators could and did give it a much better try.

[Greg Method]

I personally find the Ocean Comics issues to be fascinating, even if they're not official "canon."

I don't think we needed to have an origin for Popeye, and I think the live action movie covers that properly, but it's interesting to see how the writers tried to tie all it all together.

[angilbas]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Geezil


Yes, indeed, and for that as well as many other good reasons ... at least back in Rochester, NY, land of my childhood ... those KFS Popeyes were gone from our local airwaves completely within a year of their original appearance in syndication. (For another thing, I'd guess it quickly became understood in the Channel 8 mailroom that the kids wanted those Fleischer/Famous shorts back FAST! They'd been put on a very ill-advised hiatus in favor of the "new and improved," of course.)

I lived in Picton (near the northern shore of Lake Ontario) from late 1962 until mid-1964, and the KFS Popeyes were familiar fare to me. Their broadcasts must have originated in Syracuse (we could get three channels from Syracuse and another three from Rochester; the only available Canadian station was Channel 11 from Kingston and I don't recall Popeye being on that).

-Tony