Does Anyone Remember....

[Thad Komorowski]

when Cartoon Network used to play Woody Woodpecker and the Lantz cartoons? I clearly remember seeing stuff like "The Redwood Sap" and "Barber of Seville" airing on a show called WOODY WOODPECKER and a LOT of Andy Panda cartoons on the ACME HOUR. In fact, I even think I remember "The Hams That Couldn't Be Cured" on the ACME HOUR! Does anyone remember the Lantz cartoons on CN? And why did they stop airing them? Here's my theory:

CN bought the rights to play Lantz cartoons from Universal in the early-mid 90's. In the later 90's, it was costing CN too much to have the rights to these, so they dropped them.

Why? It's not like Universal is making tapes of them. I remember talking to someone about this at Universal Studios, and he or she (I don't remember) said that the big guys at Universal say they're too violent. WHAT THE F@$%?! Okay, you guys figure this one out.

-Thad:D

[Jack]

I may heve seen some Lantz things, but usually I saw stuff on a different Woody Woodpecker show (on another station) and there was a year or two when I didn't have CN (I had just moved and the local village cable (or whatever it was called) didn't carry CN yet.) So it may have been on CN at that time.

Does anyone have specific dates for when they began and stopped showing Woody on CN.

Jack:D

[Thad Komorowski]

I think it stopped around 1997. I remember I always used to watch it the summer I got out of second grade. Then one day, without warning, I caught some Scooby-Doo crap. "What happened to Woody?" I asked myself.

-Thad:D

[daftchris]

Sure, I remember. They used to show Pink Panther also, which I miss seeing on TV just as much as (probably even more than) the Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

I can't imagine that Cartoon Network gave up the rights to air these, but it's even harder to guess why they'd choose not to air them.

:confused:

I don't have any sort of answer. Maybe I just feel like talking.

Christine Gregory

[BobChief]

...they aired the same series (from the late 80s) that was syndicated to b'cast stations by The Program Exchange, which has been discussed here before in threads about Scooby-Doo and Rocky & Bullwinkle.

ProgEx were bent on modern broadcast standards, so a noticeable amount of editing à la Warners with CN was to be had, to say nothing of many toons being banned outright.

[Brandon Pierce]

Woody Woodpecker was on USA if I remember right.

[lislebartman]

In 1987, Universal collaborated with DFS/Program Exchange to syndicate 65 half-hour "Woody Woodpecker" shows across the country. In doing so, many cartoons were mangled in the process! The opening titles and credits were obliterated and many cartoons were edited to the extreme!

They also filled the program with little excerpts from Lantz cartoons called "Musical Miniatures", which was an actual Lantz cartoon series. These were excerpts from various Woody cartoons with awful synthesized music in the backgrounds!

I feel sorry for many of you younger members on this board who have not been able to enjoy these films in their entirety. I am in the Chicago area and we had the Woody Woodpecker cartoons on in the morning and afternoon hours. This was back in the days when "politically correct" wasn't even on people's minds.

Maybe Universal will get off their spotty behinds and release some of these great cartoons to the public. To keep them locked up makes no sense whatsoever in my mind!!

P.S. - PC SUCKS!!!!:mad:

[Larry T]

I grew up watching the Lantz cartoons on TV every Saturday morning, and at lunch time on weekdays. They were my favourite cartoons at the time, even over the WB cartoons. A lot of them are masterpieces of animation and music, and as a matter of fact, I learned a heck of a lot of my classical music knowledge from the "Musical Miniatures" (who doesn't remember the tune from "Pixie Picnic"as the famous "Theiving Magpie").

I really feel sorry for anyone who hasn't had the chance to enjoy these great cartoons. Woody was always such a versatile character, both the antagonist and the victim. Plus, the multitude of talent that passed thru the portals of the Lantz studio really made the difference in the character development. The more of the "Swing Symphonies" I get to watch these days, the more I enjoy them, even aside for the racism and topical references that they're chock full of.

Come on, Universal, don't be the selfish giants!! Share these great works of art with us!!

[alstin]

Off-topic, but, what cartoon is your avatar from? It looks cool.

[Matthew Hunter]

I wish they'd bring the Pink Panther back....he was cool. Remember the Bugs Bunny and Pals show on TNT that had him, MGM, WB, and Popeye cartoons?
-Matthew

[J Lee]

Under the current studio licensing-network affiliation set-up, USA Networks would be the most logical place to air them, since Barry Diller secured all the rights to past Universal films from new parent company Vivaldi (sp.) and Diller also operates that network. However, since USA has abandoned any semblence of kids' programming, its unlikely to find a spot for the Lantz cartoons.

CN gave up the rights to those cartoons about the same time Time-Warner decided they would rather "make their own" cartoons for airing on the network, following the initial success of Dexter's Laboratory. If the price were right, and if people got sick enough of the H-B repeats over on Boomerang, the cartoons could end up there (actaully, if CN really wanted Boomerang to be a true nostalga channel, there's lots of non H-B stuff they could air that hasn't been on TV for years and probably wouldn't cost that much for rentals).

[Rob]

I used to love watching THE WOODY WOODPECKER SHOW when I was a kid back in the '60s. I remember Woody always having trouble with the projector, and also interacting with Walter Lantz himself! Great show, wish they'd bring it back, or some version of it...

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Originally posted by alstin
Off-topic, but, what cartoon is your avatar from? It looks cool.

Larry T's avatar is from Norm McCabe's first solo cartoon, Robinson Crusoe, Jr.

[Larry T]

Larry T's avatar is from Norm McCabe's first solo cartoon, Robinson Crusoe, Jr.

(a la Kay Keyser) "That's it, that's it, tha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hat's it!"

As for The Woody Woodpecker Show, the most lucky are we Canadians who have had YTV around 1993. They went through some great classic animation packages until around 1997, one of them being 124 episodes of "The Woody Woodpecker Show". What a joy it was to witness these scenes again:

"...This time nothing can go wrong! Okay now, here we go with another cartoon!" (projector gets turned on, jumps up and down a bit, and lands on the floor in a smashed heap but with the light still emerging from the lens). "Oh well, on with the show...."

Plus we were very fortunate to get the uncensored Looney Tunes package for a year or so- that kept me quiet from ranting about no outlet of classical animation for awhile....