Monday, November 27, 2006

Don't Touch That Dial!

Somebody's uploaded a bunch of segments from the cult flop show that helped revive funny cartoons: The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse. Produced by Ralph Bakshi and involving the talents of John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald, and many other now-familiar names, it revolutionized what a Saturday morning kids' cartoon could do in terms of experiments with design, adult-oriented humor, cartoony animation, and all the other stuff you hardly ever saw in the '80s. The show didn't succeed, but its influence is all over Ren and Stimpy and Tiny Toons and any other early-'90s comedy cartoon you can name.

This is one of the best cartoons from the show, "Don't Touch That Dial." It was written by Tom Minton, who went on to write a number of similar cartoons for Warner Brothers (like the great "Toby Danger" segment from Freakazoid); it's a rather vicious parody of television animation, taking shots at not only the obvious targets of Saturday Morning TV (Scooby-Doo) but also more respected shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle. It also mocks the kids in the audience, and even The Adventures of Mighty Mouse itself.



10 comments:

Sharon said...

This show was really popular with the boys at my Catholic School. I don't think a day went by without one of them saying, "Here I Come To Save The Day!"

Jerry Beck said...

That episode was brilliant. I especially love the last line - "Now for what television is really all about" - which then cuts directly to the commercials!

Note the John K. charicature in the JetStones parody. Mike Kazaleh did many of the drawings (especially the last scene) and I think Kent Butterworth directed this episode (John K., Eddie Fitzgerald, and many of the future Spumko crew had left Bakshi's to do BEANY & CECIL at Dic).

L. Rob Hubb said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
L. Rob Hubb said...

Jamie,

have you heard about this yet?

Scott Bradley music - new from FSM:

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=6436

Anonymous said...

There were some laughs, mainly toward the end, but...I think the "Animaniacs" episode, "Back in Style", did it better.

To each his own.

Jaime J. Weinman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jaime J. Weinman said...

"Back In Style" was by the same writer, Tom Minton.

I like that one too, especially the Filmation segment.

"Stop them!"
"We can't! We're limited to three new scenes of animation per show, and we used them to get here."

Kevin W. Martinez said...

I love the rather creative take on the "muultiple doors" gag that was popularized by Scooby Doo, but appeared decades eariler in Tex Avery's MGM cartoons.

In fact, the whole cartoon is kinda like the Fairly Oddparents Channel Charsers episode, only much shorter, much funnier, and without inane exposition

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

I liked the cereal box...and of course, the two Fred Allen references re: television. But to be honest, Kricfalusi's satire might be a bit more effective if his own cartoons were better.

Anonymous said...

The "Mr. E" character makes me wonder what "The A-Team" would have been like if Ed Sullivan was the star. Or maybe it just amuses me.

It's rather ironic that Mighty Mouse wasn't cancelled by the Gagbusters, but WAS eventually forced off the air due to his supposed cocaine addiction.