'TV historians will tell you that “Felix the Cat” was one of the first images ever broadcast on television (when RCA broadcast a Felix doll in 1928 on experimental station W2XBS) — but it wasn’t until the late ’40s that the first animated character was created expressly for TV.
Crusader Rabbit appeared for the very first time on KNBH (Los Angeles) on August 1, 1950, and featured a Don Quixote-like title character aided by his friend Ragland T. “Rags” Tiger as they pursued adventures in serial (i.e. cliffhanger) installments.' On November 8th, the voice of Crusader Rabbit, Lucille Bliss,
passed away at the age of 96. Ms. Bliss may be more familiar to younger fans as the voice of
Smurfette, from
The Smurfs, or as
Ms. Bitters on Invader ZIM.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 15, 2012 -
18 comments
The first color cartoon came out in 1957, from
the Miami, Florida studio Soundac, beating out LA-based
Hanna-Barbera's The Ruff & Reddy Show by a few months. Soundac's
Colonel Bleep was
styled after space-age design ideas of the era, featured in three to six-minute long segments with limited animation, designed for syndication into local kids shows with live hosts. Of the 104 episodes,
less than half survive, as
most of that and other Soundac material was stolen from a studio van in the ’70s, when the studio was closing. Luckily, episodes have been found in the collections and archives of various TV studios, so
Col. Bleep and his side-kicks Squeek and Scratch are available online (YT),
some clips on Archive.org, and
more on YouTube (playlist with 43 clips).
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 27, 2012 -
20 comments
Saturday morning cartoons were once a staple of American television, but by the year 2000
they had all but disappeared. Of course, the Internet
never forgets. Case in point:
Cartoon Network Video -- a free, searchable, ad-supported service that provides hundreds of full-length episodes of classic shows like
Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and
The Powerpuff Girls, as well as current offerings and scads of shorter material. Too recent for you? Then give
Kids WB Video a whirl -- it does the same thing with the same interface, but for older programs like
Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, Thundercats, and the original
Space Ghost. If you're in the mood to learn (and don't mind some live-action),
PBS Kids Video has educational fare such as Arthur, Wishbone, and Zoom. And don't forget about
Sesame Street,
The Electric Company,
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood,
The Magic Schoolbus and
Schoolhouse Rock! Now if only we had some
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs...
posted by Rhaomi
on Sep 22, 2009 -
160 comments
The entirety of the Fleischer/Famous Studios Superman Film Series. In the early 1940s, this series raised the bar for theatrical shorts with its fluid animation and action-packed storylines. It remains a classic series thanks to its high production values and historical significance not only as the first comic-to-film adaptation, but also as an occasional vehicle for American propaganda during the war.
posted by cthuljew
on Nov 25, 2008 -
21 comments
Friday Fun Time: Fight sequences are always fun to watch, but even more fun, I've learned, when they're animated. There are some great fights with some great characters like
stick figures,
monks and even
fuzz-ball heads. Even the classic animator vs animation fights are pretty good (volume
1,
2).
Look Ma! No YouTube links (thanks to
aniBoom and
MyTunes)
posted by FeldBum
on Sep 7, 2007 -
7 comments
