Blog Post 12: Toonheads
Back when I was a kid, I used to enjoy watching cartoons on cartoon network every sunday night. I partiucularly remember enjoying a block of old MGM cartoons that they used to show. They would first show Toonheads and then the Tex Avery Show. I really enjoyed the Tex Avery show, I found his work with MGM to be quite a bit more interesting than the tired and overplayed looney tunes that were normally shown on Cartoon Network , and I enjoyed the sense of zaniness that his cartoons contained. Despite how great that show was the real highlight of the 1 hour block was Toonheads. Toonheads was a sort of Documentary/cartoon show detailing various subjects in the history of Warner Brothers and MGM’s cartoon studios. I found it to be a highly entertaining way of not only watching older cartoons but also learning the history of them.
Typically an episdoe of toonheads would have a particular theme, such as animated shorts revolving around a particular person’s work. They would describe the subject for a bit then go into providing three example cartoons, going into a brief backstory about each of them. I found this to be much more entertaining than just watching the cartoons without the documentary parts, as the extra info gives context to these shorts and allows younger viewers (such as myself at the time) to understand what the people working on these animated shorts were trying to accomplish. One particuarly memorable episode was one featuring crooner cartoons. I wouldn’t have understood what a crooner was or who was being parodied in these casrtoons if not for the badckground info. I even learned some interesting facts, such as Bing Crosby suing MGM for a cartoon involving a fly resembling him. I again am unable to find any clips for this show but I highly reccemend anyone interested in animation history to attempt to check out at least an episode or two, becasue as far as I am concerned it’s the only show of it’s type.
Ah yes, good old Tex Avery. He definitely made much more entertaining cartoons than most other animators did. And you’re right, a lot of the Looney Tunes got old and were overplayed. I can’t say that I’ve ever watched an “informative” cartoon before, but it’s definitely an original idea! My only question is, would the documentary cartoons work for every kid? I feel as though some kids might lose interest in them because of the added content. Wish there was a clip to see!
I always like watching older movies but I do not know how many older cartoons I have seen outside of our class. Is this show still airing? What time does it come on?
I find it funny that Bing Crosby sued MGM for a fly resembling him when South Park and Family Guy make fun of people all the time and draw them to blatantly look like that person. Cartoons making fun of people obviously was not that common back then! Suing a tv show is hard though since they get protection for parody and satire.
Wow, this totally sounds really interesting. I’ll have to look up some of these episodes. A quick google search turned up nothing, but who knows what’s out there. And to continue bonbon’s point above, I wonder sometimes how South Park gets away with the stuff they do. Last week they had their 200th episode that featured all the celebrities they’ve lampooned over the years, how can they get away with it over and over? Back to the original topic though, I’ll have to dig these up once the semester is over, they sound really neat. =)