Beany and Cecil 100th Anniversary from "Bob Clampett" productions INC.
Kathleen Sanders
In 1946 after Warner Bros. bought out Leon Schlesinger, his key executives Henry Binder and Ray Katz went to Screen Gems and took Clampett with them. Clampett worked for a time at Screen Gems, then the cartoon division of Columbia Pictures, as a screenwriter and gag writer. In 1947 Republic Pictures incorporated animation (by Walter Lantz) into its Gene Autry feature film Sioux City Sue. It turned out well enough for Republic to dabble in animated cartoons; Bob Clampett directed a single cartoon, It's a Grand Old Nag, featuring the equine character Charlie Horse. Republic management, however, had second thoughts due to dwindling profits, and they discontinued the series. Clampett took his direction credit under the name "Kilroy".
In 1949, Clampett turned his attention to television, where he created the famous puppet show Time for Beany. The show, featuring the talents of voice artists Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, would earn Clampett three Emmys. Groucho Marx and Albert Einstein were both fans of the series. In 1952, he created the Thunderbolt the Wondercolt television series and the 3D prologue to Bwana Devil featuring Beany and Cecil. In 1954, he directed Willy the Wolf (the first puppet variety show on television), as well as creating and voicing the lead in the Buffalo Billy television show. In the late 1950s, Clampett was hired by Associated Artists Productions to catalog the pre-August 1948 Warner cartoons it had just acquired. He also created an animated version of the puppet show called Beany and Cecil, whose 26 half-hour episodes were first broadcast on ABC in 1962 and were rerun on the network for five years.
Clampett's studio was at 729 Seward Street in Hollywood, later a Klasky Csupo studio.
In his later years, Bob Clampett toured college campuses and animation festivals as a lecturer on the history of animation. In 1974, he was awarded an Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic Convention. In 1975, he was the focus of a documentary entitled Bugs Bunny: Superstar, the first documentary to examine the history of the Warner Bros. cartoons. Clampett, whose collection of drawings, films and memorabilia from the golden days of Termite Terrace was legendary, provided nearly all of the behind-the-scenes drawings and home-movie footage for the film; furthermore, his wife, Sody Clampett, is credited as the film's production coordinator. In an audio commentary recorded for Bugs Bunny: Superstar, director Larry Jackson claimed that in order to secure Clampett's participation and access to Clampett's collection of Warners history, he had to sign a contract that stipulated Clampett would host the documentary and also have approval over the final cut. Jackson also claimed that Clampett was very reluctant speaking about the other directors and their contributions.
Beany and Cecil was created by animator Bob Clampett[3] after he quit Warner Bros., where he had been directing short cartoon movies. Clampett is said to have originated the idea for Cecil when he was a boy after seeing the top half of the dinosaur swimming from the water at the end of the 1925 movie The Lost World.
Clampett originally created the idea as a television series named Time for Beany, which was broadcast from February 28, 1949, to 1955. Time for Beany, a puppet show, featured the talents of veteran voice actors Stan Freberg as Cecil and Dishonest John, and Daws Butler as Beany and Uncle Captain.
Clampett revived the series in theatrical animated form, though Freberg and Butler did not reprise their roles. On 11 October 1959, the animated series was introduced as Matty's Funday Funnies, named for "Matty Mattel" the animated spokesperson for its primary sponsor Mattel Toys company. However, the series at that time featured old Paramount theatrical cartoons. The new Beany and Cecil cartoon series took over Matty's Funnies (sans "Funday") in January 1962 and was broadcast prime time Saturdays during the remainder of the 1961-62 television season, by the ABC Television Network. The newer cartoons replaced the Famous Studios cartoons of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey among other parts of Matty's Funday Funnies. The program was later retitled The Beany and Cecil Show.
After 1962, the 26 shows (including 78 cartoons) were repeated during Saturday mornings for the next two years and on Sunday mornings for three more. The cartoon featured characters Beany, a boy, and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent embarking on a series of adventures, often to discover ancient civilizations and artifacts. These escapades were rife with cartoon slapstick and puns.
Before the animated series, but concurrent with the puppet show, Clampett created a comic-book series of Beany and Cecil adventures for Dell Comics. The artwork for this series of comics, published from 1951 to 1954, was drawn by Jack Bradbury.
In 1988, the show was revived as The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil by DiC Entertainment. Only eight episodes were made, and only five episodes broadcast. This version of the show was produced and directed by John Kricfalusi, who would later create The Ren and Stimpy Show, and made use of voices from Billy West, who also did voices for the characters Ren (for season 3 and later) and Stimpy.
At before Beany and Cecil as "DreamWorks" and "Bob Clampett" coming to "Netflix" it's most 100th anniversary celebration on 2024. Cecil return animation series starting before life. I understand, no longer fake is "Beany & Cecil: Return Adventure" on Netflix.
