Yakky Doodle's voice
Steve Carras
Yakky as credited in a "Loope DeLoop" Hanna Barbera theatrical listed
"Red Coffee" for the more "sentimental", duck, the one used in
Hcukleberry,Rogu, Augie Doggie,etc.and earlier in Tom and Jerry!
(Perhaops Mark Evanier, Dave Mackey, Jerry Beck or S.W.Worth knows..)
Was Red Coffee a seperate guy or a nickname used by Mr.Weldon (not that
any credit in his name was issued ill the official Yakky series)??
At which point did Coffee, who was used in MGM get replaced and for who
else was he voice..it's confusin'! (I just got off The Big Cartoon
Database and saw the Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy spot (I HOPE Warner
Bros,.Home Video LISTENS..)--my favorite HB series..
I noticed a difference in the persoanloities of the little ducklings.
The blue (green? teal?) headed duck isn't as cheerful all the time as
the actual "Yakky Doodle" for one,.,. but is charming in his own right
(FINALLY..am I the ONLY one who LIKES "the little feller"!)
Steve "Chopper' C.
Steve Carras
Steve Carras
RAY
RAY
and was seen in Yogi Bear, Ixieand Dixie, and Augie Doggie cartoons,
preceding the LOOPY de LUPE theatrical series, which began in 1959.
When THE YOGI BEAR SHOW was spun off from THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW in
1960, The duck character became YAKKY DOODLE. The other segment
starring SNAGLEPUSS was another character who developed out of the
QUICK DRAW MCGRAW SHOW (1959). Originally, he was known as SNAGGLE
TOOTH, then became SNAGGLEPUSS, and the difference in names was later
explained as them being twins.
By the time SNAGGLEPUSS went to his own series, the theatrical personna
was more developed.
As side from the discussions about Jimmy Welson as Yakky's voice, no
one mentions Vance Colvig as Chopper, who was better known as Pinto
Colvig, the voice of Goofy. Another voice actor not mentioned is Doug
Young, who began doing voices for H-B in 1959 for characters such as
DOGGIE DADDY and DING A-LING. Young continued doing voices for
Hanna-Barbera until 1966, then disappeared. Last accounts indicate that
he is in Seattle, Washington. But if had been alive all these years,
why wasn't he called in to do the voices he originated such as DOGGIE
DADDY instead of having John Stephenson imitate them?
Mark Evanier
>As side from the discussions about Jimmy Welson as Yakky's voice, no
>one mentions Vance Colvig as Chopper, who was better known as Pinto
>Colvig, the voice of Goofy. Another voice actor not mentioned is Doug
>Young, who began doing voices for H-B in 1959 for characters such as
>DOGGIE DADDY and DING A-LING. Young continued doing voices for
>Hanna-Barbera until 1966, then disappeared. Last accounts indicate that
>he is in Seattle, Washington. But if had been alive all these years,
>why wasn't he called in to do the voices he originated such as DOGGIE
>DADDY instead of having John Stephenson imitate them?
ME: The voice of Chopper in the Yakky Doodle cartoons was done by
Pinto Colvig's son. His name was Vance Colvig, Jr.
The son did follow in his father's footsteps not only as a cartoon
voice but as a Bozo. The father was the original voice of Bozo on
records and the son played Bozo on Los Angeles TV on KTLA for several
years.
(Vance Jr. also had a nice career as an on-camera actor. His last
role seems to have been in the Weird Al Yankovic movie, UHF. He
passed away about the time the movie was released.)
The original questioner asked about a guy named Red Coffee. Very
little is known about Mr. Coffee except that he did a great little
duck voice in a number of cartoons and one or two novelty records.
Daws Butler told me that he thought Coffee was a musician who
performed in the L.A. area, did the duck voice in his act and got
"discovered" by Hanna and Barbera, who used him in a number of their
MGM cartoons. I think he did the initial guest appearances of the
baby duck named Iddy Biddy Buddy or Itty Bitty Buddy in Hanna-Barbera
cartoons.
At some point, Mr. Coffee apparently was unavailable. By that point,
Jimmy Weldon was appearing on a kids' show called CARTOONEROONY that
appeared on KCOP, Channel 13 in Los Angeles. Weldon worked with a
duck puppet named Webster Webfoot and supplied a similar baby duck
voice. Hanna and Barbera began using him for their baby ducks and he
became Yakky Doodle.
When I was a kid, I was oddly aware that at one point, I could watch
Vance Colvig play Bozo on Channel 5...or I could switch over to
Channel 13 and watch Jimmy Weldon do his baby duck voice...or I could
switch over to KTTV, Channel 11, and watch a Yakky Doodle cartoon with
Weldon playing Yakky Doodle and Colvig playing Chopper. They were all
on opposite each other for a while.
Doug Young got out of the voice business and moved up north in the
mid-sixties. I've spoken to him a couple of times. There were at
least two reasons he didn't do Doggie Daddy for LAFF-A-LYMPICS and
other shows. One was that I'm not sure anyone at Hanna-Barbera knew
he was still alive or if so, how to reach him. Another was that on
that show, they had so many characters that they felt they had to keep
the size of the voice cast down. Frank Welker did the voices of Speed
Buggy and Yakky Doodle because Bill Hanna didn't want to expand the
budget by bringing in Mel Blanc and Jimmy Weldon. I'm also not sure
Young would even have wanted to fly down to L.A. to do the part but
for those two reasons, they never asked him.
----------------------------------------------------
www.newsfromme.com (Mark Evanier's daily weblog)
www.POVonline.com (Mark Evanier's not-daily website)
Howard Fein
although Speedy had such sparse dialogue (usually "Okey-dokey, Tink"),
it was hard to tell. But Scooby-Dooby team member Cap'n. Caveman was
certainly voiced by Blanc, and his dialogue in LAFF-A-LYMPICS was
considerably more than his trademark "CAPTAIN CA-A-A-VEM-A-A-A-N!!" cry
that was inserted whenever springing into action. By that time in his
life- age 69- it was probably best for Blanc to record the line once
and the editors to recycle it as needed. Fred and Barney did occasional
'guest commentator' spots in L-A-L, so Blanc of course performed the
latter. By 1977 Henry Corden had taken over the role of Fred in the
wake of Alan Reed's passing, but Corden didn't perform any other roles
in L-A-L.
While Hong Kong Phooey was also in L-A-L, he participated in relatively
few events- and in some of them, he merely emitted his stock gutteral
martial arts struggling sounds. Could it be that Scatman Crothers
wasn't always available, or the producers had him record all his lines
at once? But, as Mark stated, the show adhered to the 1960s and 1970s
cartoon principle of having a few actors perform multiple roles: in
this case, Butler, Messick, Stephenson and Welker carried the load.
(Stephenson had pretty much assumed the role of Doggie Daddy in 1972
with YOGI'S ARK LARK, the first H-B 'classic character reunion'.) Of
course, Gary Owens and Joe Besser performed single roles, that of their
respective characters Blue Falcon and Babu. And the voices of Grape Ape
and Dinky Dalton are slowed down beyond the point that their portrayers
can be identified.
One voicing oddity was that Mr. Creeply was performed at various times
by THREE actors: Casey Kasem, Messick and Welker.
In response to the last line of Steve's second message, YES. I had
purchased the YOGI BEAR COMPLETE SERIES DVD, mostly for Snagglepuss and
the 17 Curtin-scored Yogi shorts, remembering Yakky as an overly cutesy
annoyance. Maybe my views of him were distorted by overexposure to his
prototype in the Tom & Jerry theatricals, but I was surprised to find
most of Yakky's shorts quite funny. The rather precious main episode
title theme (with cute little "quacks" interspersed throughout) can
understandably be a turnoff. Most of the early H-B series' title themes
had a nice jazzy sound to them.
Granted, much of the enjoyment derives from Fibber Fox, who contrary to
popular belief was NOT in every short- nor was Chopper, for that
matter. (The Yakky series functions rather like the Foghorn Leghorn
series in that any cartoon can feature a different combination of
supporting players, or none at all. Some had Chopper without Fibber;
Fibber without Chopper; Alfy Gator with dog, fox or solo; Yakky solo
with one-short characters. The Yakky solos were the least
entertaining.) Fibber has some great lines in the Bob Hope/glib coward
mold, and his interactions with the other characters are a hoot. Daws
Butler supposedly based his voice on then-popular comedian Shelley
Berman, who after decades of obscurity has become hot again in CURB
YOUR ENTHUSIASM. I see elements of Paul Lynde and Groucho Marx myself.
The few episodes with Alfy Gator are also amusing (more great Butler
characterization), even if the overt reference, the Hitchcock
anthology, flies right over ones head as did over mine when originally
viewing these cartoons at elementary school age. They also offer some
clever fourth-wall breaking: after a typical failed scheme, the Gator
while lying in a heap with stars around his head will say "-and now a
brief pause, while I recuperate and plan my next scheme", followed by a
fade out, followed in turn by the Gator saying "Welcome back" before
explaining his next move.
I'd assumed Tony Benedict wrote every Yakky episode; only one of them
rerun on my local station featured complete opening title credits a la
the Quick Draw or Snooper & Blabber shorts. The DVD has lovingly
restored the complete titles for almost all the episodes (also enabling
me to get a handle on the styles of Robert Bentley, C.L. Hartman, Don
Towsley, LaVerne Harding and other less-frequent H-B animators), which
led to the discovery that Mike Maltese actually wrote more than half of
them- along with ALL the Snagglepusses, all 135 shorts of the Quick
Draw trilogy and many Loopy DeLoop theatricals as well. This would
explain the presence of a lot of the witty dialogue- not only from
Fibber, but Chopper ("I haven't got the heart to tell the little feller
four times three is really twenty-nine.") and even Yakky (in mistaking
a gun for a camera, "Is that a 3.9 lens?"). Granted, the presence of
closed captions on my TV allows me to find out what the duck is
ACTUALLY saying!
I don't know what's become of Vance Colvig since that time, but I think
I've seen Jimmy Weldon credited in a few 1980s H-B series. And I'd
always assumed Larry Harmon himself provided the voice of Bozo.
I'd always assumed Doug Young had passed soon after 1966 and was
pleasantly surprised to discover, either through this NG or Toonzone
Forums that he is still alive and well. He certainly kept a low profile
if H-B couldn't even track him down.
James Vipond
"Howard Fein" <hf...@nycboe.net> wrote:
> I don't know what's become of Vance Colvig since that time, but I think
> I've seen Jimmy Weldon credited in a few 1980s H-B series. And I'd
> always assumed Larry Harmon himself provided the voice of Bozo.
As I recall, Weldon had one other H-B role: Solomon Grundy on
_Challenge_of_the_Superfriends_. Quite a departure from an innocent,
playful little duck!
Stephen Worth
<eva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The voice of Chopper in the Yakky Doodle cartoons was done by
> Pinto Colvig's son. His name was Vance Colvig, Jr.
I had the pleasure of meeting Vance Colvig, the son of the
original Capitol Bozo and a Bozo himself on LA's KTLA from
1959 to the early 60s. Vance was quite a character. If you
saw the movie Barfly, Vance was the guy who had the DT
trembles and worked the rig with his necktie to get the
glass up to his lips without shaking all the juice out.
I asked him what his favorite Bozo related story was, and
he told me this tale. I have no reason to doubt its truth.
But it's definitely a whopper... I'll try to tell it as
I remember Vance telling it. He had a kind of a drawl, like
Walace Beery (He did the voice of Chopper on Yakky Doodle,
so that should give you an idea of how he talked...)
Back when Vance was playing Bozo on KTLA, he didn't get paid
a whole heck of a lot, so he would do personal appearances
on the weekends to make extra money... supermarket openings,
record stores, toy stores, etc. He'd do a bunch of them on
a single day. He said that on weekends the highway was thick
with kids' shows hosts running back and forth to get to all
of these events. He'd be driving along and Sheriff John would
wave to him passing on one side, and Engineer Bill would be
on the other side waving and going the opposite direction.
All of the kids' show hosts knew each other...
One day he gets a phone call from Engineer Bill Stulla who
said, "I hear you are scheduled for the suchandsuch
supermarket opening next week..." Vance replied, "Yeah...
what about it?". Bill told him, "Whatever you do, DON'T go
to that thing! I did my show there last week and it was
a huge mess!" Vance asked, "What happened?"
Engineer Bill told him, "They had me scheduled to do my
show at noon. The flyer advertising the date said that
after my show, Santa Claus would be arriving by helicopter.
Well, I finished my show and went around the back of the
stage and sat down. And sure enough, a few minutes later,
a helicopter started hovering up above."
"I looked up and the door was open and there were two
elves and Santa Claus peeking out. All of the kids were
running around the parking lot excited. All of a sudden
the elves take ahold of Santa by the seat of his pants,
and throw him out of the door!!! He falls fifty feet and
hits the asphalt in a heap! All the kids started crying
and hollering, and it turns out it's just a dummy Santa.
Two more guys dressed as elves ran out of the market with
a stretcher... They scooped Santa onto it and ran inside."
"When I saw that, I didn't want to have any part of it,
so I packed up my gear and left." Vance thanked Stulla
for tipping him off. He thought about it a minute and
decided to call the manager of the supermarket that
booked him to see if it was true. He got the guy on the
horn and he said, "Say there, I hear you've got Santa Claus
set to arrive at the end of my show." The manager said
yes and Vance said, "Welll... Bill Stulla tells me you
plan to chuck him out of a helicopter!"
The manager laughed and replied, "You heard about that?
Yeah! It's a great stunt! We should get a lot of press
out of it!" Vance said, "Well you can get your press
without me. I quit." The manager got furious and said,
"We have a contract! I've done advertising! The kids
are expecting Bozo! If you don't show up, I'll sue your
ass!"
Vance calmly replied, "You just try and find one court
in this land that will rule against Bozo the Clown in
favor of an idiot who flings Santa Claus out of a
helicopter!" and hung up on him. He skipped the date
and never heard another thing about it after that.
See ya
Steve
--
Rare 78 rpm recordings on CD! http://www.vintageip.com/records/
Building a museum and archive of animation! http://www.animationarchive.org/
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Rediscovering great stuff from the past! http://www.vintagetips.com/
Mark Evanier
>I always thought that was Welker doing Speed Buggy in LAFF-A-LYMPICS,
>although Speedy had such sparse dialogue (usually "Okey-dokey, Tink"),
>it was hard to tell. But Scooby-Dooby team member Cap'n. Caveman was
>certainly voiced by Blanc, and his dialogue in LAFF-A-LYMPICS was
>considerably more than his trademark "CAPTAIN CA-A-A-VEM-A-A-A-N!!" cry
>that was inserted whenever springing into action. By that time in his
>life- age 69- it was probably best for Blanc to record the line once
>and the editors to recycle it as needed.
ME: You know, I think I may have gotten that wrong and I apologize. I
think Blanc did do Speed Buggy in LAFF-A-LYMPICS. What I was
remembering was that Welker did Tink's voice instead of the guy who'd
done it on the original series.
>While Hong Kong Phooey was also in L-A-L, he participated in relatively
>few events- and in some of them, he merely emitted his stock gutteral
>martial arts struggling sounds. Could it be that Scatman Crothers
>wasn't always available, or the producers had him record all his lines
>at once?
ME: I doubt Scatman was unavailable. Matter of fact, I was working at
the studio at that time and I used to see him there all the time,
singing in the hallways and telling stories in the parking lot.
This is just speculating but it may be that in the episodes where it
wasn't necessary to have Hong Kong Phooey speak, H-B may have tried to
just have someone else do the groans in order to avoid paying Scatman.
>But, as Mark stated, the show adhered to the 1960s and 1970s
>cartoon principle of having a few actors perform multiple roles: in
>this case, Butler, Messick, Stephenson and Welker carried the load.
>(Stephenson had pretty much assumed the role of Doggie Daddy in 1972
>with YOGI'S ARK LARK, the first H-B 'classic character reunion'.) Of
>course, Gary Owens and Joe Besser performed single roles, that of their
>respective characters Blue Falcon and Babu. And the voices of Grape Ape
>and Dinky Dalton are slowed down beyond the point that their portrayers
>can be identified.
ME: I'm pretty sure that was Bob Holt doing those two voices.
Hey, someone may find this interesting: When they started production
on LAFF-A-LYMPICS, the character of Jeanie (from the H-B version of I
DREAM OF JEANIE) was on the Scooby Dooby team. She was in the first
few episodes as they were recorded and storyboarded...and then someone
at the studio figured out that they didn't have the legal right to use
the character, or that they'd have to pay someone a royalty or
something. Anyway, they went back and began cutting her out of the
episodes that were already in production. I'm not sure if they got
her out of every episode but she was definitely cut out of some and
then not used in any further episodes.
I was doing the first issue of the LAFF-A-LYMPICS comic book at the
time and got the order to remove her. And for a couple days there,
they weren't certain if they weren't also going to remove Babu too --
since he'd only been included because she was in there. They finally
decided to leave him in.
And of course I assume everyone knows that when LAFF-A-LYMPICS was
originally assembled, the heads of the Really Rotten team were going
to be Dick Dastardly and Muttley instead of Dread Baron and Mumbly.
The change was made because someone realized that H-B had a
partnership arrangement with the Heatter-Quigley TV company that
covered all spin-offs from WACKY RACES...and if they'd included
Dastardly and Muttley in LAFF-A-LYMPICS, they'd have had to make a
deal with Heatter-Quigley or cut them in or something.
>I don't know what's become of Vance Colvig since that time, but I think
>I've seen Jimmy Weldon credited in a few 1980s H-B series. And I'd
>always assumed Larry Harmon himself provided the voice of Bozo.
ME: Vance Colvig passed away in 1991. I think he had a bit part in
the BORIS AND NATASHA movie that came out that year. As I mentioned,
he was in the Weird Al Yankovic movie, UHF. He played a derelict.
His father, Vance "Pinto" Colvig was Bozo on all the Capitol Records.
Larry Harmon did the voice of Bozo in the 1959-1961 cartoon series.
Jimmy Weldon does occasional voices but mostly works these days as a
motivational speaker. You can read all about him (and see him with
his puppet, Webster Webfoot) at www.jimmyweldon.com.
Steve Carras
Steve Carras
Howard Fein
is interesting to note vise-a-vie the forced deletion of Jeannie that
in many of the events Babu participated in, he was paired with a Teen
Angel. Maybe it was easier and more believable that lines spoken by
Taffy ("Oh Babu, do you think this'll work?") were actually written for
Jeannie- who would naturally be paired with her apprentice.
ABC's ads for the Fall 1977 Saturday AM line-up which were commonly
seen in comic books, Sunday comic inserts and TV Guide showed the three
JOSIE fall guys- Alexander, Alexandria and Melody- clustered amongst
the LAFF-A-LYMPICS participants. For similar legal and copyrighting
reasons, they didn't appear on the actual series. Too bad- recalling
the often hilarious interactions between the latter two in their
original series, I was looking forward to see them competing with funny
talking animal characters. ("Step on it, you blonde bimbo- we're
losing!"; "Don't worry, Alexandria- I'll BEAR down and catch up with
Yogi. [giggles]")
I always figured Mumbly- NOT Muttley- was the Rottens' captain in order
to capitalize on his show that aired on ABC the previous season. At age
17, I had noticed the obvious resemblance between the two canines but
didn't know from legal issues. The Dread Baron's obvious resemblenace
to Dastardly could be dismissed as typical H-B derivitiveness.
Heatter-Quigley's ownership of the two characters may have kept them
from being precisely recycled in 1977, but they did appear as
themselves in name, voice and FLYING MACHINES designs eight years later
in YOGI'S TREASURE HUNT- and five years after that in their WACKY RACE
designs in FENDER BENDER 2000. (To make things even more complicated,
the Baron reappeared in 1987's syndie movie YOGI BEAR AND THE SPRUCE
GOOSE- made at the end of TREASURE HUNT'S run- with Paul Winchell's
Dastardly voice. The L-A-L Baron was voiced by John Stephenson in kind
of a Hans Conreid imitation.) Heatter-Quigley does get co-production
credit at the end of WACKY RACES- I remember recognizing the name as
being attached to many game shows and wondering what they could have to
do with an H-B cartoon- but they get no mention at the end of FLYING
MACHINES.
Another oddity is that when ABC renewed the show for a half-order of
new episodes for fall 1978, Mumbley remained his blue color but was
called "Muttley" by the narrator, commentators Snag and Mildew, and all
the other characters.
Someone on another website- possibly the late, lamented Yesterdayland-
commented that Muttley, in his normal color and FLYING MACHINE garb,
did a cameo in a L-A-L comic book.
So Hanna and Barbera probably saved a bundle by not having to cast
Julie McWhirter, Jackie Joseph, Sherry Alberoni or Paul Winchell due to
the ineligibility of their characters. As far as Tinker, has ANYONE
ever known his original BUGGY voice Phil Luther to be in anything
else?! For a one-character wonder, he DID at least create one memorable
catchphrase: "Go-o-o-LEE, Speedy!"
It wasn't until the turn of the seventies and eighties when a larger
budget was allocated the studio and the voice credit list for most
shows was much bigger than the usual six or seven names. But for 1972's
ARK LARK, the economic or logistic problem of recalling the voice
actors for many of the classic characters was carefully avoided. Daws
Butler took over as Top Cat in his Hokey Wolf voice- which may explain
why Hokey only does a brief silent appearance. John Stephenson took
over not only as Doggie Daddy, but as Hardy (originally done by Mel
Blanc) and Benny; Maurice Gosfield had long since passed on. Squiddley
Diddley, originally voiced by Paul Frees, has only one line ("Wait a
minute, will ya? I only got eight hands!") that sounds like it could
have been done by either Stephenson or Jean VanderPyl- who reprises Maw
Rugg. (Don Messick would take over as Squiddley in YOGI'S ARK, and as
Touche Turtle for the presumably deceased Bill Thompson.) Chopper,
Ding-a-Ling, Dum-Dum, Secret Squirrel and several of T.C.'s cohorts
appear on screen but without dialogue. It's highly doubtful that the
studio would pay Blanc, Frees, Stang, Kaplan, DeLyon and Colvig for
such small parts, especially since some of them may have been based on
the East Coast at the time. (However, Blanc was already in the studio
regularly at the time, working on THE FLINTSTONES COMEDY HOUR.)
As far as the Scatman, I'd forgotten that he was also voicing Scat Kat
on the ill-fated SKATEBIRDS, made by H-B's Australian outfit for CBS
that same season. So he certainly would be seen around the studio on a
regular basis. I'd assumed he was too busy working on CHICO AND THE MAN
to be available full-time.
Howard Fein
home video compilations that mixed the shorts of most pre-1966
characters based on seasonal theme: Valentine's Day, Easter, summer,
etc. Gang credits rolled at the end of the video mentioned the
enigmatic Red Coffee, whom I calculated based on my knowledge of who
voiced all other characters, must've been the Yakky prototype in the
Loopy short. I'd figured that must've been a gag name for Jimmy Weldon-
much like 'Chip Spam' was Dino's credited voice for many years, whereas
any casual observer KNOWS it's Mel Blanc.
In H-B's formative years, a lot of one-shot or recurring characters
would get their own starring series in short order. Yakky's genesis is
not only in the T&J theatricals, but prior to his series debut, his
prototype- in different colors and without the ring around his neck-
was in shorts starring Yogi, Loopy, the Meeces, Augie Doggie and
Snooper & Blabber. He even guested in an early Snagglepuss episode,
whose series started at the same time- both were supporting segments of
the YOGI BEAR SHOW that debuted (according to various conflicting
sources) fall 1960 or midseason 1960-61. Interestingly, there was a
Golden Book adaptation of the Yogi short "Slumber Party Smarty", but
Yakky had his 'modern' name and appearance. (A P.C. departure occurred
in that he tackled the sleepwalking bear rather than blasting him with
a rifle as in the cartoon: "I shot a big ol' bear! I shot a-"; "I KNOW,
Daniel Boob- I KNOW!")
Prior to Snag's series, his prototype appeared in episodes of all three
Quick Draw segments. His appearance and color weren't always the same,
but Daws Butler's Bert Lahr imitation and his garrulous nature are
pretty much established. In the Snooper & Blabber short "The Lion's
Busy", there are some soon-to-be-familiar exchanges between Snag and a
Don Messick-voiced British big game hunter, himself a prototype of
Major Minor. ("Didn't I bag you in the Congo? Or graze you in the
grotto?")
Of course, Huckleberry Hound has his genesis in the MGM theatricals as
well, but as a wolf in several later Avery shorts. All the traits are
there in THREE LITTLE PUPS, BILLY BOY and BLACKBOARD JUMBLE, down to
the wolf's nonchalant shrugging off every personal injury ("Now that's
a right strong kid.)" and ending every sentence with "-man". Butler
appropriated the identical voice as Chilly Willy fall dog Smedley. I
always wondered if there were any conflicts between Universal, MGM and
Columbia (H-B's initial distributor) over use of such an identical
voice, if only because the characters' personalities were so similar.
Today, the notion of 'Intellectual Property' would probably come up.
Late in life, I discovered the studio's first series RUFF & REDDY on
home video and Family Channel reruns, and was amazed that Reddy's voice
and personality were virtually identical to that of Huck, who premiered
a year later and really put the H-B outfit on the map.
Speaking of RUFF & REDDY, I recently learned from the commentary of the
FLINTSTONES SEASON 4 DVD (delightfully and informatively provided by
Mark, Earl Kress and Paul Dini) that Bamm-Bamm had a prototype of sorts
as a Neandrathal infant in a R&R story arc. As mentioned, I had NEVER
seen the series as a child, which never seemed to repeat on any NYC
station after the mid-sixties- even though the other pre-1966 shows
reran endlessly into the eighties.
A wolf with the exact voice and similar personality, if not appearance,
of Hokey guested in a late 'Capital' Yogi short "Oinks and Boinks". ( I
refer to those shorts made before Curtin's takeover as 'Capitals'.
Butler got endless mileage from his Phil Silvers imitation both before
(in many Fractured Fairy Tales and Aesops) and after (in episodes of
the JETSONS, Goofy Guards, Richochet Rabbit, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE)
production of the Hokey series.
There were other characters who guested on various early H-B series
that may have been viewed as stars of potential series that never
reached fruition. Bigelow the Mouse, a James Cagney caricature voiced
by Doug Young, appeared in individual episodes of Loopy, Yakky, the
Doggies and three Snagglepusses. Hanna and Barbera REALLY tried to push
an Addams-esque monster family on the viewing public. They guested in a
Snagglepuss, three Snooper & Blabbers and then evolved into the
Gruesomes, neighbors in two Season 5 FLINTSTONE episodes, and even
beyond that in a PEBBLES & BAMM-BAMM episode. (The large attention
given them- maybe in response to two hit monster family sitcoms in
prime time circa 1964-65- indicated they would become much more regular
presences than a mere two episodes would indicate.) Some would say that
Really Rotten team members the Creeplys were the Gruesomes redux.
The last major H-B pilot/spinoff I can think of is the last episode of
HONG KONG PHOOEY, which was already unique in that it was a full 22
minute story in which the title barely appeared. Instead, we were
treated to a large group of misfit cowboys (admittedly hard to build a
comedic cartoon around in 1974, when no one could be blasted by guns or
explosives), several of which were voiced by Daws Butler: one a reprise
of his Quick Draw voice, another a John Wayne imitation. Any suspicions
that they would get a series of their own lay dormant for three seasons
until the C.B. BEARS anthology- of which Posse: Impossible was a
segment.
Getting back to the root of this thread, what made Yakky's starring
series less cloying than expected when viewed as a DVD marathon is that
he's not always as indulgent or self-pitying as in his early
appearances. The duckling in Tom & Jerry shorts- especially LITTLE
QUACKER and DOWN-HEARTED DUCKLING ("Oh boy, am I ugly- I wish I was
dead.") is justifiably reviled for all of these qualities, which are
somewhat muted in his pre-series TV appearances. Granted, his garrulous
nature and friendship with the somewhat condescending Chopper can get
grating; nary an episode goes by without an "Now, ain't that cute?"
But the TV Yakky is at least cheerful SOME of the time, and his
childish naivety can be amusing: in most episodes, he introduces
himself to other characters or even the audience, "My name is Yakky
Doodle. I'm a duck."
Steve Carras
(On Speed Buggy vocie Phil Luther)characters. As far as Tinker, has
ANYONE
ever known his original BUGGY voice Phil Luther to be in anything
else?! For a one-character wonder, he DID at least create one memorable
catchphrase: "Go-o-o-LEE, Speedy!"
I've never seen him in anything else either, but at least one book
credited him as a voice teacher a la Daws Butler..The concurrent (WITH
SB) "Inch High, private High" had another "GKOmer pyle", and again
never seen elsewhere to a lot of US, "Bob Lut(r)ell" (spellings
differ-I'm going by the majority.)
Glad to see the reason for the absence of many earlier Hanna Barbera
voices understoodf--Maurice Gosfield had died ("Top Cat"'s Benny), Mel
Blanc would be too expensive for Lippy and Paul Frees for Squiddley (he
always cost too much--just ask "The Haunted Mansion" fans---"Peter
Renoudet" did the voice of Paul's "Ghost Host' for the 1969 Disneyland
storyteller album "The Story & Songs of the Haunted Mansion").
It was also at this point that the Jimmy DUrante sounding Doggie Daddy
voice, formerly by Doug Young who by then was already (as Mark Evanier
stated) out of the picture by then, was taken over by "Mr Slate"
himself John Stephenson..
(A lot of those guys priced themselves overbduegt, thereby explaining
their absence,Mel Blanc was another xample at least as Bugs Bunny was
concerned..)
Mark Evanier
>I always figured Mumbly- NOT Muttley- was the Rottens' captain in order
>to capitalize on his show that aired on ABC the previous season. At age
>17, I had noticed the obvious resemblance between the two canines but
>didn't know from legal issues. The Dread Baron's obvious resemblenace
>to Dastardly could be dismissed as typical H-B derivitiveness.
>Heatter-Quigley's ownership of the two characters may have kept them
>from being precisely recycled in 1977, but they did appear as
>themselves in name, voice and FLYING MACHINES designs eight years later
>in YOGI'S TREASURE HUNT- and five years after that in their WACKY RACE
>designs in FENDER BENDER 2000. (To make things even more complicated,
>the Baron reappeared in 1987's syndie movie YOGI BEAR AND THE SPRUCE
>GOOSE- made at the end of TREASURE HUNT'S run- with Paul Winchell's
>Dastardly voice. The L-A-L Baron was voiced by John Stephenson in kind
>of a Hans Conreid imitation.) Heatter-Quigley does get co-production
>credit at the end of WACKY RACES- I remember recognizing the name as
>being attached to many game shows and wondering what they could have to
>do with an H-B cartoon- but they get no mention at the end of FLYING
>MACHINES.
ME: My understanding is that Heatter-Quigley had to be paid for the
DASTARDLY & MUTTLEY show and also for THE PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP.
At some point later though, their interest was bought out or expired
or something.
>Someone on another website- possibly the late, lamented Yesterdayland-
>commented that Muttley, in his normal color and FLYING MACHINE garb,
>did a cameo in a L-A-L comic book.
ME: The last issue of the LAFF-A-LYMPICS comic, written by Yours
Truly. One of the H-B lawyers told me it was okay to guest star
Dastardly and Muttley so I had them show up and meet their "brothers,"
Dread Baron and Mumbly.
>It wasn't until the turn of the seventies and eighties when a larger
>budget was allocated the studio and the voice credit list for most
>shows was much bigger than the usual six or seven names. But for 1972's
>ARK LARK, the economic or logistic problem of recalling the voice
>actors for many of the classic characters was carefully avoided. Daws
>Butler took over as Top Cat in his Hokey Wolf voice- which may explain
>why Hokey only does a brief silent appearance.
ME: I don't think voice budgets ever changed. It was always a case of
"How little can we spend on this?" It's just that there were some
shows where a huge cast was unavoidable...or in some cases, the
network was willing to foot the increased costs.
A press release for YOGI'S ARK LARK credited Walker Edmiston with
having done the voice of Hokey Wolf. I have no idea how that came
about...but maybe they had Walker do some sort of voice for Hokey,
even though Daws Butler was right there, and it got cut out of the
final show.
>John Stephenson took
>over not only as Doggie Daddy, but as Hardy (originally done by Mel
>Blanc) and Benny; Maurice Gosfield had long since passed on. Squiddley
>Diddley, originally voiced by Paul Frees, has only one line ("Wait a
>minute, will ya? I only got eight hands!") that sounds like it could
>have been done by either Stephenson or Jean VanderPyl
ME: Pretty sure that was Walker. He did a number of Paul Frees voices
over the years, always with Paul's okay. For instance, Walker was the
voice of Ludwig Von Drake on dozens of educational films that Disney
produced in the seventies.
>Chopper,
>Ding-a-Ling, Dum-Dum, Secret Squirrel and several of T.C.'s cohorts
>appear on screen but without dialogue. It's highly doubtful that the
>studio would pay Blanc, Frees, Stang, Kaplan, DeLyon and Colvig for
>such small parts, especially since some of them may have been based on
>the East Coast at the time. (However, Blanc was already in the studio
>regularly at the time, working on THE FLINTSTONES COMEDY HOUR.)
ME: Arnold Stang lived on the East Coast. Frees may have moved up to
San Francisco by then. The rest of 'em were local.
>As far as the Scatman, I'd forgotten that he was also voicing Scat Kat
>on the ill-fated SKATEBIRDS, made by H-B's Australian outfit for CBS
>that same season. So he certainly would be seen around the studio on a
>regular basis. I'd assumed he was too busy working on CHICO AND THE MAN
>to be available full-time.
ME: I doubt that would have mattered. That show taped at NBC, about
10 minutes from Hanna-Barbera. He could always have run over and
recorded a few lines, which is all Hong Kong Phooey would have had.
> Hanna and Barbera REALLY tried to push
>an Addams-esque monster family on the viewing public. They guested in a
>Snagglepuss, three Snooper & Blabbers and then evolved into the
>Gruesomes, neighbors in two Season 5 FLINTSTONE episodes, and even
>beyond that in a PEBBLES & BAMM-BAMM episode. (The large attention
>given them- maybe in response to two hit monster family sitcoms in
>prime time circa 1964-65- indicated they would become much more regular
>presences than a mere two episodes would indicate.) Some would say that
>Really Rotten team members the Creeplys were the Gruesomes redux.
ME: The early versions (sometimes called Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil
Scientist) also had their own Gold Key comic. And amazingly, this was
before the ADDAMS FAMILY TV show was created.
Steve Carras
Howard Fein wrote:
> The first time I ever saw a Loopy cartoon was in one the 1989-90 H-B
> home video compilations that mixed the shorts of most pre-1966
> characters based on seasonal theme: Valentine's Day, Easter, summer,
> etc. Gang credits rolled at the end of the video mentioned the
> enigmatic Red Coffee, whom I calculated based on my knowledge of who
> voiced all other characters, must've been the Yakky prototype in the
> Loopy short. I'd figured that must've been a gag name for Jimmy Weldon-
> much like 'Chip Spam' was Dino's credited voice for many years, whereas
> any casual observer KNOWS it's Mel Blanc.
>
That's when I( first discoovered tbhe name "Red Coffee.." ("Chips
Spam's a name I saw WAY too often before and after)> Of course,
Huckleberry Hound has his genesis in the MGM theatricals as
> well, but as a wolf in several later Avery shorts. All the traits are
> there in THREE LITTLE PUPS, BILLY BOY and BLACKBOARD JUMBLE, down to
> the wolf's nonchalant shrugging off every personal injury ("Now that's
> a right strong kid.)" and ending every sentence with "-man". Butler
> appropriated the identical voice as Chilly Willy fall dog Smedley. I
> always wondered if there were any conflicts between Universal, MGM and
> Columbia (H-B's initial distributor) over use of such an identical
> voice, if only because the characters' personalities were so similar.
reoprised that voice a year before Hcuk appeared in "A Waggily Tale"
(1958), as well as Quiasp./Jerry Lewis as the ltitle "proto-Prince
Abba" (for those who don't knowm he's in that 1982 Arabain Nights Bugs
flick--"Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales'), and Lucille Bliss
a la Crusader Rabbit/Smurfette as a little girl.Possibly HER ONLY role
at WB as a vocie actress.
(HOWEVER "Suzanne" in "A Kiddie's Kitty",1955, sounds like Lucille.)
> Speaking of RUFF & REDDY, I recently learned from the commentary of the
> FLINTSTONES SEASON 4 DVD (delightfully and informatively provided by
> Mark, Earl Kress and Paul Dini) that Bamm-Bamm had a prototype of sorts
> as a Neandrathal infant in a R&R story arc. As mentioned, I had NEVER
> seen the series as a child, which never seemed to repeat on any NYC
> station after the mid-sixties- even though the other pre-1966 shows
> reran endlessly into the eighties.
>
I'd barely seen it for many years in the 1960s-70d (I'm fro the
opposiute coast myself.)
> A wolf with the exact voice and similar personality, if not appearance,
> of Hokey guested in a late 'Capital' Yogi short "Oinks and Boinks". ( I
How true, Ding, How true..
>
> There were other characters who guested on various early H-B series
> that may have been viewed as stars of potential series that never
> reached fruition. Bigelow the Mouse, a James Cagney caricature voiced
> by Doug Young, appeared in individual episodes of Loopy, Yakky, the
> Doggies and three Snagglepusses.
I don't know how much Doug Young contributed to Bigelow, but it does
seem to be him..he did a lot of star voices as much as Walker Edmiston
and Daws Butler.
>Hanna and Barbera REALLY tried to push
> an Addams-esque monster family on the viewing public. They guested in a
> Snagglepuss, three Snooper & Blabbers and then evolved into the
> Gruesomes, neighbors in two Season 5 FLINTSTONE episodes, and even
> beyond that in a PEBBLES & BAMM-BAMM episode. (The large attention
> given them- maybe in response to two hit monster family sitcoms in
> prime time circa 1964-65- indicated they would become much more regular
> presences than a mere two episodes would indicate.) Some would say that
> Really Rotten team members the Creeplys were the Gruesomes redux.
>
One monster family on CBS. The other on ABC (The Flinstones netowrk.)
None on NBC. (This haoppened with another trend frequently satirized
for your laughing beneift in cartoonf of the day, the doctor--"Ben
Casey on ABC & "Dr Kildare" on CBS? Again, no other network..)
>
> Getting back to the root of this thread, what made Yakky's starring
> series less cloying than expected when viewed as a DVD marathon is that
> he's not always as indulgent or self-pitying as in his early
> appearances. The duckling in Tom & Jerry shorts- especially LITTLE
> QUACKER and DOWN-HEARTED DUCKLING ("Oh boy, am I ugly- I wish I was
> dead.") is justifiably reviled for all of these qualities, which are
> somewhat muted in his pre-series TV appearances. Granted, his garrulous
> nature and friendship with the somewhat condescending Chopper can get
> grating; nary an episode goes by without an "Now, ain't that cute?"
> But the TV Yakky is at least cheerful SOME of the time, and his
> childish naivety can be amusing: in most episodes, he introduces
> himself to other characters or even the audience, "My name is Yakky
> Doodle. I'm a duck."
"This is CANDY Money."
=================================
=================================
I'm just Jenny on the block
Steve Carras
Mark Evanier wrote:
> On 3 May 2006 06:48:40 -0700, "RAY" <inkw...@aol.com> posted:
>
> >As side from the discussions about Jimmy Welson as Yakky's voice, no
> >one mentions Vance Colvig as Chopper, who was better known as Pinto
> >Colvig, the voice of Goofy. Another voice actor not mentioned is Doug
> >Young, who began doing voices for H-B in 1959 for characters such as
> >DOGGIE DADDY and DING A-LING. Young continued doing voices for
> >Hanna-Barbera until 1966, then disappeared. Last accounts indicate that
> >he is in Seattle, Washington. But if had been alive all these years,
> >why wasn't he called in to do the voices he originated such as DOGGIE
> >DADDY instead of having John Stephenson imitate them?
>
> ME: The voice of Chopper in the Yakky Doodle cartoons was done by
> Pinto Colvig's son. His name was Vance Colvig, Jr.
>
> The son did follow in his father's footsteps not only as a cartoon
> voice but as a Bozo. The father was the original voice of Bozo on
> records and the son played Bozo on Los Angeles TV on KTLA for several
> years.
>
many years.
> (Vance Jr. also had a nice career as an on-camera actor. His last
> role seems to have been in the Weird Al Yankovic movie, UHF. He
> passed away about the time the movie was released.)
>
I recall reading the obituary,. He was on some TV shows..
> The original questioner asked about a guy named Red Coffee. Very
> little is known about Mr. Coffee except that he did a great little
> duck voice in a number of cartoons and one or two novelty records.
> Daws Butler told me that he thought Coffee was a musician who
> performed in the L.A. area, did the duck voice in his act and got
> "discovered" by Hanna and Barbera, who used him in a number of their
> MGM cartoons. I think he did the initial guest appearances of the
> baby duck named Iddy Biddy Buddy or Itty Bitty Buddy in Hanna-Barbera
> cartoons.
Thanks..I asume also Mister Weldon was doing the "little biddy
duckling" when he was still in his original "Downhearted Duckling"
(MGM) stage..
>
> At some point, Mr. Coffee apparently was unavailable. By that point,
> Jimmy Weldon was appearing on a kids' show called CARTOONEROONY that
> appeared on KCOP, Channel 13 in Los Angeles. Weldon worked with a
> duck puppet named Webster Webfoot and supplied a similar baby duck
> voice. Hanna and Barbera began using him for their baby ducks and he
> became Yakky Doodle.
>
> When I was a kid, I was oddly aware that at one point, I could watch
> Vance Colvig play Bozo on Channel 5...or I could switch over to
> Channel 13 and watch Jimmy Weldon do his baby duck voice...or I could
> switch over to KTTV, Channel 11, and watch a Yakky Doodle cartoon with
> Weldon playing Yakky Doodle and Colvig playing Chopper. They were all
> on opposite each other for a while.
>
> Doug Young got out of the voice business and moved up north in the
> mid-sixties. I've spoken to him a couple of times. There were at
> least two reasons he didn't do Doggie Daddy for LAFF-A-LYMPICS and
> other shows. One was that I'm not sure anyone at Hanna-Barbera knew
> he was still alive or if so, how to reach him. Another was that on
> that show, they had so many characters that they felt they had to keep
> the size of the voice cast down. Frank Welker did the voices of Speed
> Buggy and Yakky Doodle because Bill Hanna didn't want to expand the
> budget by bringing in Mel Blanc and Jimmy Weldon. I'm also not sure
> Young would even have wanted to fly down to L.A. to do the part but
> for those two reasons, they never asked him.
> ----------------------------------------------------
Intersting..Mark...IMHO You oughtta put this in your POVonline.co,in
addition to the reprints of "Comics Buyer Guide' material.
Steve Carras
:-)
> Jimmy Weldon does occasional voices but mostly works these days as a
> motivational speaker. You can read all about him (and see him with
> his puppet, Webster Webfoot) at www.jimmyweldon.com.
Last time I checked the site, it was a pretty excllent one.
Steve Carras
"Fibber has some great lines in the Bob Hope/glib coward
mold, and his interactions with the other characters are a hoot. Daws
Butler supposedly based his voice on then-popular comedian Shelley
Berman, who after decades of obscurity has become hot again in CURB
YOUR ENTHUSIASM"
almost marries Terri Polo & Ben Stiller (THRID installment - is that
what it'll take for those two to FINALLY get married..)
Andrew Kieswetter
song of the same name by Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots? (LOVE that
name!)
Andrew Kieswetter
apkieswetter@hotmailcom
Steve Carras
NJo, but anyway, informaiton differs, either Rick Dees, obviously or
"Ken Pruitt", credited on my RSO copy as "Duck vocal direction"
(??????).Interesting label credit.
Andrew Kieswetter
Andrew Kieswetter
Matthew W. Miller
> Question: Did Jimmy Wheldon provide the voice of the Disco Duck in the
> song of the same name by Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots?
Fred Bronson's _Billboard Book of Number One Hits_ quotes Dees saying
that "One of the guys who worked out in the gym did a great duck voice",
so probably not Wheldon. According to a page on DiscoMusic.com
< http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/237_0_2_0_C/ >, the duck
vocal's by Ken Pruitt.
--
Matthew W. Miller <mwmi...@columbus.rr.com>
Om mani padme sum.