Who knows exactly why it happened, but one thing is certain: What a major blow to Looney Tunes to lose Clampett so early in the game. Just imagine how many more amazing Clampett cartoons there could've been that we'll never get to see. I wonder how his work would've changed and evolved had he stayed the rest of the 40s, thru the 50s and even early 60s.
I have a feeling that if Clampett had stayed into the 1950s, his work would've more closely resembled the type of humor and style of Beany & Cecil, whilst keeping to a more UPA-esque, though still rubbery style. By 1946, any realism that Clampett had in his style was phased out for complete abstraction - and most likely his cartoons would've continued down that path into pure, unadulterated impressionism.
It's true. Although we did get a glimpse of it in Clampett's Beany & Cecil television series. The show retains a lot of Bob's signature humor and has an extremely high production value for a cartoon show that was produced in the 50's and 60's. You might want to check it out. Also, it got a short lived reboot in the 80's with animation from John K the Ren & Stimpy guy.
I think too clampett would not have liked the working environment under Eddie Selzer because Selzer was terrible to work for. Mel Blanc wrote in his autobiography that a few weeks after Leon Schlesinger retired the animators begged Leon to return but it was no use.
Bugs and Porky are great and all, but my heart always goes to the Looney Tunes secondary cast, which makes this my favorite era. Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Yosemite Sam, that's my JAM! Good work as always, and pointing to your videos is gonna be a great way of getting out of detailing Looney Tunes history on my show :P
I think this particular era would be the definitive era of 'Looney Tunes' in terms of star characters. While not as wild, or experimental as the Leon Schlesinger era, it would give rise to new characters while the older characters continued to grow.
@@superbowsermatt4432 Absolutley Not How can you say that Tex Avery is Number 1 and will alwyays be dont know how many Jokes Jones stole from Tex also ... Friz Freleng made the better bugs shorts
I love how Bob Clampett knew he wasn’t going to be sticking around when he made his 1946 cartoons. I love how he and his unit poured their hearts and souls into the cartoons to make them their best. They made them to their fullest. I just loved how he predicted his future. I just think it’s precious
I couldn't help thinking about how NBA players always seem to play better in the final year of their contract-they're trying to make themselves look good to up their value when they go looking for their next contract. is it possible Clampett knew he was leaving and was auditioning for whatever his next job would be? Or do I just watch too much basketball?
Clampett -- whose post-WB "Time for Beany" puppet show was beloved equally by physics genius Albert Einstein (in his twilight years) and music genius Frank Zappa (a child at the time) -- was such a pure creative force (and an obnoxious unprofessional prankster around the studio) that the sheer squareness of Eddie Selzer appearing over him at TT seems to have catapulted him from the premises like a reverse-polarity magnet -- also, I'll bet the reason Eddie Selzer objected to Friz using Tweety is because Tweety had originally been Bob Clampett's creation
I recently heard a wonderful interview with Bob Clampett's daughter Ruth, who's a novelist, where she gave some credence to the idea that Bob Clampett left WB in 1946 specifically because of the change in management. According to her, Bob and Leon Schlesinger were friends long before Looney Tunes, Leon had helped Bob with a short film he'd made when he was 12, so if it seemed like Leon showed a lot of favoritism to Bob, it was probably just because they already had a lot of trust in one another. Once Leon left, Bob probably knew that he wouldn't have that same kind of trust any more, so it was as good a time as any to seek greener pastures. I was also happy to hear that he was apparently nothing if not an extremely attentive and loving father, hence why he didn't do any more projects after the mid-60s (she also said that he was intrigued by the concept of music videos, but passed away before he had a chance to get involved with them).
@@gabe_s_videos yeah I’ve heard about that yeah. Leon and Bob were very close, also cause Leon was friends with Bob’s mom. Cause of that, Bob had the reputation around the Warner Bros studio as Leon’s golden boy or teacher’s pet. Leon allowed Bob to do a lot of stuff that he wouldn’t tolerate with the other directors. Like go a little bit over budget on his cartoons if he wanted or walk out of story meetings that he didn’t like or wasn’t interested in. So when Leon retired and Eddie Selzer took his place, Bob knew that with Leon no longer there and those privileges were over and wouldn’t be tolerated and put him on thin ice with Selzer. So Bob thought it would be best if he left Warners and seek other opportunities. Bob did go to Screen Gems briefly and then made a short called It’s A Great Old Nag for Republic Pictures. But that also didn’t go anywhere cause Republic wasn’t interested in doing cartoons. That’s when shortly after he was one of the first people to have one of the first hits on television, Beany and Cecil with his first show Time For Beany. And Bob brought his characters back to the first medium he mastered, animation with Beany and Cecil. He pretty much retired after the show ended in 1962. But one interesting fact, when Warner Bros wanted to reopen the animation studio after the original shutdown in 1963 and when Warners’ contract with DePatie Freleng ended, Bob was offered back at the studio to be the head director, but he refused and that’s when they got Alex Lovy from Hanna Barbera to be the director and was during the Warner/Seven Arts period. And, Leon helped Bob do a short film when he was 15 in 1927 when Leon owned and ran Pacific Title and Art
It's nice that you're helping to shed light on the whole thing that the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies had one of the most tumultuous and turbulent histories ever. People came and left, were fired and hired and how the Looney Tunes didn't just come out of nowhere and were the result of near DECADES of work and failure until they started getting the comedy beats right. Thanks man!
It would have been. However Clampett very likely would have not enjoyed being in the working environment under Eddie Selzer. Chuck Jones once called Selzer “Evil”
@@PatrickDoran2319 31:46: The culmination of both narratives gave a more reasonable, and understandable, explanation on why Bob Clampett would suddenly vanish.
0:00: Tweety Bird 1:49: Opening Sequence 2:22: Goodbye, Leon. Hello, Warner Brothers. 5:28: The New Producer 6:55: Frank Tashlin, the World's Greatest Yo-Yo 10:14: Robert McKimson, New but Old 14:03: Friz Freleng, the Defacto Director 18:28: Tweety and Sylvester, the Second Greatest Duos 20:47: Chuck Jones, No Longer Like Disney 24:52: Pepé Le Pew, Problematic, No? 28:35: Bob Clampett, The Director of 1946 33:46: Art Davis, the New Bob Clampett 40:16: Goodbye, 40s
@@canaisyoung3601 Absolutely also Jones is overhyped which we will be see in the next Episode this documentary maker seems to be also fully on Jones train
Frank Tashlin is so underrated Unfortunately he didnt direct enough cartoons to left a big mark but in some of his cartoons (like Porky Pigs's feat which is my favourite) he is close to the genius of Bob Clampett
Why didn't you talk about Bob Clampett's post-Warner career after you mentioned Frank Tashlin's post-Warner career? Clampett joined the Columbia-Screen Gems cartoon studio as a storyman until that studio closed. Clampett then turned to his childhood interest in puppetry and the brand new medium of television to create the six-time Emmy award winning TV series Time For Beany which counted among its fans Albert Einstein. After Associated Artists Productions bought the pre-1948 Merrie Melodies and color Looney Tunes, he was hired to catalog the cartoons. Later, he sold to ABC-TV and Mattel the animated Beany & Cecil cartoons which became enormously successful and set Clampett financially for life. He was in Detroit to promote the home video release of the Beany & Cecil cartoons when he died of a heart attack in 1984, just six days short of his 71st birthday.
Outside of Leonard Maltin for his Of Mice and Magic no one talks about Clampetts Columbia-era efferts despite it being short lived and he work only as story writer. They seem want to write that off as a minor effort due to Schlesinger's associate Bob Katz going there to try to save it and Clampett joining him since he was the last of leon's head still available.
As a kid I was instinctively drawn to the Warner Bros. cartoons for their imaginative and clever storylines, the rich colors, fantastic drawings, and the music. Of course not cognizant of all the work, politics, experimentation, collaboration, etc. that went on for years prior to hitting their stride in the 50's. Great story how this rich legacy came about and all the real life people whose unique talents, vision, and hard work contributed to the incredibly vibrant and entertaining end product. An amazing legacy of art every bit as captivating as Vermeer's girl with a pearl earring.
It has been debated on Leon Schlesinger’s personality. Tex Avery and Bill Melendez say Schlesinger was a great boss. Bob Clampett stated it was really exciting to work for Schlesinger. And Friz Freling said Leon was better to work for than Walt Disney.
@@gabe_s_videos Yup he was. Schlesinger also was not a cartoonist or a writer but when it came to being the head of termite terrace he knew how to make it work
@@PatrickDoran2319 I found the detail of him having been both a theater manager and an actor most interesting. It sounds to me like he had a fair amount of experience in both the show and business sides and show business to know how to get the best cooperation between both.
EXCELLENT WORK!!! Super glad that this series exists, it's much appreciated--and needed--and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one! (and thanks again for the credit!)
Bob Clampett's Daffy Duck shorts were some of the funniest things I ever saw as a kid, and for years after I missed the zanier Daffy of the 40's. Glad to see in the most recent cartoon that Daffy, as well as the other Tunes have once again returned to their 40's personalities and designs after sooo many years.
@@gilition It seems he's been posting new videos right along, no discernible gaps in uploads; I've not watched much of his stuff, but I guess I'll have to check it out!
Its so interesting to see how the iconic well known looney tunes characters came to be over what feels like random circumstance. Or how Daffy for so long was just not the character we know today.
They cut a lot of stuff out. All the war stuff is gone all the racist stuff is gone a lot of the stuff with one off characters is gone. But they do have all the really classic stuff from the late 40s and 50s like duck amuck, the barber of Seville, rabbit seasoning, and duck dodgers.
I agree that 1946 is one of Bob Clampett’s best years. I learned that usually the last year that the directors have at the studio before they left is usually great and one of the best years where they made great cartoons. Like 1941 with Tex Avery. 1941 was one of Tex’s best years
The great 1941 Avery shorts 1. Tortoise Beats Hare 2. The Heckling Hare 3. Hollywood Steps Out 4. The Haunted Mouse 5. Wabbit Twouble (with Clampett) Tortoise Beats Hare, The Heckling Hare and Wabbit Twouble are the best shorts in the mix
Excellent video. Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video. I feel fortunate my wife, daughter and I were able to meet and be photographed with many of the early studio animators, or their children or grandchildren. Leon managed to get the Studio through the Depression, and as other family members noted, that was no small feat. Many thanks for a great documentary video.
Also, the Final Looney Tunes short to credit Leon Schlesinger as the producer was Buckaroo Bugs, the first Bugs Bunny Cartoon under the Looney Tunes series, further blurring the line between Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies even more, since Bugs Bunny cartoons were only under the Merrie Melodies series before the release of Buckaroo Bugs.
I most appreciate this series when the specifics of the history reveal something about the creative process. Don't preach to us about how to create, of course. Keeping these wonderful installments concrete yet insightful makes these interesting to me.
Art Davis was another under appreciated director alongside men like Earl Duvall, and the one time director Irv Spector (he made one of the only good DePatie-Freleng shorts Corn on the Cop, I thought it was a good one)
Tweetie Pie was not the same project as Fat Rat and the Stupid Cat. Freleng was working on a followup to Peck Up Your Troubles (hence why the woodpecker was in it in the first place), and Freleng decided to replace him with Tweety who he had just gained the rights to. FRSC was a totally separate thing Clampett was working on, which was shelved when Freleng decided to convert his own project to Tweety, and the storyboard was auctioned off last year with six panels shown (and it seems this was where the title was revealed), and it was a completely different story. (Sure hope it was bought by a library or museum that will reveal the whole thing!)
Small correction to your description of the ending of "For Scent-imental reasons" starting at around 27:11 - The paint doesn't mask Pepe's scent, rather Penelope catches an instant cold from falling into the rain barrel and can no longer smell Pepe.
Clampett left in fine form (most of his last work was his best). I personally love "Draftee Daffy" and "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery". The problem was, by the time he left, there weren't a lot of positions for him to fill (unlike say the late 30s), and TV wasn't really going yet (he would bounce about for quite a while before getting into that). Those two have all the manic energy of his best work, but there are issues. "Draftee" is fun and exhausting, but it lacks the touch Avery would use in say "Bad Luck Blackie", another short built around one joke. Draftee, sets the joke, tells it, has a chase scene, then cranks the speed up and does it again and again. In this case, it works, but it's almost exhausting. By comparison, Avery takes a basic situation (kitten blows whistle, cat crosses dog's path, something bad happens to dog) and resets and modulates. He tells that same joke 6 different ways, before varying it for his climax. Clampett for good or ill just didn't work that way. "Piggy Bank" gets the feel of Dick Tracy's rouges gallery spot on, but seems to be missing a set of gags. There just isn't any commentary on what works (or is ridiculous) about the strip, it's beautiful but a mite shallow. Between suicidal birds and addicted cats, I think Freling was reaching normality as the years went on. He also holds what may be the "Most Meta" gag in the Studio's history. Halfway through "high diving hare" Sam has jumped off the diving board for the who knows what time. We cut to a long shot of the ladder, with the platform being just out of shot above. We see Sam furiously climbing up the screen out of frame, beat, beat and Sam comes hurling down through the shot. How'd bug's get him? Does it matter? If Avery could do the same joke 6 times Jones and Maltese seemed able to vary a scenario 10 ways. What's amazing is how many series got spun off from what would normally be one-off cartoons (Pepe, Road Runner, the Sheepdog and Wolf). What's odd is that, of his high-rated cartoons about half are standard cast stories, but another half are pretty near one-offs (Froggy Evening, Feed the Kitty, Dover Boys..)
I love, just love, "Draftee Daffy". Where to begin... propaganda. Funny to say the cartoon was exhausting seeing how it's wartime cartoon produced in the last year of the war about a cartoon character being drafted in the final year of that war. I love how Daffy literally changes his tune the moment he's drafted, going from pro war jingoism to self pity once he learned he was going to have to do something more than talk... or not if he did something to little man from the draft board first. It's an escalation series of gags where Daffy gets more and more desperate to stop the inevitable, more frantic, more lethal as he worked... to do the exact opposite of every other WWII cartoon said to do. You can't variate an escalation theme, it'd kill it faster than the little man from the draft board. You have to repeat, speed it up, repeat and then go faster. The great "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" is about overstatement and wish fulfillment. It's right there in the title, the bank being robbed is a piggy bank and that's hardly a job for Dick Tracy but it IS a job for Duck Tracy. THAT OTHER GUY would have simply called the short "Duck Tracy" and called it a day, making the work a parody but The Great Piggy Bank Robbery isn't a parody, it's a dream. A dream that turns into a nightmare. Be careful what you wish for, Duck, or you might get rubbed out.... erased? A cartoon character has a dream where he gets erased? That's impossi ble.
Question: is this series going to cover only up to the end of the original Looney Tunes series in 1969? Or will there be some coverage of the Looney Tunes movies some of the termite terrace veterans worked on and how the eventual creation of Warner Bros. Animation in the 80s?
Im not gonna lie Bob’s 1940’s looney tunes cartoons were the funniest ones yet, Amazing visual, Perfectly time and paced jokes, the zany and fast pace the movement of the characters, and most funniest of all is when The characters movement or Camera starts or moving so fast they’re bodies are loose, rubbery, and stretched out
I'm loving this series! Are you going to continue into the modern era? I'd love to see shows like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs,Taz-Mania, Duck Dodgers and movies like Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Space Jam, and Back In Action covered. Then again, that might be best separated into their own series...
This series is up there with AniMat's Disney series. They really complement each other, too, by pointing out just how incestuous the animation business really was (and probably still is). I found this is my recs by chance, and I'm so glad I clicked! I especially love learning about the little details I never knew, like Foghorn Leghorn's voice being based on a radio show character. And some of the animators' later comically evasive answers to the question of WTF Bosko was. 😂
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Warner Bros cartoons were never better than they were in 1946. Not before, nor after. Don't get me wrong, there were truly great cartoons before and after, but they never were able to match what Clampett and his unit had done in the 40's in my opinion. Although we got Beany and Cecil out of it, I sometimes wish that Bob Clampett hadn't left when he did. His cartoons were on a whole nother level, and they were only getting better and better. I can only imagine what his next batch of cartoons would've been like. Though I do understand that the general lowering of budgets and lessening of detail that took place as the 50's and 60's rolled around would've likely effected his work over time. Still, it's fun to wonder what could've been.
According to Tom Sito, Chuck Jones said he created Pepe Le Pew because he was tired of characters always trying to eat each other, so he created a character who "just wants to get laid."
I highly suspect this is a fabrication by Chuck, which many animation directors are guilty of. In reality Mike Maltese the story man is the one who submitted the idea about a horny skunk. This is told by fellow Warner Brow story man Lloyd Turner in his 1989 interview with Micheal Barrier
I wonder if the disneyfication of Fleischer studios following thier feature films, as well as the eventual ousting of the Fleischer bros to make Famous studios, helped Warner Bros. cartoons gain popularity too. Since before Loony tunes style was established, fleischers had a similar reputation at the time. Being the more violent, risque and edgy counterpart to Disney. It's possible that when the bros left, and Famous studios degraded in quality, Warner Bros cartoons had an opening to compete with Disney in a way they weren't able to in the 30s. Not that it was like the main factor or anything. Just that it helped them along.
“Tweety bird” is his SPECIES. His name is “Tweety Pie”, as in “Sweetie Pie”. And Frank Tashlin was the only “Looney” Director who ended up working in REAL movies! There’s a story about “Rhapsody Rabbit” having an M-G-M Tom and Jerry cartoon be so similar. “Rabbit” was made first, but the story goes that Technicolor mistakenly delivered a print of it to M-G-M!
That's what most don't understand. Penelope doesn't dislike Pepe. She just cannot withstand the skunk stench. It is pretty clear on the shorts: when she catches a cold killing off her sense of smell, or when he perfumes himself with the right fragrance, she falls head over heels for him. They are like lovers who can't ever enjoy each other's company, that's essentially the tennet of Pepe le Pew's shorts.
Great job! Very in depth. You should consider doing some of the Hanna Barbera produced MGM shorts like Tom & Jerry, Barney Bear, etc. Maybe even some of their 60s stuff, too, like Top Cat & Huckleberry Hound!
I want to say a huge thank you for this series. I was searching for cartoons and old memories and Episode 1 appeared through the algorithm and here I am. I've really, really enjoyed your knowledge, the clips, the insight, everything. Genuine applause. Genuine. Loved it, so well done. Thank you for entertaining and informing me.
That animation from the Gopher shorts... the yellow dog is probably my favorite thing out of that one particular short, he gives off a very abstract energy
A simply excellent continuation of what already was an amazing series. I’ve already a huge fan and the 40’s Warner cartoons are my favorite period (largely from the variety the 4-6 teams going strong during this period provided). It’s still fascinating to learn a bit about the personalities behind this period, and how they thrived/bailed during the Schlesinger->Selzer transition. As others have noted it’s a shame Clampett couldn’t have found a way to stick around. It would have provided such a contrast to Jones in the more sedate/stylized 50’s
It's really upsetting that other people and Twitter has labeled Pepe as some kind of rapist, it's disgusting and WB listened to them and now they're actively shitting on these characters, there's a deleted scene in the new Space Jam movie about the characters treating him like that but if you compare it to the original movie Pepe is in it... And DOESN'T chase a female character, they could have just done that but nope, he's "problematic" just like Elmer's and Sam's guns
Dude, even the video highlights that Pepe’s co creator was not too keen on the character or his schtick. It just got popular at the time and they ran with it. Now time has changed and the character is much less desired and nobody wants to really bring back that style of humor. For fuck’s sake, Dave Chappelle talked about this shit over 20 years ago. Get fucking over it
@@polixter421 yeah he talked about Pepe as a JOKE, in they same standup hr talks about Sesame Street, I guess we should get rid of that too huh? If Pepe's such a problem, why not update him or change it up? How about make him a legitimate smooth operator but he's oblivious to his smell? Anything is better than just labeling him as a rapist you sicko
@@Arcademan09 You don’t even know what the fuck you are talking about. Like seriously. The Space Jam news is already after a long time of WB already sort of not liking Pepe and trashing scenes with him in stuff like Looney Tunes Back in Action. Which isn’t to say he never reappears, he is just as similarly unpopular as now as he was then. Pepe had only about a dozen shorts he was featured prominently in. Less than Foghorn and Foghorn is similarly regarded as a character writers and animators over the years have had issues making interesting. But still, both have been featured in modern Looney Tunes shorts anyway so I don’t know what your problem is.
@@polixter421 Well the execs didn't like Taz either so thats not saying much. Also they could always change him to fit modern sensibilities. Its not that hard and erasing the character is just disrespectful.
25:00/ Thank you for helping to show the PC scaredy cats what real humor was meant to be.... funny! I hate this crap of being offended by Pepe Le Pew, who actually got removed from the new SPACE JAM film! Thank God I have the original Golden Collection DVD set to enjoy the smoking, drinking, skirt chasing humor previous generations laughed to completly uncut! Big props for acknowledging Robert McKimson, my all time favorite amongst the WB animation directors. Not only did he see the formation and termination of Termite Terrace, he gave audiences the 2nd most popular character in WB history... THE TASMANIAN DEVIL!
Eh for pepe le pew believe it or not frank tashlin created the concept of of many pepé Le Pew cartoons with I got plenty of mutton And keep the documentary coming I love it
38:31 is the part that it’s quite interesting. The “Blue Ribbon” reissued that started around 1944 and it continued right up until the end of its run in 1964, because of television was at the top of its game for cartoons when many of the WB cartoons were shown on the “Bugs Bunny Show” and the pre-48 shorts were shown in syndication as part of the AAP package along with the theatrical Popeye cartoons from the Flesicher and Famous Studios eras at Paramount until it was sold to United Artists in 1959 and rebranded as Associated Artists United and later renamed as United Artists Television.
If you care, somewhere out there on the interwebs is a fan made compilation of ALL the Warner Brothers shorts ever made from the very beginning up to the late 90s/early aughts. It even includes all the movies and most if not all of the prime time specials as bonus material. Since we're unlikely to ever see such a thorough release officially, this is one case where piracy is absolutely justified with no explanation needed. I won't tell you where to find it (after all, if the site becomes too popular it might be noticed by the copyright Nazis) but it's out there. Happy hunting!
The period was a time when the Looney Tunes really took off. Each director from Freeling, to Jones, to Clampett knew how to handle the characters in the shorts they produced.
