“Bonjour Lobey”: Freakazoid’s Final Joke – On Us!

One of the funniest moments of nineties television animation was the musical performance of “Bonjour Lobey” (A parody of “Hello Dolly” superbly sung by actor David Warner as Freakazoid villain “The Lobe”) in “Dexter’s Date”, the Second Season premiere of FREAKAZOID!

One friend of mine (I’ll spare him the public identification) was flat out in the throes of utter hysterics upon seeing this. A moment he and I will never forget.

As detailed in the previous post, FREAKAZOID! Season Two has just been released on DVD – and I wasted no time in queuing up “Dexter’s Date” for a video viewing.

Yes, both “Bonjour Lobey” and the episode as a whole were just as great as they were “back then”.

Skipping ahead, as I often do, to the “Special Features” revealed the audio of the late (and too-soon departed) composer Richard Stone’s original demo tape for “Bonjour Lobey”! Without hesitation, I selected it for play.

Accompanying the audio was the following on-screen text:

We apologize, you’d ordinarily be seeing something really cool here but we ran out of money so please close your eyes and enjoy the magic that is Richard Stone’s original demo for “Bonjour Lobey”.

It was slightly different but, in its “raw form”, no less entertaining than the aired version. And, according to Freakazoid creator Paul Rugg’s Blog comments, it was sung by Mr. Stone, himself – making it an entirely new experience!

Then, after it finished… IT PLAYED AGAIN! It did not return to a menu selection… It just played again!

…AND THEN, IT PLAYED AGAIN!

…AND AGAIN!

It was programmed, not to return to the “Special Features Menu” upon completion… but to CONTINUE PLAYING IN AN ENDLESS LOOP!

The only way out is to click (press) on the “Features” text icon… but, if you don’t do that, it will go on… and on… and on!

Oddly, the more I heard it, the more I enjoyed it… washing dinner dishes, as it played on in the background – and ultimately singing along and parading around the room to its unearthly influence.

…Of course, it’s better if you’re home alone while doing this. No strange looks from your spouse that way!

Isn’t just like the folks behind FREAKAZOID! To take one of their best jokes of 15 years ago, and give it one final new twist for its unsuspecting fans! Bravo! Gotta love it! I can’t help but wonder what that particular “Lobey-loving” friend would think of this!

Happy Freak-A-Day! It’s FREAKAZOID! on DVD!

Today, FREAKAZOID! Season Two was released on DVD to much rejoicing… and pie!


For more information on the show and previous DVD release, read my review of FREAKAZOID! Season One HERE.

FREAKAZOID! (1995-1997) was a happy anomaly, even among the high-quality, (mostly) all ages fare of the WB Network’s Saturday Morning lineup of the mid-late nineties.

Looking at it today, you could say “It was Family Guy, before there was Family Guy!” Slapstick, verbal humor an adult can enjoy, pop culture references galore, fourth wall breaking, and story-delaying humorous digressions that punctuate almost every episode!

So taken was I with this unique and outstanding animated satire, that it became a major stylistic influence on my freelance scriptwriting for Disney comic books like UNCLE SCROOGE! Watch the show, then read my comics… it’s rather obvious!

When Ben Stein and Hollywood’s Jack Valenti play themselves in episodes – and animated parody guest players range from Rush Limbaugh to Pope John-Paul II, you know you’re out of kiddie territory. Though Pinky and The Brain show up too – as well they should!

Alas, Saturday morning WAS “kiddie territory” and, while at 11 am, FREAKAZOID! preformed well enough to merit renewal, a Second Season shift to 8 AM resulted in its premature cancellation.

But, with this release, we now have the entire series to enjoy over and over again.

So let’s enjoy regular cast voices Ed Asner, late night’s Craig Ferguson, Jonathan Harris of LOST IN SPACE, everyone’s favorite sophisticate Ricardo Montalban, and the incomparable Paul Rugg as Freakazoid for their final 11 episodes.

Finally, how’s this for irony… with this release, we can now say that FREAKAZOID! outlasted the WB Network! I only hope that Jamie Kellner walks through Best Buy this week!

HUGGBEES!

GREEN LANTERN FIRST FLIGHT

We’re not in the habit of putting up advertisements at TIAH Blog, but this is just too good! And I just want to be able to watch it over and over myself!

Coming to DVD this summer, from Warner Bros and the legendary Bruce Timm: GREEN LANTERN FIRST FLIGHT!

It looks to be all the excellence you’d expect from Timm in the story of Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), the Guardians of Oa, the Green Lantern Corps, and Sinestro!

In my view, GREEN LANTERN was (and remains) one of the greatest and most original concepts in all of comics – as much Sci-Fi as superhero, and Timm’s version seems to it all proud!

Enjoy… and let no evil escape YOUR sight!

And still more Guy Williams! Next Week on LOST IN SPACE!

Still busy. Still cheating on Blog posts.

Never a problem, as long as I continue to find quick LOST IN SPACE video clips!

From the great Season Three, here are the Next Week Previews for “Kidnapped in Space” and “Space Primevals”!

So, let’s join Guy Williams, Jonathan Harris, Mark Goddard, Billy Mumy, and Dick Tufeld as both the voice of The Robot and the Narrator of the promos for some “Out of This World, Sixties Sci-Fi Fun”

Nothing says “Sixties Sci-Fi” like the hair on the female alien in “Kidnapped in Space”!



And don’t forget “Volcanoes and the Space Savages who Love Them” in “Space Primevals”!

More Guy Williams and Black Pete!

You know I’ve been to busy to Blog, when I’ve got to cheat like this!

Last Post, we saw Guy Williams and Mickey Mouse villain Black Pete share some embedded video screen time.

Here, for the one and only time, they share a comic book cover – and with Carl Barks’ Donald Duck and Daisy to boot! WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES # 278 Cover Date: November, 1963.

Pete, Mickey, and Goofy are by artist Jack Bradbury, and Guy Williams, as ZORRO, is oddly pictured in black and white – while there are other covers where he appears in color (# 275 and 277).

And, furthering the connection between Williams and Pete, notice they are both “floating heads” while all the other characters are full figures! …We’ll leave any deep thoughts to the comic book cover editors out there! Enjoy!

Guy Williams, Black Pete, and a Host of Others!

This is just too good not to post!

It’s the opening and closing to a Walt Disney’s ZORRO show from the late 1950s – with embedded 7UP commercials.

But consider the amazing number of actual persons and fictional characters that come together for this frantic five-and-one-half minutes!

Of course there’s Guy Williams, who starred as ZORRO and will be a forever-favorite of mine as John Robinson in LOST IN SPACE.

Oddly, the announcer for the series appears to be Dick Tufeld – who was also the announcer for LOST IN SPACE, as well as the voice of The Robot!

So, here we have Mr. Tufeld narrating the “Next Week Scene” for ZORRO (starring Guy Williams)… and IN THIS POST, we have him narrating a “Next Week Scene” for LOST IN SPACE (also starring Guy Williams)!

Familiar, but unexpected members of the production crew are Sixties LOONEY TUNES and F-TROOP composer William Lava – and, as "Assistant Director", Vincent Mc Eveety, better known for directing such well-known shows as STAR TREK (The Original Series), THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, PERRY MASON, and COLUMBO.

The confluence is made all the odder by the addition of two animated characters, seen in the 7UP commercials that were apparently produced by the Disney animation studio.

First, there’s 7UP spokes-bird “Fresh-Up Freddie”. Now, Freddie was a fixture of the back covers of late 1950s DELL COMIC BOOKS (see the ad below).

But, what the comic ad covers do not convey – and the animation DOES – is that “Freddie” is actually the next evolutionary step for THE ARACUAN BIRD (!) that ultra-zany creature from the 1947 DONALD DUCK cartoon “Clown of the Jungle”! If you’ve seen that great cartoon, compare “The Bird” with “Freddie” and see for yourself!

The print ads never portrayed Freddie as particularly “wacky”, but the commercials sure do – especially the “tag” scene of each one, where Freddie “pops” around the big bottle of 7UP!

And finally, in the first Freddie 7UP commercial, who turns up as the villain? Why, none other than Mickey Mouse’s most enduring foe – Black Pete! Seemingly voiced by Paul Frees. How can I not love anything that somehow manages to showcase both Guy Williams and Black Pete!

After all this, there’s not much more I can say but… Watch and enjoy! …And, if a wacky red bird offers you a 7UP, take it or suffer the consequences!

Yogi Bear in “The Stout Trout” (1958)

Yogi Bear should have read my previous post and benefited from “The Timeless Bass Secret”, tantalizingly hinted to a breathless public in a number of 1980 era comic books.

But, in 1958, he could neither read the 2009 post nor the 1980 comics – so he had no choice but to go to watery war with Wily Willy the Wily Trout!

And so he did, in this entry from early in the First Season of THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW, written by creator and producer Joe Barbera and performed by Daws Butler as Yogi and Don Messick as Our Narrator.

Note the unusual attention to detail not afforded to most “blackout gag” cartoons. Yogi ends one scene by falling into the lake – and begins the next scene still dripping wet!

He’s also injured by an errant spear gun projectile, and spends the REMAINDER OF THE CARTOON with a bandage on his rump!

Also note the unusual rendition of the Yogi Bear Theme. It’s a little higher and more energetic than the norm.

Beyond that, this is a cartoon I just like the look of! The backgrounds read well and are colorfully pleasing to the eye – and, frankly, don’t look much different from those of Hanna and Barbera’s later theatrical efforts for MGM. (Particularly the widescreen phase!) Watch a few of those and then some of these and you can see the evolution… taking the extreme budgetary limitations of television into consideration, of course.
Enjoy… and don’t swallow any wooden fishhooks!