While watching a Woody Woodpecker cartoon this weekend, I was reminded of the “two Woodys”. You know, the “standard” Woody and the goofy one with the buck teeth and crossed eyes whose topknot was more slicked back. Are these two incarnations of the same character? If so the transformation seems to have occured overnight and there seems to have been no transitional period.
Or was the other Woody (the more annoying “Screwy Squirrel” type character) a conncurrently appearing dim-witted relative? As a kid, I remember being disappointed and somewhat disturbed by the “Crazy” Woody. Any Walter Lanz buffs have the inside story?
Actually, the transistion was fairly smooth. Woody first appeared in an Andy Panda toon, “Knock Knock” (1940), and was still appearing in the 1950s and 60s (and even the 80’s, as a cameo in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”). Woody was actually the creation of Ben “Bugs” Hardaway, the man credited with creating Daffy Duck and a proto-Bugs Bunny. You can see a progression of headshots of Woody in Leonard Maltin’s book on American theatrical animated shorts, “Of Mice and Magic.”
Screwy Squirrel is an MGM cartoon, and was the brainchild of the great Tex Avery. There were only a hanful of SS toons, beginning with “Screwy Squirrel” (1944) an ending with “Lonesome Lenny” (1946).