Ah, the singing cowboy. This unusual cinema archetype was very big back in its day, and the names are as familiar as the west itself: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter… However, many of these stars have been lost to history, but still have their fans. Among these are Sam Plenty, the famous star of over 150 films (some of which have been released), including his Marine training films Words That Hurt, How To Sneak Up On People, and If You Need To Eat A Lizard, and his various recordings including the popular Groundhog Day song Gooey the Grumpy Groundhog. Plenty’s official website has just released a portion of a classic Sam Plenty serial from his classic TV series The Sam Plenty Calvacade of Action Show Plus Singing! with more to come, and also includes some very entertaining information about him and his co-stars, his code of conduct from his old fan club, as well as a recent interview with his frequent collaborator, Chilean director Sanso Pontapuntaquenia.
(Never heard of Sam Plenty? Don’t worry- he’s the creation of Mitch Schauer (The Angry Beavers) and Paul Rugg (Animaniacs), and is brought to you by the fine folks at Jim Henson Productions. The whole site is rather amusing, especially some of the shots at old serials in the film itself, such as having two villains being backed up by thousands of invisible ones- presumably since they couldn’t hire that many actors.)