The last show I remember being called “and friends” was Fred Flintstone and Friends, and it wasn’t Saturday morning, but a syndicated weekday reairing of five Saturday morning shows. They took four Hanna-Barbera shows (Yogi’s Gang; Jeannie; Goober and the Ghost Chasers; Partridge Family 2200 AD), edited them so they would air two episodes of two titles over the course of the week, and stuck in the filler elements of The Flintstones Comedy Hour to pad the time, although they were shuffled from their original formats, so a lot of the references made no sense. Occasionally, there would be weeks where episodes of The Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm Show would air instead.
Hanna barbera would do that like in the yogi bear show they’d put a huckleberry hound cartoon in and then once he got popular hed get his own “show” where the middle cartoon was quick draw McGraw then he got his own show and so on until they hit a few that never became popular to have their own show (ie Winnie witch)… or ones that had a show but flopped (yippie yappie and yahooee)
then there was those morning/afternoon shows in indy and “superstations” where you’d see Popeye tom and jerry and 2 or 3 other cartoons shorts mixed in with stuff like mighty mouse that proliferated until ted turner bought up all the big studio cartoons up to the 60s then in the late 80s He bought AAP and Hanna Barbera … and now warner bros owns the rights to just about all the cartoons except Disney (and yes its weird to see the WB shield on one of the newer tom and jerry movies instead of Leo the lion)_ there’s a bit of discussion about who owns the HB made marvel stuff from the 60s tho
So if anyone ever wanted to make a roger rabbit sequel it would be easy … its just warners and Disney king features and water lantz’s descendants
I knew Tim Conway from The Carol Burnett Show. Didn’t you? It ran for, like, ever.
I grew up in the 80s and I had a Oliver Hardy piggybank exactly like this one on the left. Up until about fourth grade, which would have been '84 or '85 for me.
I actually liked the interstitial cartoons that were pretty common in those days. Like Tennessee Tuxedo in Underdog, or Heckle and Jeckle in Mighty Mouse, or the aforementioned Chilly Willy in Woody Woodpecker (hell, his shorts were better than Woody Woodpecker!) Or the various act twos (Mr. Peabody, Dudley Do-Right, Fractured Fairy Tales) they’d have in the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
I don’t know if this exactly the same as the cartoons weren’t advertised “and friends” as far as I remember, but those usually had one cartoon of the titled character, an interstitial cartoon of another character, and then ended with the third part being a cartoon of the title character.
I’m actually having a hard time remembering ones I didn’t like, and often I preferred the supporting act to the main one.
I used to work at one of those pizza places. My favorite movie was the 15-minute highlight reel from Cat Ballou.
ROBONIC Stooges. I hated them less for the concept (plenty of hate, though) than for that abomination of a portmanteau.
(early-mid 70’s for reference)
Don’t forget The Three Stooges. . .and we had a lot of Ma & Pa Kettle movies, and Blondie & Dagwood movies, and Frankie & Annette movies (with Eric von Zipper!). Man, we had shitty choices, but when something remotely appealing came on, it was such a great day. “Cool! I never saw this Gamera movie before!” Or on Monday morning: "Did you guys see Godzilla vs Megalon on Super Host? " :rolleyes:
But back to the tread topic: by and large, the “and friends” were death. Another half-hour, or HOUR, of formerly good cartoons mostly wasted. I still watched 'em. What else was I gonna do while eating too much cereal on a Saturday morning?
I did like when the Addams Family guest starred on Scooby Doo, because they were drawn in Charles Addams’s style. However, for some reason, John Astin was the only TV cast member who didn’t voice his cartoon counterpart. They had the guy who voiced the standard creepy villain roles do Gomez instead, and it sounded absolutely wrong for him to go gaga over Morticia speaking French.
I’m pretty sure I saw him on Scooby before I stayed up late enough to see Carol Burnett.
That was the first “and friends” cartoon that came to my mind. I always wanted more Spider-Man and less of the others.
Iceman and Firestar weren’t just friends. They were AMAZING friends. Totally different thing.
Echoing all the others that yes, I knew who Laurel and Hardy were. Their shorts were still shown regularly on the local TV stations. I wasn’t their biggest fan, but I recognized them.
And when it comes to weird cartoon mash-ups, surely the zenith (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) was Fred & Barney Meet The Thing. Spoiler alert: They never actually met!
I knew him from the syndicated reruns of McHale’s Navy.
Tim Conway (along with Joe Flynn) was in every other live action Disney film in the Seventies.
When I was a kid I was happy just to have the cartoons, “and friends” or not. Indianapolis’s local station had noontime and early afternoon shows, one of which was “Popeye, Janie & Friends” (Janie was the host) and I soon tumbled to the idea that the “and friends” meant anything not mentioned previously.
True. But I didn’t care about actors - I cared about characters. Scooby Doo meets McHale’s Navy - cool. Scooby Doo meets Gus the Field-Goal Kicking Mule (and friends) - great. But Scooby Doo meets actors - not so cool. I liked Scooby meeting Batman - but meeting Adam West at his nephew’s used car dealership (which is haunted) wouldn’t have been a big deal.
Only sorta kinda on topic, but am I the only one who hears the name “Fox and Friends” and thinks it’s some kind of cartoon show for conservative kiddies?
I liked Garfield’s “friends” (a group of farm animals-- I think they were something Acres?) better than Garfield himself.
Sorry, that was John Astin voicing Gomez, as well as Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy. Get this: Pugsley was voiced by Jodie Foster! :eek:
Sometimes the ‘friends’ weren’t good, but I like the variety in the good shows. George of the Jungle brought us Tom Slick and Super Chicken for example. Fractured Fairy Tales and Mr. Peabody came along with Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Jodie Foster was Pugsley on the animated series drawn like the Sixties TV show a year after the Charles Addams styled Scooby Doo special. On that one only Lurch and Uncle Fester were voiced by actors from the live TV series.