Spooky Little non-Encounter

                                                    Spooky Little non-Encounter
                                                                              
                                                                         by
                                                                                    
                                                                            Jay Agan

    To many cartoon fans, the voice, if not the name, of Paul Frees is familiar. A veteran of quite a few shows, he's best known  as Boris Badenov (Jay Wards' Rocky & Bullwinkle) and the Burgermeister Meister Burger (Rankin/Bass' Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town).

    Not only a voice over in toons, he also did many bit parts in a number of films, (War of the Worlds, The Thing From Another World, Jet Pilot, Suddenly, etc.) and dubbed foriegn films, sometimes as more than one character. In some English language movies, he was called on when an actors voice was unintelligable or didn't come over well. (Flight From Aishiya, Taras Bulba.) Commercials (Raid!) were also a staple of his.

    I was living in New Jersey at the time of his death (66) in 1986. It was with some sadness as I read the news of his passing in the Bergen Record.Two Weeks later, I was pulling out the factory gate after a long night as computer operator, and more than ready to turn in. Radio was tuned to WABC when a new Diamond Walnuts ad came on. Concluding with a familiar voice emoting that companys' slogan:

    "NOW WOULDN'T THAT BE NICE!"

    The guy was dead two weeks and still working! Hats off to ya sir. You're still missed.

                                                    Article copyright © Jay Agan

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Scooby Dooby Doo, I Hate You ...

Scooby Dooby Doo, I Hate You ...

by

Jay Agan


I remember when this came on CBS in '69. Thought it was kinda kool .......at first. As a fairly nondemanding adolescent, I'd look at anything. After a few episodes I noticed: Each ep was the same. Painfully so.

Scooby ran a half hour with commercials. Take the ads out:    

1. 5 mins of set-up/intro.The spooky place, telling the legend/crime/curse/treasure/talisman/warning(s)/consequences, etc.

2. 10 mins of slapstick with the moron & even more moronic dog, involving fear, food, & foolishness.

3. One min+ of aforesaid klutz & canine blundering into the monster/wizard/maniac/ghost, etc. & "subduing" him.

4. 4 min of Velma wrapping it up & revealing it wasn't anything supernatural/extraterrestrial at all. Usually with the mandatory unmasking of a local personality or authority figure. "It was Sheriff Smith/Mayor Dudley/Farmer Brown, etc. all along."

"Yeah! And if it weren't fer you kids n' that snoopy dawg 'o yours, I'da gotn' away with it too!"

Yeah ( sigh), whatever. It was like this every excruciating episode. This krap went on for years. Hanna/Barbera tried "spicing it up" with animated versions of celebrities & lengthening it to an hour. Didn't help a bit. And we never did find out what Fred & Daphne were doing "off camera" for most of the time.

I initially saw through this after 4 or 5 eps (took me long enough) & quit. The rest of the country didn't. You'd think this show would have gotten stale pretty fast for everyone else. It didn't. The kiddies ate it up, wouldn't spit it out, letting it fester in their little guts, calcifying their tiny brains.

Many of the things wrong with this country, I blame on previous generations watching Scooby Doo.

And all this time you thought it was sex, drugs, rock n' roll.


Article copyright © Jay Agan


Scooby Doo Meets Azumanga Daioh here.


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