Sunday, July 31, 2022

Happy Birthday George Jetson!

If the memes are to be believed, George Jetson was born in the world somewhere today.


That means flying cars and apartment buildings that can rise above the clouds can't be too far behind! And I should finally find out what a sprocket is.

(personally, I prefer Harvey Birdman's canon that it was set in 2002 rather than 2062)


But enough about that, too many legends have been dying lately!

I mean, just today we lost Bill Russell, Nichelle Nichols, and Pat Carroll!




I don't need to go into what kind of legends Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols were. They were both trailblazers in their own right.

Pat Carroll was best known for voicing Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

"Poor, Unfortunate Souls" is a classic villain song, that's for sure.


But to me, she'll always be Grandma Arbuckle from the Garfield Christmas and Thanksgiving specials.


And that's on top of losing in the last month: Paul Sorvino, James Caan, Bernard Cribbins, Paul Coker, Jr, David Warner, and Larry Storch.


Paul Coker Jr. was one of MAD Magazine's Usual Gang of Idiots, but he's far more well known for being the character designer behind all of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials every year. Yes, he even designed my favorites Snow Miser and Heat Miser.

Above is a signed postcard my friend rwmead sent out for me as a Christmas gift, because he knew I eat this stuff up.


David Warner was a character actor best known for being in Tron, Time Bandits, Time After Time, Titanic (lotta T movies), but to me he'll always be The Lobe from Freakazoid.

Posted above is a four minute long parody of the title song from "Hello Dolly" with the Lobe in Barbara Streisand's role from the episode "Dexter's Date." David Warner tries his best to sing, but dammit, you gotta admire the commitment. Why was it in the episode? Simple: because no one told the creators they couldn't do it. And that's why Freakazoid remains one of my favorite shows of all time.

And that leaves us with the great Larry Storch.


I met him back in 2018(!) and he was a real nice guy. He's best known for playing Col. Agarn on F Troop, and for being the reason why anyone says "Judy, Judy, Judy" when impersonating Cary Grant.

But he also had a prolific voice over career in the 60s and 70s.


He was one of the Groovy Goolies, the first voice of The Joker, Professor Whoopee from Tennessee Tuxedo, and Cool Cat, the last major Looney Tunes character from the classic era. As much as you can call the Seven Arts era "classic, that is."


He was also an original Ghost Buster, co-starring his F Troop castmate Forrest Tucker, and Tracy the Gorilla ("trained" by Bob Burns).

They'll all be missed. Sad now.