Tooned In: Fourth Of July Special

Well we’re fresh off of this weekend, when we celebrated…well…um, Ray Combs’ Family Feud premiered the fourth back in 1988, that’s something I can still be happy about. Oh wait, I have to remember when Richard Dawson was brought back and Ray’s life went to crap.

Let’s see…Barry Windham was born that day…but then again, possibly helped his family counterfeit?

Looks like I’m just going to have to stick with it being just a day for nice fireworks and good barbecue…Wait! I got it! How could I forget? This July 4th was the 40th anniversary of when the series version of The Raccoons premiered! Now that is something we can all agree on!

Well, MeTV Toons doesn’t have the rights to The Raccoons, so instead they featured a few cartoon shorts that were seasonally appropriate. Somehow I only captured the two “favorites” of Mike Klauss of It Was A Thing On TV : Mister Magoo and Casper the Friendly Ghost. These were seen on Me’s Cartoon All-Stars block. So let’s have at it…

Magoo’s Glorious Fourth (1957)

Magoo selling his soul for fireworks would be more interesting…

After leaving him alone since his brush with pro wrestling, Tooned In returns to Mister Magoo finally. And why didn’t MeTV air Uncle Sam Magoo, the full length Magoo feature? Probably for the same reason we have the theatrical shorts but nothing else. Uncle Sam was one of my many go-to VHS’s growing up. Reading the credits, I was tickled to see Dean Elliott appear, who would go on to provide music to loads of Ruby-Spears shows. Hearing the patriotic, horn-driven music over the credits, I can see his influence.

Magoo is decorating his rooftop for the Fourth, and his nephew Waldo arrives with firecrackers. Magoo will have nothing of it, and says that their holiday is going to be safe and sane. So Uncle Frank Magoo will not be invited because he ALWAYS ends up talking politics. But he may not be needed, given Magoo’s comment that the neighbors can blow themselves to kingdom come.

Instead, he’s going to celebrate by planting a garden. He goes out to the local florist…only said florist turns out to be a firework stand. Because Magoo is NEARSIGHTED, of course. Hilarity ensues when vague dialogue passes and he buys a couple dozen fireworks believing them to all be plants. Magoo at one point wonders where the potted flowers are…or maybe they have “sober flowers.” I know it’s easy to think of a “pot” pun, but yes, Miriam-Webster confirms that “potted” was slang for “drunk”.

So Waldo is impressed with his uncle’s apparent change of heart, but oblivious, Magoo proceeds to “plant” his purchases, despite the concerns of his neighbor (Daws Butler doing his Mr. Jinks voice…which reminds me, I need to tackle some classic Hanna-Barbera shorts some day…) All the while, he has a lit cigar, so you know where this is going. After flicking the ashes in the box, the entire set of explosives is set off. Of course, Magoo blames his neighbors and calls the cops on him. Still, he is in a good mood about his “garden” so he lets Waldo have the firecracker he confiscated from him earlier. So yes, the police call pays off when it is Waldo who’s arrested. Magoo just thinks it’s his friends when he decides to go back to tending his garden. He blames the fireworks aftermath on gophers eating his “flowers,” and ends up chasing a cat with his shovel.

Typical one-note Magoo stuff, carried by Jim Backus’ totally embracing the character. But speaking of one-note, that brings us to…

Red, White, and Boo (1955)

And when you see the Harveytoons open, that’s usually my cue to not be near MeTV Toons. Well at least it’s not Baby Huey. And definitely at least not *Hanna-Barbera* Casper.

On an unnamed college campus, a professor drops a book that Casper returns, where he finds he is working on a time machine. The professor’s voice is so familiar, but I’m drawing a blank. Of course nothing happens because his back’s been turned away the whole time, but Casper approaches to get a closer look, and when the professor sees him walking through the table, the usual “A GHOOOOOOST!” reaction ensues, complete with sight gag…this time, the professor becomes a rocket and blasts off. Casper reasons that people in the past won’t be scared of him. Depending on where he goes, what would happen if he meets Living Casper? Or Richie Rich, if you believe that urban legend? So he spins the machine’s dial like he’s trying to get as close as he can to a dollar without going over, and lands on the Stone Age. Or as Hanna-Barbera fans call it, the bottom of Orbit City. And didn’t the Flintstones cameo in one of the H-B Casper specials? I don’t know, that would require me to actually watch those, and that’s not happening. The time machine uses Wonkavision Science, so Casper walks into the screen to join a Bluto-like caveman taking his mate by the hair, as cartoon cavemen tend to do. He A GHOST’s away, and so does the woman who is driven to Stockholm syndrome by this encounter with the paranormal, because she just goes back to being dragged. Casper returns to the present and spins 1807 next, which would actually fit in with the early Wheel of Fortune oddball amounts like $175 and $1500. There, he finds Robert Fulton on the Clermont, boy was that Fantastic. But…both Fulton and ship A GHOST. One last try, and Casper gets 1775, which probably would fit the Wheel crack better. It’s the Revolutionary War, and Paul Revere, General Washington, and the British Army are all A GHOSTed. The latter surrenders, and Casper is finally accepted as a hero. Like a Revolution era ghost would ever be hailed as a heroic figure in history. That Hamilton gets all the attention, I tell you.

Even less to this than the Magoo short. The high points of Casper cartoons is usually the “A GHOST” reactions, and most of them were dull here.

And in one case, borderline unfortunate…