The Cartoon Connection

[haverpopper]

One of the pleasures of listening to the Jack Benny show has been connecting the voices of some of the characters to cartoon characters I grew up with. The obvious person here, of course, is Mel Blanc. But there are some others:

Andy Devine: not sure if he counts as an actual character on Jack's show, but he seemed to turn up fairly regularly in some early shows. He did the voice of Friar Tuck in Disney's "Robin Hood," and I think some other Disney voices as well.

Phil Harris: the other big cartoon voice -- Baloo the bear in "The Jungle Book," plus characters in "The Aristocats" and "Robin Hood."

Dennis Day's Mother: the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland"

Dennis Day: Johnny Appleseed

Harry Shearer: multiple voices on "The Simpsons"

Can anyone think of any others?

[Maxwell]

One of the pleasures of listening to the Jack Benny show has been connecting the voices of some of the characters to cartoon characters I grew up with. The obvious person here, of course, is Mel Blanc. But there are some others:

Andy Devine: not sure if he counts as an actual character on Jack's show, but he seemed to turn up fairly regularly in some early shows. He did the voice of Friar Tuck in Disney's "Robin Hood," and I think some other Disney voices as well.

Phil Harris: the other big cartoon voice -- Baloo the bear in "The Jungle Book," plus characters in "The Aristocats" and "Robin Hood."

Dennis Day's Mother: the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland"

Dennis Day: Johnny Appleseed

Harry Shearer: multiple voices on "The Simpsons"

Can anyone think of any others?

Bea Benaderet (Gertrude): Numerous female voices in WB cartoons.

[shimp scrampi]

Sara Berner (Mabel) did some cartoon work as well. Frank Nelson did some 80s TV cartoons later in his career, I know "Garfield" for sure, maybe others.

Joseph Kearns (Ed the vaultkeeper) is also in the Disney Alice in Wonderland, as the doorknob with Verna Felton.

Bea and Mel of course were also Betty and Barney Rubble together on the Flintstones.

And of course, almost the whole gang's in "The Mouse that Jack Built"!

[jcouso]

Thurl Ravenscroft who was the baritone singer in the Sportsmen Quartet was also the cartoon voice of Tony the Tiger, Al the Alligator in Lady and the Tramp and he sang and performed in numerous Disney cartoons. He did steady voice work up until 1999. His last cartoon was The Brave Little Toaster. He passed away in May of 2005. He is also well known as the deep voiced ghost in Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

[LLeff]

Thurl Ravenscroft who was the baritone singer in the Sportsmen Quartet was also the cartoon voice of Tony the Tiger, Al the Alligator in Lady and the Tramp and he sang and performed in numerous Disney cartoons. He did steady voice work up until 1999. His last cartoon was The Brave Little Toaster. He passed away in May of 2005. He is also well known as the deep voiced ghost in Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

Plus the singer of the immortal "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch" from "The Grinch that Stole Christmas".

[bboswell]

One of the few voices that was NOT done by Mel Blanc in Looney Tunes was that of Elmer Fudd. He was voiced by Arthur Q Bryan. Bryan was mostly heard in Fibber McGee and Molly and The Great Gildersleeve, but he does appear on at least one episode of Jack Benny, (Using his Elmer Fudd voice.) It is in the Easter episode, not sure what year, but the show has Bob Crosby rather than Phil, and it is the "Easter Parade" episode. He is the one running the drug store where Jack goes to get some cigarettes and telling Jack how good "Wucky Stwikes" are.

[Gerry O.]

There's a hilarious bit on a Benny show where Jack goes to a psychiatrist. After he checks in with the receptionist (played by Bea Benaderet), she asks Jack to take a seat (next to another patient) and wait for the doctor. Jack asks the receptionist if the other patient sitting in the waiting room is violent, and she assures Jack that the man is quite harmless...."He thinks he's a rabbit". Jack gets angry because he thinks that the receptionist is being a smart-aleck and pulling his leg, but when he sits down next to the man, the man (played by Mel Blanc) turns to Jack and says (in his best "Bugs Bunny" voice), "Eh, what's up, Doc?". Then Jack and "Bugs" have a conversation until "Bugs" says that he can't wait for the doctor any longer, and he leaves the office.

The payoff is when the receptionist talks to the doctor on the office intercom and says, "Doctor, Mr. Benny is here to see you....No, BENNY.....BUNNY just left!".

It's a rather silly routine, but it's also very funny and another example of the "Cartoon Connection" that Jack and his show had.

[bboswell]

The payoff is when the receptionist talks to the doctor on the office intercom and says, "Doctor, Mr. Benny is here to see you....No, BENNY.....BUNNY just left!".

There's a second payoff at the end of the show. As Jack is pulling out of the doctor's office, he hits someone with his car. Quickly he jumps out and apologizes, and we hear Mel Blanc as the bunny again say:

"I'm OK, but you knocked the carrot out of my hand!"

[LLeff]

One of the few voices that was NOT done by Mel Blanc in Looney Tunes was that of Elmer Fudd. He was voiced by Arthur Q Bryan. Bryan was mostly heard in Fibber McGee and Molly and The Great Gildersleeve, but he does appear on at least one episode of Jack Benny, (Using his Elmer Fudd voice.) It is in the Easter episode, not sure what year, but the show has Bob Crosby rather than Phil, and it is the "Easter Parade" episode. He is the one running the drug store where Jack goes to get some cigarettes and telling Jack how good "Wucky Stwikes" are.

He was also on 11/16/41 playing Raymond Radcliff, a football announcer with the Elmer Fudd touches.

[LLeff]

He was also on 11/16/41 playing Raymond Radcliff, a football announcer with the Elmer Fudd touches.

And he was also on 11-14-43 playing a waiter.