And today's video link comes equipped with another Joe Barbera anecdote. This one is a story that has been told a couple of times in various venues and occasionally mauled or distorted in the process. I've even told it once before on this blog but unlike some others, I got it right. So I'm going to tell it again…
There are two participants in this story, one being — of course — Joe Barbera. The other is Howard Morris, the brilliant comedy actor who is probably best known today for his many years as a sidekick on various Sid Caesar TV shows and for playing the irrepressible Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show. Howie also had quite a career doing voices for cartoon characters including Jughead and several others on the Archie cartoons, Wade Duck on Garfield and Friends, Gopher in the Winnie the Pooh shorts and Beetle Bailey in the cartoon series of the same name. For Hanna-Barbera, he voiced — among many I could name — Atom Ant, Mr. Peebles on Magilla Gorilla, and Breezly Bruin in the "Breezly and Sneezly" cartoons.
Howie's career at H-B ended in 1966 when he had an argument with Joe. What it was about is immaterial now but if you absolutely have to know, I explained it here the last time I told this anecdote. All you need to know is that it ended with Howie telling Joe, "Go f*** yourself!" Once that instruction was delivered, Howard Morris walked out of the building…and forever out of the employment of Hanna-Barbera. Or so he thought at the time.
Around ten years later, to his utter amazement, Howie got hired to do some voices for another H-B project. Given the number of ex-wives he was supporting, he could not afford to turn it down, so he timidly reported for work at the Hanna-Barbera Studio. All through the session, he was nervous about what might happen if he ran into Joe Barbera. He was afraid Joe would slug him or have him removed bodily from the premises…or maybe it would just be a lot of ugly yelling and screaming. He managed to get through the recording without encountering J.B. but as he headed out of the building, he found himself walking down a hallway…with Guess Who coming his way. "Howie," he heard Barbera call out. Howie froze in fear…but Barbera came up to him, gave him a big hug and told him how happy he was to see him again after too long an absence.
"You're not going to throw me out?" he asked Joe.
"Of course not, Howie," Barbera replied. "Why would I throw you out?"
Howie stammered, "Well…the last time I was here, I told you to go f*** yourself."
Barbera grinned and said, "I took your advice."
And now you know one of the reasons that so many people, including those who fought with him and quit and got fired, loved Joe Barbera.
Which brings us to the video clip, which is from the second episode of The Jetsons. It first aired on Sunday evening, September 30 of 1962 and it features the first thing that Howie did for the studio. They cast him as the teen idol of the future, Jet Screamer, and had him introduce the immortal rock 'n' roll classic, "Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah." According to Howie, J.B. personally selected him and directed him, the selection being because Barbera always liked Howie's performances as one of the Haircuts, the singing group on various Sid Caesar programs. (One of those numbers was our video link earlier this year.) Here's Jet…
