In 1960, King Features Syndicate produced three series of cartoons based on newspaper strips that they distributed — Beetle Bailey, Krazy Kat and Snuffy Smith. The remnants of the Paramount/Famous cartoon studio animated fifty six-minute cartoons of each and they were pleasant and sometimes rather funny.
Any day now, you'll be able to buy a DVD set of all fifty Beetle Bailey cartoons for a little over ten bucks. Here's the link and don't ask me why the box and advertising say you're getting "thirteen thirty-minute shows." There were fifty cartoons and the last time I looked, fifty was not divisible by thirteen…but I guess you can do anything in a cartoon.
My dear pal Howard Morris was the voice of Beetle Bailey while Allan Melvin played Sgt. Snorkel, and the two men divvied up all the other roles. Mort Walker, the creator of the inept soldier, told me once he hated Howie's voice and had really wanted Arnold Stang. I once directed Howie and Arnold in a cartoon and during the breaks, the two of them joked about all the times they'd been up for the same part.
Our clip today is the opening from one episode. I always liked the theme song.
