If you have one and if your cable company or satellite dish gets the Boomerang channel, you might want to grab a season pass for Late Night Black & White, which used to be a treasure of Cartoon Network. Now it's on Boomerang every Saturday and Sunday night at 11 PM on my set. I'm sure these are reruns of the same episodes but, hey…it's a rare chance to see vintage WB and MGM cartoons that probably won't be turning up on DVD soon.
This coming Saturday night, they're running three "Captain and the Kids" cartoons, including one directed by Bill Hanna, sans Barbera. On Sunday night, we get three great WB black-and-white classics including We're in the Money, built around the Harry Warren tune. This is followed by two Goopy Geer shorts. You don't see a lot of Goopy Geer on TV these days so you have to take him wherever you can get him. He was an early, unsuccessful attempt by the Harman-Ising company (they produced the early Warner Brothers cartoons) to create a big cartoon star to rival Mr. Disney's mouse.
Cameo appearances aside, Goopy only starred in three cartoons so here's your chance to see two-thirds of the canon. Perhaps you'll be able to figure out why he never caught on…apart from the obvious fact that his name was Goopy Geer. If your name was Goopy Geer, no one would have heard of you, either.