The Fabulous Shorts
1968 was an odd year for animation. Aside from DePatie–Freleng, most of the cartoon studios were starting to slow down, starting to stop production of animated cartoons or had already stopped producing cartoons (Paramount and MGM's cartoon department shut down the previous year, for instance), what little cartoons were left were mostly the mediocre limited animation stuff that you would see on a Saturday Morning (Cool Cat, Sad Cat and worst of them all: The Beary Family), the only real animated film that year was the psychedelic Yellow Submarine and parental groups forced networks to stop producing action cartoon shows and focus on comedy cartoon shows. With all of this said, it just puts a smile on my face that for one night in this year (October 17, 1968) you could watch a program with clips of Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse cartoons alongside full John Hubley and Zagreb cartoons.
After the huge ratings success of The Fabulous Funnies that year, Lee Mendelson Productions (the guys who made that special and made the Peanuts specials with Bill Melendez) were contacted by NBC to make another TV special right away. And so they did. The special was put together and aired on NBC 8 months later on October 17, 1968, right before a "Soul" music special.
Jim Backus (the voice of Mr. Magoo) hosted the special, presenting a biography of the then recently deceased Walt Disney (he had died less than 2 years ago) and an interview of Mel Blanc. During both segments, clips from Steamboat Willie, Flowers and Trees, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, Three Orphan Kittens, The Country Cousin, The Old Mill, Ferdinand the Bull, The Ugly Duckling, Lend a Paw, Der Fuehler's Face and Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom and clips from Knighty Knight Bugs, Birds Anonymous and possibly clips from Tweetie Pie, For Scent-imental Reasons and Speedy Gonzales were shown respectively. Clips from When Magoo Flew and possibly Magoo's Puddle Jumper were also shown at some point during the program. The big draw, however, was the full shorts shown during the special, all Acadamy Award winners funnily enough. They were A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature, The Critic, Munro, Moonbird and The Substitute (Eratz).
Unfortunately, no footage of this special and The Fabulous Shorts exists currently which is a real shame. I do want to find those special and I hope that you find them too.
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