Beany and Cecil

Beany and Cecil

characters from left to right: Crowy, Captain Horatio Huffenpuff, Cecil, Beany, Dishonest John
Genre Animation
Created by Bob Clampett
Voices of Jim MacGeorge
Irv Shoemaker
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 8
No. of episodes 26
Production
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network ABC
Picture format Academy ratio
First shown in 1959-1962
Original release January 6, 1962 – June 28, 1969

Beany and Cecil was an animated cartoon series created by Bob Clampett for the ABC Television Network. The cartoon was based on the television puppet show Time for Beany, which Clampett produced for Paramount Pictures beginning in 1949. The animated series first appeared in Matty's Funday Funnies in 1959, later renamed Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil and finally Beany and Cecil in the USA. Another season was produced in 1988. In its original form with hand puppets, the show conveyed a greater sense of personal communication than did the animated series that followed. The hand puppets were extensively marketed and sold well.

Although a children's show, it incorporated satirical references to current events and personalities which adults found entertaining, and the show also attracted adult viewers. Some of the plots were easily recognisable as thinly veiled lampoons of current political issues. Snarky side remarks by Beany, Cecil and the rest of the cast often alluded to embarrassing public fiascos or personages, on which the adult audience immediately picked up.

Along with The Jetsons and The Flintstones it was one of the first three color television series on the ABC television network (the initial season, though, was originally shown in black and white, as ABC was unable to telecast color programs until September 1962).

History

Beany and Cecil was created by animator Bob Clampett[1] after he left Warner Bros., where he had been directing theatrical cartoon shorts. Clampett originated the idea for Cecil when he was a boy after seeing the top half of the dinosaur swimming from the water at the end of the 1925 film The Lost World.

Clampett originally created the series as a puppet show called Time for Beany,[2] which ran from February 28, 1949 to 1954. Time for Beany featured the talents of veteran voice actors Stan Freberg as Cecil and Dishonest John, and Daws Butler as Beany and Uncle Captain.

Clampett revived the series in animated form, though Freberg and Butler did not reprise their roles. On 11 October 1959, the animated show was introduced as Matty's Funday Funnies. named for "Matty Mattel" the animated spokesperson for its primary sponsor Mattel Toys. The program was later retitled The Beany and Cecil Show, airing prime time on Saturdays during the 1962 TV season, on ABC Television. The newer cartoons replaced the Famous Studios cartoons of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey among others packaged under the previous said title of Matty's Funday Funnies.

After 1962, the 26 shows (including 78 cartoons) were repeated on Saturday mornings for the next five years. The cartoon featured Beany, a boy, and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent embarking on a series of adventures, often to discover ancient civilizations and artifacts. These escapades were rife with cartoon slapstick and puns.

Prior to the animated series, but concurrent with the puppet show, Clampett created a comic-book series of Beany and Cecil adventures for Dell Comics. The artwork for this series of comics, running from 1951–54, was drawn by Jack Bradbury.

In 1988, the show was revived as The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil by DiC Entertainment. Only eight episodes were ever made, and only five episodes ever aired. This incarnation of the show was produced and directed by John Kricfalusi, who would later create The Ren and Stimpy Show, and made use of voices from Billy West, who also did voices for Ren (for season 3 and later) and Stimpy.

Characters

Main characters

Minor characters

Music

One episode ("Beanyland") featured Tchaikovsky's instantly recognizable celesta piece, Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy, from The Nutcracker. Other famed pieces of the Nutcracker were used in the series as musical interludes such as the Chinese Dance and Dance of the Reed-Flutes. Many other well-known classical music pieces were featured in the show as well, including The William Tell Overture (in the episodes "Beanyland" and "The Phantom of the Horse Opera"), Ride of the Valkyries and Flight of the Bumblebee. Some of the background music was also recycled from Leave it to Beaver and some early Walter Lantz cartoons and incidental music from The Alvin Show.

Influence

The AC/DC song "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" is titled after the business cards of character Dishonest John, which read "Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Holidays, Sundays and special rates."

In Marvel Comics Universe, there is a spacefaring Imperial Guard unit with a member code named Warstar -who actually consists of two separate aliens, one smaller being riding on top of the other more massive one, named B'nee and C'cil, respectively.

The puppet origins and the form of Cecil inspired the famous science fiction author Larry Niven to invent an important extraterrestrial race called Pierson's Puppeteer within his Known Space series of novels and short stories.[3] Beany and Cecil was also an inspiration for Joel Hodgson to create the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 [4]

The artists

The credits of the show did not show traditional job titles, but pictorial icons indicating their jobs. Bob Clampett's writing credit was indicated by a typewriter typing out the words "...by Bob Clampett", for instance.

Episode list

  1. Oil's Well That Ends Well / No Such Thing / D.J. The Dee Jay 6/30/1962
  2. There Goes A Good Squid / Ben Hare / Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow 6/23/1962
  3. Cheery Cheery Beany / Nya-Ha Ha! / Swingin' Singin' Sea Serpent 6/16/1962
  4. Mad Isle Of Mad-hatten / Hammy Awards / Hare-cules & The Golden Fleecing 6/9/1962
  5. Beany Blows His Top / Beany Flips His Lid / Fleastone Kop Caper 6/2/1962
  6. Thumb Fun / Living Doll / Beanyland 5/26/1962
  7. Dragon Train / 10-Foot Tall And Wet / Dirty Pool 5/19/1962
  8. Cecil's Comical Strip / Beany's Resid-jewels / Wot The Heck 5/12/1962
  9. Ain't That A Cork In The Snorkel? / Makes A Sea-Serpent Sore / So What & 7 Whatnots 5/5/1962
  10. Ain't I A Little Stinger / Warring 20's / B & C Meet Invisible Man 4/28/1962
  11. Here Comes The Schmoeboat / T'ain't Cricket, Crickett / Cecil Always Saves The Day 4/21/1962
  12. Rin Tin Can / Vild Vast Vasteland / Invisible Man Has Butterfingers 4/14/1962
  13. Dirty Birdy / Man Eater Skeeters / Leading Lady Bug 4/7/1962
  14. 20,000 Little Leaguers / Malice In Blunderland / Buffalo Billy 3/31/1962
  15. Beany's Beany Cap Copter / Indiscreet Squeet / Phantom of the Horse Opera 3/24/1962
  16. Sleeping Beauty & The Beast / Quackers in Bed / D.J. Meets Cowboy Starr 3/17/1962
  17. Hero By Trade / Illegal Eagle Egg / Cecil Gets Careless 3/10/1962
  18. Beany & The Jackstalk / Humbug / Custard's Last Stand 3/3/1962
  19. Greatest Schmoe On Earth / B & C Meet Billy The Squid / Capture of the 3--Headed Threep 2/24/1962
  20. Rat Race For Space / Beany & The Boo Birds / B & C Meet Ping Pong 2/17/1962
  21. 7th Voyage of Singood/Cecil Meets Cecilia/Thunderbolt the Wondercolt 2/10/1962
  22. Monstrous Monster / Tommy Hawk/Yo Ho Ho & Bubble Of Gum / 2/3/1962
  23. Trip To The Schmoon / Grime Doesn't Pay / Beany's Buffalo Hunt 1/27/1962
  24. Davey Crickett / Strange Objects / Tearalong The Dotted Lion 1/20/1962
  25. Little Ace From Outer Space / Super Cecil / Wildman From Wildsville 1/13/1962
  26. Spots Off A Leopard / Invasion Of Earth By Robots / Singing Dinosaur 1/6/1962

Notes

  1. Beany and Cecil at the Internet Movie Database
  2. Beany and Cecil at the Internet Movie Database
  3. As originally stated in "The Soft Weapon" and repeated in other Known Space works.
  4. In Marvel Comics Universe, there is a spacefaring Imperial Guard unit with a member code named Warstar -who actually consists of two separate aliens, one smaller being riding on top of the other more massive one, named B'nee and C'cil, respectively. "20 Questions Only Joel Hodgson Can Answer about MST3K". Special Feature. Satellite News. January 1999. Archived from the original on 3 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-12.


External links

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