The Extras - Revisiting Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Send us a textAnimation historian Jerry Beck and Warner Archive's George Feltenstein continue our animation discussion. Together, they take listeners on a nostalgic journey back to the 1960s with the TV series "Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles." Jerry Beck reveals how this series captured the zeitgeist of its time and paved the way for iconic animated shows like "Josie and the Pussycats" and "The Archies." And George Feltenstein shares the painstaking efforts behind restoring these cartoons for Blu-ray.Next, we explore the revival of Warner Bros. animation history with George Feltenstein and Jerry Beck with the 1988 film "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters." With insight into Greg Ford's pivotal role in bringing the Looney Tunes characters to a new generation, the conversation highlights Ford's shift from historian to creator. Learn about the making of memorable works like "Night of the Living Duck" and "The Duxorcist," and the impact of animation compilations like "Bugs Bunny Superstar." Celebrate the enduring legacy of these cartoons and the excitement of their Blu-ray release, featuring fan-favorites such as "Blooper Bunny" and "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers."Purchase links:FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES Blu-rayDAFFY DUCK’S QUACKBUSTERS Blu-ray The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm Tom Weaver, author of Universal Horrors, a monster movie audio commentator, and member of the Tim Millard fan club. You're listening to the Extras. Hi, Tim Millard here, host of the Extras podcast. And this is a continuation of my discussion with animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive on some of the animation titles that were released in January and February of 2025. Today we're going to be talking about the TV series Frankenstein Jr. and

the Impossibles from 1966 and we'll also be talking about Daffy Duck Quackbusters the compilation film from 1988. Well, next I thought we'd go back to 1966 and a TV series called Frankenstein Jr. and the impossibles. And you released the complete animated series here just recently. And I know this series has a lot of fans because there was a lot of talk on social media, I think, when this was announced. So people are starting to get it. I watched it. It looks fantastic. It's so much fun. And a lot of people who grew up with it, I know are going to really enjoy collecting

it. But I think there's also younger fans these days too, who really enjoy it. What can you tell us about the origins of this one, Jerry? Well, this was the beginning of the superhero craze of that period, you know, and it was also the era of the monkeys, pop music, the Beatles, and the impossibles section of it is obviously a parody of the superheroes and the rock groups putting it together. This was before they did Josie and the Pussycats, before Filmation did the Archies and all that. This was early, probably the first of that sort of thing. Again, Hannah Barbera trying to be on trend. One of the earliest of their Saturday morning cartoons wasn't the first or second even, but it's definitely an early one there, 1966.

The Frankenstein Jr., I think that was supposed to be, in fact, I think the show is Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles is supposed to be the lead. But if you watch the show, it's the Impossibles have the open and closed cartoon and Frankenstein's in the middle. And Frankenstein Jr. is just the usual, you know, a take on the superheroes combined with the always popular monster horror craze, which started in the earlier 60s, late 50s with chiller theater and things like that. That was a big, famous monsters of film land.

Monsters were big. The idea of turning it into a robot actually is either equivalent or right on the same time as what was going on in Japan. Things that weren't even happening in the United States yet, we weren't aware of it, but shows like Gigantor, these giant robots, these shows that were coming up being made that were early anime, this is sort of in that same vein, but I don't think they knew about that when they did it. I think they're a lot of fun. I love looking at these shows visually.

I think the design is that primo Hanna-Barbera mid-60s ink line, just beautiful looking, fun. They're done in that kind of Batman show way where if you're a little older, they're funny. If you're younger, you can take them seriously. They work both ways. I can go on and on by the way, unless you stop me, but Frankenstein Jr. is, oh, what's his name? Ted Cassidy from Lurch from the Addams Family is his voice. Dick Beals, also known as Speedy Alka Seltzer on the old commercials. He's Buzz the Boy, the little boy.

And Davey on Davey and Goliath. Oh, that's right. That's right. And on the, what I love about the show, amongst all the things is that one of the coolest opening segments with Paul Fries doing like a narration about, right? And just the graphics, the design of stuff, even on the end titles, it's all very modern, hip, not like any of the other Hannah Barbera shows of that era. It's very smart and of the period. Paul Fries is a fluid man, one of the impossibles. Don Messick is multi-man, a character that turns into many, many.

And Coil Man, this little tubby little fellow with a coil body who bounces around. That's Hal Smith, who also is from Mayberry. Otis- And Davey and Goliath. That's right. Oh yeah. Otis the drunk on Andy Griffith. It's a wonderful cast.

It's fun. It was aimed at the Saturday morning crowd, but boy, to me it's very sophisticated in the way they did it. And I love these shows. These are absolute favorites of mine. And for those who care, there are little bridges and bumpers in between the cartoons as it was broadcast on network television when it was a Saturday morning new program. And those pieces have not been seen really since. We released this as a Warner Archive DVD set

I think in 2011 and they were from old Shelfmaster tapes. They did not look very good but people were just glad to be able to see the show in a legitimate release. But here we've scanned the camera negatives that are all 35 millimeter at 4K and they've been given the class A treatment. So they look and sound terrific and they're built for Blu-ray. Yeah, and I, you know, I just, I enjoyed the whole rock stars who are super hero's conceit and or in other shows, they're spies or whatever. But that whole conceit of the 60s and 70s, I just think is so funny.

And yeah, there's a bit of a James Bond vibe in there along with superheroes and the music. It's all, it's just a very unique cartoon series. Yeah. It's that comic book aesthetic of that period. There's no backstory. We don't get the origin. They're playing their music, they get a call from the chief, they jump in the action. No more needs to be known. It's just that that's, it's just what the premise of the show. Next thing you know they're battling a prehistoric creature or something. The villains are very clever.

They came up with different ideas for the villains in each episode. It's fun. Fun is the word. Yeah. I mean, Coil Man I think is the one that amuses me the most, but it's very funny how they figure out how to use him. I mean, fluid man, you kind of get, okay, he can turn into water and all, but it's just fun. And because, like you said, it was meant for Saturday morning, it's got that youthfulness to it. You go with it and you just enjoy the laughs and everything. I like the fact that when you get these series on Blu-ray, George, you feel like you're getting a bit of like, well, you are obviously, you're getting a bit of

animation and comic book history that has exploded in the last 20 years. But this is like, hey, those who are watching this or those who want to know a little bit about the early days, these are the shows you want to get. and you've never seen them look this good, number one, or sound this good as well. And you can really now enjoy them for the way they were made for the audience and as just a fan of animation. So these are great.

Before we just go on on that, there are a couple of extras on here, George. Do you have Monsters Rock? Yeah, it's one piece. that was a little retrospective piece and is carried over from the DVD era. But it's a nice little encapsulation because, you know, people need to know the background of these things if they're not familiar with them. And they can enjoy them on their own, but having that extra slice of context is very, very helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, that's a fantastic release. Looking forward to talking

about this next one as well. And we're going to jump ahead a couple of decades, 1988. And this is the only film that we're talking about today, feature-length film, I should say. And that's Daffy Duck's Quackbusters from 1988. How did this film come about, George? Well, and Jerry, you can pipe in here, but Jerry and I are friendly with a gentleman who is not only an animation historian but an animator himself. His name is Greg Ford and Jerry and I being ex-New Yorkers knew

Greg and I can always speak for myself. Greg was very helpful to me in my early days in theatrical repertory of putting Looney Tunes programs together for revival theaters and being able to charge percentage. I could prove that cartoons could make money in a movie theater. Because for decades, people thought, oh, you get $5 rental for a cartoon,

you can't make money from cartoons. That's why the theatrical distributors stopped offering cartoons after they became television fodder. It was in the early 80s that Greg was a pioneer in programming. Jerry, I assume you were there at the Thalia for Porky Pig's 50th anniversary. There was a cake, I remember. But there was this really cool old repertory theater up on Broadway called the Thalia Theater. There was a night of Looney Tunes featuring Porky Pig shown in 35 millimeter to a very rabid packed audience. You watch the classic cartoons in a theater with a packed audience.

It's a whole other experience and it's a wonderful one. And Greg was also integral in curating classic animation programming at the Museum of Modern Art. So, he was a historian, but he also had a talent for animation himself. And I don't exactly remember what the circumstances were but Greg was a die-hard New Yorker and somehow he ended up coming out here and working at Warner Brothers in Burbank to create new Looney Tunes and the work that he did really stood out because it brought that historical sensibility and the knowledge that the original great Looney Tunes were not children's entertainment. They were meant

for adults that children could also enjoy in a theater. So bringing his historical contextual background to creating new animation and his inimitable and very specific personal sense of humor resulted in some very, very wonderful work. The problem was, as I understand it, that the distribution executives here didn't quite know what to do with Greg's cartoons. And the feature Daffy Duck's Quackbusters followed in the footsteps of, I think, four compilation features that were done here at Warner Brothers after the success not at Warner Brothers of Bugs Bunny Superstar. And Chuck Jones did the Bugs Bunny Road Runner movie, Chris Frilling did the Looney Looney

Bugs Bunny movie, the 1001 Rabbit Tales, and then Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island. Those compilations featured new animation that bridged classic clips. Well, it fell upon Greg to do something similar, but he also used some of the cartoons that he had made here. here and our disc presents those cartoons separately, Night of the Living Duck and The Duxorcist, as well as providing what we call a matinee version, where you get to see a full cartoon before the feature. So some of the footage is repeated.

I loved Greg's sense of humor and what he brought to doing these things. And a lot of people are excited that Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is on Blu-ray because they remember watching it on HBO or seeing it on Cartoon Network. network, but there is a bigger backstory in that you have this incredible historian and I would say there's a legion of animation fans who owe a great deal to Greg. People like Greg and Leonard Maltin showed the way for another generation of animation fans. And Greg didn't just find it to be acceptable to be a historian and a curator, he actually became a creator. And I think that's what's exciting.

So this disc not only has the Quackbusters feature, which is really enjoyable, but it also has some of the other individual cartoons made by Greg, such as Blooper Bunny, which is my personal favorite, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers, and some other more, I would say post-Golden Age short subjects that were made here at the studio that haven't been around on Blu-ray before. It's a very welcome disc for the fans of Warner Brothers cartoons.

What sayest thou, O'Jerry? Well, that was all very good and all very true. I'm thinking back to those days and I don't have the full origin myself of how Greg ended up with, except this. Some of it's speculation, some of it is stuff he told me. But remember the 70s. It was, you're right, Bugs Bunny Superstar had come out. It was the low point of American animation. People were beginning to rediscover the classic shorts on Saturday morning.

What's opera doc by being repeated on Saturday morning? That's where it began to attain its status. And I think because of the success of Bugs Bunny Superstar, Warner Brothers figured we got to figure out a way to restore or do some new things with the characters. I know that in the mid-70s, they started doing some TV specials. Some of them were just pastiches of the old cartoons. I mean, literally, there's a famous one called Bugs Looney Tunes in Space, which they've just put together very, very quickly in 1977 to cash in with on Star Wars. And it's nothing but the, you know, one space cartoon after another,

that kind of thing. And really no bridging material. They hired Chuck to do some bridging material, as you might recall. And I guess they got the idea that we should do a feature like this Bugs Bunny superstar. That turned out to be a big hit. I'm sorry if I'm giving you too much information here, but that was, remember George, that was shown at the Lincoln Center New York Film Festival. And it was opening night or closing night. It was a big freaking deal.

And I still save the LA Times, the New York Times Sunday full page ad for it that it was being shown at the Lincoln Center. Then immediately, like the next week, it was shown in regular movie theaters. They really did a good job of exploiting that movie. It was, I guess, a hit to whatever they needed it to be. That led to, I guess a hit to whatever they needed it to be. And that led to, I guess it led to some more Chuck Jones cartoons for TV specials. But then they ended up getting, for his freeling, to leave his own company, to Patty Frieling, and come back and work for Warner's again, unbelievably. And they offered him a deal to do TV specials and have a feature with his name in the title

because Chuck got a lot of attention for the Bugs Bunny Road Runner. So that's why I think the second movie is called something like Frizz Freeling's Looney Looney Bugs Bunny movie, which the title being a take off of Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World if you think about it. And that came and they all did relatively well as kind of at when they, you know, they diminishing returns, you know, became Saturday morning things, so much so that they continued to do it. And when Freeling retired after three features and numerous, you know, shorts, I think they brought Greg in because of the Museum of Modern Art exhibit. I think he wrote about it, he did that film

comment issue, remember that? And he was becoming known as the guy who takes this stuff seriously in the mid-70s. This was before the Book of Mice and Magic with Leonard Maltin and others. This was like a primo period. I think what happens is Warners called him in and basically said, what would you do? And their attitude was, let's have this guy do it. Because really back then, it was like I say, a low point and there was really no one interested in doing anything. But Greg, of course, was enthused about doing stuff. So he started off doing these shorts like the Duxorcist

and then they said, let's do another feature. Now, I don't know who it was at that time, Ed Blier or whoever on high, who decided to do these features, but that was one of the greatest decisions ever made by the company. Because although they only made five, they've never not been on television.

They've never been, there was a whole period after that in the 80s and 90s. As you said, they were on HBO, they were on Nickelodeon, they were on the Disney Channel. They were on every venue and outlet you could find, not to mention VHS and all that in the beginning. So they were very widely seen. The feature format was a good thing for Looney Tunes and has made a lot of money for the company. Greg had his shot to do that, to make a film that featured old footage and new footage and to keep doing cartoons, commercials, and interstitials.

He did all sorts of things while he was involved with the unit there. The only thing that ended it was that animation came back. Animation came back because of Roger Rabbit and Disney Little Mermaid and things like that. So by 1990, that's when Warner's decided to team up with Steven Spielberg and do Tiny Tunes. And that was kind of the beginning of the modern day studio that still exists today that's been doing mainly television animation. But I think that's what happened. I think Greg and the unit he was part of with producer Kathleen Helpy and that little unit basically kind of dissipated

Kathleen Helpy and that little unit basically kind of dissipated and whereas the TV thing grew and grew. But that said, this film has never looked better than it looks here on Blu-ray. It's crystal clear. It's a lot of, again, I use that term, it's a lot of fun. That's exactly the criteria that all of these things should be and this certainly fits that. It's a great compilation and I hope someday we'll get around to those other features, putting those out. Yeah.

Well, I thought this was the most important one because of what Greg achieved. I don't think it was a personal bias that we know him, but I think he really achieved something remarkable because Blooper Bunny, which didn't really get released, it was suppressed by certain prior executives here. It finally showed up. I know I got it out on DVD, but someone got it on Cartoon Network as well. There was a big emphasis to get this really funny and it was like PG humor. There was a little bit of adult humor,

and I say adult with a small a. It was just smart and beyond Kitty Fodder because the problem is most people, when they hear animation or cartoons they think it's Kitty babysitter stuff right it's deep animation, you know, that is not what classic animation is about that's not what Warner Brothers cartoons were about and Greg went back to New York and finished these things from New York because he just was not meant for Burbank and the studio system.

It didn't agree with him. But we're very, very blessed to give his work a proper showcase on Blu-ray with this disc which is a tribute not only to the great Warner Brothers animators, but to Greg and Terry Lenin, his co-director, who put a lot of these things together. They're terrific. It's always great to hear from Jerry and George their take on these animation titles. Such a big fan of these releases. I think you're gonna enjoy them

and they're a terrific addition to your Blu-ray collection. And if you haven't yet ordered the Blu-rays for Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles or Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, there are links in the podcast show notes. As always, if you haven't yet subscribed to our podcast and you enjoyed it, please subscribe at your favorite podcast provider. Appreciate that.

Thanks for listening and stay slightly obsessed about animation. Hi, this is Tim Lard, host of the Extras Podcast, and I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Bros. Catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes.