Magilla Gorilla will NOT include the "We've got a gorilla for sale" opening or close! (1 Viewer)

[Carlos Garcia]

I've just read on Earl Kress' blog that the up coming DVD set of Magilla Gorilla will NOT include the most popular part of the show, the original opening and closing with that great theme song! Apparently they will only be releasing each individual episode, not the complete half hour shows. Also, Mr. Kress says "All the cartoons are present, but some of them are in terrible condition." To me, that opening and closing is what I want more than the episodes themselves! Is Warner Bros. crazy? Can anyone imagine the Flintstones DVD sets being released without the "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones" open? I don't know about anyone else, but I was waiting for this DVD ever since DVDs came to be. I grew up watching this show and loving that theme song...Now I know for sure I won't be buying this awful set. This is horrible news for fans of this HB classic. Warner Brothers should be ashamed of themselves! Here's the link to Earl Kress' blog:

http://mynameisearlkress.com/weblog/


Here's a review of an advance copy:

http://reviews.goldenagecartoons.com/magilla/

 

[Charles Ellis]

What a sacrilege! Kinda like buying PD copies of TV episodes- some of them lack original theme music. Well, that's one set I won't be buying! What about Hong Kong Phooey- is its theme music (sung by star Scatman Crothers) still intact on DVD?

 

[Carlos Garcia]

Here's a review for Hong Kong Phooey, looks like I'll be buying this one!

http://www.dvdauthority.com/reviews.asp?reviewID=4759

 

[Randy Korstick]

Man I wish someone besides Warners owned Hanna Barbera. They did this individual cartoon thing before with Wacky Races. It was missing the complete half hour format of the show. This is very dissapointing and also dissapointing that some of the cartoons are in poor shape when Warner chose this and delayed the Wally Gator and Quick Draw sets because of print quality issues.

 

[streeter]

Man, reading this is really disappointing. I've been looking forward to this for months and was excited about picking it up on Tuesday. What a shameful oversight.

 

[Dave Mack]

Inetersting note about "The Flintstones". We watched "The Swimming PooL' recently on Comcast OnDemand and were suprpised by the opening, no theme song. Found out later that it didn't debut until seaon 3. Growing up they just slapped the song on all of the syndiacted eps. so I had never seen the original opening before which is VERY reminiscent of The Simpsons...



Shame about Magilla, that song is the show..

 

[Michael Alden]

I don't really understand why they would do this. I figure that in the 40 or so years since the show debuted, it's been sliced and diced many times into many different forms. Does anyone know if it's run in it's original 1/2 hour form any time since the first run?

 

[Randy Korstick]

I'm not quite old enough to have seen the original run but I watched the reruns in the 70's and the original song/credits were used then and I could swear I have seen them on Boomerang but not positive on that one.

 

[Mark Y]

I too did not see the show in its original run, but did watch the reruns on Channel 32 in Chicago.

Yes indeed, the opening and closing did indeed air on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in pristine quality, even down to the "dancing sticks" Screen Gems closing logo.

Here is how the syndicated package was put together: all the cartoons from the "Magilla Gorilla" and "Peter Potamus" shows were syndicated together in one package of 150 cartoons; they did the same thing for Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear, which were syndicated together. Channel 32 in Chicago ran the package under the "Magilla Gorilla" title. From the way Channel 32 aired it, I am guessing that what Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television actually sent out was a package of individual 16mm prints of the cartoons, plus the openings, closings and whatever interstitials they included (if any), and a manifest listing the titles in sequence. Channel 32 then spliced the cartoons into half-hour episodes, three cartoons to a show, in sequence. (This is the way Channel 32 did things in the early 1970s. They handled the theatrical Fleischer/Famous "Popeye" cartoons in a similar way, but those were instead spliced together in alphabetical order!) Channel 32 had the opening and closing transferred to tape, with their own station logo superimposed on it along with the title "Magilla Gorilla." I remember that when I first saw the show on Channel 32, the version of the opening they used had Breezly & Sneezly in it; later on, they redid the taped opening when their station logo changed, and the new tape used the other version, with Ricochet Rabbit in it. This is also when they started showing the closing at the end (prior to this, Channel 32 just ran the opening again at the end of the show). One day, the show would feature Magilla Gorilla, Punkin Puss and Ricochet Rabbit, in that order. The next day, they would air Peter Potamus, Breezly & Sneezly, and Yippie/Yappie/Yahooey (on those days, the titles still said "Magilla Gorilla" even though this was actually the "Peter Potamus" show). Because of an uneven number of cartoons for certain characters, a few of the last half-hours would have two Magillas and a Potamus, etc. Channel 32 never aired any other bumpers or "curtain calls," but prints of them have gone around and I assume they were sent out with the package. Now, this is what was done in Chicago. In other cities it could have been completely different. (The DVD set will only have Magilla Gorilla/Punkin Puss/Ricochet Rabbit; still waiting for Peter Potamus to get a DVD set.) In fact, by 1980 or so Channel 32 started splitting up the cartoons, airing them in a random order and stopped showing the show opening and closing altogether. In fact, they even started cutting off the titles of the individual cartoon shorts. (Ironically, ABC did that too.)

Huck/Yogi were on WGN-Channel 9 in Chicago. They also had the Quick Draw package, and they'd run them all over the place, on "Bozo," on "Ray Rayner," on "Garfield Goose," and buried in a 6 AM Saturday timeslot with other cartoons no one watched. I imagine WGN had access to a lot of that other material (openings, closings, bumpers) but chose not to use them, just running the shorts "stag," so to speak. I have heard that in other cities, a station might have a "Huckleberry Hound" show with the HH opening and closing, and then for instance, a Huckleberry Hound, a Yogi Bear and a Quick Draw Mc Graw. But that was up to the discretion of the station.

 

[TonyD]

i'm out on this one

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

That is nuts. They can't at least include them as an extra?

 

[Ethan Riley]

This is depressing news. I can't believe they are releasing this. It's just not ready.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

I agree 100%, either release it correctly done, or leave it on the shelf until it IS correct.

 

[Michael Alden]

I suppose someone might want to ask Warner about it. But then again they probably couldn't get through because of the 900th same question about Everwood.

 

[Malcolm R]

TVShowsonDVD.com did have a little info:

This is a definte "WTF?" situation, folks. Does the studio care? Well, Earl (Kress) says they do. He continues his remarks by stating that, "I have it on good authority that the Warner Home Video marketing department is as distraught about this as the fans are. They are searching the vaults for the missing material..."

So, if they're so "distraught," why are they going through with the release this week? Why not cancel the release until they can do it right? I find it very hard to believe that the Warner people are just finding out about this a few days before release, not to mention being powerless to do anything to stop the release of this steaming pile.

 

[Jon Martin]

Normally I am one of those people who would be saying "Not buy a DVD set because the theme song isn't there? C'mon people!".

But, for me, the only thing I really remember about the show is the theme. So, I think I will hold off and wait to see if Warner does anything.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

If anyone knows of other DVD sites, by all means please post similar threads to this one. Maybe if enough people find out about this terrible oversite, as well as the poor condition of the episodes, then perhaps sales will be so poor out of the gate that WB will realize the problem is with the product itself and not the material within it. All I want is for WB to eventually re-release this set properly, the way they've done with the other classic HB sets (Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, etc.) Is that alot to ask for?

 

[Tony J Case]

My god - not remembering the opening in question, I went to Youtube to see if they had one. No opening credits, but WB has posted a trailer for the DVD set:

You want to see how bad the print is? The quality in this short section is *ALL* over the map! If I were a fan, I would be so put off by this shitty handleing of the property. I feel sorry for you guys.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Just to clarify, I reviewed the set. There is an opening credit only at the beginning of disc 1 (but it's missing Ogee's inserted line, if I remember correctly). There are no end credits or interstitials, period. If you want the song, it plays over the menu on all four discs.

In the extras section, on the "Here Comes a Star" promo, the original opening, with the Ideal Toy Co. ads, is included, but it's in black and white.

I'm disappointed too. Several cartoons are in wretched shape. Others look pretty good although there's way too much edge enhancement.

Here's a link to my full review:
http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/tre...w.php3?ID=8832

 

[Charles Ellis]

Just who IS responsible for this travesty? I want names!!! The people who did this should be fired ASAP!