Anyone Remember the Laurel and Hardy Cartoons?

[howilu]

Anyone remember the Laurel and Hardy cartoons that aired in syndication from 1966 until the early 70s? The episodes featured Larry Harmon (who co-produced the series with Hanna-Barbera and Wolper Productions) as the voice of Stan Laurel and Jim MacGeorge as the voice of Oliver Hardy.

I remember watching the cartoons on Channel 5 in the early 70s and the one thing that stood out was Harmon's portrayal of the whiny Laurel, especially when he said "I'm sorry Ollie!"

[comedyfreak]

I don't remember episodes, but I did watch it when it originally aired, now Abbott and Costello I remember, Heyyy Aaabott.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

Sure, I do- they were produced by Hanna-Barbera for Larry Harmon {he still owns the rights to their cartoon likenesses} and David Wolper/Metromedia, and premiered in the fall of 1966. In fact, the "flagship" station that presented them was Metromedia's WNEW-TV, Channel 5, in New York [now WNYW-TV], on Chuck McCann's daily show, during his final season as a live afternoon host on the station. He left Channel 5 in 1967, but the L&H cartoons remained on the air in New York until 1972, the last time paired with the real duo's two-reelers.

Originally, Larry Harmon tried to sell an animated TV version of Laurel & Hardy in syndication as early as 1963; he got Peter Pan records {the subsidiary of America's #1 manufacturer of "bargain" LP's, Synthetic Plastics in Newark, N.J.} to release an album consisting of soundtracks for several "proposed" L&H cartoons, "This Is Your Laff". They featured the voices of Larry Harmon as "Stan" and Henry Calvin as "Ollie" [when he appeared on "THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" episode "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" in the spring of 1963 as "Ollie" in a L&H sketch with Van Dyke's "Stan", Harmon was credited in that episode as "technical advisor"], and Paul Frees as "everybody else". That deal fell through, and it took Larry another three years to finally sell the idea to Wolper/Metromedia....

[tv star collector]

Some of them were released on home video some years back. I have a copy.
They were on a par with other cartoons from the period (the mid-sixties). I
enjoy watching them from time to time.

[MrCleveland]

That's one of the obscure H-B cartoons that I'm not aware of.

[KurtfromPitts]

I've always wondered how Hal Roach felt about the L&H cartoons.

[AaronHandy3]

...there was also that guest shot in Episode SDC-10 of The New Scooby-Doo Movies titled, oddly enough, "Scooby Doo Meets Laurel And Hardy" (a.k.a. "The Ghost of Bigfoot"; prod. #61-5, first aired 11/11/72). Larry Harmon and Jim MacGeorge returned to voice their original parts as Stan and Ollie, respectively.

[Mikado]

I vaguely recall them, yes

[Steve Carras]

I remmeber thjem as well....btw, hey, AaronHandyIII, that Scooby-Doo pic sdhowuld also say, Copyright 1972 Larry Harmon prods., because he owns them...

The shows began (outside the team proper) in 1961 when Larry Harmon (the supposed creator of Bozo, actually, created by Vance Pinto "Goofy' Colvig, and AL Livingston of Capital Records) bought the rights to the characters and did a childrens records with actors Gene Sheldon (who also appeared in a few Disney movies and in a "Dick Van Dyke" show of the time did the same bit.) , and (much to Stan Laurel's even tual widow's eventual regret) the widow sold the rights and she and Stan got pale with Larry Harmon's personal stand-up impression of him. (Something to that effect, this is not made up or a joke, by the way.). Soon Larry Harmon and then as he found out, unathorized, Hanna-Barbera (jumping the shark around the time) with DAVID L.WOLPER (caps intended) were doing a similiar show. After an expected lawsuit they agreed to a compromise for Larry, no longer doing cartoons to still won and distribut ein first run and in syndication the series and H-B (in '66)(who did the famous 1967 "Abbott and Costello" with Bud Abbott as himself with Jomar & RKO Radio) with Jim Macgeorge, as Hardy, and Larry Harmon himself, who did voices on Bozo and was the following on the in the Gene Sheldon days of Laurle and hardy recorfds, as whimpering "cry-baby' Stan Laurel.

These were largely silly, though I gilitly do enjoy some of these and the theme song and visual graphics. There was a "Roosterman and fetaherbrain" alto ego like "El Kabong": for Quick Draw and Daffy Duck's several C.M.Jones guises ("Duck Dodgers","Dripalong Daffy",etc.) and the various Yosemite Sam alter egos.

"Abbott and Costello" were more suited (THIS is just IMHO, of course!) to Hanna Barbera and had strikingy Technicolor(r)-esque backgrounds of Abbott (voice, then trucking back) for thne credits (Keystone Kops, electiricians, scaffold painter bits in the open). Lou looked like a little kid.. I don't know much behind the history of this than it was taken up by Bud Abbott to pay for the doctor.

The shows had no animation credits, and were possibly done by an outisde studio (the adventure of the teenage Sinbad Jr. and parrott Salty, after Sam Singer who had some credits on the end, and the above Abbott/Costello also with no animation credits.) The additional voices had this byline, BTW:
"Other voices are"(note the "Are")


For both: Janet Waldo, Don Messick, and John Stephenson
(these are as credited, and not including the stars-except Bud Abbott, who ONLY played "himself".The other "star voices", both the ones (Harmon and McGeorge for L&H, and I THINK Stan Irwin who was Lou Costello, since he was oding an impersonation, did additional voices as well, but the cartoons were too short to accomodaqte more than, say, three actors per short.)
The core additional cast:
Janet Waldo, John Stephenson, and Hal Smith.

For L&H: Same three plus Doug Young and Paul Frees.

For A&C: Same again except the other credited two were Mel Blanc and Don Messick.

[Dude111]

I saw the cartoons but much preferred the reg show........ (I though it was better)