{"id":6981,"date":"2013-11-09T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T08:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=6981"},"modified":"2013-11-08T22:10:33","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T06:10:33","slug":"commercials-animated-by-those-mgm-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/commercials-animated-by-those-mgm-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"Commercials Animated by &#8220;Those MGM Guys&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, maybe it isn&#8217;t quite accurate to call them &#8220;MGM guys&#8221; since they all worked for other studios as well. But these are some of the animators that come to mind when you think of MGM in its heyday, when Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and Tex Avery were cranking out shorts. And like almost everyone else in animation, they did a lot of commercial work.<\/p>\n<p>Future posts may delve more deeply into the individual careers of these same cartoonists, but for now here is a small sampling of their spots&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>I Love Lucy<\/strong><br \/>\nHere are three of the many pieces of animation produced by MGM for the popular &#8220;I Love Lucy&#8221; show, complete with cartoon caricatures designed by Gene Hazelton. The first two clips were animated by Ken Muse, and the third one by Mike Lah. The announcer in the first clip is John Stephenson, the future Mr. Slate! Sponsor Phillip Morris may be the reason that Lucy&#8217;s voice went from a falsetto to a baritone. <\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2B8BMvwXYS4?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"color: #c00; background-color: #c00; height: 1px; border: none;\" \/>\n<p><strong>Pepsodent<\/strong><br \/>\nOne of Tex Avery early successes after entering the advertising field was this Pepsodent toothpaste spot. Ken Muse animates the first bit, while Grant Simmons animates the balance.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aSbPkcEMlsI?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><hr style=\"color: #c00; background-color: #c00; height: 1px; border: none;\" \/>\n<strong>Kroger Eggs<\/strong><br \/>\nAnimated by Irv Spence for Animation, Inc. in 1961. Shep Menkin is the announcer, while June Foray provides the chicken&#8217;s voice.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M5H24RNTl-8?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"color: #c00; background-color: #c00; height: 1px; border: none;\" \/>\n<p><strong>Bonomo Turkish Taffy<\/strong><br \/>\nAnimators in order of appearance are Ray Patterson, Mike Lah, Robert Cannon, and Grant Simmons. Everyone is showing some restraint here, probably a client thing. Still, I find Mike Lah&#8217;s bit to be hilariously insincere. I&#8217;m guessing that was produced by the GrantRay studio.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/abuMyirUpcQ?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><hr style=\"color: #c00; background-color: #c00; height: 1px; border: none;\" \/>\n<strong>Ruff and Reddy for Alpha-Bits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Animation by Mike Lah, with voices by Daws Butler and Don Messick. Dick Tufeld is the announcer. Produced by Hanna-Barbera for the Ruff and Reddy show. The program itself had very simplified animation, but like so many television cartoons, the sponsor spent more money on the ads.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3aHy7PIckpA?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"color: #c00; background-color: #c00; height: 1px; border: none;\" \/>\n<p><strong>Kool Aid &#8211; Indians<\/strong><br \/>\nAnother Tex Avery spot, with animation by Ken Muse. Featuring Thurl Ravenscroft as a pitcher of Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pf0wiq2YvUY?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"color: #c00; background-color: #c00; height: 1px; border: none;\" \/>\n<p><strong>Raisin Bran with Mr. Jinks<\/strong><br \/>\nFrom Hanna-Barbera. Animation by Ed Love and Irv Spence with some wonderfully over the top vocals by Daws Butler and Don Messick. The Beach Boys meet The Beatles?<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fcOotsPk8Qo?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, maybe it isn&#8217;t quite accurate to call them &#8220;MGM guys&#8221; since they all worked for other studios as well. But these are some of the animators that come to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[408],"tags":[520,57,519,84],"class_list":["post-6981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic-animated-advertising","tag-irv-spence","tag-mgm-cartoons","tag-michael-lah","tag-tex-avery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}