LOONEY TUNES: Porky's Party / A Bob Clampett Cartoon! - 1938

I'm in the mood for some humor today, and for good reason... Here's a great WB cartoon directed by my favorite director, Bob Clampett. What's interesting is that the writer is unknown, not even listed on IMDb!

The story starts with Porky receiving a present from his Uncle Pincus Pig. It's a silk worm from the Orient, and if you want it to perform, you say... Sew!

Porky gives it a test, but when the little worm starts knitting bras, panties and other items for women, Porky stops the show when he puts it in his pocket.

After Porky gets cleaned up in the bathroom, his pooch Black Fury decides to check out Porky's hair growing formula that just happens to be 99% alcohol...

Black Fury chugs on the bottle and after he's good and drunk, he pours the formula all over his head in his stupor! Love those rubbery Clampett images.

Porky's two friends arrive, a penguin and a goose. Porky gets punked by the goose when they shake hands at the door!

The silk worm starts knitting again when Porky says that his friend was soooo crazy!

The worm knits more women's lingerie so Porky tosses it away, right into the penguin's ice cream! The worm starts making silk top hats and the penguin gets one stuck in his head!

The goose tries to help with the only way a cartoon character knows how!..

Back in the bathroom, Black Fury decides he needs a shave. The electric razor chases him out of the room and he finds Porky at the party table. Everyone thinks Black Fury is a mad dog!

The guys all run as fast as they can away from Porky's pooch!

The penguin has a tussle with Black Fury in the bed and when the dust settles, they realize that he's fine, he's not mad at all...

But, the prnguin still has a problem with that damn top hat and the goose helps out yet again!

Th, th, that's all folks! Tune in again on Wednesday when we continue down the old dusty Dungeon trail, just the way you like it.

A Tribute to Carl Jaffé - Part 5: USA-TV

Welcome to our second Saturday Night Special Tribute to Carl Jaffé. We have so far,

explored the genres of Sci-Fi, Spies, Brit-Cops and last week World-War 2.

Now we’re going to have a look at a medium that – broadly speaking - didn’t exist until the

early 1950s; Television. In the early days, TV companies broadcast shows live; recording

technology almost happened by accident and didn’t evolve to a usable industry standard

until the mid ‘50s – although the USA (as with so many technologies of the 20th century) was

way ahead of the UK in this.

British TV companies co-operated with US distributor and broadcast networks because they

recognized the huge earnings potential that awaited any successful program that could be

syndicated. Ironically, many ‘made-for export’ productions found their way back to the UK as a US import!

All this was only possible due to rapid recording technology advances. That a fair quantity of

material has survived is quite remarkable, matched only by the sad fact that a major volume

of programs are lost forever as a result of UK TV companies’ VT re-cycling/archive wiping

policies of the late 1960s through early 1980s’ thankfully reversed due to the emergence of

the then revolutionary home-video market.

TV allowed different treatments to be experimented with and therefore allowed Carl to

expand his repertoire beyond those areas we have already explored; although familiar

themes were still seen. We hope you enjoy the selection Grandson Michael Jaffé has sent

over from his London archives for which images are currently available.

So we are proud to present just a few surviving examples of Carl’s TV appearances, from

the ’50s thru ‘70s. He worked with some well-known and famous actors of the era; and at

least one of Hollywood’s greatest; Buster Keaton.

1953-54 – Douglas Fairbanks Presents

 After a glittering Hollywood film career; Fairbanks entered the exciting new TV world,

fronting this popular ‘Rheingold Theatre’ series dealing with subjects designed to appeal to

the more ‘serious’ viewer.

First aired on NBC, Jaffé appeared in 4 episodes.
The highlight was sharing star-billing with one of Hollywood’s all-time greats – Buster Keaton; making his TV debut and (rarely for Keaton) a speaking role.

 1955 – The Vise

A popular series of B-thriller programs produced in the UK by the then renowned ‘Danzigers’

as a special series for ABC and not aired in the UK until 1960.

Incredibly, of the 40 episodes produced, very few remain, and even more incredible, one of them is the one episode that Carl Jaffé starred in. We hope to bring you more images when they become available from London.

1957 – Wire Service

Crime and maverick detective themes exploded onto screens with advent of TV as it equally

suited a tight short-story self-contained program, or a longer tale split into weekly episodes;

a format that remains the backbone of series programming today.

  Carl starred in one show

alongside established names including Anton Diffring.

1957 – The New Adventures of Charlie Chan

 The inscrutable detective in probably his best incarnation as delivered by the inimitable Carrol Naish....

 ....and ably assisted by the world’s greatest ‘No.1 son’James Wong; still performing today!

1959 – The Third Man

 Michael Rennie was the lead in TV’s adaptation of the iconic character, with Carl Jaffé playing a stereotypical mystery Eastern European.

The series also starred Jonathan Harris, who would later find fame as the eccentric Dr. Smith in Irwin Allen's seminal 'Lost In Space'

The UK’s BBC (PBS – Public Broadcasting Service equivalent) collaborated with NTA (National Television Associates) and first aired in the US in October 1959.

1960 – Danger Man

6 years before Patrick McGoohan embarked on his most famous (and for many perplexing to this day) TV show: the iconic and beguiling ‘The Prisoner’ it was preceded by the stylish ‘Danger Man’ capturing the new mood of a brave new decade. 

 Jaffé starred in a single episode in one of his

shortest roles being assassinated within 90-seconds of the opening credits; although his character is pivotal to the whole premise of the story. Here are more photos!

1961 – One Step Beyond

An early example of the clutch of paranormal mystery themed programs to emerge in the 1960’s; the most famous being The Twilight Zone. 

Carl Jaffé wears the Nazi uniform once more in a tale about

revenge and retribution.

The Anglo-US collaboration era of these seminal shows only lasted a few years as their commercial performance didn’t yield the level of success that either the US or UK operators aspired to. 

Competition resulted in a proliferation of TV productions from both sides of the Atlantic and, coupled with further technology advances a new golden TV age emerged which set the new high standards and formats still used as basis reference even in the digital age.

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: The Geezenstacks / Season 3 Episode 5 - 1986

In today's tale, Sam Hummel notices eerie parallels between events in the life of his family, and events in the lives of his daughter Audrey's dolls, the Geezenstacks!

This episode stars Craig (SCHIZOID) Wasson, Tandy (TWISTED) Cronyn, Larry (FREAK SHOW) Pine and Lana (only acting credit) Hirsch.

Uncle Richard has brought a very nice doll house as a surprise for his niece. He actually found it in the home of a client, the family seems to have moved, leaving only the doll house behind!

Sam and Edith Hummel's daughter, Audrey, is bonkers over her present and immediately starts talking to the dolls that were inside, and calls them, the Geezenstacks...

Later, Audrey tells dad that the father doll was going to punch the wife doll in the face!

Then, Edith says something and Sam is ready to do what the dolls were saying, punch her! Sam starts to put two and two together, whatever Audrey says the dolls are up to, it reflects on his own family!!

Sam goes off the rails and is convinced that something evil is going on with the dolls! Uncle Richard and Edith are starting to get worried about Sam's condition.

That night, the doll house eerily lights up and seems to have a life of its own after Audrey tells dad that the Geezenstacks were going on a long journey!

The next day, Uncle Richard goes to the Hummel's home to check in with the gang. He finds that all the furniture and belongings are gone, well, except for that damn doll house!

Sam and Edith wake up from their sleep because their room is shaking!

When Richard opens up the doll house, he's terrified to find Sam and Edith as dolls!

A real estate agent pops in and sees the doll house. She discovers a small house inside, opens it up, and finds four dolls inside, Sam, Edith, Audrey and Uncle Richard!... Sweet dreams, ever'bloody!!

Unfortunately, we just lost one of our favorite Dungeon gods, Dick Miller. Fortunately though, we have this photo of Dick and our Dungeon associate, Greg Goodsell, in Burbank for his 90th birthday party on December 25, 2018. We will miss him, but, his work will live forever!! I'll be doing a piece on Dick soon, join us tomorrow for something special, just for you!