Baby Bottleneck

[clopez]

Forgive my ignorance, but at the end of this short, does the Gorilla Mom blow her brains out? I was watching my LD yesterday and it irises out rather suddenly. I have a memory of her shooting herself as is popular in many Clampett shorts. Am I mistaken?

Also, where can I find Tin Pan Alley Cats and Nutty News?

 

[J Lee]

Forgive my ignorance, but at the end of this short, does the Gorilla Mom blow her brains out? I was watching my LD yesterday and it irises out rather suddenly. I have a memory of her shooting herself as is popular in many Clampett shorts. Am I mistaken?

Nope, no suicide gag in this one. WTTG in Washington, D.C. used to show the non-Blue Ribbion version of "Baby Bottleneck" in the 1970s and early 1980s complete with LT opening and Porky-drum ending. The original ends the same way as the version you see today on Cartoon Network.

 

[clopez]

Thanks

Nope, no suicide gag in this one. WTTG in Washington, D.C. used to show the non-Blue Ribbion version of "Baby Bottleneck" in the 1970s and early 1980s complete with LT opening and Porky-drum ending. The original ends the same way as the version you see today on Cartoon Network.

Thanks, J Lee. It just looked suspect and I wasn't sure.

 

[Larry T]

Also, where can I find Tin Pan Alley Cats?

Chris, it's on the "Censored 11" DVD... send me a PM.

 

[Jave]

Nope, no suicide gag in this one. WTTG in Washington, D.C. used to show the non-Blue Ribbion version of "Baby Bottleneck" in the 1970s and early 1980s complete with LT opening and Porky-drum ending. The original ends the same way as the version you see today on Cartoon Network.

Really? What did the original title card looked like?

 

[J Lee]

Really? What did the original title card looked like?

Unfortunately, I don't know. As I releated the story on the board in an earlier thread, I had just moved down to Washington and was away from the TV when I heard the 1945 season LT theme music come on. Figuring it was one of the five cartoons in regular rotation (four Bugs toons plus "Kitty Cornered") with that music, I didn't pay any attention -- until "Mutiny in the Nursery" came on as the title card music, at which time I did something resembling an Avery take and U-turned back into the room. However, by then they were already onto the animation credits (as for the ending, there was a bit of a gap between the iris out music and the LT theme song for the Porky titles).

 

[Jave]

Unfortunately, I don't know. As I releated the story on the board in an earlier thread, I had just moved down to Washington and was away from the TV when I heard the 1945 season LT theme music come on. Figuring it was one of the five cartoons in regular rotation (four Bugs toons plus "Kitty Cornered") with that music, I didn't pay any attention -- until "Mutiny in the Nursery" came on as the title card music, at which time I did something resembling an Avery take and U-turned back into the room. However, by then they were already onto the animation credits (as for the ending, there was a bit of a gap between the iris out music and the LT theme song for the Porky titles).

A pity, but at least there is an original print of "Baby Bottleneck" somewhere out there, this bring me hopes for the cartoon being fully restored by CN.

BTW, what was the quality of that version? Were the colors pristine or faded?

 

[The G Man]

Forgive my ignorance, but at the end of this short, does the Gorilla Mom blow her brains out?

Why would she commit suicide in the middle of a call to Mr. Anthony?

 

[Pilmedium]

A pity, but at least there is an original print of "Baby Bottleneck" somewhere out there, this bring me hopes for the cartoon being fully restored by CN.

I doubt Cartoon Network would restore it, as they currently have no in-production show that would go to that extent. They might get to it in a DVD release sooner or later, assuming those actually go through.

 

[J Lee]

A pity, but at least there is an original print of "Baby Bottleneck" somewhere out there, this bring me hopes for the cartoon being fully restored by CN.

BTW, what was the quality of that version? Were the colors pristine or faded?

Can't tell you that either - it was a black and white TV in my bedroom. But given it was 1979 and the cartoon was (in all probability) being shown through a telecine instead of on videotape, it didn't appear to have any serious breaks or scratches.

 

[Jack]

Can't tell you that either - it was a black and white TV in my bedroom. But given it was 1979 and the cartoon was (in all probability) being shown through a telecine instead of on videotape, it didn't appear to have any serious breaks or scratches.

Wouldn't it be a 16mm print made from the original print? Or is it possible that a TV station got a Technicolor nitrate print of cartoon to run? Was it an a.a.p. copy (I figure you'd only know if the you heard the opening theme twice)?


Jack

 

[J Lee]

Wouldn't it be a 16mm print made from the original print? Or is it possible that a TV station got a Technicolor nitrate print of cartoon to run? Was it an a.a.p. copy (I figure you'd only know if the you heard the opening theme twice)?


Jack

I don't remember the AAP opening music, though the show it aired on on WTTG was the ultimate AAP show -- "Bugs and Popeye," -- but it may have had it. I just remember running back to the bedroom when I heard the unfamiliar title music and standing in the doorway watching it all the way through to the Porky drum ending (and naievely believing that this might be the start of sending out restored prints of all the BR Warner toons, something we're still waiting for 23 1/2 years later).

As far as the prints go, Warner Bros. seems to have begun sending out their cartoons in the syndication package on videotape around 1980 or so, while the AAP package, based on the scratches and breaks I'd see on prints run at station across the country, didn't go to videotape until sometime in the mid-1980s, and possibly as late as the Vidde-Oh! prints MGM/UA put out after the Turner acquistion. So I'm assuming in 1979 that WTTG's print was probably a standard 16 mm print, but one that was somehow made from the original Technicolor negative, instead of from the Blue Ribbon Eastmancolor print AAP normally used.

How they got that print I have no clue. Since I had only just moved to D.C. I don't know how long that print had been running on the station -- it could have been on there for years or it could have popped up as a replacement print for a badly damaged negative (or someone at WTTG may have had access to the negative through some other source -- I don't know if "Baby Bottleneck" is part of the Library of Congress' collection, but given the right connections, if it is, the station workers would have only had to go a few miles downtown to get access to the LoC's copy for dubbing).