Episode 33: Willie Mays and The Say Hey Kid (1972)

We're anyway. Welcome to the Ranking Odd Bass podcast. That was kind of an offhand joke made a long time ago when I became a podcast that we've been doing for years now. So thanks Richard, I'm your host. Welcome.

Joining me is a man who does not believe in the designated hitter rule. That is mister Chris Tasher. Say hey, say hey, say hey. Also with us is a man who's out there just daring him to pick him off, just really leading on the second base. It's mister Richard had him.

Oh well they use a lunch or don't thank you, isn't it. On this podcast, we discussed the works of Arthur Ranking Junior and Jewels Bass, specifically their stop motion and animated work that we've covered live action as well. We are in animated town looking at this, which is, oh, that's right there. With the last thing that we talked about. The ABC Saturday Superstar movie, which ran from nineteen seventy two to nineteen seventy four, had a whole host of all kinds of interesting things, including but not limited to, Rankin and Bass is amazing turn on the red baron and now we've got Willie Mays and the say hey kid.

I know nothing about Willy Mays. I'm hoping that one of you guys can fill me in a little bit on Willie Mays. But I do know that he's one terrific voice actor. Lovely, I'm not a sports guy. I hope to god you're joking about the voice acting part.

So here's the thing. I was talking to a friend of both of our shows today and I mentioned to him that we were watching this and I said it's called Willie Mays and the say Hey Kid. And he goes, what sort of fucking cognitive dissonance is that Willie Mays was the say Hey kid? Right? So what I just by the title alone, I have no idea what's going on here.

All I know is Willie Mays is effectively almost as important, if not as important, an African American athlete as Jackie Robinson. He just wasn't his vocal about him. That's what I picked up in the research that I did about Willie Mays. And he's a great baseball player. I mean, you know, one of the greatest, voted second greatest of all time behind Someboddy named Baby Ruth.

It's a candy bar or something. Somebody named baby Ruth is what you just said. Yeah, I think Chris was Joshua with us. Yeah, I don't know anymore. I don't know anything.

That's what Willie Mays and to say, hey, kid will do to you. Well, I don't think it's very fair that he is ranked so high in this list, whatever lists you're referring to, since it's obvious he's using magic. That's what it was. That's what the problem was all along. William Mays is such a good athlete because he had a small, diminutive white dwarf helping who was an angel not played by Christopher Lloyd.

There's a lot of angels in baseball, right, there's no crying, but there are plenty of angels. And all the time the angels are sometimes in the outfield and sometimes not. Yeah, sometimes they're just flying around and sometimes they dress up like reporters and gives false news, fake news, everybody fake news. What's what's actually insane about this entire special is a couple things. A.

It's Willie Mays in seventy two, which is Willie May's like when he wasn't playing for the Giants anymore. Like I mentioned to my mom that we watched this. She's like Willie Mays, you mean, the baseball player, because she grew up in the Bay Area and she remembers hearing Willie May's and watching baseball with him on the Giants. Obviously, it's weird that it was this late in his career. It's weird that they had him do the voice, and it's weird that it is essentially the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer story with Willie Mays.

It's again a Rankin and Bass joint, as it were, of like a character going through hardships and overcoming them in the end through the use of magic, but in the real world, and it just it's very tonally strange to me. Well, I don't know, I mean, was he going through problems? I mean, he was doing well as a baseball player. This little girl shows up in his life. It's not like it's kind of hard to puzzle out what it is we're hoping happens for him.

I assume we're hoping that the little girl stays with him, because it sounds like her living situation wasn't great. And then that gets illustrated. But none of this seems to matter a lot. There doesn't seem to be a lot of stakes for Willie Mays. Here's a really good baseball player before, and we'll probably continue to be a very very good baseball player, except now he needs magic to win the World Series.

I guess it is a little strange. Is it the World Series or just a pennant? Well? First, well, no, we'll wait a second. No, it is the World Series.

Yeah I didn't and then the World Series. Ok, you're wondering how I got it? And it opens with that I bet you're wondering how I got here moment because it like freeze frames on him jumping thirty feet into the air, which doesn't really phase anybody. And then it's like, oh, I'm Willie Mays, and I bet you're wondering how I caught this thirty foot in the air ball. It's like, not really, but I guess here we go again.

Like it has those it has the same notes, just played in a different key, but it doesn't work as well with a real person. No, I'm trying to figure and there's no information in the in the rank and a bass book. But whenever a celebrity is doing something like this, I always think about, well, was there a bigger picture here was that there was an agent involved. Was someone going, Okay, we're at the point in Willie Mays's career where he is a household name, but he's no longer or isn't really going to longer be an athlete, because that's the career of an athlete ends, and then it has to transmute into something else. You know, you can't be a baseball player or a football player in your fifties and sixties, So what are you going to do?

And you're famous? So are you're going to host a game show, become a commentator, open restaurant, become an actor. You're going to do something? So was this part of what that something was going to be? If this had been insanely successful, would it have spawned, in the backup of people's minds, a continuing series where he would continue to voice himself the way other people were, you know at the time, The Jackson Five, the Osman's you know whoever, the guest stars were on the Scooby Doo shows.

You know, is that was that the hope here? And is that why he was doing it? And is that why they came up with the idea in the first place. This sounds like an agent called someone and said, hey, Willie wants to be in cartoons and he's willing. You know, doing a voice over isn't hard.

You go into a studio, it's air conditioned, it's near his house, he doesn't have to travel, doesn't have to you know, it's like this is an easy gig that could be money for him and keep his name out there. Who wants to do it, and before you know it, Rankin and Bass. That's that seems to be what was going on, because he was in a lot of game shows at the time, and he was on things and again like he's he's a well known baseball player, but like this was a time and a place where base being like a baseball star was a thing. Reggie Jackson, Willie mays, like these are like I'm not saying that that's not the way it is now, but I feel like other sports have kind of usurped baseball and we see that now in the way that that the kind of the athletes are treated.

But like this is like exactly what you said, Richard. It's like he's trying to broaden his appeal and his reach outside of just being an athlete. With a capital A. It's like, it's like what Tom Brady is doing, you know, eighty for Brady. You know, Tom Brady will not be playing football in ten years, but he'll still be alive, probably for another thirty five years, forty years, who knows.

So let's start monetizing the name Brady and let's get it out there in different contexts so that when he's done doing the thing that made him famous, he can continue being famous in a viable way. That's probably what was happening here. So just to circle back, this was one of the four ABC Saturday Superstar movies that they produced. These things premiered they were on Saturday morning. The first one was Mad Mad, Mad Monster Party, which we talked about right, which is funny because there were moments in here that reminded me of that.

Agree. The second one was this, The third one was what we talked about last time, the Red Baron, and the fourth one was that Girl in Wonderland, and I can't remember if we're planning on talking about that, But so far these things have not been the best of Ranking and Bass, which is really crazy to me because this one, I'm genuinely disappointed in this one. Because because I genuinely thought it was gonna be good, because why wouldn't it it? To me seems like, you know, you know, pun intended a home run, Like you have a well known celebrity, you have the world of Rankin and Bass. Yes they're animated.

Stuff tends to be lesser than the AnimagiC, but that doesn't mean this had to be that one. And instead it's just like, like you've already mentioned, Richard, I don't know what the stakes are, I don't know what the conflict is, and the characters other than Willie Mays and Veronica are are all very forgettable. There's nothing memorable going on here. And by the end of it, it's like you said, like what was going like, what were the stakes here? What was the point?

And by the end of it, I actually was like, I don't know what the point was of this in a way that felt really disappointing. Yeah, they were trying to say, oh my gosh, like there's a version of this story that is Okay, you're an athlete. You're a single adult man, and you're an athlete that takes up all of your time and you're working at the top of your game literally and that's where all of your attention goes. Suddenly you're saddled with a kid. Now you've got to balance work and domestic life.

Featuring Dwayne the Rock Johnson. That's literally that movie. Okayn't need to do that because he's gonna get his aunt in here to just sleep through everything. Right. Yeah.

So so again you're like, well, okay, so it's not a real problem. It's just and it's not like, you know, it doesn't start with him going I'm just a guy who doesn't like kids, right, and then by the end he's like, you know what, you wormed your way into my heart, kid, I'm actually willing to sacrifice for you. He comes across fairly affable from the very beginning. You know, he seems like a decent guy. He seems he seems equally confused by the special right, so we're like, what's happening to me right now?

Did I drink something or get hit on the head? Why is all this happening? I was perfectly happy just playing baseball. It is kind of his performance the word I would use as meandering. He's like, hey, I'm Willie May.

Yeah, it's like it's just it's so unexciting what they're having him do that even, like you said, Richard, even he can't be bothered to really care it would see, right? Yeah, And I think there's a little bit of the King and I syndrome here where it's like, well, if we do this, though, we gotta have a kid, we gotta have an animal, we gotta have magic, we gotta have all the things that makes an animated kids show an animated kids show. So now we gotta we gotta wedge all this stuff in there. And then you're like, well, now that you've wedged all this stuff in here, I don't is this about Willie Mays? Is this like a second I thought it was going to be about almost like a biopic, almost like you know, Willie May is a kid with a dream who achieves it and becomes, you know, a legend in baseball.

But no, we're not doing that. We're gonna bring on an iguana and some fucked out angel for some reason, and now we're going to go to South America where there's a revolution. Oh my god, Yeah, the hell in a tin mine? Was? Was the character of the angel Casey not meant to be like a play on Uh, what is it Kate Casey at bat is that not what that's supposed to be?

That like the famous cac Yeah, yeah, I thought he was from the Kansas City Royals myself, Okay, I mean yeah, no, yours makes so much like I don't know, I mean, Casey, I don't know. Well why Yeah, And he was not a dwarf nev Wings right, that's that needs to be on a shirt. He was not a dwarf. He didn't sound like Paul Freeze. I mean, but a lot of people sounded like Paul free hopefully he says a lot of voices.

Oh my god, I think he did every voice but Willie Mays and a kid. It sound like he did every other voice, and and the and the aunt or the aunt. Yes, but he did all of the you mentioned the King and I, Richard, I did have a King and I moment towards the end of this where we meet the family, and I was like, Wow, these characters are all varying degrees of problematic, Like they're all just the most character or they're all they're like all stereotypes of the like of the worst kind. And it's like, wait a second, Like we don't have to stoop to this now, but then they have essentially banditos wearing sombreros being shot at So I mean again, you know what do I know? Hey, it was nineteen seventy two, Sure was fifty one years ago.

Yeah, and guess what, Willie Mays is ninety two, He's still alive? What well, you guys, why couldn't we get him? Because he probably doesn't want to talk about this. He shares a condo with Jamie Farr. He's it's to me.

The thing that I genuinely wonder is why this has never gotten any sort of anything, Because I mean, we found this through a third party on YouTube like this, this has no DVD release, This has never been mentioned by MLB. Is like a thing that they play at any point, Like nobody has done anything with this. Yeah, because it's terrible, I mean that wide point. Yeah, and I think at a certain point, being terrible is enough. Yeah.

I'm curious because, like we've mentioned, Willie Mays is a known quantity. Still, this feels like a weird thing to be effectively lost media. Yeah, Like what it's either gonna be It's either going to be on a home entertainment medium, DVD, VHS, something like that. But Ranking and Bass has such a deep bench and the only relevant stuff is the Christmas stuff. There really isn't anything else that registers with anyone.

Wikipedie, our friend over at the Ranking Bass Wikipedie would like to have a moment with you about how he loves Smoky the bear brother. I know, I know, well, I mean except for freaks like us, they don't. It's no one's going to get promoted by saying I got a great idea, folks. Let's put all of Ranking and Bass on on this cable channel or on DVD. Let's do it.

Let's do a box set. No one's going to buy that. The ones that they want they already have. You can get them. You can get the box set of the Christmas stuff and that's all you need.

What else do you need? This stuff gets lost because who wants to watch this crappy cell animation that's not very good. It's just it didn't earn its place in our attention. I felt like I was high and when I was trying to watch the first time, especially those opening credits, whereas running on the baseballs and at the beginning you see them the family throwing the baseballs at him, and I were like, what the hell is this? Willie mayses, people love Willi mays, Why are these people throwing baseball?

Set him? And you find out at the end why that is something. It literally looked like this was a story about African Americans turning on. Williams says, thank you, right, yes, So I'm saying it's all kind of just slightly problematic, slightly, I mean oddly problematic. What is this special really going to be about?

It was? It was strange and and I'm gonna, you know, in a very serious way. And I praise Romeo Muller last episode, and that praise stands. But this is a disappointing outing for the writer because I got to tell you the angel, the whole concept of I talk in circles, I sing riddles, and I don't make sense because I am an otherworldly creature. That is a convention.

But man, is it poorly executed here. It's not clever, it's not funny, it's not engaging, it's off putting, it's frustrating, and I mentally checked out. Well, and what I don't get is, you know, to everybody's point, like, why wasn't this just autobiographical. We've seen these Hans Christian Anderson stories two times now. It's like I failed to see why an American sports icon, because that's what he is.

Clearly, there was a Max documentary about him last year that I watched for this. Why in God's name this was like not just his because if this was his story, this would be remembered even if it wasn't great. There wouldn't have been any fantastical horseshit like they added here to really muddy the waters of something that just needed to be about Willie Mays. It shouldn't open Willie May's Comma the say Hey Kid, not Willy May's and the say Hey Kid, because again he is the say hey kid. There is nobody else in this if veronicas they say hey kid, wow, why what does that?

It didn't ever even address what that fucking means in this By the way, I think the logic with a lot of these things was to create an expansion based on a popular name. In other words, the people who liked Willie May's concurrently with his career knew his story. It was in all the papers. It was just something people probably knew. Jackson five, the Osman's those when they were famous and cartoons were made about them.

I don't think anyone felt that it was necessary to explain who they were or how they got where they were. They just were. And now we're just going to add to their legend by giving them a talking dog or a magic iguana and and just build another room in the house of this existing entertainment entity. Now fifty years on, we don't we don't know, Willy Mays. That's not we weren't born knowing.

So that's what we want from this. But at the time, it was like everyone already knows all that shit. Give him a candy bar and talking iguana and and now the kids are gonna even love him more. And so we had to go dig this thing up. And here we are, full grown adults watching a child with a talking iguana named Sweetheart, and we have no one to blame but me.

Thank god, you Jake the blame. It's what's what's what's funny is though, like you mentioned it, Richard, like this the idea that they the child did it up right, they made it four kids again. I come back to the idea of who is the say hey kid, Who is the say hey kidden because it's Willy May's and the say hey kid. And it's like again, like I want to know, like if everybody at the time knew who Willie Mays was and who to say hey kid was because it is Willy Mays, then who is to say hey kid? Of this story?

Is it Veronica? And what is? But like what does that mean? Like I don't know what that means in the context of this story because this story has effectively nothing to do with the title. It should have been called Willy May's and some kid that showed up on his doorstep, Like right, Well, it's like again, it's just sort of like, well, what if it turned out to say hey kid, wasn't actual kid?

You know again, we don't need to double down on Willie Mays. Let's actually start subdividing him. And which is weird. I mean I'm not arguing for it. I'm kind of just trying to figure it out.

But you know what's the logic here, Well, kids don't like baseball, so we got to put a kid in it. Well maybe some kids do like baseball, but girls don't. Okay, put a girl kid in there. I mean I feel like I sat in the meetings for this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what are the iguanas gonna watch?

Well, put an iguana in there. Iguana. The iguana really is egregious, especially because it doesn't even look like a juana. And then the scenes on two legs. Oh, man, don't see iguanas like eating everything.

It's not like a goat, you know. Yeah, that's not part of what an iguanna does. Why are they maligning iguanas? Yeah? I think my favorite character is the Jackie Gleeson taxi cab driver.

Oh god, how did I get here? What in the hell? Willie mays? What is fucking going on? It's such a bizarre mix of all the things that, like you said, Richard, like we expect from ranking on ranking on bass, ranking here on ranking on bass.

It's what we expect from ranking and bass is insanity of a childlike degree. But here is just like insanity to no specific point. Flying the taxi cabs, elevators that show up out of nowhere, that go to places from a baseball diamond, like, what is fucking happening here? The little girl shows up at his house, He walks back into his house and says, who are you and why are you here, and she's like, well, sit down, it's going to take about six minutes, okay, and then starts telling a story about how her mother died giving birth practically, and then her father decided to just leave and go be a gold miner in South America, right, And I'm like, well, this isn't oddly specific and yet weirdly detailed story to explain all the shit in her life.

And then we go back to it. Then it's like, oh, guess what your father's been killed? Is that okay with you? And she's like, yeah, basically I never knew him, right, And he's like, oh, and you you also weirdly inherited twenty million dollars. How do you feel about that?

Don't really care. I'm just happy to be here. And then of course her horrible relatives come out of the woodwork and try to claim her. So that's the threat now, and I get it, but boy was that wetting. A lot of stuff had to happen.

And then there's another then then we don't know it's it's the angel doing it. But then it's like, oh, no, there's been a revolution, and actually there is no twenty million dollars. If that you owe us money, right, And it's like, oh God, okay, really wow, we're spending a lot of time watching revolutions in South America for a Willie Mays story. That's what I was expecting when we watched it. I was like, Willy Mays, baseball, rife and strife in Central America, Manuel Coriega.

That was the expectation. It was fully fulfilled. It's right what you do. Yeah, And and to your point, Richard, it's like, if you're gonna go through all these hoops, at least make it like entertaining. Don't just say it and then just like there's nothing, like it doesn't matter where any of this stuff that happens outside of the story with Willy Mays is or any of it.

Because they'd literally mentioned it two times and it's supposed to be so important both times. And it's like, I because it's forty five minutes of just I don't know, just treading water. Yeah, a conflict comes up, and it's like, oh no, I'm supposed to go bat in a moment, and yet I needed back at home because a lizard is going to fall off the roof. So then an angel who can do anything solves the problem. So we're like, well, I guess the Angel is just gonna put you there and then you're gonna catch the lizard.

He's gonna bring you back in time to bat and there will be no repercussions, no ripples, no acknowledgement, and no consequences of any sort. And of course that's exactly what happens. So it's like, well, then it really doesn't matter that there was a thing. He didn't have to do anything to solve it. Yeah, exactly.

Hey, you know what Barney Rubble fell on hard times? Okay, that's all I could see when I looked at the angel was Barney Rubble with really big ears. Oh, because he has that like blonde hair sticking out of his cap and it's like the same hue that Barney Rubble's hair is. It's like that like yellow isshue. Yeah.

I mean we haven't mentioned it, but the designs of some of these characters is to say, uninspired might be generous. I'm trying to remember. It might have been the Mad Mad Mad Comedians where they had a lot of shots of the audience. I think that was the one, and there was one where we were looking at it and like, oh, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are in the audience. If you look at these things.

There were a couple of shots of the Baseball audience. There was one in particular where the camera's moving from left to right, and I was looking at these faces because they were almost too well drawn, and I was like, am I supposed to recognize these people? I didn't recognize anybody, but it felt like I was supposed to recognize some of these people and some of the crowd shots. And yet if you look at Willie Mays and the cartoon version of him, it looks nothing. No, And that's the crazy part, because those are like I did the same thing in those audience shots.

I was like, is that supposed to be like a no, like you said, there isn't any But like, compare that to the character we see the entire time, and he looks really bad in a really bad way too. And I didn't know that because I don't have any memory or knowledge of what Willie Mays looks like in real life. But if they were not making an effort to make it look like him, then that's really offensive and insane because he's clearly a celebrity. People know what he looks like. So what are you saying, Well, we'll just make him an African American and that close enough, right, kind of what it feels like, which is not great.

Right. Did you guys notice on the soundtrack there was like just a little left track going on. Yeah, there was also that repetitive repeating song that we had dum dum dum dun damn d I mean it's now, I mean, that'll be playing in my head five minutes after I die. I actually think, you know, to bring it back to what we were talking about with the design of the characters, Ranking and Bass and I don't want to be that guy here, but I will mention it because I think we've mentioned it two episodes ago. Ranking and Bass doesn't always have the best track record with diverse representation in their products.

Remember the Emperor's New Clothes, right, Remember, I mean we've mentioned King and I already like, is it any surprise that in seventy two this isn't the most well tuned idea with Rankin and Bass, Like, m probably not. Well, it makes me even more curious about the Jackson five. But you know, at this point five makes sense, Like it's it's like that makes sense because that's a kid's thing. Willie Mays is not for kids, Like Willie Mays is one year away from retiring, like this comes out the year before he retires, Like this is this is not Willie like I was saying, like this is not Willie Mays in the San Francisco Giants. This is Willie Mays in the New York Mets.

It's like when Brady went to go play for the Buccaneers. It's a different guy, different different feel, and it's like the relevancy that they were trying to keep here with Willie Mays is apparent, but we're wrong way to go about doing it, real wrong way to go about doing it. No, but you're correct. The Jackson Five and Donny Osman and the Osman's were those were teeny boppers. Those weren't even like teenagers.

That was music that was that definitely had a big listenership in the pre teen You know, kids who were ten, kids who were eight. I mean, I knew who the Jackson Five were when I was in kindergarten, and and I recognized those songs. And I didn't recognize the Beatles, but I knew who the Jackson five were, so that made sense. Those celebrities being rendered as cartoons for little kids made perfect sense. And if they're older brothers and sisters wanted to watch even better.

Well, And I was wondering, you know, because again I went and looked at like, okay, seventy two, right night, the year that in nineteen seventy two in athletics in this country, And I was thinking to myself, like, okay, if we're gonna do something with an athlete in seventy two, and let's just concede, it has to be important, so let's not just do a white male a. I feel like the other option that they should have taken and could have taken. I think they could have done something where they did tell the story of the person and it'd be interesting would have been Billy Jean King. Wow, yeah right, and like like that listen you woke feminazi. Sorry, yeah, I mean, or you could do Mark Spitz.

I mean, also seventy two. But like to me, it's like Billy Jean King would have made perfect sense for something and to highlight a sport that maybe isn't as popular because like again, baseball is just as fucking popular as everything else. Like maybe it's not as popular as everything else, but like, plenty of people still watch baseball, plenty of people love baseball, plenty of people get animated about baseball teams and all kinds of stuff. But like tennis, not necessarily and Bill Jean King one of the great tennis a well, you know't you You brought up a point earlier and I'm thinking of it right now. Okay, So there was a point in the late seventies where Reggie Jackson was so famous as a baseball player.

And I'm not a fan, but he was so famous he had a candy bar. Yeah. Now, now, who's the most famous baseball player right now? Right now? Yeah?

Like, right now, who's a baseball celebrity or vertical? Mendi died at seventy two. I know, I'm just kidding right now, Mike Trout, showya Tanni. Those those they played for a team that's near you, dude, the place where the Angels shoeya. Tanni is a pitcher and a batter, like he's a he's a dual position player.

Mike Trout is a really like good like hitter, also like Bryce Harper, like they're all like, you know, how long have these people been big at ten years? Are they going on Jimmy Kimmel that idea? And that's why I was wondering that same thing, Like it doesn't like baseball athletes don't go on those shows. It seems like it's like football players and basketball players. It's like not even hockey, not even hockey players either.

Looks like right now we're going through this period where other sports have more like basketball clearly has celebrities. It has for a long time though, I mean Dennis Rodman, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I mean, now we're going back decades, fifty years. But it is weird. There have been other eras when baseball has had stars that transcended the sport.

So people who didn't watch baseball or care about it knew who Reggie Jackson was, Like, okay, we know who Steve Garvey or something. It's like Griffy too, I'd have heard the name. And they go on interview shows and they're a celebrity. And now I don't know, I don't know who those people are for baseball, And you might actually there's a thing you might chalk it up to. I don't know how tuned in you guys were in the late nineties, but Mark McGuire and the Sammy Sosa race for the home run.

But then it turned out they were both just like fucking using Royds the whole time. Like I think that really hurt this kind of stuff, where it's like the visibility of those athletes kind of became lesser. And then I mean, we had Jordan in the nineties, which made basketball like the fucking sport of sports. I was thinking to myself, like, where was Ranking and Basses Michael Jordan animated thing in the nineties like that again, like if this had worked, that would have been the thing that they would have done. Like's that's the crazy thing here?

To me, It's like this is a real big missed opportunity for Ranking and Bass. I mean the way that this has animated, the way that the story is laid out, it almost feels like this was what was that TV fun house on SNL. Yeah, I mean it feels like this was a rejected TV fun house thing where it's like, we're going to take this athlete and pair him up within orphan and an iguana and all those things that you laid out before Richard, all the focus meetings. It's like here's all the stuff that we need. I mean, it's when you look at it from afar, it's absolutely ridiculous, and when you look at it up close, it's just kind of sad.

And I've got to wonder if the people who made the Mike Tyson Mysteries animated shields saw this and we're like, this is some dumb shit. Let's just make something that's intentionally ridiculous. Yeah, exactly. Like like Mike Tyson sort of became like Dennis Rodman, but in a weird way. He sort of became a person who could make fun of his image The Hangover.

That's where it started, right, he had an image to make fun of, and so he was in The Hangover and then they did the cartoon and that made him cool. This I keep looking at it like well as creative people. If we're looking at Rankin and Bass as artists, what was motivating them at various points in their career, And it's hard to find the moments that feel like it was just them going, we're the biggest guy eyes in the business. What's our passion project, what's in our hearts? What do we want to put out in the world.

It feels like at a certain point they did those live action movies like the Bermuda Depths and that kind of thing, and that feels like they wanted to do it because one of them lived in Bermuda and they could do it and stay at home and it was a tax ride offer. So for Arthur, Baby, you remember that nonsense? Do it like? I don't know. There was so much artistry in the AnimagiC projects that it really did feel like something new and that they had a voice and something they wanted to say and do.

But so much of their product absent of any biographical information because I don't have it, and the book is a celebration of their art, and it's an encyclopedia. It's not really talking about their lives. I don't know what they cared about, and beyond Rudolph the Red Nosed Reranger, I don't know what they hung their hats on. And I certainly don't know where they use their clout in any other way than to just get more money fast. And if I'm wrong, I would love to know that information because I'm fascinated.

I can't figure it out from the outside. As cynical as I can be, I cannot figure it out in any other way. Well, and you bring up an interesting point. I mean, if you go and look at the ABC Saturday Superstar Special movies or whatever the hell this was part of. All of those other things are made by Paramount and Hannah Barbara and Filmation, and you know other houses that either have these properties that they're licensing to people to turn into cartoons or they're turning into cartoons themselves.

And Ranking and Bass should not be the weakest seeming link because no, I haven't seen all of them, but they don't sound as bizarre of an idea as the Ranking and Bass one, because again, mad mad monsters, we know the quality of that. The Red Baron really know the quality of that. That's like the thing we like. That was one of the weirdest Ranking and Bass things I think I've watched. And then this it's just like and now we know what the quality of this is, and it's like Wow, if you're watching this as a kid and you're seeing all these these have to stand out is just like wow, not yeah, it's like they never stepped forward, Like I don't think this got made.

I think it's pretty obvious with them stepping forward and going Okay, we're a force to be reckoned with. We want to use our megaphone into American culture to talk about an African American hero, Willie Mays, and we're going to use our artistic skills to elevate his story and to bring it to kids who may not know it, because this guy's almost retired and we want to tell that story. And so that's where we're going to use our artistic entertainment industry cloud. I get a feeling someone came to them and said how about this? And they were like okay.

And then someone came to them and said, how about Danny Thomas, how about Marlo Thomas? How about Danny Kay? And they're like, yeah, fine, whatever, Sure, okay, Danny Kay. What do we do? Okay, jan you want this?

Yeah, well put him in that. We did it back then, we can redo it this time and cares you know what was there? I don't think they were sitting around going how are we going to win an Emmy? How are we going to win a Peabody or a Humanitas. I have to tell you though, that these other specials that ran on this series, it look amazing to me and I would so love to see some of them.

So there was Oliver Twist, which was a two parter, so it was probably like a real thing. Who produced it? Yeah, yeah, I talking non ranking Ambassa, Hannah Barbara. Yeah. I don't care what the Adventures of Robin Hoodnik are but just that title.

But for me, Didget makes the wrong connection. Didget runs a foul of seagoing gold smugglers, Banana, the Banana Splits, and hocus Pocus Park. The Banana Splits must rescue a young girl from a witch at an amusement park. They had one called Tabitha and Adam and the clown family. And you know who Tabitha and Adam are.

Their mother is Samantha Stevens and their father is Darren Stevens. So I don't know again if this is live action or animated, but either way, I'm in Love cast Usa is a mini anthology based loosely based on Love American style. So why is going on? What is? It's just like, well, I don't know, this thing already exists.

Let's just do an animated version for kids and it'll suck, but maybe the kids will watch. Yeah, Popeye meets the Man who Hated Laughters? Oh yes, please? Or The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island. That was the very first episode.

Well the Brady Kids again. At least that makes sense. I mean, even just from a marketing standpoint, it's like, children watch the Brady Bunch, they will watch the animated Brady Bunch. I mean, when we were watching this, this had the opening of the Saturday Superstar Movies opening, and everything else looked really interesting other than when I saw the Red Baron and I had PTSD and then but they showed and I was like, Lassie makes perfect sense for kids, like an animated Lassie cartoon, fucking a like, And that was the thing. I mean, Lassie's Rescue Rangers is ends up being the show that comes after that, So like this was also an opportunity to like, you know, jump off and make this into something else, which is you know, who knows.

If they were like, well, we're gonna get this Willie May's cartoon up and running, folks like, no, it's not like animation was a ghetto where no one had ever made art. Disney had been making art with animation for decades. True, they were spending a lot more money and taking a lot more time. But still even even the Charlie Brown specials were considered like those were those were considered really good and things that even adults were like, yeah, this is good. The Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny, things like that.

Adults would watch those and go, this is funny. I'm not I don't want to poke my eyes out. It's not like it wasn't done. It's not like it couldn't be done. It's just that, for whatever reason, they weren't doing it.

So what's next week? But Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovy Goolies does sound pretty good to be fine? Okay, okay, okay, I'm kind of see what else is available out there. I kind of the Didgit one is really getting me, so but we will wait back. Yeah, but next month we are going to be talking about that girl in Wonderland.

So another ranking and Bass one of the Saturday night movies. So and we get to talk all about Marlo Thomas. So I know you're going to be excited about that one, Richard. Oh oh, just like Jamie Farr. She makes my Lebanese heart beat a little faster.

So until then, Chris, what are you working on these days? Working on a lot of stuff. You can find all of it over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com, including but not limited to Bollywood, send him a Club, the Culture Cast, Cold Check Tapes, Midnight Viewing. All those things I work on and or host you can find them at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. And Richard, you tell me all about all the scripts that you're currently working on these days.

Can you expand on that a little bit more? For our GA members here, I'm working on all kinds of stuff, not for this studios. I am on strike with the Writer's Guild and now with the Screen Actors Guild, and thank god, we now have a lot more people and a lot more good looking people. Now. By the way, let me just say this, being on the picket line, I've learned writers are more attractive than they pretend to be.

Okay, we all walk around going, oh, we're trolls. There are plenty of hot writers out there, But the actors come out they're professionally good looking. You know, when you hand them a strike T shirt, they take off the shirt they're wearing and then put on the strike T shirt. They don't just pull it on over the existing T shirt the way we do. Because we're ashamed of our alabaster bellies being exposed to the sun.

They whip off their shirts. It looks like an ad for Gatorade. And we're in a whole other world. Anyway. Having said all that, I'm out on the picket lines and We're going to change Hollywood or die trying.

And at this point they're killing us anyway, we might as well die trying. I feel like weirding Way Media could really make a buck or two by selling T shirts to say thank God for Friend Dresser and then donating all the proceeds to the Writers Guild of America pool of funds because thank God for Friend Dresser, folks. Yeah, she went through a big transition in a course of about six weeks. She went from being someone that people were like, does she know what's going on? To then being an extremely passionate and articulate advocate for a living wage for the vast majority of writers and actors, the non famous ones.

What about the famous ones? Mike tell us about the famous ones? What are you doing over where famous people talk to you? Oh? Well, again, we're putting out new shows every week and getting getting some famous people to talk to us.

I mean there's still directors. You know, the writers won't talk to now, I'm just kidding. The writers are fine, writers are great people, and sort of the actors. And yeah, I'm in supportive you guys. If there's something that I can offer apart from my thoughts and prayers, you just let me know.

Richard Well, I was going to say, you know, there was some confusion about whether actors or writers could go on to podcasts, but as long as you're not promoting current product, Yeah, like an actor can't go on. What would be the example. I'm trying to think, like Margot Robbie could go on and talk about some show sheeted fifteen years ago. I guess it'd be a little weird because she is Barbie. So but of course most actors can go on and talk about stuff they've done in the past.

They just can't be out pimping Oppenheimer exactly. Yes, sell the scuzzo of the Bernie Miller Show and mash and quite a few other things. I'm gonna be talking with him in a few weeks, and he assured me that it was okay that he talks with me, So yes, for that, Yes, he can promote Barney Miller all he wants. Yes, we're gonna be talking about the taking a poem one two three though, So I'm very excited about that. Where is he located.

I think he's out near you. He's in the three two three, I believe. Oh my god. All right, maybe i'll see him out on the picket line. Yeah.

He's currently in rehearsals for a theater project, so, which I think is okay because I know today they were talking about Broadway actors. Yeah, that's that's that's equity, that's stage stage actors, so they can Yeah, actor Broadway is okay for now. So you can go sing a song on Broadway all you want, Richard, be your dream come true? Okay, thank you adapt the Mothman prophecies for stage. There you fucking do it?

I dare you. Yeah, yeah, don't dare I would love to read your script for Underseage to the original version. I'd love to read that one of these days. Yeah, I'd love to find it. I probably have it somewhere anyway, Yeah, yep, one day.

Well, thanks everybody for tuning in. I want to thank Abby Stabby for our artwork, as well as the Great Octopus for our theme music. Be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform hall hopefully you already have. We will be back next month with a look at Ranking embassas nineteen seventy three animated special That Girl in Wonderland. Until then, be sure to rate and review of the podcast wherever you get it, Tell your friends, tell your family, and please stay weird to shame sho