Spots Off a Leopard.

Hey kids (of all ages), it's Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

We've been hitting 'toons with their roots in the primordial era of television with the last few Saturday Morning uploads. Last week was ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, who were essentially a revamp from the creators of the very first TV cartoon, CRUSADER RABBIT. Before that was the LONE RANGER, who was featured in a live-action broadcast series starting back in the 1940s.

This week we've got a propeller-capped kid and a sea-sick sea-serpent starring in cartoons from the early 1960s, created by animation legend Bob Clampett, but who originated in the TIME FOR BEANY televised puppet show from 1949. (If you thought the MUPPETS pioneered puppet shows on TV, you're way off! KUKLA, FRAN, AND OLLIE predate Time for Beany by a couple of years.)

Bob Clampett kept the sea serpent Cecil's animated design faithful to his sock-puppet original incarnation. Just a head and neck, with the theoretical rest of him out-of-frame or otherwise hidden.

The villain from the show, Dishonest John, handed out business cards that were later the inspiration for the AD/DC hit song and album DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP.

In 1988, there was an attempt to bring the series back, with John Kricfalusi (who would later create REN & STIMPY) at the helm... ABC canceled the revival in horror with three of the eight episodes produced never broadcast.

The original BEANY AND CECIL show from the early '60s had 78 cartoons. This is the first one...

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