How Popeye’s cartoon series debuted and competed with… Popeye?!

TV LEGEND: The owners of Popeye released a Popeye cartoon to compete with… a Popeye cartoon?!

The recent SAG-AFTRA strike was the longest actors’ strike in Hollywood history, but there have been a number of other notable strikes in the past. The third longest was in 1960, and it revolved around an issue that still plays a role in labor disputes today, namely the changing way people consume media. In 1960, there was no real way to compensate actors for what happened when their movies were on TV, because no one even considered that when those movies were made in the 1930s and 1940s, they would ever APPEAR on TV. In the 1950s, of course, TV was at least a theoretical possibility, but always only for pre-1948 movies (the theory is that TV began in earnest in 1948), and even then, they were typically lesser-known movies. That changed in 1961 when NBC signed a contract that secured access to 31 major motion pictures from the 1950s. When that dam broke, all the other networks rushed to sign contracts with various studios. The era of the “movie of the week” began.

The 1960 strike had paved the way for this deal, as it awarded the actors a flat rate for films made between 1948 and 1960, and from 1960 onwards, the actors received royalties when their films were on television. It’s fascinating how these things, like the airing of films on television, were never really considered in the past, and as a result, there were these gross injustices in deals that were made when the idea of ​​the project being aired on television could never be considered. That’s exactly what was at play when King Features Syndicate, the owners of Popeyewere forced, Popeye TV cartoons to compete with…Popeye Cartoons on TV?!

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How did Popeye first appear on television?

In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer signed a contract with King Features Syndicate, the owners of EC Segar’s successful comic strip. Thimble Theatre (which had featured Popeye the Sailor Man a few years earlier) to produce an animated adaptation of the comic strip. Fleischer Studios produced this new cartoon under a contract the Fleischers had with Paramount Pictures. The end result was a success, and soon Fleischer Studios was producing a new Popeye cartoon every month for years. In 1942, the Fleischers ran into business difficulties and eventually lost control of their studio to Paramount, who renamed it Famous Studios.

The 1940s saw the cartoons finally appear in Technicolor, but they remained extremely popular. Of course, as with most things, the appeal waned over time, and after the studio was renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956, the last Popeye cartoons were released.

However, Paramount sold the television rights to the material to Associated Artists Productions (aap). They began airing the DECADES-long supply of Popeye cartoons on television, and once again they were a HUGE success. A whole new generation was interested in Popeye, and although King Features Syndicate obviously benefited from Popeye’s increased exposure, it wasn’t making any money from these cartoons because its contract was only for the movies. So it had to come up with a plan to deal with another company making tons of money from its intellectual property, and King’s plan was to quickly get into the cartoon business itself!

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How did King Features Syndicate respond to Popeye’s call?

King Features Syndicate formed its own production company and then commissioned several animation studios to produce cheaply produced short cartoons featuring Popeye and his supporting cast (since King was behind the project, the characters were more in keeping with the stories from Popeye’s comic strip, and often strips were adapted entirely, and several key Popeye characters from the strip made their debut in these cartoons).

Fred Grandinetti has a new book out about the King Popeye cartoons of the 1960s, detailing the history of the series and taking an in-depth look at each of the over TWO HUNDRED cartoons that were made. He notes of the cartoon, “These cartoons were worked on by a lot of experienced people who were used to lavish budgets and longer schedules. Suddenly, the same people are given a cartoon to produce in a week. Some have adapted better than others. As a child, the target audience, I never noticed that Popeye’s whistle disappeared when he spoke. For me and many others, it was just more Popeye to watch.”

Fred also received an excellent quote from the current Popeye Sunday comic book writer/artist Randal Keith “RK” Milholland …

who said this about the series:

I know it’s popular among animation fans to criticize the Popeye cartoons of the 1960s, but I don’t think you can overstate how much these shorts helped Popeye as a brand. They renewed interest in the character, brought back characters like Wimpy and Swee’Pea who had been largely absent or terribly rewritten in the Famous Cartoons, and even revisited some of the comic strip stories. Even Sea Hag, Popeye’s oldest nemesis, was featured in cartoons for the first time. For many baby boomers and Generation X, the 1960s cartoons were our introduction to the sailor. The cartoons did their best to keep the spirit of the characters and stories alive. Maybe they weren’t always of consistent quality, but that can be said of many shows (check out the first season of Tiny Toons from the early ’90s, where some episodes are great and others look like they were cobbled together in a closet with no lights on). They’re an entertaining time capsule and many of them are still entertaining to watch. Do I think they were the best Popeye cartoons? No. But they entertained the kids who saw them and that’s the most important thing. I still enjoy watching them from time to time just to clear my head.

Very well said, RK!

The legend is…

STATUS: TRUE

Be sure to check out Fred’s cool book too!

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