Mel Blanc One-Liner Record

[JeffM]

Back in the 70's, a college station here used a record by Mel Blanc as a source for comic bridges during their pop/rock shows. You heard a knock at the door, Blanc would deliver a one-liner in one of his character voices, then a door slam. There was Bugs Bunny, Tweety & Sylvester, and the rest; the two I most remember were Porky Pig wanting a job as a radio ann-n-nn, a radio an-nn-n, a d-d-d-disc jockey, and Yosemite Sam shouting "Kill the power! Ah cain't stand it no more!!"

Tried to find out back then what it was called; nobody knew as it had all been put on carts, but they thought it might have been called "Run-Ins" or "Run-Throughs" or something similar. I've talked to DJS, record dealers, and other mavens over the years; but no one seems to have ever heard of it, and I've never seen a copy "in the wild." Assume it was released by Warner Bros. as Blanc was doing their copyrighted characters, but who knows? Any info appreciated!! ???

 

[RadioMan203]

I vaguely remember something like that during my high school radio days, too. There was a jock on one of the college stations who had access to it but followed up on it as I had happened across Terry Moss' "Cheap Radio Thrills" - not quite the same but affordable on a high schooler's saved budget.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Rick Dees used the Porky Pig line at times when he was in Memphis, and I always wondered if that was authentic from WB or an imitator. I'd definitely like to find that if it's available from a download somewhere.

 

[Savage]

It was a syndicated program service made available on a subscription basis to stations, and was called Mel Blanc's "Superfun." You can access a lot of this with a good 'ol Google search using those keywords.

 

[Bongwater]

I used to record video tapes of classic Warner Bros. cartoons from local TV stations. They were amazingly good sources of on-air bits themselves. I recorded bits from these tapes onto a reel tape and took them to the station, edited and carted them.

In one cartoon, Daffy Duck was setting up a trap for Porky Pig. He cut a hole in the floor behind a rocking chair and put a rug over it, then forces Porky Pig to sit in the rocking chair and rock.

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"Well, go ahead, rock! Don't just sit there like a bump on a log! Rock!" Porky Pig said "OK just for the humor of you" and proceeds to gently rock in the chair (as a flute in the soundtrack plays "Rock-A-Bye Baby") Daffy Duck said "Not like that you idiot!" and pushes Porky Pig out of the chair and sits in the rocking chair "Like THIS!", rocks the chair back - and promptly falls into his own trap.

I used that bit, ending with "Like THIS!" to launch into "The Hellion/Electric Eye" Judas Priest on one show.

Another one was with Bugs Bunny and Millicent (the huge lovesick female bunny with a grossly Eastern European accent voiced by June Foray in "Rabbit Romeo") in this skit, I used this bit where Millicent says to Bugs Bunny

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"Now comes to me bunny-poo! And geeves to me laarge keess!" and Bugs replies "OK.....But first, you'll have to close your eyes" She closes her eyes and puckers up. And Bugs promptly socks her with the business end of a toilet plunger.

I used this bit ending with "But first, you'll have to close your eyes" to launch into "All My Loving" The Beatles which cold starts with "Close you eyes/And I'll kiss you....."

Being third-generation from the video tape (and who knows how many to the TV station), they sounded barely acceptable. Which is why I only used them once.

 

[Mike_Rafone]

Songwriter (and anyone else),
Think there might be any copyright violations or clearance right involved?

Don't get me wrong; think it was very clever and probably sounded nifty on air. Had a friend who had a supply of 1930's and 1940's LONG RANGER broadcasts. Used to cut voices out of them and use them as drop-ins on his show. Would finish a commercial and Tonto would say, "Um, that right, kemo sabe." Or go to the weather forecast and have the Ranger say, "I'll go into town and check." Did it for a while then the management got spooked and was afraid of the legal suits coming after them.

 

[Bongwater]

Songwriter (and anyone else),
Think there might be any copyright violations or clearance right involved?

Don't get me wrong; think it was very clever and probably sounded nifty on air. Had a friend who had a supply of 1930's and 1940's LONG RANGER broadcasts. Used to cut voices out of them and use them as drop-ins on his show. Would finish a commercial and Tonto would say, "Um, that right, kemo sabe." Or go to the weather forecast and have the Ranger say, "I'll go into town and check." Did it for a while then the management got spooked and was afraid of the legal suits coming after them.

Not really. It's Fair Use to use snippets of certain things - You hear samples of songs and quotations from movies/TV programs all the time in radio broadcasts. If you use a substantial portion of the sampled work however (especially in a commercial spot), then you could get in trouble.....

 

[rnigma1]

It was a syndicated program service made available on a subscription basis to stations, and was called Mel Blanc's "Superfun." You can access a lot of this with a good 'ol Google search using those keywords.

In the 80s it was marketed as "Mel Blanc's Blankety Blancs." It featured random drops with Mel doing his various characters, and some full sketches.

 

[JeffM]

Thanks for all the "leads," and please keep 'em coming! I'll admit the references to Superfun have me a little puzzled; not that I haven't heard of the package, but the college station in question would have been highly unlikely to subscribe to it. They could of course have received some kind of promo sample record, and lifted the tracks from that. Google searches haven't turned up much useful info; some old Superfun LPS show up on ebay (Ouch, what prices!) but none of them appear to connect with this.

I sort of arbitrarily connected the tracks with Warner Bros. as even then it seems unlikely that Blanc could have released a record using their copyrighted characters on his own without attracting "attention" from WB's lawyers. (Nowadays, for example, the "Simpsons" voice actors are locked into contracts preventing them from doing even vaguely similar voices for anyone else.)

Have located and emailed a retired (very big time) WB Records exec to see if he remembers anything; but as email seems to work on the same principle as putting a note in a bottle and tossing it in the ocean, who knows what I might hear (or when, or if?) All best to all of you, and thanks again.

 

[Savage]

Superfun material was in pretty wide circulation in the late 1960s, when the package was in vogue. It was kind of like PAMS jingle packages. Demo tapes and bootleg dubs were always making the rounds, and small-market DJs were always hacking up material and using it on-air - almost always without authorization.

 

[purpledevil]

My favorite one-liner was spoken by Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, "Quiet numbskulls, I'm broadcasting!" I use it on my Part 15. I'll be looking into obtaining some of this Superfun material now....