SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: CHUCK MENVILLE

CHUCK MENVILLE 

(April 17, 1940-June 15, 1992) 

Notable Roles: Animator, writer, story editor, producer, director 

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Menville moved to Los Angeles at age 19 with designs to become an animator. He was hired by Walt Disney Productions and served as an assistant on The Jungle Book (1967). Unhappy with his working environment, Menville got into writing and began a long partnership with his friend, fellow animator and writer Len Janson. Together, they produced a series of live-action short films utilizing the long-forgotten stop-motion pixilation method. Among them was the Academy Award-nominated Stop Look and Listen, which followed a day in the life of motorists who tooled around the city in invisible cars. They wrote, directed and starred in their shorts. Clips from their second film, Vicious Cycles, were used in ABC’s The New Communicators which landed them a gig making commercials for Gulf Oil’s “no-nox” gasoline. In 1969, Menville and Janson started long stints at both Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, serving as story editors and producers for several of their shows. Outside of television, he wrote the book The Harlem Globetrotters: Fifty Years of Fun and Games in 1978. Over at DiC Enterprises in the 1980s, Menville and Janson were offered the story editor position of The Real Ghostbusters, but they initially turned it down due to the massive workload of having to produce a syndicated and Saturday morning version of the show at the same time. Following the departure of story editor J. Michael Straczynski over creative differences in changes ABC wanted to make, Janson and Menville became the story editors for the remainder of the show’s run. They went on to write, produce and story edit for the reboot of Land of the Lost and Tiny Toon Adventures. Menville’s final project was a story for Batman: The Animated Series. However, he died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma before the script could be written. Brynne Stephens wrote the teleplay for the episode, and Menville was given story credit. His children keep the “family business” going, as Scott Menville became an actor primarily in animation and Chad Menville is an author. 

Saturday Credits: 

Cattanooga Cats 

Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down 

Groovie Goolies 

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1969) 

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids 

The Flintstone Comedy Hour 

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (episodes) 

Lassie’s Rescue Rangers 

Speed Buggy 

Star Trek: The Animated Series 

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch 

Hong Kong Phooey 

Korg: 70,000 B.C. 

Shazam! (1974) 

Uncle Croc’s Block 

The New Adventures of Gilligan 

The Secrets of Isis 

ABC Weekend Specials (episodes) 

Ark II 

The New Adventures of Batman 

Space Sentinels 

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle 

Tarzan and the Super 7 

Jason of Star Command 

The New Fred and Barney Show 

The New Shmoo 

Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo 

The Flintstone Comedy Show 

Space Stars 

The Smurfs 

Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour 

Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince 

The Biskitts 

Kissyfur 

The Real Ghostbusters 

The Little Wizards 

Tiny Toon Adventures 

Land of the Lost (1991) 

The Little Mermaid: The Animated Series 

Batman: The Animated Series 

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: JULIE BENNETT

JULIE BENNETT

(January 24, 1932-March 31, 2020)

Notable Roles: Cindy Bear, Lois Lane, Wonder Girl/Donna Troy, Lady Constance, Queen Anne, Kitty Jo, Chessie, Monica, Boo, May Parker

Bennett was a character actor on stage and radio, and later television as it began to rise in prominence; appearing in such shows as The Adventures of Superman, Dragnet, Leave It to Beaver and Love American Style, among many others. During the 1950s, her resume expanded to include voice work for UPA’s Mr. Magoo franchise, Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes franchise, and the Fractured Fairytales segment of The Bullwinkle Show for Jay Ward Productions. In 1961, she became the voice of Cindy Bear for Hanna-Barbera, which she reprised over several Yogi Bear films and shows. She also returned to the Superman franchise by becoming the second voice of Lois Lane in Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman after the departure of original voice Joan Alexander, and took on the role of Wonder Girl in the Teen Titans segments of Aquaman.  From then on, she spent much of her voice career at Hanna-Barbera, moonlighting a few times for guest-roles in DiC’s The Real Ghostbusters and Film Roman’s Garfield and Friends, as well as continuing to appear on TV shows and made-for-TV films. In 1997, she succeeded Linda Gary as the voice of Aunt May Parker in Spider-Man: The Animated Series after Gary’s death in 1995. Her final known role was as an old woman in the 2000 Spider-Man video game. In between her acting gigs, Bennett worked as a realtor and an agent for other actors under the name Marianne Daniels. She died in 2020, one of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Saturday Credits:

The Bugs Bunny Show

The Bullwinkle Show

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

Cattanooga Cats

The Funky Phantom

Jeannie
These Are the Days

Yogi’s Gang

Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels

Fred Flintstone and Friends

The All-New Popeye Hour

Dinky Dog

The Little Rascals

The Mighty Orbots

The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show

Yogi’s Treasure Hunt

The Real Ghostbusters

Garfield and Friends

Spider-Man: The Animated Series

JULIE BENNETT DEAD AT 88

You can read the full story here.

She was best known as the long-time voice of Cindy Bear, Yogi Bear’s girlfriend, which included appearances in Yogi’s Gang, Laff-A-Lympics, and Yogi’s Treasure Hunt. She also portrayed a fisherman’s wife, a little princess and Princess Irene in episodes of The Bullwinkle Show; the second voice of Lois Lane in The New Adventures of Superman; Wonder Girl in the Teen Titans portions of Aquaman; Lady Constance and Queen Anne in The Banana Splits Adventure Hour; Kitty Jo and Chessie in Cattanooga Cats; Monica in Dinky Dog, which began as part of The All-New Popeye Hour; Boo in The Mighty Orbots; reporter Cynthia Crawford in two episodes of The Real Ghostbusters; and was the second voice of May Parker in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. She also provided voices for Jeannie, The Funky Phantom, Fred Flintstone and Friends, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, The Little Rascals (1982), The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, and Garfield and Friends.

50TH ANNIVERSARIES

*This intro was reused for The Archie Comedy Hour with some slight modifications.

MARTY INGLES DEAD AT 79

While many were celebrating Back to the Future Day, we lost actor and comedian Marty Ingles on October 21st. You can read the full story here.

Ingles didn't have many Saturday credits, but his voice was unmistakable. He played Autocat on the Motormouse and Autocat segments of Cattanooga Cats, Beegle Beagle on The Great Grape Ape Show and The New Tom & Jerry Show, guest-starred as Billy the Kid on The Ghost Busters, starred as the titular character from Pac-Man, and was The Devil on two episodes of Darkwing Duck.