TED NICHOLS DEAD AT 97

 

It's being reported that Ted Nichols died back in January.

He served as a composer and musical director for Hanna-Barbera, working on shows that included The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, Space Ghost, The Space Kidettes, Shazzan, Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, Fantastic Four (1967), The Herculoids, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Young Samson & Goliath, The Adventures of Gulliver, Cattanooga Cats, Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Help!...It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, and The Roman Holidays.

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: GARY OWENS

 

GARY OWENS
(May 10, 1934-February 12, 2015)

 
Notable Roles: Roger Ramjet, Space Ghost, Blue Falcon, Captain Squash, Commander Ulysses Feral, Powdered Toast Man, 1950s Batman
 

Born Gary Bernard Altman, Owens was notable for his baritone speaking voice and deadpan comedic delivery that made him an ideal narrator and announcer for various projects—particularly of the humorous kind. He began his career as a news reporter on radio station KORN in 1952 in Mitchell, South Dakota, and was promoted to news director two years later. In 1956 he left to be a newscaster at KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa, before becoming a disc jockey at KOIL in Omaha, Nebraska. After bouncing around a few other stations, he finally ended up in California in 1959. He began a two-decade tenure at 710 KMCP (now KSPN AM) where he displayed his surrealistic humor and tendency for puns, as well as inventing nonsense words and doing amusing radio promotions. He also developed several alter-egos: gruff old man earl C. Festoon and his wife, Phoebe; stuffy businessman Endocrine J. Sternwallow; goofy good ol’ boy Merle Clyde Gumpf; and crochety old Mergenthaler Waisleywillow. In 1961 he started transitioning into film and television by providing the uncredited prologue narration for The Naked Witch (although it wasn’t released until 1964). In 1965, he made a couple of appearances on McHale’s Navy and voiced the titular character in the animated Roger Ramjet. His most well-known role came in 1968 as the announcer for the sketch comedy series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, where he established his trademark routine of holding his hand on his ear as he spoke into the microphone. Owens had a long association with Hanna-Barbera Productions, providing either opening narrations or episode narrations for various shows like The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Yogi’s Space Race and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, as well as various roles including the heroes Space Ghost in Space Ghost and Blue Falcon in Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and supporting antagonist Commander Ulysses Feral in SWAT Kats. Additionally, he voiced various cartoon characters on Sesame Street, the characters of Powdered Toast Man in The Ren & Stimpy Show and Captain Squash in Bobby’s World, and was even one of the prospective voices for Inspector Gadget in one of the pilot episodes. In 2004, Owens co-wrote the book How to Make a Million Dollars with Your Voice (Or Lose Your Tonsils Trying) with Jeff Lenburg, an anecdote-laden guide on how to get into voice acting. In his final years, Owens served as the promotional announcing voice for retro network Antenna TV until his death in 2015 due to complications from his life-long bout with Type-1 diabetes.

 
Saturday Credits:
Space Ghost and Dino Boy
Sesame Street
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
Scooby’s Laff-A-Lympics
Yogi’s Space Race
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Space Stars
The Mighty Orbots
Inspector Gadget (1 pilot version)
Garfield & Friends
Yogi’s Treasure Hunt
Bobby’s World
Defenders of Dynatron City
Tom & Jerry Kids Show
Eek! the Cat
Goof Troop
Raw Toonage
Skeleton Warriors
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
The Mask: The Animated Series
Nightmare Ned
101 Dalmatians: The Series
The New Batman Adventures
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Teamo Supremo

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: ALEX TOTH

ALEX TOTH

(June 25, 1928-May 27, 2006)

Notable Roles: Cartoonist, comic book artist, character designer

Toth displayed artistic talent early in his childhood and was encouraged by a teacher to pursue it. Toth enrolled in the School of Industrial Art where he studied illustration. He sold his first piece of freelance art at age 15 and worked on stories for Heroic magazine through comic book packager Steve Douglas. Toth had dreamed of doing newspaper strips but switched over to comic books after considering the strip industry “dying”. After graduating in 1947, Toth was hired by Sheldon Mayer at National Periodicals (precursor to DC Comics) where he would spend the next 5 years working on a variety of books as editor Julius Schwartz considered him “my best artist at the time.” In 1950, he briefly realized his dream of doing strips by ghost illustrating Casey Ruggles with Warren Tufts. In 1952, Toth moved to California and began a career with Standard Comics until he was drafted into the army. While stationed in Tokyo, Toth wrote and drew his own strip, Jon Fury, for the base paper, Depot Diary. Returning home in 1956, Toth worked for Dell Comics until 1960 when he became the art director for the animated science fiction show, Space Angel. Noticing his work, he was hired by Hanna-Barbera where he served as a character designer and layout artist. He created the characters of Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Birdman, the Galaxy Trio, Dino Boy and Johnny Quest, among others. In 1973, he was assigned to the Australian division to oversee production of Super Friends. Toth continued to work in comics, including doing the Hot Wheels comic that tied into the animated series. In 1990, he was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame. Toth was known for his intense study of other artists and was often outspoken in his analysis of comic throughout the years. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he contributed the columns “Before I Forget” and “Who Cares? I Do!” to the magazines Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego, respectively. Although he left the animation industry following Bionic Six, his characters and designs found new life in the Cartoon Network parody shows Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. After years of declining health, Toth died in 2006 from a heart attack while working at his drawing table.

Saturday Credits:

Space Ghost and Dino Boy

The Herculoids

Shazzan

Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor

Birdman and the Galaxy Trio

Fantastic Four (1967)

Sealab 2020

Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space

Super Friends (1973)

Devlin

Clue Club

The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour

Dynomutt, Dog Wonder

Scooby’s Laff-A-Lympics

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels

The All-New Super Friends Hour

Challenge of the Super Friends

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1980)

Thundarr the Barbarian

SMF ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (PART 9)

Welcome to the golden portion of our 2nd anniversary celebration!

As we celebrate, we figured we'd also take the opportunity to celebrate the various other programs enjoying anniversaries this year (at least at an interval of 5). Some we've covered, some we'll get to covering sooner or later, but all of them represent Saturday morning. For this installment, we recognize those shows turning the big 50--particularly cartoons of the Comic Book Superhero genre, which officially began in 1966 (comic books in general had been animated for television as far back as 1958).

Take a walk down memory lane with us, and feel free to share your memories in the comments, or over on our Facebook group or Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you!

Now, without further ado, join us in celebrating...

NOTE: Not all intros available at this time.

GARY OWENS DEAD AT 80

Gary Owens died on February 12th at the age of 80. You can read the full story here.

While primarily known as an announcer, Owens lent his voice to a great many Saturday morning cartoons. He was the original voice of Space Ghost on Space Ghost and Space Stars (with a non-Saturday reprisal on Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and the Blue Falcon on The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, and Dynomutt Dog Wonder (again reprised off Saturday on Johnny Bravo), and served as the announcer and instructor frequently featured on Garfield and Friends and Eek! the Cat. He tapped his announcing skills as the narrator for Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Yogi's Space Race, The Mighty Orbots, Yogi's Treasure Hunt, and the opening for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, while also providing additional and guest voices for Bobby's World, Goof Troop, Raw Toonage, Tom & Jerry Kids, Skeleton Warriors, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, Aahh!!! Real Monsters, The Mask, and The New Batman Adventures. Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular, a spin-off film from Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, featured Owens making an appearance as himself.