Little Audrey TV Funtime #10 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

If you ever thought that the character Little Audrey was a nicer version of Marge's Little Lulu, with way less attitude, you might be on to something. After Paramount decided to not renew the contract to produce further Little Lulu cartoons under their Famous Studios division, Little Audrey was created as a replacement for which the studio would have full creative rights to. That also means that the early Harvey Comics staple didn't debut to the world in comic book form. Little Audrey got her start as an animated cartoon designed by animator Bill Tytla. 

The first Little Audrey short debuted on the silver screen in the December, 1947 holiday tale  'Santa's Surprise.' In it, the New York based Audrey along with separate children from around the world, all get the idea to stow away in Santa's sleigh. Tired from his trek around the globe, Santa falls asleep back at the North Pole. Silently, Little Audrey and friends sneak out of the sleigh and clean up St. Nick's workshop for the many gifts he's bestowed the children of the world. Then using an unexpected mastery of Santa's sleigh, the children all return home without Santa being none the wiser.

From 1947-1958, Little Audrey starred in 16 animated shorts for Paramount. 17, if you count her cameo in a 1948 Popeye cartoon featuring Olive Oyl. Little Audrey's appearance with Popeye's girlfriend was fitting as both characters were voiced by Mae Questel, who also was the voice of Betty Boop from 1931-37. 

Little Audrey's move from the silver screen to comics was spurred on by competition. Disney and Warner Bros were poaching the best of the best in the animation business. The quality of Famous' new releases were showing major signs of decrease. Paramount began to sell off its catalog in order to keep the animation studio afloat. The character had previously been licensed to St. John's Publications from 1948-52. 24 issues of her own self titled publication were released. But during that time, Paramount still owned the rights to Little Audrey. With the purchase by Harvey in 1952, the publisher owned the character outright along with Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey and others.

Over the course of the 1950s, Little Audrey's design evolved from how she looked in the animated shorts to a style that was more uniform with the rest of the Harvey line. Instead of a Kewpie doll with rosey cheeks dressed in blue, she adopted a red and white ensemble and a face that looked more like she was a distant cousin to Richie Rich. 

Little Audrey TV Funtime was one of 4 titles that started Little Audrey and friends during her heyday at her new home. The series ran from 1962-1971 for 33 quarterly issues. This book was a tie-in for a weekly syndicated TV series than showed Harvey's inventory of shorts produced by Famous in the 40s and 50s. This issue has at least 2 ads for the TV series. Though why Harvey Comics only released a TV Funtime based on Little Audrey and not her fellow co-stars is unknown. However, this reviewer speculates that it has something to do with how strikingly different Little Audrey looks on TV compared to her Harvey Comics adapted style. 

Little Audrey's cast was nearly identical to Little Lulu. Her best friend and sometimes foil, Melvin had a clubhouse with a sign out front that said 'No Girls Allowed', just like Tubby. Lucretia, Audrey's best gal pal, was a poor little waif who's not very bright, in the vein of  Annie Inch, while diminutive Echo was a less bratty version of youngster Alvin Jones.

One thing that Little Audrey outpaced Little Lulu at was diversity. One of her best friends is a bald black child named Tiny. Just like with The Little Rascals, Tiny interacted freely with the white children in a community that seemed to ignore racial segregation. Tiny's vernacular was not made up of broken pigeon English like the character of Ebony White from Will Eisner's The Spirit and his mother appeared as an upper middle class stay at home mom who isn't afraid to clash with anyone, including the local police, when Tiny is confused as being a bank robber in this issue.

Other stories inside this issue includes Little Audrey confusing an insect collector and a hobo both as her long lost uncle, her trying to keep cool with pals Melvin and Lucretia and Tiny accidentally scaring his friends when they turn a haunted house into their new clubhouse. There's also an improbable farce where Lulu thinks she broke her father's favorite chair and is able to replace it with a new one at the department store for just a dollar down.

By 1976, Little Audrey was all but forgotten at Harvey. All of her titles were quietly cancelled; replaced by Wendy the Girl Little Witch, a polka-dot loving clone named Little Dot and the ever hungry Little Lotta. Little Audrey  did return in the 1980s; albeit for a very brief period. In 1988 Harvey reissued several classic Little Audrey stories in a 3-D gimmicked one-shot. During Harvey's short-lived revival period when it was purchased by MHM Communications, Little Audrey returned with all new stories in the early 90s. Unfortunately, that series along with several others was quickly cancelled with the new owner focusing on cartoon and live action franchise opportunities. 

Since then, the character has been relegated to just a couple of blink and you miss it cameos in media based on Richie Rich and Baby Huey. A classic design of Little Audrey was to appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but had to be scrapped as the license couldn't be cleared in time.  Little Audrey along with her contemporaries who succeeded her were all given contemporary makeovers the animated series Harvey Girls Forever that aired for 4 seasons on Netflix. 

Still no return to comic book form in almost 35 years. 

Completing this review completes Task #2 (Comic from the Silver Age (1956-1970) ) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

A Classic TV Christmas- Advent 2017 Day 7

It's getting colder around here. So, let's head to the tropics and celebrate Christmas with the castaways of Gilligan's Island.

In the December 19, 1964 episode 'Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk', the survivors of the SS Minnow are spending their first Christmas marooned on the island. As they decorate their dwellings for the holidays, they reminiscence about the wreck that got them on the stranded. 

The episode is essentially a clip show. But it featured scenes from the never-before-seen unaired pilot. However, in those clips, the Professor, Mary Ann, and Ginger are not seen as the pilot was featured different actors playing those parts.

On thing that really bugs me about this episode is that at the end of the episode, Santa comes to visit. Or maybe he doesn't- it could just be the Skipper trying to spread some holiday cheer in a salvaged Santa suit. The audience and castaways are left to wonder who was in the big red suit. Here- you decide for yourself...

But if it was really Santa- why didn't he save the castaways? If I was on a deserted island and Santa came to say hi and not offer to rescue me, I would be soooooooo pissed!

As I leave you to ponder the implications of Santa refusing to play rescuer, let's continue the tropical Christmas theme with a song. As my Advent present for you today, I leave you a clip of the castaways of Gilligan's Island decorating to that Hawaiian holiday favorite Mele Kalikimaka!

Enjoy and until tomorrow- Merry Christmas!

A Classic TV Christmas- Advent 2017 Day 4

Moving along the timeline of Christmas themed TV episodes, we travel millions of years into the past to the town of Bedrock. It's yabba-dabba-doo time to celebrate the holidays with the Flintstones.

There's been several Christmas specials starring Fred and his buddy Barney and their families. But for the sake of this Advent theme, I'm staying away from as many holiday specials as possible for that may be a subject to explore for the future. So the episode I am highlighting is from the original 1960s series. Titled 'Christmas Flintstone', this episode has later been re-packaged as 'How the Flintstones Saved Christmas' on VHS and DVD.

In this episode, Fred has taken a second job for the holidays at Macyrock's Department store as a clerk. He's about to get fired, when the regular store Santa calls in sick. So Fred is sent as a replacement and it's the role he was born to play! In fact, Fred does such an awesome job, when the real Santa Claus is too sick to deliver presents, Fred is recruited in his place!

Besides the obvious fact that this story takes place way before the birth of Christ and thus how can cavemen celebrate Christmas- this is a treasured episode to many. Me included. It's funny, cheery, and it features the original and still the best actor to voice Fred, Alan Reed. 

This episode is unique as it's the first one in this Advent that actually aired on Christmas Day 1964. Unfortunately, due to copyright and such, I'm not able to post the complete episode. So in hopes of making it up to you, I provide 2 Advent gifts today. First is a 1980s Christmas themed Fruity Pebbles commercial in which Fred meets Santa. and then I have a clip of Fred singing Dino The Dinosaur's Christmas Tree from that classic episode. 

Enjoy... and until next time Merry Christmas!

The Adventures of Bob Hope #87

If you've been keeping up with my blog for a while, you will know that I am a consummate bargain hunter. I don't like to pay full price for anything. I've been known to wait months- years to read something if I can't get it on discount. 

Now there's a few exceptions to this rule. When it comes to Supergirl or Scooby-Doo Team-Up, I shell out the big bucks for a monthly fix. Holiday specials are the same. So when I saw this book at a local comic book store in Greensboro, NC, I had to do some quick math and weigh the pros with the cons. 

I've been wanting a copy- any copy- of this series since I started collecting comics again 10 years ago. My father had a couple of copies of this along with some Jerry Lewis comic books that got passed along to me before they were stolen in the early 90s. I got myself a Jerry Lewis issue for only a buck some time back. So, I felt that balanced out shelling a few extra dollars towards making this comic a part of my collection. Plus, from the cover, I felt that the book could make for a fun read this Halloween season. So, into my shopping cart it went...

This issue of Bob Hope has the comedian as some sort of con man. This was a typical character that he played in a number of his films in the 40s and 50s. Along with his dog Harvard Harvard, III, Bob is casing a carnival when he spins his last dime on a fortune teller. The clairvoyant tells the main character to find a castle with five steps in order to obtain his financial rewards. 

The only place Bob knows that there are castles is in England, so our hero and his dog embark on a cargo ship across the pond to Jolly Old England. There he finds a pretty girl that just happens to be going to a castle with five steps to claim her inheritance. Seeing dollar signs, Bob tags along only to discover that the castle is haunted and the spirits that inhabit it aren't very happy to see him there.

This was a very interesting look at DC Comics in 1964. I don't often get to read a book that old unless it's a collected reprint. So, I really enjoyed seeing all the great vintage ads and the smell of the comic- I don't need to take drugs. That old comic book smell is intoxicating enough!

One thing I thought was quite interesting was an interview with series artist Bob Oskner. In it, the artist states that he hopes his daughter becomes the first woman to break into comics. Excuse me, but what about Marie Severin (EC Comics) and Ramona Fradon (Metamorpho)? I'm pretty sure their roles on various titles beginning in the 1950s pre-dates Bob Oskner's little girl by almost 15 years!

The overall story was pretty funny. I laughed a few times. Though I have a feeling if I had read six of seven issues in a row, some of the gags would have gotten old pretty fast. Bob was portrayed in his typical smarmy and self-deprecating manner to a tee! And I really thought the new character of Harvard the Dog was a great addition. Too bad he didn't last more than about a dozen issues...

I did think it was quite funny in one segment when Bob Hope tells a policeman that he's an American. Very few people know that the US military's greatest supporter was actually born in London!

The scary aspect was about as scary as an old Abbott & Costello Meets (Insert Monster Here) film. A little spooky but nothing to keep you up at night. But it's a great read to conjure up a Halloween atmosphere. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.