Joe Barbera, 1911-2006
When I was a kid I thought Hanna Barbera was the clever woman who made all those cartoons. Then again, I thought martial law was a mean Chinese woman. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound and many other cartoons.
Remember The Funky Phantom? What a strange idea: one of America’s founders reappearing as a funny ghost. His favorite expression was, “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” Who was Murgatroyd? I googled the name and many genealogies turned up but I’m not sure exactly which Murgatroyd was referred to. Amazing how much stuff we remember that we don’t even remember we remember.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 19th, 2006 at 17:03
I still remember the Funky Phantom theme song…
and the Muddlemore-Iverson feud. Cha naman.
We’ve got a friend, friend, friend, it’s Funky Phantom
He’ll jump right in just when you need him most
And Boo will too and you cant do without him
The cat and the Funky Phantom ghost
December 20th, 2006 at 09:56
i’d always ascribed ‘Heavens to Murgatroyd’ to Snagglepus. Murgatroyd is also the surname of characters in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera ‘Ruddigore’, and Snagglepus being obsessed with theater, i always thought that was the appropriate reference.
the Funky Phantom using the phrase makes it weird, but only slightly, since G&S were English poking fun at Victorian England.