Porky Pig: From Sidekick to Star to Sidekick

[00:00:00]Now, most people recognize this character immediately, the patient one, the straight man, the character who exists to make someone else funnier. He is the grounded reality forced to exist in a world completely devoid of logic.

[00:00:11]And yet, this is the same character decades earlier. He was the star.

[00:00:17]Porky Pig wasn't designed to be a star, and he also wasn't designed to stop being one. He actually stumbled into both, and in between, he essentially saved the studio. So, welcome back to Anthony's Animation Talk, and today we are looking at how Warner Brothers' biggest star became its most essential sidekick.

[00:00:38]>> Hey, that wasn't in the script.

[00:00:42]>> Oh, don't let it worry you, skipper. I'm just a crazy DAFFY OLD DUCK.

[00:00:47]>> [screaming] >> OH, KNOCK IT OFF.

[00:00:53]>> BUT TO UNDERSTAND HOW Porky became the star, we first have to understand the void he was created to fill. In the early 1930s, producer Leon Schlesinger wasn't running an animation studio at all. He was actually a middle man. He had an arrangement with the Harman and Ising studio. They produced the Bosko cartoons, and later on also the Merrie Melodies, and then Schlesinger would sell them on to Warner Brothers. But by the time 1933 rolled around, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising had had enough. Budget disputes soured the relationship, and they walked, taking their marquee character Bosko with them.

[00:01:27]>> [music] >> They briefly decamped at Van Buren Studios, but conflicts arose there, too, and they eventually settled in at MGM.

[00:01:35]And that left Schlesinger with a problem. His entire business was supplying Warner Brothers with cartoons, and his supplier had just quit. And so, Schlesinger built up an animation studio from the ground up, and he ended up staffing it with talent from various studios, some actually from the Harman and Ising camp. So, he took people like Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, who, you know, would eventually become directors themselves, and even from Disney he brought in director Tom Palmer and Jack King. Now he had a studio. What he didn't have was a star, so he mandated a replacement for Bosko and the result was the legendary character Buddy.

[00:02:14]>> [music] >> Buddy was, to put it mildly, a dud. He was effectively a white face Bosko clone completely devoid of charisma and director Tom Palmer's initial Buddy cartoons were so poorly timed and so fundamentally unfunny that Schlesinger actually refused to release them. He fired Palmer and he brought in Earl Duvall and Jack King to salvage the mess. The studio struggled to make Buddy work for two years. Yes, there were some highlights here and there, particularly the ones directed by Earl Duvall, but Schlesinger knew the math. These cartoons were just not gaining traction and Schlesinger knew the math. If he didn't find a genuine hit soon, his animation division was facing total financial ruin because even the Merrie Melodies weren't exactly doing crash hot either. So desperate for a breakout, director Friz Freleng used two-strip Technicolor and created the short I haven't got a hat in 1935 as a literal character tryout. He essentially threw a handful of Our Gang style animal designs and Our Gang was a movie series at the time featuring a whole bunch of kids getting into mischief, so you got the animal version of that here. And he threw a whole bunch of animal designs at the wall to see what would stick. And Schlesinger, along with a few others there, actually bet the house on Beans the Cat, pushing him as the star in a run of subsequent black and white shorts.

[00:03:32]>> Who do you think you are?

[00:03:35]>> Beans is the name, one of the Boston Beans.

[00:03:38]>> However, as what tends to happen in these sort of things, what the producers intended didn't end up actually happening. The audiences actually gravitated towards something else.

[00:03:50]>> We will now open our exercises with a recitation by our little friend, Porky Pig.

[00:03:54]>> A doughy pig in a turtleneck sweater nervously reciting The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

[00:04:01]>> Hark, hark, >> [laughter] >> I am listening. My my my countrymen my children and you shall hear of the mid- of the mid- of the midnight ri- ri- ri- ri- ride of Pa- Pa- Pa- Paul Re- Re- Revere.

[00:04:15]>> [music] >> Porky stood out and here's the thing, it wasn't because of his design per se, it was his distinct genuine stutter. And by the way, while Porky would eventually become famous for his sign-off, >> That's all, folks.

[00:04:30]>> he didn't actually invent it. In I Haven't Got a Hat, that iconic That's All, Folks was spoken by a wooden jester dummy.

[00:04:36]>> That's all, folks.

[00:04:38]>> And had done so in quite a few Merrie Melodies before that. The studio only retrofitted that catchphrase to the pig later on once he broke out. So, Beans and the rest of the crew that were featured in I Haven't Got a Hat were quietly dumped into the dustbins of animation history with few characters perhaps staying on in comic books and that's pretty much it. Schlesinger went all in on the pig.

[00:04:58]Porky was a massive hit. Porky was the hit the studio needed desperately. But behind the scenes, that famous stutter was actually a production nightmare. The original voice actor, Joe Dougherty, had a legitimate uncontrollable stutter.

[00:05:11]>> If you pay attention the red and blue song go into your pants.

[00:05:19]>> Here my son, take our last dollar and buy them animals [music] some food.

[00:05:30]>> And recording sessions dragged on for hours burning through expensive audio tape just to get a single usable line.

[00:05:36]And as you can imagine, it was a financial drain.

[00:05:39]Worse, it ruined the comedic timing of the animation. Things had got so desperate that the studio brought in Count Cutelli, a legendary sound effects man from the sound area just augment and salvage some of Dorney's stuttering lines.

[00:05:52]>> Well, you are not the chicken anyhow.

[00:05:54]YOU ARE MR. ROOSTER.

[00:05:56]>> [screaming] >> LEGENDARY SOUND EDITOR TREG BROWN EVEN pioneered technique of speeding up the voice track just to make the uncomfortable stutter sound cuter and more animated. And so the last short to feature Joe Dorney's stuttering voice was in Porky's Romance.

[00:06:13]>> I'm a pic- tuna. I want you for you to do but feel well, that is a Will you May I That is Won't you Will you Oh, shucks. Will you carry me?

[00:06:29]>> And in 1937 in the short Porky's Duck Hunt, Mel Blanc took over the role. And Blanc fundamentally changed the character.

[00:06:38]With his background as musician, Blanc turned the stutter into a controlled rhythmic device. He wasn't struggling to speak anymore. He was using the stutter for comedic timing, swapping synonyms on the fly.

[00:06:48]>> Yes, sir. I'll take your bag and your luggage. Hello, Mr. Oh, son of a son of a son of a gun.

[00:07:01]You thought I was going to say son of a didn't you?

[00:07:05]>> The flaw had ended up becoming an instrument and naturally the audiences were none the wiser at the time. But despite the vocal upgrade, Porky actually had a deeper problem. The audiences didn't know or care at the time, but he did lack a core identity.

[00:07:18]Depending on the short, he was a child.

[00:07:24]He was a grizzled professional.

[00:07:28]>> [laughter] >> He was a farmer.

[00:07:35]He was even a romantic lead.

[00:07:38]>> Over there is a sight that's a rare.

[00:07:41]Owls are epic fair. Something good will come of Porky Pig Pig.

[00:07:45]>> He was essentially Mickey Mouse with a stutter, a nice guy with no internal conflict. As the 1930s closed, director Bob Clampett streamlined Porky's story design into his definitive recognizable design. But Clampett's directorial style was built on manic hyperkinetic energy, and Porky was none of those things. And so, before landing on the perfect formula, the studio tried pairing Porky with Gabby Goat. But Gabby was just loud and abrasive. In fact, Clampett actually hated Gabby so much that in Get-Rich-Quick Porky, he literally wrote the character out of the cartoon by having him burrow underground with a jackhammer.

[00:08:20]>> What do you think?

[00:08:21]>> But here's the irony. Clampett spent the late 30s and early 40s using the exact same tactic on Porky, concocting every narrative excuse imaginable to knock him out, tie him up, get him off screen, just so the wilder, funnier side characters could run the show. The eureka moment came with Porky and Daffy.

[00:08:40]In 1938, Clampett conceived it as a fight picture where Porky managed as a puny, unhinged Daffy, and that codified the dynamic.

[00:08:53]>> [music] >> Because the comedy landscape of the late 1930s was shifting rapidly, audiences were moving away from cute, passive characters and leaning towards chaotic, fast-talking wise guys.

[00:09:07]>> [laughter] >> Don't let me worry. I'm a chief. I'm just a trifle pixelated.

[00:09:13]>> [laughter] >> And the studio finally realized the truth about their pig. Porky worked best when he was trying to manage someone else's insanity.

[00:09:21]>> Want to see me? I'm I'm probably a salesman.

[00:09:31]>> As the 1940s progressed, something quietly happened to Porky. His solo vehicles started drying up. Friz Freleng largely abandoned the character to focus on Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.

[00:09:42]But Porky was also fighting a technological disadvantage, and this is where it gets kind of strange. Warner Brothers up until 1943 had a rigid divide. Merrie Melodies were one-shot cartoons, initially black and white, but then two-strip Technicolor, and then eventually three-strip Technicolor.

[00:09:57]Looney Tunes were the character vehicles, all shot in black and white, completely for budgetary reasons. And because Porky was the anchor of Looney Tunes, he was contractually locked into black and white for years, while Bugs and then eventually Daffy were exploding in color. And because his solo starring era was filmed mostly in black and white, his shorts were subjected to the infamous 1968 Fred Ladd redrawn colorizations for television syndications. And these crude tracings butchered the original animation timing and layouts, and inadvertently buried Porky's early solo legacy for decades until modern restorations finally rescued the original nitrate film scans.

[00:10:33]And this brings us to the turn, because the transition from star to sidekick wasn't a demotion, it was a realization of Porky's true utility. The straight man baton was passed from Clampett to Robert Bob McKimson, >> Good night, fat boy.

[00:10:48]>> Adios y buenas noches.

[00:10:51]>> [snorts] >> What's buenas noches? Adios y that's Spanish for uh bonsoir.

[00:11:02]>> And also to Chuck Jones, who polished it to a shine in shorts like Robin Hood Daffy and Deduce You Say.

[00:11:08]>> Trifle with me, will you? You ruddy custard mongers.

[00:11:15]A clue!

[00:11:16]Really, Holmes? You you never cease to amaze me.

[00:11:19]>> But if you want ultimate proof of Porky's value, look at Chuck Jones's Scaredy Cat trilogy. In Scaredy Cat 1948, I must capture this beast. Stop there!

[00:11:42]>> Course for alarm 1954.

[00:11:56]And jumping Jupiter E 1955.

[00:12:10]>> [music] >> Here Porky's paired with Sylvester and the entire comedic engine runs on creepy atmospheric backgrounds contrasting against Porky's blissful cozy ignorance.

[00:12:23]While Sylvester is pushed to the absolute brink of madness by murderous mice or by aliens while Porky remains completely oblivious. And that's the whole thing right there. It proved that Porky didn't just need Daffy. He was a necessary grounding rod for any chaotic element in the entire Looney Tunes universe. Porky's usability actually outlasted the classic theatrical golden age. He became the studio's reliable utility player.

[00:12:47]In 1979's Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales, Porky was the only logical choice to play the optimistic Bob Cratchit against his enemy Sam's screaming Ebenezer Scrooge. So let's step back a little bit. So from 1935 to the modern day cartoons that were released early in the 2020s, Porky Pig went through a lot.

[00:13:05]So he ended up becoming the star and then he ended up becoming the sidekick.

[00:13:10]So while yes, Porky in the end ended up losing his starring status for the studio overtaken by many other, let's face it, more exciting characters, not just Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, but characters like Foghorn Leghorn, Wile E.

[00:13:22]Coyote and the Road Runner and many many other characters in the stable, it was never really the tragedy it looked like.

[00:13:29]It was one of those little happy accidents that put Porky in the role he was always meant to be. By becoming the ultimate blank slate, the character secured his legacy as one of the most single indispensable characters Warner Brothers ever created. He didn't fall, he just settled into the role he was always meant to play. So, thanks for watching. Let me know in the comments below, do you prefer the earlier solo Porky outings or the psychic Porky? But, until next time, guys. Take care.

[00:14:01]>> That's all, folks.

[00:14:03]>> [music]