![]() So I wrote it and it was storyboarded and animated and produced and aired.Īnd the following Monday Filmation got a call from Mr. The first was the short segment seen above, a brief intro to the characters and setting before getting ito the real character comedy. I was disappointed to learn there were only going to be four Tumbleweeds segments but I was determined to make the best of them. So Filmation's lawyer contacted Ryan and told him Filmation was interested in doing a Tumbleweeds segment of The Fabulous Funnies and Ryan said he'd like to see a storyboard first so he could tell if we knew how to handle his characters and Filmation's lawyer said sure and then he called the producer and told him Ryan was okay with the idea. Most of the rights were granted through syndicates, but Ryan personally held all rights to Tumbleweeds. Once the series was picked up, Filmation's lawyer then went to the various strips & picked up the rights. It seems Filmation sold the idea of the show to the network without first formally securing the rights to any of the comic strips. The person whom we didn't secure permission from was T. Further, in the strip Lotsa Luck communicated by scribbling notes for other characters to read, so I was able to secure permission from the network to use them. Two of the strips recurring Native American characters - Lotsa Luck and Bucolic Buffalo - were mute. ![]() Only one problem: The budget was so small we could only afford 4 voice actors on the show.Īnd to make matters worse, we weren't allowed to use any of the Indian characters because the network wouldn't let us record their voices with non-Native American actors and at the time the only Native American actor anybody in Hollywood knew was Iron Eyes Cody, who was waaaaaaay too expensive for Filmation.įortunately there was a workaround for the Indian situation. Naturally, I glommed onto Tumbleweeds the moment I was assigned to the show, eager to make full use of its wide range of characters and situations. Ryan filled it up with a cast of memorable eccentric characters, each a delightful off-beat take on Western cliches. While somewhat extreme in its stylization, it had a sly, savage wit and cartoonist T. I'd been reading Tumbleweeds since junior high and had the first paperback collection. There were two exceptions: Broom-Hilda, which at 8 years of age was the newbie in the pile, and Ryan's Tumbleweeds, which began in 1965. Almost all the comic strips they selected were old & anemic even at that time I couldn't imagine any kid being interested in them. I had been hired after luckily knocking on the right door at the right time & put to work on a show that had the dubious distinction of being cancelled even before the first episode was completed.Īfter writing several segments of the Tarzan And The Super 7 series, I was moved over to another show: The Fabulous Funnies.įrankly, it was a lousy idea for a show. How can you do such a thing? Easy, if you're Filmation Studios.įilmation in 1978 was my first writing gig in Hollywood. We animated & aired it without the knowledge or permission of Mr. I was (& still am) a big fan of the Tumbleweeds strip Ryan's Tumbleweeds comic strip ever animated & aired. ![]() The redoubtable Charles Brubaker passed along this YouTube link to the one & only episode of T.K.
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