From the Pen of: John Sherffius

Midday Cartoon Show: The Funny Company

Skip this post if you couldn't give a rat's ass about The Funny Company, for which we cannot blame you.

When TV made the digital flip Friday, a rescan of your tuner brought up a zillion new local over-the-air digital channels, conjoined with the existing ones. Here in L.A., one of these channels inexplicably airs The Funny Company at 11pm every night for an entire half-hour.

I remember it well. When I was a tyke, Channel 9 in New York always got stuck with the cartoons Channel 5 and Channel 11 didn't want. They fell heir to The Funny Company which was hosted by borscht-belt comedian Morty Gunty.

The show had only two redeeming qualities which I'll get to in a bit.

Its biggest liability was the educational angle. Each episode centered on this little corporation run by kids (the tallest white kid, of course, was the president). They served as a wraparound for film footage supplied by the likes of Encyclopedia Britannica which, combined with the limited animation and lackluster writing, resulted in a five-minute sleeping pill for kids. I swear, sometimes Morty would be caught napping when they went back to him half the time.

What good came of it? The smiley-face within the logo and at the end of the credits. This is considered by many as the first use of the icon.

And more importantly, the same folks who did this 'toon redeemed themselves two short years later with the just-as-minimalist but fall-out funny Roger Ramjet. In fact, their theme songs are practically the same. Here are both - and here's hoping one of the new 3,911 digital channels will have the chutzpah to run Roger Ramjet in late night.

From the Pen of: John Sherffius

From the Pen of: Ben Sargent

From the Pen of: David Horsey

From the Pen of: Jeff Danziger

From the Pen of: John Sherffius

Still in the wilds of the Pacific NW. Today we move on to Seattle. Can't wait to wake up reading a copy of a great newspaper, the P-I! There are some things you can really depend on in today's world.

Here are some toonatorials to fill the need...

From the Pen of: Tom Toles

From the Pen of: Ben Sargent

From the Pen of: Jeff Danziger

From the Pen of: Steve Benson

From the Pen of: John Sherffius

From the Pen of: Mike Luckovich

From the Pen of: Steve Benson

From the Pen of: Steve Benson

From the Pen of: Ben Sargent

From the Pen of: Tom Toles

From the Pen of: Ben Sargent

From the Pen of: Mike Luckovich

From the Pen of: Steve Benson

From the Pen of: Vic Harville

From the Pen of: John Sherffius

From the Pen of: Steve Benson

From the Pen of: Jack Ohman

From the Pen of: Steve Benson