Premavision Inc, the company that owns Gumby, recently entered into a joint deal with Classic Media which will see Classic Media manage all rights to the Gumby characters, including any television, film and video releases. This includes a library of 223 episodes of the original Gumby Show series. The companies also plan to have a direct-to-video movie released sometime in 2008. I'm too young to have grown up with Gumby, but thanks to video I did see several episodes of his 50s television program when I was a kid. Even then I found it too sugary and slow-paced for my enjoyment, and I wonder if kids today would have any interest in Gumby at all. While I'd hate to see the little green guy disappear completely, I still have to ask if it's possible for him to have the appeal he once did, or if he's merely a relic from a more innocent era of children's television.Gumby gets new owner, plans comeback
Premavision Inc, the company that owns Gumby, recently entered into a joint deal with Classic Media which will see Classic Media manage all rights to the Gumby characters, including any television, film and video releases. This includes a library of 223 episodes of the original Gumby Show series. The companies also plan to have a direct-to-video movie released sometime in 2008. I'm too young to have grown up with Gumby, but thanks to video I did see several episodes of his 50s television program when I was a kid. Even then I found it too sugary and slow-paced for my enjoyment, and I wonder if kids today would have any interest in Gumby at all. While I'd hate to see the little green guy disappear completely, I still have to ask if it's possible for him to have the appeal he once did, or if he's merely a relic from a more innocent era of children's television.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-08-2006 @ 9:59AM
La Mange said...
Dear Mr Finley,
Gumby was on the in 60's, not the 50's and later episodes of the Gumby show were surealistic and contained many veiled drug references. Gumby was obviously created by someone who had discovered Acid and no longer a cartoon for children. Try actually watching the show before you review it.
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10-08-2006 @ 11:32AM
erroneous_nick said...
Dear La Mange,
Gumby was indeed started in the 50's as Adam stated, in fact, the first Gumby theatrical short, Gumbasia, came to life in 1955 and Gumby's television premiere came the following year on Howdy Doody. Gumby was started with a simple purpose; to make better children's stories for television, nothing more. Check this link out which is Premavision's timeline of Gumby page: http://www.premavision.com/studio/index_50.htm It'll set you straight on the timeline of Gumby's creation and evolution.
As for "veiled drug references" and surrealism, I believe that was the animators using their imaginations within the boundaries of the clay medium, which was far less limited (and less expensive) than what could be done with live-action at the time. This was the same studio that produced the Davey and Goliath series, which, by the way, did begin in the 60's, and was operated by very conservative Christian people, so any drug references found in these series are probably the product of individual viewers' imaginations. That would leave a question mark around just who was doing the acid and I'm fairly sure it wasn't the producers of Gumby.
I'm obviously no expert on Gumby beyond being a child of the 60's who grew up watching Gumby, which I always found fairly entertaining. Even now I think they're pretty fun, if not somewhat "slow" by today's entertainment standards, but I never found them too "sugary". Now, I thought Davey and Goliath was entirely too "sugary", but if I had the choice between letting my kids watch something like D&G that taught them values such as respect for others, or one of the more modern toons that seem to too often espouse revenge and hatred, I'd take the former any day.
Information about Gumby is easily gleaned from the internet and I think apoligies to Adam might be due.
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10-08-2006 @ 1:13PM
Allen said...
There is a new Gumby comic book out. Just saw it at my comic dealers. Bob Burdendoes it, he of Flaming Carrot/Mystery Men fame.
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10-08-2006 @ 8:38PM
Faria Haque said...
How to make Gumby cool again:
a.) Add him to Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network
b.) Add a few bleeps
c.) Make him a man-whore.
d.) Chest hair
I want him already.
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10-09-2006 @ 10:35AM
jttv said...
Have Eddie Murphy do the voice dammit!
There was a blue chick that spit balls
at the bad guys who was kinda freaky.
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10-10-2006 @ 2:45PM
Joe Clokey said...
Clokey Productions / Premavision still owns the entire rights to Gumby. They also have creative control. Classic Media and Clokey have entered into a joint venture to distribute the existing episdoes and movie and to manage all the other uses of the characters in conjunction with Clokey Prouctions. Classic is also funding a new movie and tv series that Clokey Productions is creating and producing. It's a great new era for Gumby, which has an amazing new creative team which is still rooted in Art Clokey's vision.
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