In it, when the cameras are off, the sweet Gumby reverts to his true self of an irascible, cigar-chomping celebrity who is highly demanding of the production executives. 1982–1989: Revival īeginning in 1982, Gumby was parodied by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live. However, Beals himself refuted this claim in a 2001 interview. Several sources claim that Dick Beals also voiced Gumby in the 1960s series. The cartoon shorts introduce new characters including a blue mermaid named Goo and a yellow dinosaur named Prickle. During this time, Gumby was primarily voiced by Norma MacMillan and occasionally by Ginny Tyler. Production started in Hollywood and in 1960 moved to a larger studio in Glendora, California, where it remained until production ended in 1969. In 1959, The Gumby Show entered syndication, and more episodes were produced in the 1960s. During this time, the show had two successive hosts, Robert Nicholson and Pinky Lee. Al Eggleston also invented Pokey, the little orange pony who was Gumby's best friend and was introduced during the earliest episodes.īecause of its variety format, The Gumby Show features Clokey's animations plus interviews and games. In early episodes, Gumby's voice was provided by Ruth Eggleston, wife of the show's art director Al Eggleston, until 1957 when Dallas McKennon assumed the role. In 19, 25 episodes at 11 minutes each aired on NBC. The second episode, Gumby on the Moon, became a huge hit on Howdy Doody, so Sarnoff ordered a series in 1955 titled The Gumby Show. The pilot episode was seen by NBC executive Thomas Warren Sarnoff, who asked Clokey to make another one. Gumby's slanted head was based on the hairstyle of Clokey's father, Charles Farrington, in an old photograph. Gumby's legs and feet were made wide to pragmatically ensure that the figure would stand up during stop motion filming. Clokey saw the color green as both racially neutral and a symbol of life. Gumby's appearance was inspired by a suggestion from his wife, Ruth (née Parkander), that Gumby be based on the Gingerbread Man. The name "Gumby" came from the muddy clay found at Clokey's grandparents' farm that his family called "gumbo". On January 29, 1955, Clokey produced and filmed the first pilot episode starring Gumby, titled Adventures of Gumby: A Sample, but never aired. In 1955, Clokey showed Gumbasia to film producer Sam Engel, who encouraged him to develop his technique by animating figures into children's stories. Much of Gumby's look and feel was inspired by this technique of camera movements and editing. Gumbasia was created in the "kinesthetic" style taught by Clokey's USC professor Slavko Vorkapić, described as "massaging of the eye cells". Ĭlokey's first animated film was a 1953 three-minute student film called Gumbasia, a surreal montage of moving and expanding lumps of clay set to music in a parody of Disney's Fantasia. Gumby was created by Art Clokey in the early 1950s after he finished film school at the University of Southern California (USC). The 1988 syndicated series added Gumby's sister Minga, mastodon friend Denali, and chicken friend Tilly. Other characters include Prickle, a yellow fire-breathing dinosaur who sometimes styles himself as a detective with pipe and deerstalker hat like Sherlock Holmes Goo, a flying blue shapeshifting mermaid who spits blue goo balls Gumbo and Gumba, Gumby's parents and Nopey, Gumby's dog whose entire vocabulary is the word "nope". Their creation was inspired by the trouble-making Katzenjammer Kids. His arch-nemeses are the G and J Blockheads, a pair of silent antagonistic red humanoid figures with cube-shaped heads, one with the letter G on the block, the other with the letter J. His primary sidekick is Pokey, an anthropomorphic orange pony. The Gumby franchise follows Gumby's adventures through different environments and historical eras. Upon his debut, in 1953, he immediately became a famous example of stop motion clay animation and an American cultural icon, spawning tributes, parodies, and merchandising. Gumby stars in two television series, Gumby: The Movie, and other media. The title character, Gumby, is a blocky green humanoid made of clay. Gumby is a cartoon character and associated media franchise created by Art Clokey.
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