Magilla Gorilla

Hi, you're listening to Tooncast. We've got a

gorilla for sale. McGill a gorilla for sale.

Won't you buy him? Take him home and try him.

Gorilla for sale. See in the window McGill a

gorilla. Full of charm and appeal. Handsome,

elegant, intelligent. You can call your own A

gorilla moving with you when you're all alone

The McGilligorilla Show! Presented by Ideal Toys!

They're wonderful toys! They're ideal! Get it?

Gorilla, McGilligorilla for sale! How much is

that gorilla in the window? Hello and welcome

to the 44th episode of tooncast brought to you

by the geek cast radio network I am your host

if you like and tonight. I'm joined by a skyped

Kevin Thompson. Hello Hello. Yes, you're finally

not on your damn cell phone. Well, this is temporary

because you're at your mom's house, but yeah

Better without the without the Bluetooth in my

ear and actually having a headset with the earphones

and the microphone and everything I feel more

more like proper Yeah, exactly Today we will

be continuing the Hanabara Spotlight with Magilla

Gorilla. How much is that gorilla in the window?

So what have you been up to this week? Um, let's

see. A couple minor things around the house that

I've been trying to work on. I just bought, because

it was a pretty good deal I couldn't pass it

up, but I bought a new couch type sectional thing

for my, uh... my living room so I finally have

something to sit on and I can actually have a

couple friends over and have places for them

to sit on too, so that's a positive. Other than

that, besides getting ready to do a couple more

things for the tune cast and doing a lot of stuff

over behind the voice actors and watching lots

of movies. That's about all I've been up to lately.

Yeah, pretty much the same for me. We just By

the time this airs will probably already be way

down the line in it. But as of this recording

we just finished Beast Unleashed episode 5 and

oh my god I am gonna have to listen to a couple

of those because it sounds like you guys are

having some fun there. Oh my god, dude That show

Thank God that show has thank God all of our

shows for the majority have an explicit tag on

them because oh my god that show is just like

one consistent and it's not like i'm not i don't

say this to be meaner or or referred to come

out bad that show is just one consistent train

wreck because it's not good we find it we find

so many ways to either get off topic or associate

something to do with the stores with every other

topic that we can think of it's like oh my god

Oh, I do have to give you a hard time, though,

actually, because I did remember something else

I did this week that I wish I wouldn't have.

I watched four episodes of Phineas and Ferb.

I love that show. And the only thing I can tell

you is that at least it's better than Dexter's

Laboratory. uh... okay you know you know you

commented on my face book post about it and you

said why would you know i a m that you have to

disavow knowledge of the cash radio if you know

that that i continue to watch the show i'm sorry

this show this cartoon phineas and farb is so

good it's so great it's one of those cartoons

where it's about kids who are doing crap that

no other kid would do during summer vacation.

They're making the most out of their summer vacation.

Yeah, I guess the problem I have with it, I mean

I did watch four episodes and the stories themselves

aren't bad. It actually does have more of a plot

than a lot of cartoons do. I can't get past the

animation for me it's just a style that I just

cannot stand it's better slightly better than

the style with like Dexter's and some of those

but I just can't stand when you just take shapes

and make those like heads and like the one dude's

head is a triangle and it's not that that I mean

I know that's their intention so it's not like

they're doing something wrong but for some reason

that style of animation just I can't get past

it's I don't know what's worse, that style of

animation or anime? I haven't decided which one's

the worst. Well, and that's fine, but you can't...

They have good stories. There are some cartoons

where they're just out -and -out crap. Silver

Hawk's notwithstanding, but Phineas and Ferb,

it's a good cartoon, they have good characters.

You know, the voice acting is spot on for the

characters. You know, it's just a great fun show.

It's one of those shows that Disney is coming

up with now. You know, I guess you could call

it the new age of Disney. But anyway. I think

we should take a look back through all 44 episodes

so far and take a count of who has more. Have

I ripped on Dexter's more or have you ripped

on Silverhawk's more? I don't know, I'll freely

admit it, I'll probably rip my silver ox more,

but that's beside the point. I like that show,

don't get me wrong, but it's still, it's not

anywhere close to even being in my top 20. Top

20 of all time or top 20 of the 80s? Top 20 cartoons,

just my favorites. Okay, I can give you that.

If you said it wasn't in your top 20 for the

80s, I might have a problem. It'd be on the lower

end. It'd be probably like number 20. Oh, right,

bastard. Oh, crap. So let's get on to the history

lesson before we derail this anymore. All right.

Now that we've talked about Phineas, Ferb, Daxter,

and Silverhawks, today's history lesson takes

us to 1964 for, yes, actually a Hanna -Barbera

cartoon called McGilligarilla. Megilla was produced

obviously by Hannah Barbera for Screen Gems and

was sponsored in syndication by Ideal Toys and

you can actually hear them reference Ideal Toys

in the opening theme song. Megilla lasted a total

of 31 episodes from January 16th, 1964 to 1967.

Besides airing in syndication, the show also

was broadcast at one point by the ABC network.

That does it for today's history lesson. Mike,

what do you remember about that good old Megilla

gorilla in the window? I remember this mainly

from recent times when I had my well before I

moved into the apartment I'm in now when I was

at my other apartment when I had direct TV and

I can watch boomerang because it's always on

now I mean that's the whole point of boomerang

is all these classic cartoons and I didn't ever

really watch this growing up it's more of you

know the last I'd say the last four or five years

that I actually caught up with this And it just

surprises the hell out of me that people would

use Magilla in different situations. Like, they

had him in one episode as a football player.

And then when they realize, oh my god, it's a

gorilla! And then, of course, I'm kind of skipping

ahead and getting into the plot, but it's like,

wow, how do these people not know it first? I'm

thinking that's where chicken boo came from Honestly

if you look at it seriously obviously McGill

it doesn't have a disguise, but he is he doesn't

wear clothes, so you know I Don't know it's not

a bad cartoon And again, I'm like like I've said

on son so far on a lot of these Hannah Barbera

ones I like a lot of the side characters Pumpkin

Puss and Mush Mouse were two of the side characters

from a Gila show, I think Right What about you?

um for some reason I don't actually have as big

of a As clear of a recollection of McGilligrilla

as a kid as I do with like let's say Yogi Bear

Jabberjaw a couple of them like that it's It's

kind of one of those where I've forgotten most

of it until I re -watch it, but I do remember

one thing that always stuck with me was the whole

theme song slash the whole idea of the gorilla

in the window, how much is that, you know, gorilla

in the window type stuff. I remember that part.

I honestly would not have remembered any of the

side characters in this segment or any of the

details of the show until I had watched it again,

but It is a good show. I don't know if I would

say I like it as much as let's say Yogi Bear

or some of the other ones, but it's entertaining

and they do a good job with what they were wanting

to do, I think. It's a little more, let's say

it's just a slightly bit more original than last

week's episode. I like Jabberjaw better probably

but Jabberjaw or this is a little more at least

original with the idea Did you know and I just

found this out actually our voicemail Colin from

last week Chris from chicken pot pod pointed

it out to me He couldn't remember who the actor

was but he pointed out that the actor also voiced

Curly in the robotic stooges. Did you know that

Frank Welker was Curly in the robotic stooges?

Yeah Yeah, I messaged Chris. For some reason

I didn't bring that up, or I didn't think of

it at the time when we did the show, but yeah.

Yeah, well, I sent Chris a message on Twitter

after he sent in the voicemail. He's like, oh,

I really like the voice of Jabberjaw. I don't

remember who the guy was. You guys have probably

already said it. And I got on tweet deck, and

I'm like, dude. Then all in caps you don't remember

Frank Welker He never really responded to me,

but Funny stuff yeah, you know McGill is okay

McGill isn't something that I can watch consistently

I do like, like I said, I like the side characters

of Mush Mouse and Pumpkin Puss. Again, it's like

the, it's the syndrome of Hannah Barbera taking

off the Tom and Jerry thing. Like at Dixie and

Dixie and Mr. Jinx, now you have Pumpkin Puss

and Mush Mouse. And it's basically a country

-fied hillbilly version of A Cat and a Mouse.

Right. I think this is also a good time since

we kind of scratched it from our original Hanna

Barbera lineup to bring up a comparison real

quick between the two big, you know, monkey men,

McGilla Gorilla and Grape Ape. I think that...

I think it was odd for them to do two humongous,

you know, monkey characters. I like McGilla Gorilla

as a show better. I like Grape Ape as a character

better. Well, you know... Magilla wasn't that

big. I mean, Magilla, a grape ape, he's a 40

-foot ape. But Magilla, he was... I don't know

what the regular size for a gorilla is, but I

mean, it didn't show him taller than most...

I mean, obviously he's going to be taller than

OG and Mr. Peebles, but I mean, they didn't,

like, over -proportion him, like, being, like,

this King Kong type of character. They actually

made him more human than they did Gorilla, I

think. I agree with that. Okay. Well, I think

since you mentioned him, it kind of runs us right

into the main characters, which, like you said,

there's basically three main characters in this,

McGilligorilla, Mr. Peebles and OG. Mr. Peebles

is the owner of the shop where McGilligrilla

is there and you can see, you know, usually in

the intro or in the first couple episodes or

sometimes in every episode that he's basically

always trying to sell McGilligrilla and then

OG is obviously the little girl that would like

to buy McGilligrilla, the only person really

that has a big interest in him. Yeah, yeah. I

think I like, I don't know, I like Mr. Peebles

a lot. Yeah, he's basically Mr. Spacely without

Mel Blank. Yeah. And obviously without George

Jetson and without the whole futuristic thing

because he's pretty much the same model except

he's colored a little differently. Like his mustache

is a different color than Spacely's was, I think.

And obviously he doesn't wear the Spacely spacesuit

clothes. But it does look a lot alike. I hadn't

really thought of that. Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Peebles

is pretty cool and he's, you know... I couldn't

find an episode with OG in it on YouTube. I don't

know why. I could find lots of episodes of McGilligrilla

out there, because I don't own any other cartoons

on YouTube or anything like that. But I couldn't

find any with OG actually in it. I think OG normally

comes in at the beginning and end of most of

them. I could be wrong. If I'm wrong, people

can email in or they can call in. But I think

she usually appears in the beginning or ending

of most of them, if she's in them at all. I don't

think there's a set... I don't think there's

one episode where it's Megilla and Oji throughout

the entire episode, because the whole point of

Oji's character is everybody telling her that

she can't buy Megilla, but she wants to. She

loves McGill or she loves spending and they make

you know, you know, she stands outside the window

and you know, they They talk to each other which

you know again because it's a Hannah Barbera

cartoon You know, they have a gorilla talking

to a little girl slight just like hug hound talks

to people, you know topic dog so but no, I mean

I don't know, I could be wrong in saying that,

that she only appears in the beginning and ending,

but I'm not sure. Yeah. But I don't know, I like

Mr. Peebles, I like McGilligrilla, and like most

Hanna -Barbera cartoons, the rest of the characters,

there really isn't necessarily bad characters,

but the other characters that take home McGilligrilla

to only find out that he's not what they want

or whatever, they're just spot. spot shows basically

they don't re they're not like a lot of recurring

characters the rest of its for now I guess is

the voice cast yeah got Alan Melvin who does

the voice for McGilligrilla that's probably one

of his most famous roles right Then we have Gene

Vanderpyle who does OG and Howard Morris who

does Mr. Peebles. Who is later replaced by Don

Messick. Right. And you might recognize Howard

Morris's voice from a show called Garfield and

Friends. He was Wade the Duck. Oh wow. And Gene

Vanderpyle is... an icon of the early female

voice actors. She, Wilma Flintstone, Pebbles

Flintstone, Rosie the robot from Jetsons. That's

where I recognize that name from. So she's been

in quite a few things. Yes, as of this episode,

we are in episode 44. We are about 15 or 16 episodes

away from hitting Garfield and Friends. That

won't be until episode 60. Good to know, though.

You've mentioned Garfield, so I figured I get

the schedule right here. I might as well tie

it into the discussion. And the reason I thought

of that is because one of the top 10 lists I'm

trying to put together, besides all the voice

actors ones, I'm trying to have some fun by doing,

like I said a few weeks ago, different animal

characters. And one of the first ones I did was

the top 10 animated ducks. It's not actually

finished yet. But Wade the Duck was. He's either

gonna be tenth or just missed the list. So that's

why I knew Howard Morris said There's a lot of

good ducks out there that's a whole different

discussion, you know, you know You're gonna have

a hard time between number two and number one.

Oh, yeah, that's the hardest choice Well the

number two number one for me I don't know where

I would put who first because Donald and Daffy,

right? Yeah, definitely those are those are probably

the two that are I mean though not probably those

are the two that are basically Duking it out

for that that top spot But I mean you know there's

I didn't realize how many good ducks there were

out there because you got Huey Dewey and Louie

You got the you got Darkwing duck Yakky doodle

Scrooge McDuck plucky duck Count Duckula Daisy

duck So there's a lot of ducks, but yet Donald

and Daphne are at the top And the only reason

why, actually, you know what? I wouldn't even

put either one of them at number two and number

one. I would put them both at number one for

the only reason of being of the only time they

ever teamed up was to do that piano skit in Who

Framed Roger Rabbit. Yeah. But that's a good

point. But I don't know. I'll see how I end up

sorting it out a little bit. Yeah. Do we want

to move into the behind the scenes? Sure. Like

everybody knows, the producers are Hanna and

Barbera. There's no surprise there. That's why

they're in the Hanna -Barbera spotlight. The

writers, I believe either one or two of these

guys is still one of those Warner Brothers...

I think they stole them from Warner Brothers.

It was either... It was Warren Foster. Yeah.

Okay, so Warren Foster was stolen from Warner

Brothers and then you got Tony Benedict in. I

don't recognize the other guy, but Dalton Sandifer?

Yeah. And of course the directors are also Hannah

Barbera in this one. But there's not a lot of

background information. I know there is on one

of the DVDs of one of those Saturday morning

cartoon sets. There is a kind of behind the scenes

or a special feature that's all on McGilligrilla,

but I haven't seen it so I don't know if it's

any good or not. Yeah, I don't remember which...

So there might be some more behind -the -scenes

if you're really interested on one of those DVDs

There's not a ton online unless you look up some

Hanna -Barbera like old -time Writings, right?

Yeah All right getting into the actual show in

McGilligrella the protagonist spent his time

languishing in the front display window of mr.

Peebles pet shop eating bananas and being a drain

on the businessman's finances. Mr. Peebles marked

down Megilla's price considerably, but Megilla

was invariably only purchased for a short time,

typically by some thieves who needed a gorilla

to break into a bank, or by an advertising agency

looking for a mascot for their new product. The

customers always ended up returning Megilla,

forcing Mr. Peebles to refund their money. Megilla

often ended each episode with his catchphrase,

we'll try again next week. The only customer

who was truly interested in obtaining the trouble

-prone ape for good was a little girl named Oji,

who unfortunately could never convince her parents

to let her buy him. During the cartoon's theme

song, We've Got a Gorilla for Sale, Oji would

always ask, hopefully, how much is that gorilla

in the window? A twist on the old standard, how

much is that doggy in the window? This show,

like some of the other earlier Hanna -Barbera

cartoon shows, consisted of three separate segments.

The three segments were McGilligarilla, Pumpkin

Puss, and Mushmouse, and Ricochet Rabbit. Later

on, the Peter Poneman segment, entitled Breezely

and Sneezely, would also be featured. All of

the features were from Hanna Barbera and Ideal

Toys, and were accompanied by big promotions

and fanfare. Yeah, so I kind of had forgotten.

Yeah, Ricochet Rabbit, Breezely, and Sneezely.

I'm not really familiar with those segments,

but... Ricochet Rabbit is basically A country

-fied version of Bugs who is a sheriff who has

these magic bullets to capture bad guys. Nice.

And basically what happened there, just to give

you a little more insight, because Peter Potamus

and McGilligrilla were both these kind of these

promotions by Ideal Toys and Hanna Barbera. What

they did is they took one from each segment and

flip -flopped them like a year or two into it

to try to get some crossover fans that would

follow that segment into the other show. That's

why you had that switch. I don't know which one

left. I think it was Ricochet Rabbit that left

and Breeze and Sneezy came in. I don't think

it was Pumpkin Push and Mushmouse. Yeah, I don't

think so either. Um, like you said, just to get

into some trivia, you already mentioned this

one, but Mr. Peebles' physical appearance was

based on that of an earlier Hanna -Barbera character.

I didn't know it was actually based on it, but

Mr. Spacely, like you said, the great ape's name

is a near homophone to the Hebrew Yiddish word

M -E -G -I -L -L -A -H, which means scroll, and

is often used in a joking way to indicate a long,

drawn -out story, and the teller of such a story.

That's the dumbest trivia fact I've ever read

on this show. As pointed out on the Rhino Records

CD liner notes for their collection of Hanna

-Barbera theme tunes, part of Magilla's purpose

was to sell likenesses of himself. The show was

sponsored by Ideal Toys, and that's why you can

hear it in the theme song, and it also produced

a Magilla stuffed toy. Not quite as dumb, but

close. The Beastie Boy's name checked the ape

on the album Paul's Boutique in 1989. Take my

advice, at any price, a gorilla like your mother

is mighty weak. Oh, that's dumb. In the X -Men

comics, Hank McCoy, Beast, was nicknamed Maguila

Gorilla in high school. That's an interesting

fact, I did not know that. Brazilian boxer Adelson

Maguila Rodriguez got his nickname because of

his physical resemblance to Maguila Gorilla.

These are horrible facts, but I want to read

them anyway. Yeah, I don't think we should read

that next one Okay, the term McGill is used as

slang to refer to bad play in a game of poker

Wow I played that hand like such a McGill in

the second season finale of lost Sawyer refers

to Hurley and Kate as McGill a gorilla and pippy

longstocking and In the Australian National Basketball

League the Hobart Devils import Jim Havrilla

in 1993 was nicknamed Magilla the Gorilla because

he smashed backboards with his slam dunk. So

obviously just the name Magilla Gorilla has basically

resonated throughout pop culture and all of culture

to be a quick nickname or a quick name that's

easily used for someone that's big or overpowering

or kind of a bumbling troublemaker. Going into

the music segment same as last week white curtain.

Although this time we have another guy joining

them Ted Nichols Yeah, white curtain has done

every theme song and series music basically for

the Hannah Barbera spotlight Yeah Wait, how many

episodes did you say there was in this show?

31 episodes. Okay, never mind All right getting

into the legacy segment some other appearances

and media for Magilla Magilla Gorilla appeared

in both yogi's arc Lark and yogi's gang where

he would Run the treadmill that powers the arc

as long as there was plenty of beneath on God

In yogi bears all -star comedy Christmas caper

Magilla girl alongside Wally Gator and the ackie

doodle or unable to help yogi and friends locate

jay wellington jones in the fender bender 500

segment of wake rattle and roll the yellow gorilla

was partnered with wally gator as they rode monster

truck called the swamp stomper okay uh oh wow

no no i've got to read it no oh christ Magilla

appeared as a teenage gorilla on Yo -Yogi as

Superstar Magilla Ice, a reference to Vanilla

Ice. Can't hate on Vanilla Ice after Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. Oh God! Magilla Gorilla

appeared as Sinbad on Scooby -Doo and Arabian

Nights. In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer

looks at a statue of himself created by Marge

and exclaims, you made me a statue of Magilla

Gorilla. Also in the episode, When you dish upon

a star, Homer is heard singing the theme song

in his sleep, right before Homer, as Magilla,

apparently savages Mr. Peoples. Wow, that doesn't

sound right. On the Adult Swim cartoon series,

Harvey Bergman, attorney at law, in the episode

Free Magilla, Magilla Gorilla, voiced by Maurice

LaMarche, was liberated by a parody of PETA called

Path. Peoples Animal Freedom Front, who Mr. Peoples,

also voiced by Marisa Marsh, proceeded to sue

whenever McGillivray would use one of his trademark

grading one -liners and characters would slap

him in the face or peck out his eyes. Okay, I'm

not continuing that. McGillivray was seen in

a Cartoon Network wrap in 1995. Yeah, I remember

that. didn't mention it before. McGilligrilla

did end up, as far as ratings go, it ended up

the highest rated off -network kids show in most

of its markets outperforming what some call the

far superior Mickey Mouse Club reruns. It is

on DVD. Apparently Warner Home Video released

the entire McGilligrilla series together with

the Ricochet Rabbit and Drupalong and Pumpkin

Puss Mosh Mouse shorts and Box DVD collection

on August 15th, 2006. The DVD set doesn't include

the 1964 McGilligrilla show, main and end title

sequences, and the cartoons are not yet restored.

Well that's kinda stupid. So it's on there, you

can watch them, but it's not getting the same

treatment that some of the other cartoons these

days are. That makes no sense though, and that's

one of the reasons why I asked you how many episodes

there were of the show. Yeah, it doesn't have

them all. Yeah, it only has 23 episodes, how

the hell is a complete series? It has 23 episodes,

not the main intro, you know, outro sequences,

not the restoration version of the cartoons,

but it does give you three little additional

bonus features, I guess. Yeah, there must have

been a rush to get that out or something. They

didn't want to spend any money or time actually

doing it right. um so we are going to take a

break and we will be back Well, I declare the

coast is clear. Now I can mosey over to the ice

box and snitch me a mess of chitlins and gritlins

while Stole Punkin' Puss is off lollygagging

around somewhere. Hee hee hee hee hee hee. Now

let me see what'll it be. Thanks a heapful. Y

'all is welcome. Punkin' Puss! Yeah, and it's

high time you showed up, Mish Mouse. and they're

froze amongst these pickles and icicles. Now

free! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's

a cold, hungry, hillbilly cat! Yo, it's headed

for the last round of mush, mouse! So what are

your final thoughts on Magilla? Um, I don't know.

As far as since we're doing a Hanna -Barbera

spotlight, I'll just compare it to the other

Hanna -Barbera stuff. I mean, it's worth a watch.

You know, watch a couple episodes, but... I myself

am not someone who is being basically persuaded

to go out and buy the DVD set, especially after

what we just said about it. But I'm not, you

know, it's not making me want to go watch the

entire series. I feel like if I've watched a

couple episodes, I've probably watched all of

them. That being said, it's not bad. It's just...

What I'm finding interesting during the spotlight

is some of them are actually making me want to

go buy the set and some of them are not. This

one's not, but I still think it's better than

a lot of Hanna -Barbera stuff that was out. I'd

probably put it somewhere in the middle, I guess.

It's better than some stuff, but it's not as

good as some of their greatest stuff. Yeah, I'd

have to agree with that. Like I said, I mainly

liked Pumpkin Puss and Mush Mouse from this series.

The regular episodes are okay, but after a while

they just end up being the same thing every episode.

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join us next time when we'll be taking a slight

break from the hint of a rare spotlight with

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! That is

not what it says in the script! That's what it

says in mine! For now, I am TF2 and Mike with

Optimus Solo, singing the real words of Optimus

Prime. Transform and roll out, and thank you

for listening. Until next time. The Magilla Gorilla

Show! Presented by Ideal Toys! They're wonderful

toys! They're ideal! Get it? We've got a gorilla

for sale! Magilla Gorilla for sale! Gorilla your

dreams! The sweetest gorilla! Gorilla for sale!

He's real, he's ideal, and he's awfully cute!

He's an ever -living doll in the monkey group!

Gorilla! My killer gorilla for sale! How much

you got gorilla in the window?