Article About Porky Suing over Animated Series

[Deleted]

According to this Gainesville Sun article from March 31, 1984 that I found on Google Newspaper Archives:

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1320&dat=19840331&id=3b9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qgYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4428,5126068&hl=en

It stated that Eugene Lee (identified as Gordon in the article) sued Hanna-Barbera Studios for nearly $2 million in March 1984, actually because he noticed that the animated version of his character copied the actual version portrayed by Lee himself.  It apparently had nothing to do with lack of consent from Lee.

Incidentally, the other characters were modified.  Buckwheat was an inventor, and Darla acted as a tomboy who joined in on the gang's mischief.  Woim was modified to be a guy who always says "yeah" then mimicking Butch's dialogue.  And Waldo was proven to be wealthy, unlike in the original theatrical shorts.

Alfalfa's character may have been a copy of the original version (with his off-key snging style), but the real life actor Carl Switzer was long dead.  Plus the animated Alfalfa sounded like he had a southern accent.  And Pete more closely resembled Richie Rich's dog Dollar and/or Scooby-Doo.

I don't know if the animated Butch was modified, though, and had the series continued into 1985, Tommy Bond probably would have sued H-B Studios eventually.

I'm thinking the series ceased production after Lee's lawsuit was settled, because the lawsuit may have bankrupted the animated series' budget.  I think, if not for the lawsuit, the series could have been renewed for one more season.  The lack of consent may more have to do with why there are no U.S. cable reruns nor home video releases.

Maybe the ban on this series may not apply to Canada (hopefully).

[mtw12055]

Thanks for posting that. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. HB could have still used Porky, but technically couldn't give him the speech impediment.

On a related note, I wonder if HB should have tried altering the character likenesses so that they didn't look too much like the Our Gang actors. Cartoon Woim looks nothing like Sid Kibrick, which could indicate legal threats from him before the show even made it to air.

Or maybe HB just though Butch would look better with a short guy as a sidekick.

[Deleted]

Well, HB did modify Darla, and gave her a pink bow in her hair, gave her a post-disco era hairstyle, plus her eyes were blue instead of hazel.

I do know, regarding the Richie Rich segments, the main character, Richie, did not look exactly like the comic book version. In the comics, he wore a black jacket, red bow tie, and blue shorts. The HB version looked more like a pre-teen, and he wore long blue pants and a red sweater with a golden letter "R" on his front. His girlfriend, Gloria Glad, in the comics wore a bow in her hair, and a dress with a tartan skirt, and white socks with black shoes; while the HB version had no bow in her hair, appeared to be pre-teen, and wore a pink vest (pink sweater by Season 3) with a purple mini skirt, but wore purple shoes with no socks. Irona the robot maid was modified for the HB series - in the comics, she was just simple and straightforward; while on the HB serise she could transform into anything whenever Richie is in need of help (there is no certainty if this may be due to the success of Transformers or Go-Bots toys during the early-80s). Freckles and Pee Wee were given makdovers in the HB series too - the comic book version looked more like a cross between Pippi Longstocking and The Little Rascals' Alfalfa, plus he wore blue overalls. The HB version had a totally different hairstyle, and wore brown overalls. Pee Wee's lack of speech was carried over to the HB series, but was given an HB makeover. Freckles and Pee Wee were rarely seen in the Richie Rich cartoon series.

Many of the other characters, including Richie's parents, Cadbury the butler, Chef Pierre, Reggie Van Dough, and Professor Keenbean did look a lot like the comic book versions.

[mtw12055]

Jul 4, 2016 19:00:29 GMT -5 @darlajeanhoodfan said:

Well, HB did modify Darla, and gave her a pink bow in her hair, gave her a post-disco era hairstyle, plus her eyes were blue instead of hazel.

I do know, regarding the Richie Rich segments, the main character, Richie, did not look exactly like the comic book version. In the comics, he wore a black jacket, red bow tie, and blue shorts. The HB version looked more like a pre-teen, and he wore long blue pants and a red sweater with a golden letter "R" on his front. His girlfriend, Gloria Glad, in the comics wore a bow in her hair, and a dress with a tartan skirt, and white socks with black shoes; while the HB version had no bow in her hair, appeared to be pre-teen, and wore a pink vest (pink sweater by Season 3) with a purple mini skirt, but wore purple shoes with no socks. Irona the robot maid was modified for the HB series - in the comics, she was just simple and straightforward; while on the HB serise she could transform into anything whenever Richie is in need of help (there is no certainty if this may be due to the success of Transformers or Go-Bots toys during the early-80s). Freckles and Pee Wee were given makdovers in the HB series too - the comic book version looked more like a cross between Pippi Longstocking and The Little Rascals' Alfalfa, plus he wore blue overalls. The HB version had a totally different hairstyle, and wore brown overalls. Pee Wee's lack of speech was carried over to the HB series, but was given an HB makeover. Freckles and Pee Wee were rarely seen in the Richie Rich cartoon series.

Many of the other characters, including Richie's parents, Cadbury the butler, Chef Pierre, Reggie Van Dough, and Professor Keenbean did look a lot like the comic book versions.

My point was that having the Rascals look to much like the actors could have possibly led to legal issues from the kids themselves - something they wouldn't have had to worry about with Richie.

[mtw12055]

From the book Trial by Fire: One Man's Battle to End Corporate Greed and Save Lives - by Mike Burg

One day in the mid-'80s, my law partner Scott Eldredge and I were sitting in his office when he got a call from a recent acquaintance he had made, a man named Gordon Lee. They had met through mutual friends. But he wasn't just any Gordon Lee - he was Gordon "Porky" Lee, the adorable, chubby Little Rascals known for wearing overalls and being jovial to a fault.

Gordon told us that he had been traveling in Europe and mentioned that throughout his trip he had seen cartoons in which his character, Porky, was rendered. He thought it was pretty awful that the Little Rascals series and movies were being played around the world without him receiving any compensation. Additionally, Hanna-Barbera, which at one time owned the rights, had created a cartoon, and the character of Porky was drawn in his likeness. He asked if there was anything we could do to allow him to collect what he felt was just compensation.

Scott and I met with Lee and agreed to take his case, and we worked feverishly on it. We felt that we could get what Lee was due, but it was also important to involve not just him but all of the Little Rascals, or at least as many of them as possible.

With Lee's help, we arranged meetings with several of the actors who had played characters on the show. The actor who played Alfalfa was dead, but we were able to meet with the actors who had played Spanky, Butch, and The Woim. A concern we expressed to everyone was whether or not Hanna-Barbera and TV distributor King World, which had purchased the rights from Hanna-Barbera, had the legal right to use the Little Rascals' likenesses in these spinoff cartoons.

At one point, we rounded up the remaining Little Rascals gang for a meeting. It was as if they were back to being kids on the show. The dynamic was the same. George McFarland, who played Spanky, was still trying to be the leader, telling everyone what was best and that they all should follow his lead. It was fun to see them all together again, bickering and laughing, exactly how I imagined they used to be when the cameras weren't rolling.

Syd (sic) Kibrick, who played The Woim, could not make the meeting, so Scott and I went to his house to see him separately. He was a very successful real estate developer. He lived in Beverly Hills on a wide boulevard with skyscraping palm trees.

We rang the doorbell. The woman who answered the door informed us that she was Mr. Kibrick's personal assistant and that he was not at home at the moment. She led us to a living room that was decorated with huge pieces of art. On the wall across from us was a giant painting of a dock on a lake. A boat bobbed in the water.

While interesting to look at, the artwork was, shall we say, rough. With nothing else to do, Scott and I sat there examining this painting. We noticed a cloud in the painting that turned out to be not just a cloud but some kind of written inscription. I went for a closer look. The cloud read, "It's your turn now, Minnie, to weep in vain." Scott and I looked at each other.

"Wow," I said, trying to hold in a laugh.

"What do you suppose that means?" Scott said.

I could tell by his expression that we were equally amused and confused. We spent some time trying to figure out what that could have meant. Eventually, we chalked it up to the strange paintings that you might find in the houses of former child actors.

It turned out Kibrick would not be back from Palm Springs any time soon due to a business delay, so we didn't end up meeting with him that day. But every now and then, Scott and I will walk around the firm's office saying, "It's your turn now, Minnie, to weep in vain."

After some time spent meeting with the actors and working out the logistical issues, we went to work on the case. The first issue was the original contracts with our clients, who had signed them as children. We began to look through the contracts that had been excavated from our clients' filing cabinets, which we had received in discovery. The contracts were very detailed, and even though they were signed in the 1930s, they covered television and animation rights.

But there was something very odd about the contracts. We noticed that all the contracts were signed with "X"s. One of the issues was whether or not those Xs truly bound them, even after they became adults, because at the time they signed the deals, they were all minors.

The critical issue was the legality of the transfer of the contracts. Did King World have the rights to use the Little Rascals' likenesses in the cartoon? King World had purchased the rights from Hanna-Barbera. However, Hanna-Barbera was not the original owner. It had purchased the rights from Hal Roach Studios.

In the mid-'80s, Scott and I went to California and took some of the most interesting depositions either of us had ever taken. The first was from a lawyer involved in the transfer of rights. To put it mildly, she was a California flower child, with long flowing hair and a permanently serene expression on her face.

Through her testimony we discovered that the rights were transferred through quit claims, legal documents that transferred the rights, which was legitimate. However, through further research we suspected that there might have been a glitch in the title somewhere along the line, thus rendering one of the transfers of rights improper. We suspected that at the time the transfer occurred, they did not have the official rights to use the characters, due to the title glitch.

When I asked her about the title glitch and the acceptance of the quit claim, rather than a transfer warranty deed, a document that provides a clear title to the property free from any interest that may be held by other people, she tilted her head to the side and paused for a second.

She spoke as only a true California flower child could. "Well, you know... like, wow, I never really thought about that," she said. "Wow, geez, why'd they transfer something that way, you know? Like I was relying on [the quit claim], so..." That testimony proved immensely valuable to our case and gave us ground to build on as we moved forward.

The last issue for the defense after we discovered the glitch in the title was the fact that the cartoon characters were just that - characters, not real people. To figure out the degree to which the cartoon characters were based on the real people, Scott and I deposed Joseph Barbera.

I was in awe of Barebra's creativity. He had created and founded some of the finest classic cartoons ever made, such as the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie, and Doggie Daddy. I loved thost characters growing up, so it was such a pleasure and an honor to get to meet the creator of so many of my favorite childhood shows.

In person, he was an amazing, astute, and brilliant man. I got a real kick out of asking him questions about animation, how it works, and how it had changed over the years. Barbera talked about the animation process, as well as the profits it produced. I was surprised by how expensive animation is in producing a cartoon. I planned to make that one of my major points if King World owed damages. Throughout the deposition process, Barbera was a true gentleman and gave us as much information as he could.

We also got to take the deposition of other animation artists like Iwao Takamoto and Bob Singer, who created cartoon characters from The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo. Takamoto and Singer were also involved in the design of the Little Rascals cartoons.

When I asked Singer about how the characters in the Little Rascals were created, he immediately said that it was really easy. He described the process to me. He said that he would take photos of the original Little Rascals and sketch them into cartoon characters, based on the actors' appearances.

"We have their photos, and we take the photo of them and then we begin to simplify to make it into a cartoon character," he explained.

He offered to show me what he meant. He pulled out a photograph of Porky. He then pulled out a picture of the cartoon Porky and compared them side by side. He pointed out the likeness and inspiration.

"So, in fact, the animation characters really are Porky Lee or Spanky McFarland?" I asked.

"Yes, it's definitely them," he said. "That's how we do it."

So we crossed off as a possible defense that the cartoon characters weren't really the actual people.

Singer, too, could not have been more polite. "You guys are the best lawyers we've ever had to deal with. You're even better than our own company's lawyers," he laughed. "Before you go, is there anything else I can do for you?"

Scott and I exchanged looks. Suddenly, I felt like a kid in a candy shop.

"We love the Hanna-Barbera cartoons," I said, speaking for the both of us. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, who's your favorite?" Singer said, addressing me.

I told him that my favorite cartoon, hands down, was Yogi Bear. I knew my brother Peter's was Quick Draw McGraw. I also knew how insanely jealous he would be if I got a souvenir out of this case and he didn't. So I relayed that to Singer.

"Well, I'll see if I can get a little something with Yogi and Quick Draw for you and your brother," he said with a wink.

We were walking on clouds as we left Hanna-Barbera. I almost felt like a cartoon character myself, hopping from fluffy animated cloud to fluffy animated cloud, with big stars swimming around my head.

The case came down to the fact that the quit claim King World received from Hanna-Barbera did not cover the necessary rights. Our position was that King World must pay out clients all of the profits it made because King World never had the right to use their likenesses in the first place. Unfortunately, based on the accounting available, the cartoon was not very successful. In the end, we were able to get a respectable settlement for the Little Rascals. I dare say they made more from the settlement than they did as little kids on Our Gang.

But for me, the best part came shortly after the case was settled. I received a package from Hanna-Barbera and inside were original drawings of Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw. In mine, Yogi is saying, "Hey, hey, Mike, you guys got any parks up there in Colorado like Jellystone?" On my brother''s, Quick Draw says, "I'll do the thin-nin' around here, Buba Boy!"

Those drawings are treasures that my brother and I continue to hold on to and show off in our offices. Everyone who walks in asks about them. They're memories of a wonderful time, representing some wonderful people.

Interesting tale. There seems to be some confusion regarding rights issues at the time, though. Mike Burg remembers that King World purchased the rights from Hanna-Barbera, who had purchased the rights straight from Roach. To the best of my knowledge, King World purchased the rights from Monogram/Allied Artists (who may have had a co-ownership deal going on with Roach, judging by merchandising from the '50s). The Rascals cartoon was a co-production between the Kings and H-B.

[Deleted]

So, based on what I read, it sounds pretty clear as to what actually happened, and it turned out that Hanna-Barbera Productions did something wrong because they never had the legal right to use not just the likeliness of Porky's, but those of Spanky, Butch, Woim, Alfalfa, Darla and Buckwheat (the latter three of whom were dead before the series premiered in 1982).

It sounds like, even if ratings would have been solid (which actually, it wasn't), the series probably would have been cancelled anyway because of the lawsuit.

I did learn that the actors received some form of settlement, but since Alfalfa, Darla and Buckwheat were dead before the series premiered, did their next of kins receive the settlement on the deceased's behalf?

[Deleted]

After reading a good portion of the article, it's pretty clear as to how they managed to draw better quality character designs back in the 1980s. They used tracing paper over an image of an actual character, and it makes a whole lot of sense how Iwao Takamoto and Bob Singer managed to create better quality character design. It is quite possible that may be the reason why such method was likely used in other H-B projects, such as Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, Laverne & Shirley in the Army, and the very short-lived Mork & Mindy cartoon, and maybe other cartoon spinoffs. Earlier cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones and Yogi Bear, and even later projects such as Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory seemed to use more original character designs.

Tracing paper was more commonly used in the 1980s, it seems. But now, cartoons today are made more efficiently using Flash animation. Animation seems to be a pretty cool job no matter what era.

I actually wonder if the animators had access to a picture of a barefoot Darla Hood (in a swimsuit, or wearing sandals), though such variation of Darla was never seen in the original theatrical shorts?  It would make sense that they may have access to such photo, since the animated version appeared to have short toes.  And Alfalfa definitely did have longer toes as was shown in Fishy Tales.

I think the animated version of Darla may be more reminiscent of a girl aged eight or nine years old, plus I don't remember seeing her wear a bow in her hair during the Hal Roach era (during the transition to MGM, she was six years old).

Buckwheat didn't seem to be a copycat of the original character portrayed by Billie Thomas because the animated version looks to have curly hair, commonly seen on African-American boys in the early-80s.