News Article From 1971: Smile, Radiant Radish, BB's Cartoon???

[guitarfool2002]

If this has been discussed or dissected before, my apologies for being redundant and too lazy to search the archives...but on a search I found a few appearances of this syndicated newspaper article/interview, from different dates depending on which newspaper ran the story. This particular one was July 25, 1971.

Note the Smile references, Johnny Carson, the Radiant radish, the airline commercial we discussed in a thread a few weeks ago...

But my most pressing question is what was the deal with this Beach Boys cartoon? How, when, who, etc.?  Again if this info can be found elsewhere I can't remember reading about a proposed cartoon featuring the Beach Boys in 1971.

[Wrightfan]

Whoever wrote this is not a great writer at all.

[juggler]

One was 'Cavanescence' (sic) intended for an album called 'Smile' that never happened but was a great album.  It was be the album after 'Pet Sounds.'  I don't know if it'll come out as 'Smile' but that music has got to come out."

RIP, Carl.

[guitarfool2002]

Whoever wrote this is not a great writer at all.

Mary Campbell from the Associated Press. And this article was syndicated, so it may have appeared a hundred times or more that week.

Consider too that the typos/errors may have come from each newspaper's own printing department as they ran the article. Or not, I don't know.

Getting past that, any thoughts on the actual content of the piece?

[guitarfool2002]

Any info on the Beach Boys cartoon that was supposed to be on television in Fall '71? Anyone?

[37!ws]

Here are a coupla pics that someone posted back in 2003....

[Summertime Blooz]

That's pretty interesting. Carl skips right over Smiley Smile like it never even existed but then reverentially mentions Smile. I guess Carl wasn't a fan of Smiley Smile.

[Mikie]

Doesn't look like The Beach Boys in the mid-70's like the caption says.  In fact, it doesn't look like any of them in the 60's or 70's!

And I never knew that Al was going to produce something for Johnny Carson!

[guitarfool2002]

Are those cartoon panels the real thing? If so, two things jump out...what's the deal with the gorilla, and if the cartoon was supposed to be about ecology in some way, they're driving a '32 hot rod with what looks like a major gas-guzzler of an engine.

And Al's character wearing the floppy hat looks like an outcast from the Fat Albert cartoon...

[37!ws]

Animals were the thing in those cartoons....Rosie and Ray and Charles in the Jackson 5ive cartoon; Ping, Pong, and Myron in The Brady Kids...

[anazgnos]

Carl: fat, obsessed with food
Brian: the "techie"/gadget guy
Mike: the level-headed peacekeeper
Dennis: the muscle
Al: Zoinks!

I just wanna know how they fingered Carl as the food-obsessed one in that lineup!

[37!ws]

He was the pudgy one in the group, at least before 1976. They probably just jumped to conclusions. (I do, however, appreciate that Carl, ever the gentleman, doesn't have his pinky finger wrapped around the ice cream cone.)

And zoinks indeed -- if Cartoon Al were to stand up straight, he'd be much taller than Brian!!

Looks like Dennis, in the second picture, is playing either a bass or a tenor guitar. Weirdsies. (From what I've heard, though, Dennis actually could play guitar...)

And I think the ape represents Murry. Or The Monkey's Uncle.

[hypehat]

Here are a coupla pics that someone posted back in 2003....

That's.... really worrying

[stack-o-tracks]

That's pretty interesting. Carl skips right over Smiley Smile like it never even existed but then reverentially mentions Smile. I guess Carl wasn't a fan of Smiley Smile.

If Wikipedia's not wrong he once called it "a bunt instead of a grand slam."   

[Summertime Blooz]

Here are a coupla pics that someone posted back in 2003....

That's.... really worrying

All I can say is thank God this never got past the drawing board.

[armona]

He was the pudgy one in the group, at least before 1976. They probably just jumped to conclusions. (I do, however, appreciate that Carl, ever the gentleman, doesn't have his pinky finger wrapped around the ice cream cone.)

And zoinks indeed -- if Cartoon Al were to stand up straight, he'd be much taller than Brian!!

Looks like Dennis, in the second picture, is playing either a bass or a tenor guitar. Weirdsies. (From what I've heard, though, Dennis actually could play guitar...)

And I think the ape represents Murry. Or The Monkey's Uncle.

Never realized he had the longest legs in the group.

[anazgnos]

In the proposed show, the Boys would each be over 200 feet tall, and perform secret missions for the president while balancing the hassles of family and career as the "world's biggest popular music group".  Brian uses his headset to communicate with the ghost of "Murry", who helps the boys out of their various jams.

[bossaroo]

 a Beach Boys cartoon wouldve been flipping SWEET!!! They look a little like the way they were drawn on the Endless Summer album.

I wonder if theyd have done their own voices or if folks like Kasey Kasem wouldve been used instead.

Either way it woulda been great for their popularity at the time.

[Mikie]

I don't see any resemblance whatsoever between the pictures above and the pictures of the group depicted on the Endless Summer album cover.

[hypehat]

Yeah, on Endless Summer they are pretty much beards accessorised with men.

[juggler]

Interesting that, very much in keeping with '70s vintage Saturday morning cartoons (e.g., 'Hong Kong Fuey' et al.), Dennis appears to have a black-belt in karate.  

In truth, wasn't Brian the one who tried to karate-chop Elvis?  

[bgas]

They all tried to chop the Big El; Brian was the only one who got close.

[Mikie]

They all tried to chop the Big El; Brian was the only one who got close.

Yeah, I think he got too close and the Pelvis didn't like it!

[guitarfool2002]

and perform secret missions for the president

If the date is correct, that would have been Richard Nixon...perhaps one of the cartoon plots would have involved the Boys performing a mission at a certain hotel called the Watergate...

[Alan Smith]

All cartoon characters get funky catch-phrases.

I'm betting Al, on confronting the villian of the villian of the week, would lay down a "Cool it!!" or 2.

Suggestions for the rest of the gang (simian included)?