Dog Tales

"Dog Tales" rates as yet another of my all-time favorite Looney Tunes. However, when I first saw this short on TV in 1972 (I was then 10 years old), I didn't understand some of the references to the TV shows that were popular in 1958 (I was born in 1962).

The two cases in point were the scene with the Doberman pinscher pinching (Dwayne) Doberman (from "Sgt. Bilko") and the scene with the Bassett hound, voiced by an uncredited June Foray, saying "(she) should be (tops in her class because she's) the star on TV" (a reference to Cleo, the Bassett hound on Jackie Cooper's sitcom "The People's Choice"). It wasn't until I first saw the reruns of "Sgt. Bilko" in 1984 and the reruns of "The People's Choice" six years before that I was able to recognize what those references in "Dog Tales" meant.

Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel reran this short recently, and as much as I laughed my brains out (especially thinking about when I saw this when I was younger and used to drive my family crazy by reciting the script), it made me also want to see "Sgt. Bilko" and "The People's Choice" again!

I'll give "Dog Tales" an 8.

(Postscript: September 9, 2023: I recently purchased the entire series DVD box set of "The Phil Silvers Show (Sgt. Bilko)" at half-price from Shout! Factory as they were putting the title out of print. However, as of this posting I haven't watched any of the box set yet. I'd have to be in the right mood and find the time to enjoy watching that show again.)

This animation short, reminds me of M-G-M's Symphony In Slang, in each there were quite a few clichés & phrases, from beginning to end. I like the scenes of the Saint Bernard that did its rescue, the "Elvis-Dog", Sargeant Balko, the Bassett Hound that almost makes me think that it had the idea thinking that she might be Lassie, (but in a different breed)! PS: Do not forget "Charlie" the 50% of every breed he thought there may be, especially the idea of "Retrieving a Labrador", trying to calling it self more than 50% of a Labrador Retriever, just before being jerked out out of the short. Also, the dogs, of every breed chased the cat, "the bad boy" dropped in, from above the roof!