Rooting Tooting

Today's hero is not the rooting, tooting, cowboy above, but his creator, Mr. Isadore "Friz" Freleng. Unlike yesterday's hero, Mr. Freleng's creations gave me a great deal of joy when I was a child (yes I was actually a child one, still am in many respects). Who am I kidding, I would still watch Yosemite Sam chase Bugs Bunny around a TV screen today, and might just do so tonight. After all Mr. Freleng's creations made getting up early on Saturday morning worthwhile. Freleng helped to develop Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Sylvester the cat, and Tweety Bird. Major players in the Looney Tunes universe. It is a sad indicator of the modern age that I just spell checked this post, and Tweety was highlighted as misspelt. Apparently today's generation uses Tweeter so much that Tweety Bird is no longer first choice in the spell check. Sigh. It seems Mr. Freleng bore a passing resemblance to Yosemite Sam, a fact that he denied, and was a bit of an alter ego for the animator. Freleng managed to win four Academy Awards for his work, and to think Martin Scorsese can only manage one. Sam's voice was apparently very hard for Mel Blanc to perform (and he did most of the Looney Tunes voices), and was always saved for last in the recording studio, so that Blanc could do the other voices properly. His voice was based on Blanc coming to the studio after an incident of road rage, and thus the yelling at the top of his voice Yosemite Same was born. So, for creating the manic above, and all the other characters that made my Saturday morning more fun, Friz Freleng (August 21st 1906-May 26th 1995), you are my hero of the day.