Clutch Hit

Clutch Cargo - maybe it wasn't a hit, but it was one of my best-loved cartoons. First aired in 1959, it ran for 3 seasons. Clutch with his ward Spinner, dog Paddlefoot and grizzled, pith-helmeted sidekick, Swampy would thrill this five-year-old every week with cliff-hanging adventures.

It also involves one of my premier cartoon/TV trivia tidbits - Swampy was voiced by actor Hal Smith. While not a household name, everyone knows Hal Smith from playing Otis, the town drunk, on the Andy Griffith show.

Clutch Cargo used the animation technique - Syncro-Vox. Human lips mouthing the lines would be superimposed onto the animation cells. Producers liked this process not because of edgy technology, but because it was cheap. Cartoons done in Syncro-Vox incurred about 1/5th the cost of those done traditionally.

Cambria Productions patented this technique and followed Clutch Cargo with Space Angel. This cartoon had good plots, some of which were "borrowed" several years later by sci-fi icon, Star Trek. The final Cambria offering was Captain Fathom. This ran for one season, 1965, and is remembered by myself and probably no one else.

Cheaply done animation, kitschy production and inferior artwork earmarked these cartoons. They were as cheesy as a bag of Cheetos, but didn't get orange detritus all over my fingers.

Snycro-Vox lives on...in Pulp Fiction where a Clutch Cargo segment can be seen on a television set, in Conan O'Brien's fake celebrity interviews on Late Night and in the talking pirate picture during Sponge Bob Squarepants' opening credits.

Obviously, I was a five-year-old who was ahead of his time - as ever - BB

"To me bad taste is what entertainment is all about." - John Waters