Casper the Friendly Ghost
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Casper the Friendly Ghost is the main character of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite personable.
History
Creation and success at Paramount
Casper was created in the early-1940s by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo, the former devising the idea for the character and the latter providing illustrations. Intended initially as the basis for a children's storybook, there was initially little interest in their idea and when Reit was away on military service during the Second World War, Oriolo sold the rights to the character to Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division, for which he had occasionally worked.The Friendly Ghost, the first Noveltoon to feature Casper, was released by Paramount in 1945. In the cartoon, Casper is a cute, pudgy ghost-child, who prefers making friends with people instead of scaring them. He leaves his home at the local haunted house and goes out to make friends. However, every person or animal he meets takes one horrified look at him and runs off in the other direction. Distraught, Casper unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide (apparently forgetting that he's already dead) before he meets two little children who become his friends. The children's mother at first rejects Casper, but later welcomes him into the family after he wards off a greedy landlord.
Casper appeared in two subsequent Noveltoons before Paramount started a Casper the Friendly Ghost series in 1950. Nearly every entry in the series was the same: Casper leaves the life of a regular ghost, tries to find friends but scares nearly everyone, and finally finds a (cute little) friend, whom he saves from some sort of fate. The cartoon series also boasted a catchy title song which was written by Jerry Livingston and Mack David.
Harvey Comics and television
Casper went on to become one of the most famous properties from the Famous Studio. Alfred Harvey, founder and publisher of Harvey Comics began producing Casper comic books in 1952, and in 1957, purchased the rights to the character outright.After Harvey bought the rights to Casper and many other Famous properties in 1959 (including Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey), they began broadcasting the post-1950 theatrical Famous shorts on a television show sponsored by Mattel Toys titled Funday Funnies in 1959 which introduced the Barbie doll to the public. The other Famous produced Casper cartoons had already been acquired by television distributor U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. in 1956. U.M.&M. retitled just "A Haunting We Will Go", but miscredited "Featuring Casper The Friendly Ghost" as "Featuring Caspers Friendly Ghost".
New cartoons were created for the New Casper Cartoon Show in 1963. The original Casper cartoons were syndicated under the title Harveytoons in 1962 and ran continually until 1990. Casper has remained popular in reruns and merchandising, and Hanna-Barbera Productions produced two holiday specials, Casper's First Christmas(which also starred Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy) and Casper's Halloween Special, and also the Saturday morning cartoon series Casper and the Angels in 1979.
Later appearances and trivia
- In 1995, the friendly ghost was adapted into a live-action feature film entitled Casper. He and his wicked uncles, The Ghostly Trio, were created for the film using computer animation. Two direct-to-video sequels were made, but are less than notable.
- NASA named a martian rock after Casper during the Mars Pathfinder's trip to the planet Mars in 1997. In the initial photos, the "Casper" rock was shown to be completely white.
- In the Family Guy movie, , one scene depicts Casper's demise in an act accidentally initiated by Stewie.
- On Cheers, Norm Peterson observed that by the end of each episode Casper was surrounded by friends, but by the beginning of the next episode he was once again friendless. Cliff Clavin's response was that Casper was simply sating his appetite for human blood.
Supporting characters
- Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost
- Spooky's girlfriend Poil
- The Ghostly Trio
- Hot Stuff the Little Devil
- Casper's horse Nightmare
- Wendy the Good Little Witch
Comic book titles
- Casper
- Casper Adventure Digest
- Casper and...
- Casper and Friends
- Casper and Friends Magazine
- Casper and Nightmare
- Casper and Spooky
- Casper and The Ghostly Trio
- Casper and Spooky
- Adaptation
- Casper Big Book
- Casper Digest
- Casper Digest Stories
- Casper Digest Winners
- Casper Enchanted Tales Digest
- Casper Ghostland
- Casper Giant Size
- Casper Halloween Trick or Treat
- Casper in Space
- Casper in 3-D
- Casper Magazine
- Casper Movie Adaptation
- Casper's Ghostland
- Casper's Spaceship
- Casper Special
- Casper Strange Ghost Stories
- Casper, the Friendly Ghost
- Casper TV Showtime
- Famous TV Funday Funnies
- The Friendly Ghost, Casper
- Harvey Two-Pack
- Nightmare and Casper
- Richie Rich and Casper
- Richie Rich, Casper, and Wendy
- TV Casper and Company
External links
- [Harvey Entertainment]
- [Don Markstein's Toonopedia]
- [There's Good Boos Tonight] an episode of Casper the Friendly Ghost from the Internet Archive.
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