Reg'lar Fellers
Encyclopedia : R : RE : REG : Reg'lar Fellers
Reg'lar Fellers was a long-run comic strip by Gene Byrnes (1889-1974) which was distributed by various syndicates from 1917 to 1949. It offered a humorous look at a gang of suburban children (who nevertheless spoke like New York street kids).
While working as a sports cartoonist with the New York Telegram, Byrnes created his cartoon panel It's a Great Life If You Don't Weaken which introduced the Reg'lar Fellers characters in 1917. He began Wide Awake Willie as a New York Herald Sunday page in 1919, and this too featured Reg'lar Fellers characters. With Reg'lar Fellers running as a daily strip in 1920, he changed the name of the Sunday strip to Reg'lar Fellers. At its peak, the strip was syndicated in 800 newspapers.
The characters includes leader Jimmy Dugan, sidekick Puddinhead Duffy, Puddinhead's little brother Pinhead, Bullseye the dog and the gang's girl member, Angie Riley. In addition to book reprints and comic books, the strip was adapted to both animation and live-action films. Arthur Dreifuss' feature Reg'lar Fellers (1941) stars Billy Lee and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. Ub Iwerks produced the animated adaptation, Happy Days (1936).
The Reg'lar Fellers comedy radio series, sponsored by Jello, aired Sunday nights on NBC from June 8, 1941 to August 31, 1941, as a summer replacement for The Jack Benny Program. Dickie Van Patten and Dickie Monahan starred as Jimmy and Dinky Dugan. Others in the cast included Joyce Van Patten, Patsy O'Shea and Skippy Homeier.
Reference
Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0970007701.External link
- [Superhero Lives: Reg'lar Fellers]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.