Synopsis of Saturday Morning Show

"Out of the Inkwell comes Koko the Clown,Let's gather around Koko the Clown..."

In the 1920’s, cartoon legend Max Fleischer and his brothers, David and Joe, developed a brand new way to make cartoons. By filming a subject, then tracing its movement frame by frame, the brothers developed a system known as Rotoscoping. Their first subject for this new animation style was a loveable clown character named Koko. Koko and his rubbery dog Fitz starred in a handful of theatrical shorts throughout the 20’s and enjoyed great success. This series of cartoon classics was dubbed Out of the Inkwell, due to the fact that every episode began with Koko literally stepping out of an inkwell to greet the day.

Eager for cheap programming, syndicated cartoon shows in TV's early days started airing Fleischer’s Out of the Inkwell series as part of their daily lineup. This led to the creation of an all-new, all-color series of Koko cartoons in 1962.The new Out of the Inkwell bore little resemblance to the original, with the exception of Koko himself. A girlfriend by the name of Kokette was added, as well as a villain dubbed Mean Moe. Sadly, even Fitz the dog had been replaced by Koko-Nut, another poochy pal. Despite a noble effort on the part of the producers and voice artist Larry Storch (who would go on to star in the TV series F Troop), the series was cancelled after one season.

Release History

1962 syndicated

TV Sub Categories

animated
comedy

TV Studio

Hal Seeger, Videohouse

Television Cast

Koko Larry Storch
Kokette Larry Storch
Mean Moe Larry Storch

Other Saturday Morning Links