The Funny World of Fred and Bunni (partially found live-action/animated variety show pilot; 1978)

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Funny world of fred and bunni.jpg

Fanmade depiction of what Bunni, the star and the green man could have looked like. Drawn by user Reynard aka Gaucelm.

Status: Partially Found

The Funny World of Fred and Bunni is the unreleased pilot of a variety show that was supposed to be broadcast on CBS, on the date of August 30th, 1978. The pilot had live-action actors appearing on-screen with cartoon characters, animated by the Hanna-Barbera studios.

Characters

The variety show was one-hour long and starred Fred Travalena, a comedian/singer who was popular at the time for his impressions of celebrities. A "sexy" animated cartoon young woman, Bunni, would appear as "Fred's conscience". She was voiced by Kathie Lee Gifford (then known as Kathie Johnson). Other animated characters included a little green man with a Peter Lorre-like voice and a bright yellow star with a Paul Lynde-like voice as an overly negative critic repeating "Boring!". Other live-action comedians that appeared in the pilot included Sandy Duncan, Vicki Lawrence and Pat Harrington.[1][2]

CBS photo taken from the show, formerly sold on eBay.

Skits

The pilot contained skits such as:

  • Travalena and Harrington as Lance and Louie Welk, the fictional two brothers of Lawrence Welk who, unlike him, failed into making it into show-business and depicted as stereotypical Germans. A running gag had Harrington's character spurting out "Sonja Henie's tutu!" making Travalena's character laugh.
  • Travalena impersonating Frank Sinatra, Paul Williams, Barry Manilow and Henry Winkler in a musical number where all of the characters appear on screen together.
  • Travalena imitating Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Carter, Jim Nabors, and Howard Cosell.

Joseph Barbera was executive producer of the special, and Iwao Takamoto developed the character of Bunni.

Availability

Although some newspaper critics watched the pilot before intended broadcasting, it has never resurfaced anywhere in its entirety. Takamoto described the creating process in his autobiography My Life With A Thousand Characters and claims that the full show "never even made it to air".[3]

The only known parts of the pilot that can be found are a performance of Travalena singing "The Star With The Lonely Eyes", and another clip of him singing "I Write The Songs" along with Sandy Duncan.

The special is sometimes erroneously referred to as The Funny World of Fred and Bunny.

Gallery

Travalena singing "The Star With The Lonely Eyes".

Travalena and Sandy Duncan singing "I Write The Songs".

See Also

References