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Inspector Willoughby DVD (1960)
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Price: $14.99
Sale Price: $7.50
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Item Number: 431
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Inspector Willoughby is among the better remembered Walter Lantz characters introduced after the early 1950s. Inspector Willoughby (aka Secret Agent 6-7/8) was mostly a 1960s guy, part of the 007-inspired trend toward numbered secret agents, and it was as Secret Agent 6-7/8 that he was promoted as a lead character. But there were other guys named Willoughby, with the same bald head, droopy eyes, bushy mustache and laconic voice, in Lantz cartoon supporting or co-starring roles going back to the '50s. The first was probably Salmon Yeggs (1958), in which he was a watchman in a canning factory, keeping Windy & Breezy (another pair of minor Lantz characters) from stealing salmon. In Kiddie League (1959), a Willoughby appeared as a baseball umpire. Were these relatives, or the Inspector himself (perhaps working undercover)? Probably the former. Even as the first few Inspector Willoughby cartoons were coming out, director Jack Hannah was using Ranger Willoughby as a foil for an even more minor character named Fatso Bear, in a short-lived series strongly reminiscent of the conflict between Humphrey Bear and Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore, which Hannah had directed at Disney a few years earlier. The first Fatso/Willoughby cartoon was Hunger Strife (1960). Hannah directed the first couple of Inspector Willoughby cartoons before leaving the Lantz studio. Eight more were directed by Paul J. Smith, whose credits as an animator go back to the early 1930s but who never made much of a mark as a director. The character made a similar splash in comic books, appearing in the back pages of a few Dell and Gold Key issues. In all his forms, Willoughby was retired in 1965.
Episode List
Hunger Strife
Rough And Tumbleweed
Eggnapper
Mississippi Slow Boat
The Case Of The Red-Eyed Ruby
Phoney Express
Hyde and Sneak
Coming Out Party
The Case Of The Cold Storage Yegg
Hi-Seas Hi-Jacker
The Case Of The Maltese Chicken
The Case Of The Elephants Trunk
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