{"id":8423,"date":"2025-09-03T12:21:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/?p=8423"},"modified":"2025-09-03T12:32:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:32:23","slug":"the-john-wilson-animations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2025\/09\/the-john-wilson-animations\/","title":{"rendered":"The John Wilson Animations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So my friend Sherry texted me a Cher question a week or so ago. Sherry is a writer and editor for tech and finance research firms in the New York City area. She is also one of the writers I met at Sarah Lawrence back in the 1990s and she published a great book of poetry, The Palace of Ashes\u00a0<\/em>and is also an enthusiast of the great American Southwest landscapes and Indian Nation jewelry and I’ve gotten to know her better during her yearly trips out to that area.<\/p>\n

Anyway, her question led me down a rabbit hole (hours and hours of tunnels in fact). So here’s here question:<\/p>\n

“I can remember watching at least two animated cartoon music videos on network TV shows when I was a kid. One was for “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” the other for “Sweet Gypsy Rose.” The question is did I see them both on the Sonny & Cher Show? Or just one and the other on the Tony Orlando & Dawn show? Our family watched both. Since music videos on TV weren’t a thing, these were memorable. And I was a kid, so CARTOONS!”<\/em><\/p>\n

So the “Sweet Gypsy Rose” (a Tony Orlando and Dawn hit) part was extremely frustrating research because I could clearly remember<\/em> seeing the Wilson animation as sung\u00a0 by Sonny’s solo but the clip was nowhere to be found by itself on YouTube, nor could I find it in any online episode guides or even my own episode guides! Finally I found the clip on IMDB.com with a credit to John Wilson and Sonny so I knew it existed.<\/p>\n

It felt like, once again, the Internet was gaslighting me.<\/p>\n

I finally found the video buried in a John Wilson compilation (more on that below). But the mystery is still outstanding, which Comedy Hour show <\/i>did this video appear on?<\/p>\n

In any case, during this deep dive into John Wilson cartoons. I learned a few things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In some cases, like for Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and Coven’s “One Tin Soldier,” the original animation were created for the original artist and Sonny and Cher simply repurposed them or sang over them for their first variety show.<\/li>\n
  2. British artist John Wilson wasn’t always the animator for these videos but sometimes he was. But he was always the brand of the animations (which also sometimes fell under the umbrella of his company Fine Arts Films<\/a>). Sometimes he was just the director and\/or producer. And he’s sometimes billed as John David Wilson<\/a>. His ex-wife Angele is sometimes credited as ink and painter or colorist on early videos.<\/li>\n
  3. There were at least 10 “John Wilson” animations that appeared on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour<\/em>, Sonny and Cher’s first variety series. Then there is the mystery “Sweet Gypsy Rose” cartoon sung by Sonny, which total 11 Wilson cartoons associated with them.<\/li>\n
  4. And finally, John Wilson was involved in many other famous animations including both Disney’s Peter Pan<\/em><\/a> (1953) and The Lady and the Tramp <\/em><\/a>(1955), the opening credits for the movie <\/a>Grease <\/em>(1978), the old Mr. Magoo cartoons<\/a> (1953) and an animation for Bob Dylan’s 1983 song “You Gotta Serve Somebody” which is hard to find and see.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first ten Comedy Hour <\/em>animations are included on Cher Lunar’s The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour Animated Videos<\/a> (Full Compilation)<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” from episode #2<\/a> – animated by John Sparey from 1971.
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. Coven’s “One Tin Soldier” from episode #7<\/a> – the title card is hard to read but it looks like animation done by Bill Carney or Parney.
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    3. Melanie’s “Brand New Key” from episode #12<\/a>– no credits.
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    4. Sonny & Cher’s own “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done” from episode #23<\/a> (one of my favorite ones) – animation by Rudi Cataldi.
      \n      \"\"<\/a>
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    5. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory<\/em>‘s “The Candy Man” from episode 24<\/a> – animation by Rudi Cataldi.
      \n      \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    6. Three Dog Night’s “Black and White” from episode #32<\/a> (this is my favorite one and a precursor to the Cloud Cult drawing video “When You Reach the End<\/a>).”
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    7. Randy Newman’s “Love Story” from episode #36<\/a> – no credits.
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    8. Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” from episode #44<\/a> – animated by Fred Madison.
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    9. Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” from episode #57<\/a>– animated by Fred Madison (look for the little pre-MTV video image in there and the nod at the very end to the current political leadership the animation addresses).
      \n      \"\"<\/a>
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
    10. Cher’s own “Dark Lady” from episode #64<\/a> – no credits.
      \n      \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      He also did the bumpers and opening credits for\u00a0The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour<\/em> 1971-1973<\/a> and 1974<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t