Regarding the "King Features Trilogy" -- a 1963 TV package of 150 cartoons -- 50 each of "Krazy Kat," "Beetle Bailey" and "Snuffy Smith And Barney Google" (that's how they were titled, with Snuffy getting top billing):
These cartoons followed the made for TV package of 220 Popeye cartoons produced in 1960-62. They were similarly produced, with some of the same studios involved. Granted, they are not the greatest cartoons ever made, but I do remember them fondly. Trying to collect them can be a challenge.
Krazy Kat was the first to see DVD release, in a 2-DVD set from Koch Vision in 2003 containing 39 of the 50 cartoons. (Why didn't they just release a complete series set?) Then in 2006 Brentwood/BCI released a 5-disc collection (with four of the five double-sided) called "Cartoon Megapack." There were at least two different versions of this. The one I bought combines material owned by King Features/Hearst ("Trilogy" cartoons, episodes of various series like "Defenders Of The Earth," and assorted animated specials) with two discs of public domain cartoons (the usual suspects, including a selection of PD Popeye cartoons, though curiously, no Hearst-owned Popeyes are included).
Later, another version of this set appeared minus the public domain stuff, and adding more series episodes. Anyway, this set includes all 50 "Snuffy Smith And Barney Google" shorts, plus 20 "Beetle Bailey" and 27 "Krazy Kat" -- among a bunch of other stuff.
Between them, these two releases contain 46 of the 50 Krazy Kat cartoons. Four are missing: "Sporting Chance," "Road To Ruin," "Adman On The Loose" and "Follow The Leader." However, all four of the missing cartoons were included on a Krazy Kat VHS tape released by Rhino Video in the late 1990s.
BCI released a similar 4-DVD collection called "Animated All Stars," consisting entirely of Hearst-owned material, including a selection of Snuffy Smith And Beetle Bailey shorts (but no Krazy Kat). In fact, the discs have the same menus and the "Megapack" DVDs in question also say "Animated All Stars" -- pretty sure they are identical.
So eventually "Beetle Bailey" got released as a complete series set, including all 50 cartoons plus a later unrelated TV special from the 1980s.
So to gather together 146 out of the 150 cartoons in this series, one needs three different multi-disc sets which largely duplicate each other, and even then, four more cartoons need to be chased down on an out of print VHS tape.
Worth it? You decide. But it would have made a lot more sense to just release each of them as a complete series and be done with it.
Edited by user
2018-12-27T01:26:17Z
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Reason: Not specified