u/barsock12

I discovered that a certain cartoon series that ran from 1930 to 1931 that was made by Screen Gems didn't have its copyright renewed. I'm talking about Toby the Pup. I discovered that his first film, The Museum, didn't have it's copyright renewed while searching through the 1958 copyright film renewals in the catalog. Wikipedia says that the majority of his films aren't renewed. I guess I answered my own question if any of the Columbia films are public domain.

The Tiny Toons Girls Chatting

My Tweety drawing for Looneyune

Nobody seems to know. It maybe appears that Columbia renewed all their cartoons. The only UPA cartoons that are PD are Hell-bent for Election and that one Private Snafu cartoon they made. I saw the cartoon Mad Hatter (1940) on Wikimedia Commons, so, if any cartoon buff has any information about this, please let me know. Also I know that the pre 1931 Winkler Cartoons are PD, so please don't say that in the comments. Thanks.

You probably do know that most HB animated shows are inspired by sitcoms, right? Well, according to Mark Evainer (source), the Scooby Doo characters were inspired on the sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In Mark's words "Fred was based on Dobie, Velma on Zelda, Daphne on Thalia and Shaggy on Maynard." I bet you didn't know that the sitcom was based on a book.

The two characters that originated from the book of the same name in 1951 are Dobie and Thalia, according to my research, as I couldn't find any other characters in the book that originates in the second book or the show. As you know Dobie inspired Fred and Thalia inspired Daphne. The 1953 adaptation called The Many Affairs of Dobie Gillis only includes Dobie, not Thalia. According to the Wikipedia page, MGM wanted the film to spawn a franchise, similarly to Andy Hardy or Dr Kildare, but it never did. Now, what about Zelda, which inspired Velma?

Well, Zelda originates from the 1956 short story Love is a Science (renewed in 1984), which debuted in Feburary of 1956 in Good Housekeeping. The story was then added to the 1959 book I Was A Teenage Dwarf (originally appeared in Good Housekeeping in 1958, renewed in 1986 ). I didn't watch the show or read the books (I searched through them on the Internet Archive, no results for Manyard, appears to have originated on the show) maybe some Dobie Gillis fan can enlighten me on how the characters inspired them.

That's all the research I did last night, again, maybe some fan can enlighten me. See ya!

According to Pepperannfan on Wikimedia Commons, all the comics from 1930 to 1938 weren't renewed, which is hard to believe that all the Popeye characters are public domain. I know that Olive Oyl, the rest of the pre-popeye cast, and the Sea-Hag are public domain, but I don't think that all the Popeye characters from Segars lifetime are pd. Can some professional on copyright renewals check on this? I know that his spinach power wasn't renewed, according to Jennifer Jenkins of Duke University, but I believe that all of the Popeye characters post 1930 aren't public domain. Again, can somebody professional, other than an user on Wikimedia commons, check on this? Thanks if you can check the renewals.