Bud Finkle, 1918–2004

Many of you may not realize that we recently lost a great creative mind recently. His name was Robert "Bud" Finkle, and he was a marketing genius.

As you may know, the legacy of Bud's greatest achievement is still felt today. It was the spring of 1965, and ratings of the long-running cartoon The Flintstones were flagging. Bud was sitting in the office of the show's producer when the show's writers came into the room. Bud was, as always, chomping on his trademark big fat cigar.

The producer told the writers their scripts lacked a certain something. He turned to Bud, who'd been at least pretending to listen to the whole exchange. "Bud, what do you think?"

Bud then uttered those immortal words, "Well, you know, the kids -- they love the space sh**."

The very next day the writers put together the episode "The Great Gazoo," in which Fred and Barney encounter -- some would say incongruously -- a tiny alien with apparently magical powers.

Regardless of the fact that the show only lasted a handful more episodes, this move clearly was a work of genius. Who would have -- could have -- predicted that a show that had been going along on an established premise for years would throw all that away to stick an alien in amongst the cavemen?

But this was only the first show that would be marked by Bud's genius. In 1972, producers Hanna and Barbera took his advice again and sent the all-girl band Josie and the Pussycats (whose cartoon show had been going strong for two years), along with their supporting cast, into space in a rocket. The fact that it made no sense was irrelevant -- Bud knew what kids wanted. Anything in space would do. But his creativity didn't stop there. The new Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space needed something else. When looking over the first few scripts and the concept art, he rubbed his bald head, chomped his cigar and said, "Can't ya give 'em, I dunno, some kinda little space creature pal? The kids'll love that."

Thus, the alien creature "Bleep" was added to the cast. It was kind of a duck monkey. Sort of thing. It made a "bleep" noise.

Now a casual observer would say that Bleep apparently worked so well for the show that in 1976 the Super Friends cartoon got rid of teen sidekicks Marvin, Wendy, and Wonderdog, replacing them with Zan, Jayna, and their space monkey Gleek.

But in fact, Gleek's true predecessor wasn't Bleep, but a monkey named Blip. See, back in 1966, right after providing so much help to the Flintstones writing staff, Bud found himself in charge of creating a new Saturday morning cartoon. He was given a month to create the concept, but the show's producers later said of their meeting on the deadline day, "It was as though he was creating right there in front of us." Bud said to them, "My show's about a cop, see. But he's not just any cop. He's a... ghost. And he's in space, 'cause the kids, they love that outer space. So yeah, he's kind of a... space ghost. In fact, that's his name. Space Ghost. And that's the show's name."

"What does Space Ghost do?"

"Uh, you know. He has adventures and like that." Bud fidgeted in the cheap suit that surrounded his ample frame.

"Great, Bud," the producers said. "Are there any other characters that go with him on his adventures?"

"Uh, sure. A coupla kids. You know, a boy and a girl."

"Anyone else?"

"Uh, I dunno. How 'bout a monkey?"

Thus Blip was born. The impact of Blip, the animal/alien comedy relief, as well as that of annoying child tagalongs who follow an adventure cartoon's hero(es) around for some reason, usually getting into trouble, is still observed today. Thank goodness. (1)

Bud's influence spread like ripples through the children's entertainment media. Batman suddenly had a Gazoo-like impish pal named Batmite. Batmite provided a nice science fiction/supernatural edge to Batman's stories, as well as some much-needed comic relief. All Batman stories clearly could use a few laughs. Even Yogi Bear and his pals were not immune. Yogi's Space Race premiered in 1978, with Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and the rest traveling around in rocketships. "Didja hear about that Stars Wars movie?" Bud is quoted as saying at that time. "I ain't seen it, but the kids sure have. I told ya -- man, they love that space sh**. We need more o' that."

In 1982, the cast of Gilligan's Island traveled off their desert island in a bamboo rocketship to another planet. Gilligan got his new fluffy alien pal, Bumper. Space? Check. Alien sidekick for comic relief? Check. In that same banner year for children's entertainment, Scooby-Doo and the gang got a new little pal, Scrappy Doo. While not an alien or related to space in any way, it is thought by most that Scrappy was Bud's idea, too. "Uh, get like, a kid version of the dog," he apparently said, and then kicked everyone out of his office so he could take an early lunch.

The list of children's shows centered around, or somehow incongruously involving "space" and/or "fuzzy alien sidekicks" is far too long to list here. From Santa Claus Versus the Martians to Three Robonic Stooges to Partridge Family: 2200 A.D. to Popeye and Friends in Outer Space to Treasure Planet, Bud's influence was all-pervasive. Even non-children's fare, such as the sitcom Happy Days introduced Mork from Ork -- who got his own show, and eventually a cartoon, where he had, yes -- a fuzzy alien sidekick (kind of a doglike thing).

And speaking of Happy Days, who can forget one of Bud's creations, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang cartoon, where the gang, including Fonzie's dog, Mr. Cool, traveled through time with a girl named Cupcake with powers from the future -- sheer genius!

Sadly, Bud passed away earlier this year, but his legacy of summing up what all children like in simple, easily-replicable formats lives on. Thank you, Bud Finkle, for your creative contribution to pop culture.(2)

1 Interestingly enough, the idea of a kid getting involved with a hero's adventures can be traced back to Bud's short stint in comic book creation, while working for DC Comics in the early 1940s. Even at that young age, Bud proved himself an expert on what kids liked. He knew that no child could ever take an interest in a powerful, exciting adult hero. Kids needed a child in the story to identify with. If the child was at least slightly annoying, frequently getting into trouble, and constantly in need of rescue, so much the better. Bud was the one that convinced Bob Kane to give Batman the universally loved sidekick, Robin.

2 This essay is taken from the book I'm working on, Profiles in Creativity. In addition to Bud Finkle, the book covers such creative geniuses as Gerry Wooster, the man who determined that all children's programming should be based around toy lines or collectible card games, and Phil Muttly, who came up with the idea that sitcoms should all have wise-cracking kids with plots based around misunderstandings. I hope you'll check it out.