Hong Kong for way we love your way
Number one super guy
Well first of all I have to say
By by the time Hong Kong food was in production we were all quite seasoned
So we were able to meet the challenge. You know they they want to show a week and
It was really
Cranking it out, but you know I see well. No we met the death
I think you know Hannah Barbera definitely had it down to a science
They had certain guys that worked on certain shows
And then you had evil who was overseeing the design and the layout portion of that and then you had you know
Pretty pretty strong writers at the time too. It was just a huge collaboration as far as
What everybody did of course had a staff of very talented artists to help me along with this too
You know I think three artists Jerry Eisenberg Willie Eto
Marty Murphy
Were the ones that I think?
contributed the most heavily to the conceptual design of the characters and I
Sort of stuck my two cents in there here there wherever I would do three or four or five
variations and
People or somebody would pick the one they liked
But it was basically the same process as as any other drawing
You know you draw until you get you think you have it right and it fits with
Hong Kong and of course that the drawings that I make will eventually be changed
I mean there'll be another character designer, but I never worried about that
I'm sure all of us that were working on development
You know we would talk amongst ourselves sometimes
You know maybe sharing thoughts or whatever just general kidding around there was always bantering going on. It was just quick ideas
Ideas could come at any time from anywhere
almost from anybody
All of these things are all collaborative efforts
We had a friendship group
that
really enjoyed
our
camaraderie
socially and working
Place so we never bucked heads or anything we laughed about everything we did
Whatever Jerry did putting a toilet plunger on top of one of the characters we laughed and laughed
We didn't say oh gee. I wish I had that idea now
We just had a jolly old time so basically
Developing these shows were all just a good fun time for all of us. I have a sneaking hunch
that Joe Barbera in the back of his mind probably had a catalog of
Scores of different ideas and the germs of different shows
That was always constant. It was rolling around the already modifications
They underwent was whether they were contemporary enough
You know Hannah Barbera is very much into the pop culture of the day
You know, whatever was was big at the time
Of course Hong Kong fui was a natural because Bruce Lee and the kung fu
Series was quite hot. And so what do you do? You just kind of jump in and develop it
Joe Barbera always liked dogs almost every show had a dog in it
Not all of them, but but I think he was smart because I think a dog is the number one pet in the world
Probably get a load of this profile
We always remember that he'd say, you know, let's get a dog in there too
You know, that was the kind of thing that he enjoyed and they and they usually worked, you know
But you gotta admit the power of Hong Kong. Fui is really something just the name Hong Kong fui
I think that was actually you're gonna be kung fu at first and they changed the name but just that play on words
It was funny. The thing I like about it too is that stylistically they went a whole different direction
but ideally they went back to
Animals running around in a human world and nobody even made reference to the fact that it was a dog and there was a cat
That were you know saving, you know the city from from villains
The attitude as far as we're concerned is why not it's there. Let's use it. It's funny. It fits, you know
two words
cartoon license
Now observing all as I, a super humble janitor in the flick of an eyelash
Become the super scourge of the underworld
What I loved about the the Hannah Barbera cartoons too is they would have these stock
Transformation things that you just waited for every week and as Penry he would plow through these vending machines that would fly open like doors
And then he would jump into a filing cabinet and he'd go in the bottom drawer and then the top drawer would rattle
he couldn't get out so a spot would bang the side of it and he would jump out in the gi and the mask and
Be transformed into Hong Kong Fui
then after he jumps out he's springing over to an ironing board that would fly up into
The wall and then he would slide down and then land in the trash bin outside and drive the Fui mobile out
With spot already in the car
Which I don't know how spot got from that point to that point and the funny thing about it is that
Penry being this janitor that works in the police station all the time. He mean he puts a mask on they don't know who he is
He's like, oh, it's Hong Kong Fui is a superhero. It's like Superman with his
Glasses, you know, he takes his glasses off. It's Superman and and that was the same kind of thing like a mask would
disguise a dog with a
The Hong Kong outfit on I don't I don't think so I can see through any disguise
I think that's amazing that you know the fact that again, it's just an animal walking around a human world
It could have been a human character
And the Ken spot was was treated more like a cat and he would you know, he didn't talk
He was he walked around mostly on all fours, but he would pull him out of
Whatever jammy he was in at the time, you know, he would be the one that would actually
Make it all work out and then Hong Kong free look like he was a hero. That's a do your own spot when you want things
Concentrate
The fact that spot was a cat that had stripes, you know, that's a whole different way of thinking about it, too
This is a rosemary if you want a date I'm off at eight
Oh, Hong Kong
My dream man for you I'll get off at 730
Rosemary has a little bit of a crush on him, which was kind of a strange thing
She'd always really speak highly of him and then he'd always cut to Penry either thinking to himself or talking if she really knew
Who I was if she only knew rosemary was definitely Marty Murphy design
Marty has a certain way that he draws women Marty gave her these real sexy long legs and his very tight short skirt and
these dark rimmed glasses and
short hair as I recall and
It was just fun
And then you know rosemary had her natural way that she'd answer the phone, you know, and
There's a lot of yeah
just a little play on words and then there would be something that Penry was trying to do or the stars was trying to
Do and Penry would like inevitably block in and you know screw it up for him
I think because of the Asian theme to it. They wanted to give it that sort of the Asian
Watercolor background technique. There's a lot of watercolor a lot of stuff is nebulous. You know, there's just kind of splashes of color
Throughout that they use that and that had sort of an Asian feeling to it
following on that idea
You know, it's the design of the car
We're sort of a pagoda like, you know design we did throw in
Purposely this sort of a corny Asian type of feeling into the show
Cleverly disguised as a free lounge
That cotton pickin pocket picker will never escape the car could pretty much do anything it needed to do
It'd be like Hong Kong food
We would need to turn into a helicopter or a boat or whatever and he'd pick up the gong and and whack it
You know do a karate chop on it and and it would just you know
Have this little flurry of stuff and it would turn into whatever it needed turn into sometimes it would work. Sometimes it wouldn't
You know, the other thing that was really really strong about this show was a theme song
It had one of the strongest title sequences and theme songs of any Hannibal Bear show, I think
And I think that's what
probably people probably remember the theme song and
The fact that scatman-crowther's did the voice and sang the song
Probably more than they remember what the show was about in some cases
Joe was going through
Trying to cast a voice for Hong Kong fooey just couldn't
Hit something that made real good sense and then on a hunch
He had scatman read a few lines and then started to have people listen to it
I remember him running in and saying what do you think? He said that's Hong Kong food
Nice to know I got fans everywhere
Scatman had this wonderful voice. I mean he was cast as the voice of Hong Kong fooey and
I
Remember I'd walk over to a coffee shop a couple of blocks away and sometimes scatman would be there
It's hey Hong Kong and he'd stand up and start doing Hong Kong fooey for the whole restaurant was so funny
It's amazing how meek little janitor can turn into the greatest crime fighter of all time
They'd look at you like you're from Mars if you tried to pitch the show today
Oh, you just sir because I thought of it before you did seriously
It's just I don't know. It's a great. It's a strong idea. Like I said, they kind of went back to basics
It's just amazing to me. Well number one all of us working at Hanna Barbera at that time love
Doing what we were doing. I mean it was like I
May sound like a cliche, but you know you pinch yourself saying gee, I'm making my living doing animated films, you know
And so, you know, that's basically the love of the work that we were involved in
And I I guess that sort of follows through with the popularity you could feel it in the shows
With whatever Hanna Barbera did every year
They would have one show that would be kind of a breakout show that would become a little more timeless than others
You can take one that everybody just kind of like latches on to him
like that was the one that you know that got me up on Saturday morning and my my
Nephew and nieces and they all watched it and they liked it and that's the main thing if you get an audience that
Seems to care for
I was reminded that I worked on it from my grandkids
and and so I could see there's a whole new generation of people that
Is discovering Hong Kong food? So, you know, I could see where
It's gonna go on forever. All of these shows that we've done all these years
Make its Renaissance again
Where's that wraps it up?
The dream of every red-blooded American girl
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