Time for Timer
I grew up watching a lot of cartoons on Saturday mornings. One of the bits of animation that stands out in my memory is Timer.
After doing a bit of research, I found out the following (courtesy Toon Tracker):
The character Timer (voiced by Len Maxwell) originally appeared in “The Incredible, Indelible, Magical, Physical Mystery Trip”, an ABC Afterschool Special that combined live-action with animation. This 1973 DePatie-Freleng Enterprises Production, in association with ABC, was an educational and entertaining journey which took two youngsters, Joey (voiced by Peter Broderick) and Missy (voiced by Kathy Buch), through the mistreated body of their Uncle Carl, who has lived a hard life, failing to maintain his health. The kids are miniaturized prior to the trip by Timer. The special was later re-broadcast as a two-part ABC Weekend Special.
Timer (voiced by the late Lennie Weinrib) then took two miniaturized youngsters, Carol (voiced by Diane Murphy) and Larry (voiced by Ike Eisenmann), on “The Magical Mystery Trip Through Little Red’s Head”, a 1974 DePatie-Freleng production which combined live-action and animation. As the trio explore Little Red’s (voiced by Sarah Kennedy) mind, they learn how people express and deal with their feelings from the inside. The hour-long feature was originally broadcast as an ABC Afterschool Special and later re-broadcast as a two-part ABC Weekend Special.
The Timer character was later revived by ABC and DePatie-Freleng in 1977 for a series of ABC Health and Nutrition Commercials, short public service spots which aired on ABC’s weekend schedule. Other characters featured in the shorts included Chopper, a motorcyclist who explained how teeth work. Some of Timer’s topics included “hankering for a hunk of cheese” and explaining to youngsters how to make orange juice popsicles which he called “Sunshine on a Stick”.
You can find out more about DePatie-Freleng by clicking here.
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On November 1st, 2006 at 12:00 am
I think we all remember these so well, I personally don’t remember the earlier specials that Timer was on though, but the shorter PSA’s had been around for at least up to the early 90’s, then ABC just got tired and stoped using ‘em. Nowadays I wish they bother releaseing them on DVD, along with the “Weekend Specials” (since people are already throwing those up on YouTube as we speak).