The Screwball

Woody Woodpecker is a knothole spectator at a baseball game ("Droops vs. Drips- guaranteed a good game to the last Drip")- until a cop comes along and covers up the hole. After several futile attempts to gain admittance to the grounds, Woody manages to outsmart the angry policeman and get into the ballpark. As Woody settles down to watch the game, a man in a 50-gallon hat sits down directly in front of him, and Woody can't see a thing. At Woody's request, the man removes his hat, revealing a huge head of hair, which is as obstructive as the hat. Since Woody cannot ask the man to remove his hair, Woody gets a lawnmower and cuts an opening through the hair for him to see through. Indulging in a bottle of pop, Woody's thoroughly enjoying the game when the cop suddenly looms up in front of him. Woody runs away, with the cop in pursuit. The chase leads to the players' dressing room, where Woody, in order to escape the cop, disguises himself as a ball player. The manager comes in and orders Woody to go out and pitch. After retiring the side with the aid of his famous "screwball," Woody takes his place at bat. Unable to hit the ball with his bat, Woody finally hits a home run with a gold club. As he's streaking toward home plate, he runs smack into the cop, reverses his field, and knocks down all the players as he does so. Popping out the scoreboard, Woody starts to laugh, and he's promptly silenced by a shower of baseballs threaded onto his beak.

Woody Woodpecker, Policeman, Man in 50-Gallon Hat, Manager

With arguably the most famous laugh of any cartoon character in history ("ha-ha-ha-HA-ha"), Woody Woodpecker pecked his way into our lives through a 1940 Andy Panda theatrical short entitled Knock Knock. Woody continued to appear in short films throughout the 40's and 50's, and in 1957, the Kellogg's company packaged these theatrical works into the syndicated package The Woody Woodpecker Show.Walter Lantz created the famed bird, and in the show's early days, the animator would host from his office, demonstrating how cartoons were made by showing the viewers at home such essentials as painting cels and drawing storyboards. Woody, an obnoxious mischief-maker, would usually star in the shorts, occasionally taking a backseat to his friends Andy Panda, Wally Walrus, Gabby Gator, Buzz Buzzard, Oswald the Rabbit, and Arctic penguin Chilly Willy.

Woody was by far the most politically incorrect and audacious character of his time. In an era when cartoons were trying to promote a positive message or somehow prove educational, Woody was breaking taboos left and right. The early theatrical shorts were chock full of sexual innuendo, tobacco use, and rampant alcohol consumption. One episode even showed a hotel bill with a charge for "Cocaine" (all of which were later edited out before hitting the airwaves). While other cartoons were trying to do the right thing, Woody was joking, fighting, stealing, and antagonizing.

Another difference between our fine feathered friend and other animated icons is that he didn't always come out on top. Sometimes he'd dig himself too deep into a hole to get out. Perhaps "if Woody had gone to the police, this never would have happened," but then we wouldn't have had so much fun watching him try.

After a three year run from 1957-60, The Woody Woodpecker Show was not seen on network television again until the fall of 1970, when it made its Saturday morning debut. Although his physical appearance was slightly altered and updated, Woody was as big a troublemaker as ever. The immortal show has lived on in syndication ever since leaving network TV in 1977.

In 1999, a brand new Woody Woodpecker Show debuted on the Fox Kids schedule. Woody, Buzz Buzzard, Wally Walrus, Chilly Willy, and Willy's dog pal Smedley were joined by newcomers Winnie Woodpecker, Knothead, Splinter, Dapper Denver Dooley, and Mrs. Meany.