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Television Sun Oct 24 2010
I Miss Bob
I was a kid when "Image Union" premiered, so I sort of "grew up" on it. The opening and closing of the show freaked me out, though I loved Bob. He's the cartoon guy who turns on his TV after driving on the expressway to get home. It's hard to find decent images of Bob--I found this one at the "Image Union" Facebook page.
I know shows have to evolve, but I miss that old opening and closing. You can see what the show used to look like at the excellent Chicago TV archive Mediaburn.
For instance, check out this episode from the mid-80's (I can't embed it here): see the opening with Bob, and then go to the 24:08 mark to see how it used to end. That footage of a car crashing into TVs is from a video called "Media Burn".
I wonder what Bob is up to now.
Tom Weinberg / October 24, 2010 10:36 PM
So nice that you remember the original Bob from 1978. He was a member of our family for many years. The first opening was shot in my living room. Bob and the idea of a cartoon in real space was created by Jane Aaron who became a prize-winning innovative animator. A bunch of us crayoned the three or four original versions that were in the first opening. A few updates followed in the 80's, some were not full-size, but worked as cartoons quite nicely.
We still have two original Bobs in our Media Burn Archive office on Irving Park by the Kennedy x-way. Thanks.
--Tom Weinberg
(the orginal producer)