To celebrate the 50th anniversary of THE GUMBY SHOW TV premiere, the friendly green clayboy is going digital. On March 16, 2007, classic TV episodes from the '50s and '60s, including the pilot, "Gumby on the Moon," launched on Google and AOL/In2TV, as well as a dedicated Gumby area on YouTube at the DMGI channel www.youtube.com/dmgivideo.
Over the next few months, all 200+ GUMBY episodes will roll out to the digital channels. Joe Clokey, son of Gumby creator, Art Clokey, has digitally remastered each episode from the classic TV series. The original soundtrack has also been restored. After more than 40 years, the '50s episodes have also been restored to their original 11-minute format; the beloved series has been seen in its original format in more than 20 years.
Joe Clokey, president of Clokey Prods., said, "For 50 years, Gumby, with his innate goodness and eternal optimism, has inspired us to look at the bright side of life. His imaginative and creative adventures have always struck a chord with people. Gumby's digital launch is the perfect way to give the gift of these stories to today's audience and help inspire generations to come."
As part of the re-launch to introduce the iconic green character to a whole new generation of 21st century fans, THE ESSENTIAL GUMBY DVD collection will be released this fall and a new remastered director's cut of the 1995 GUMBY MOVIE will premiere this April at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
The GUMBY episodes are being distributed by DMGI, a digital distributor of independently owned music, TV, film and video catalogs, which has licensed the episodes from Classic Media and Premavision.
Legendary animator and producer, Art Clokey, created GUMBY in the mid-'50s.
Gumby made his first appearance on the HOWDY DOODY SHOW in 1956. The following year, Gumby got his own Saturday morning TV series, as THE GUMBY SHOW debuted on March 16, 1957, on NBC. Since then, the beloved character has gone on to star in 223 TV episodes, which were produced in the '50s, '60s and '80s, along with one feature film made in the '90s.
Classic Media (www.classicmedia.tv), an Entertainment Rights Group Co., manages some of the world's most recognizable family properties across all media, including feature film, television, home video and consumer products. The company's extensive library features a diverse collection of popular animated and live-action characters such as: Gumby, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Mr. Magoo, Richie Rich, Peter Cottontail, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Lone Ranger, Lassie, Underdog, Little Lulu, pat the bunny and Lamb Chop.
Classic Media's new live-action/CGI UNDERDOG feature film with Spyglass Ent and Disney hits theaters on August 3, 2007. An animated MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN feature film is now in development with DreamWorks. Classic Media's pre-school series, GERALD MCBOING BOING, based on the Dr. Seuss book, airs daily on Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network will also soon premiere the all-new GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE animated series, now in production with Studio B in Vancouver.
Founded in 2005, Digital Music Group Inc. (www.dmgi.com) is a content owner and global leader in the digital distribution of independently owned music, TV, film and video catalogs. DMGI acquires the digital rights to media catalogs and digitally encodes them into multiple formats for distribution to online music, mobile, and video stores. Retailers include: the iTunes Store, YouTube, Google Video, RealNetworks, Napster, Wal-Mart Music, Yahoo! Music, InfoSpace, Moderati, Zingy, 9Squared and many others.
