| Casper The Friendly Ghost |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST | |
| characters introduced in 1945 | |
| famous studios series and characters | |
| harvey comics series and characters | |
| fictional characters who can fly | |
| fictional ghosts | |
| u.m.amp;m. t.v. corp. acquisitions | |
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Casper the Friendly Ghost is the main character of the Famous Studios Theatrical Animated Cartoon Series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a Ghost , but is quite personable. HISTORY Creation and success at Paramount Casper was created in the early 1940s by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo , the former devising the idea for the character and the latter providing illustrations. Intended initially as the basis for a children's storybook, there was initially little interest in their idea and when Reit was away on military service during the Second World War , Oriolo sold the rights to the character to Paramount Pictures ' Famous Studios animation division, for which he had occasionally worked. ''The Friendly Ghost'', the first Noveltoon to feature Casper, was released by Paramount in 1945 . In the cartoon, Casper is a cute, pudgy ghost-child, who prefers making friends with people instead of scaring them. He leaves his home at the local Haunted House and goes out to make friends. However, every person or animal he meets takes one horrified look at him and runs off in the other direction. Distraught, Casper unsuccessfully attempts to commit Suicide (apparently forgetting that he's already dead) before he meets two little children who become his friends. The children's mother at first rejects Casper, but later welcomes him into the family after he wards off a greedy Landlord . Casper appeared in two subsequent Noveltoons before Paramount started a ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'' series in and Mack David . Harvey Comics and television Casper went on to become one of the most famous properties from the Famous Studio. Alfred Harvey , founder and publisher of Harvey Comics began producing ''Casper'' comic books in 1952 , and in 1957 , purchased the rights to the character outright. After Harvey bought the rights to Casper and many other Famous properties in 1959 (including Herman And Katnip , Little Audrey , and Baby Huey ), they began broadcasting the post-1950 theatrical Famous shorts on a television show sponsored by Mattel Toys titled ''Funday Funnies'' in 1959 which introduced the Barbie Doll to the public. The other Famous produced Casper cartoons had already been acquired by television distributor U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. in 1956. U.M.&M. retitled just "A Haunting We Will Go", but miscredited "Featuring Casper The Friendly Ghost" as "Featuring Caspers Friendly Ghost". New cartoons were created for the ''New Casper Cartoon Show'' in 1963 . The original Casper cartoons were syndicated under the title '' Harveytoons '' in 1962 and ran continually until 1990 . Casper has remained popular in reruns and merchandising, and Hanna-Barbera Productions produced two holiday specials, ''Casper's First Christmas'' and ''Casper's Halloween Special'', and also the Saturday Morning Cartoon series ''Casper and the Angels'' in 1979 . Later appearances In 1995 , the friendly ghost was adapted into a Live-action Feature Film entitled '' Casper ''. He and his wicked uncles, ''The Ghostly Trio'', were created for the film using Computer Animation . Two direct-to-video sequels were made, but are less than notable. Casper was parodied in an episode of '' also has a flashback scene that depicts Casper's demise (from a football accident initiated by Stewie). It is perhaps worth noting that the "Casper's demise" joke had appeared many times before that in comedy routines and comic-book parodies such as "Trufan Adventures." SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
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