Studio: Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Produced by: Leon Schlesinger
Short Synopsis
Sandy, a hungry stray Scottish terrier, is watching pancakes being flipped in a diner window when he meets his old friend Rover, who claims to have found himself a master and tells him how. Rover's story becomes the cartoon. Wandering the city, he climbs into a high-rise apartment building, and Porky Pig is the first person who doesn't throw him out on the spot, although he makes it clear he does not want a dog. Rover goes to work on him anyway. He talks nonstop, boasts of his talents, does tricks, insists he would make the perfect companion, and won't take no for an answer. When none of it works, he turns to guilt: he climbs out onto the window ledge and threatens to jump. He falls, and Porky, horrified, dashes down the stairs to try to catch him. Back in the present, Sandy is left wondering. Whether Rover really ended up with Porky as his master is never made clear.
Why It Matters
- Rover's pitch is the joke: a fast-talking, shameless dog who sells himself like a salesman and will stop at nothing, including fake suicide, to get adopted. Clampett's rubbery timing and Mel Blanc's wheedling voice make the pressure campaign wonderfully funny.
- It was the basis for Charlie Dog. Chuck Jones remade it in 1947 as Little Orphan Airedale, introducing the finished Charlie Dog, and said the character was directly based on Rover. It was also the last cartoon Clampett directed with his original unit before he took over Tex Avery's old unit.
Notes and Trivia
- It is the 95th cartoon featuring Porky Pig.
- Norman McCabe took over Clampett's former unit.
- See also: Porky's Midnight Matinee (1941), Notes to You (1941).