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Gumby is a beloved clay animation character that has appeared on television and in the movies. What many fans of Gumby are not familiar with is how he came to be. Gumby was the idea of Art Clokey, a man who became a big name in stop motion animation. The character was first created when Clokey was attending film school at the University of California. An early form of the character had his first leading role in one of Clokey's student films, Gumbasia.Get more information here. http://www. heidi-miller.com/2011/10/goofing-off-with-gumby.html

The Gumby that many people know and love today was co-created with Clokey's wife Ruth. Once a few episodes of Gumby were made, they first found their home as a feature on The Howdy Doody Show for audience reaction tests. Although the pilot was rejected by executives at NBC, the second and third episodes were met with a much better reaction. By 1957, Gumby had his own show, which lasted for 233 episodes.

Gumby has great success in the 1960s and was again revived in the 1980s with new adventures and new supporting characters. After that, Gumby appeared in movies, commercials, video games and was even the spokescharacter for the Library of Congress in 1994-1995.

Gumby is a green humanoid character made of clay. He has been the star of the Gumby TV show, which has been produced at various times since its debut in 1955. There have been a total of 233 episodes of the show produced. You can get programming from www.direct.tv, to watch episodes of Gumby. The Gumby Show uses stop motion clay animation, known as claymation. This type of animation was groundbreaking in the 1950's, as it added a sense of realism to the show that regular animation could not provide. Gumby was created by Art Clokey, who also was the creator of the Davey and Goliath show. That show was also produced in claymation. Besides Gumby, the main characters of the show are Pokey. He is a red pony that talks and serves as Gumby's sidekick. Gumby's dog Nopey is also prominently featured. Gumby's other friends are Prickle and Goo. Prickle is a yellow dinosaur. He often likes to dress like Sherlock Holmes and pretend he is a detective. Goo is a blue mermaid who is able to fly. The main enemies are the Blockheads. They are two red-colored humanoid characters. Both of them have heads that are shaped like blocks. They look identical, except one has a "G" on the side of his head, while the other has a "J" on the side of his head. Later versions of the show introduced Gumbo and Gumba, Gumby's parents. Gumby's mastodon friend Denali and Gumby's sister Minga were introduced in 1988. The show has been running constantly in syndication since the 1950s. Dallas McKennon provided Gumby's voice for almost 50 years, when Frank Welker eventually took over the voice chores. Gumby creator Art Clokey provided the voices for Prickle and Pokey. Gumby experienced a huge resurgence in popularity during the 1980's, thanks in large part to Eddie Murphy's portrayal of the character on Saturday Night Live. This necessitated the beginning of new Gumby show in 1988. This new show would also sprinkle in classic Gumby segments from the 1950s and 1960s. These classic segments all had newly recorded soundtracks. The original series was broadcast on NBC, while the newer versions have all been syndicated.

Do you remember Gumby, the famous green clay humanoid and his friends? He was created by Art Clokey and had many friends. Remember his sidekick Pokey, the talking orange pony? Gumby was green because that was Art Clokey’s favorite color. Gumby was created in the early 1950’s and appeared for the very first time in an animated three minute film in 1953 and the film was called Gumbasia. The second time Gumby appeared on television for fifteen minute pilots in 1956. The show ran until December 30th 1989. There were two hundred and thirty three episodes of Gumby.

Gumby had a dog Nopey and all he said was “nope”. There was Prickle who was a yellow dinosaur who thought he was a detective, then Goo, Goo was a flying mermaid that changed shape at will and then you had Gumby’s parents; Gumba was his mom and his dad was Gumbo. A sister came along and her name was Minga along with Denali a mastodon friend.

Lots of merchandise has been made over the years of this famous green clayed figure Gumby. Most of which are bendable. You can find dolls or mugs even key chains of Gumby if you look for it as they are still being sold.

In 1955, Art Clokey introduced Gumby and his friends to the world, and the infant industry of stop motion animation took a tremendous leap forward. Stop motion animation involved a process of manipulating characters through a series of poses to simulate movement and taking single frame shots of them. When the frames are viewed successively, they give the appearance of motion. Gumby, a little green fellow who could change shape at will, his faithful sidekick Pokey, the little orange horse, and friends, utilized the malleability of clay with the stop motion animation process, and the world has never been the same.Didn’t catch that? This explains it.

Although stop motion animation has given way to technologies like digital animation, Gumby’s impact on the realm of pop culture has remained constant. He has remained a known entity through parodies from sources as prominent as Saturday Night Live, and can be seen on YouTube. He even has a facebook page. Further evidence of the show’s enduring popularity can be seen in novelty items like Gumby mugs, key chains, t-shirts, and more. Of course, the little bendable representations of the different characters have been on the market for decades.

Gumby arrived on the scene in time to entertain and amuse the Baby Boomers, but he has chosen to stay for the pleasure of their children, and even grandchildren.

Animation director Art Clokey got his start at the University of Southern California under the direction of Professor Slavko Vorkapich. There he made his first short film, “Gumbasia”, and took an interest in stop motion animation, in which figurines are moved one frame at at time (a minutes worth of footage can take at least five days). Clokey showed Gumbasia to a TV producer who encouraged him to take it further by adding characters and stories.

With help from his wife, Clokey made "Gumby", a slender, flat green creature based on the Gingerbread Man and Clokey's childhood experiences of playing with a mix of mud & clay he called "gumbo". Gumby would star in 11 minute short films where he and horse sidekick Pokey would go on fantastical, silly and surreal adventures. The shorts were originally shown on the Howdy Doody Show and were so popular Gumby was given his own spin-off.

The series lasted from 1955 to 1966, with a new series in the late 1980s thanks to popularity gained from syndicated repeats and video releases. A movie was even made in 1995. And while the character hasn't made any film appearances in years, he still has some popularity, popping up in ads, toys, and online works from time to time. Meaning he's doing something right!

The Green Man, Gumby, the stretchable, clay figure that starred in his own show for fifty years embodied fun, adventure and innocence. He appealed to adults and children. Gumby’s creator, Art Clokey, put much of his own childhood into the adventures Gumby shared with his little, clay companions.

Mr. Clokey’s wit, imagination and sense of adventure created the lovable character Pokey. You could say that the innate loveable nature of the creator made the creation loveable.

Pokey’s adventures were unreal, novel and imaginative. The stories were engaging and held the interest of children. Children knew that Pokey was not real and the stories were make-believe, yet they taught values and social behavior in story form.You can find a quick rundown here Innocence, courage and willingness to help others ruled the day. What parent would not want such a role model for their child or children?

Pokey stretched people’s imagination as he entertained them. Pokey was innocent fun, with no bad aftertaste. The far-fetched nature of the clay creation made it obvious that Pokey was make-believe. Pokey would never inspire copycat issues.

Pokey was fun, innocent, heroic and rather silly if you took time to think about it. He caught the interest of a still innocent world, interested in raising their children to be good people.

Gumby has been everyone's favorite green clay humanoid, going on many adventures spanning 233 episodes of television. Over the course of many years, Gumby has become a notable and recognizable character to many, crossing several generations. He has been made into toys, video games, and even a feature film.

Gumby's adventures include his trusty sidekick Pokey, the orange pony. Together they strive against their arch enemies, the "Block Heads" which are always up to no good. Other notable characters in the series are Nopey the dog, along with the dinosaur detective Prickle.

Goo is a flying blue mermaid that fires blue colored balls of putty, making for an interesting minor character in the show. Gumby as a character had his origins in the 1950s after Art Clokey finished his stent at film school. The University of Southern California graduate created Gumby as short student project named Gumbasia.

This was a parody of Fantasia involving Gumby, and started the ball rolling for what would later become the show we are all familiar with today. The adventures of Gumby will be watched for many years to come, and everyone who has seen the show remembers it as unique and memorable in a good way.