Blondie (comic strip) was adapted into a long-running series of 28 low-budget theatrical B-features, produced by Columbia Pictures. Beginning with "Blondie" in 1938, the series lasted 12 years, through "Beware of Blondie" (1950). The two major roles were Penny Singleton as Blondie and Arthur Lake (whose first starring role was another comic strip character, Harold Teen) as Dagwood. Faithfulness to the comic strip was a major concern of the creators of the series. Little touches were added that were iconic to the strip, like the appearance of Dagwood's famous sandwiches—and the running gag of Dagwood colliding with the mailman amid a flurry of
What a Cartoon! summer of 1996 when it started bearing the name of the original project: "The What a Cartoon! Show". The show's initial premieres for each short preceded Cartoon Network's Sunday night movie block, "Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theatre". The shorts continued to air on Sundays until 1997, when the network moved the shorts to Wednesdays at 9pm. Following the premiere of "Johnny Bravo", "Cow and Chicken" and "I Am Weasel" as full series in July 1997, the series shifted to Thursday nights, where it remained. "The What a Cartoon! Show" continued airing new episodes on Thursdays until November 28, 1997, when the