I rarely do live-tweets of random programs, movies, and specials. This is one of those rare occurrences. This is your FIRST AND ONLY WARNING to mute me for the next hour or so if you do NOT want your Twitter feed clogged with clay crooning and produce puns!
With the recent passing of Will Vinton, I've decided to live-tweet a special from his studio that is a good example of the sort of clay animation whimsy and humor he was known for. But first, a bit of history...
For over a decade, the California Raisin Advisory Board (CALRAB), which represents the farmers working in the state responsible for most of the raisin production in the world (that's California if the name didn't give it away), had been buying TV commercials in an attempt to...
position raisins as a healthy alternative to junk food, using slogans such as "Raisins: Nature's Candy". They were unsuccessful. Legend has it an exasperated ad exec threw up his hands and remarked that they had tried just about everything to get people to eat raisins...
short of having dancing raisins sing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". Whether or not that actually happened is anyone's guess, but regardless somehow or other CALRAB went down that route, which is how Will Vinton and his Claymation studio got involved.
Vinton would later remark that some unusual risks were taken. For one thing, most advertising mascots for food were characters who interacted WITH the food, not the actual food itself (perhaps because ad execs were wary of giving a cute face to something meant to be consumed?).
Characters like Tony the Tiger and the Vlasic Stork were funny animals who interacted with food, not funny foods who WERE the product itself. Even Vinton's other ad character, the Noid, represented the supposed risks of not ordering pizza from Domino's, not a talking pizza.
One other liberty that was taken was with the color of the characters. In reality raisins are brown; these animated ones were colored a dark purple (the color of undried grapes) to avoid the possible appearance of singing turds.
After about four months - including five weeks of animation - CALRAB's Vinton-animated spot, "Late Show", debuted fall 1986, depicting dancing raisins intimidating salty snacks with their cool composure and, yes, cover of "Heard It Through the Grapevine":
The response was nothing short of phenomenal, a "viral success" in the days before that was a term. Not only did raisin sales increase by 20%, but fan letters poured in asking about steps to the raisin dance or talking about the potential of dressing up as a raisin for Halloween.
Raisin-themed promotions soon followed, from the sensible (using the dancing raisins as mascots for Post Raisin Bran) to the far-fetched (a box of raisins and a California Raisin figuring with the purchase of a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken!).
More commercials followed, with authorized appearances of Claymation lookalikes of Ray Charles and Michael Jackson. (Jackson was such a fan of the California Raisins that he was willing to do a TV spot with them for free provided he only speak directly to Vinton,...
having being burned before - literally - by doing advertising after an infamous Pepsi shoot in which his hair was accidentally set on fire. Being Michael Jackson, he received his request.) But the strangest of all was non-raisin-sales-related merchandise of the California Raisins
The Raisins themselves were in high demand and licensed on everything, bringing attention not only to them but to Vinton's studio - or at least his art form to the point all clay animation was (and still is) dubbed by the ignorant layperson by his trademark "Claymation".
So it is no surprise that televised appearances of the California Raisins - all, of course, in fabulous Claymation from the Will Vinton Studios soon followed. The first was a cameo in a 1987 Claymation Christmas special with a soulful cover of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
Then on November 4, 1988 came the special I'll be recapping tonight - "Meet the Raisins!", written by Arthur Sellers from a story by himself, Barry Bruce (who also directed), Mark Gustafson, and Craig Bartlett. 
We open on a scene ostensibly from the classic (?) motion picture "Ben Herb", depicting a group of raisins rowing a Roman slave galley. The Raisins' stock in trade as a band was Motown hits from the same era as "Grapevine", and the first from this raisin crew is "Get a Job".
According to this special - and our carrot host, Cecil Thyme - the California Raisins band is a quartet consisting of A.C., Beebop, Stretch, and Red. But how did these "garden variety" raisins become household names? Cecil plans to dig into their "roots". (Expect a LOT of puns.)
Cecil first introduces (after briefly accidentally tuning in dinosaur parodies of Siskel and Ebert from a previous Vinton production) to an old home movie of siblings A.C. and Beebop hitting each other with croquet mallets. Their screams of pain are in perfect harmony.
Were these early impromptu musical performances enjoyable for the siblings, Cecil asks? "It depends on who got in the first punch."
By age 12, the duo was able to perform without beating each other up and were joined by another raisin named Red. Soon a quartet named The Vine-yls, they soon caught the eye of a questionable agent named Rudy Bagaman due to their "lack of business representation".
Thanks to Rudy, they gets their first paying gig, performing "Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)" in a seedy bar. "It only cost us $10 apiece!" However, their bass singer, Zoot ("clearly the best-looking member of the group"), is the odd man out - probably because he's a grapefruit.
Zoot is fired and replaced with Stretch Thompson - coincidentally the only raisin in a bass quartet of grapefruits. Now working in a fish factory, Zoot says he has no hard feelings and writes songs in his spare time, breaking into "I Write the Songs".
(Zoot didn't actually write that song, but then again neither did Barry Manilow.)
Rudy quickly gets the band a gig on a dubious talent show called "Talent or Consequences" ("Who needs Carson?"), hosted by Ed McMelon and Banana White. A corncob does a horrible cover of "Tears on My Pillow" and is quickly cooked into popcorn - "Aw, schucks!"
The Vine-yls do a cover of "Tutti Frutti" (Zoot: "Hey, I wrote that song! Wanna hear another one?") that enraptures the audience - including Banana, who accidentally lets go of the rope holding the 16-ton weight over their heads. The review is obvious: a smash hit!
The story of the California Raisins (as they are now known) will continue, but first, a fake ad break for a veggie styling wand (actually a paring knife) and a soap opera: "when the melon of her dreams proposes marriage, what will Honey do? Will she say she can't elope?"
After their first TV appearance, the California Raisins are in high demand, but mysterious never show up for any concerts or recording sessions. Rudy explains: "They were in the hospital for a year, for crying out loud!" as they attempt to perform 'Tequila" for fellow patients.
Regarding the recuperation from their first TV gig: "That was the most painful experience of my life." Zoot shows up at the window again crooning "I Write the Songs": "...until now."
Forced to start from the bottom all over again, the Raisins are relegated to scat singing on street corners: "We were so poor we couldn't afford words!" They are soon interrupted by a Mick Jagger-esque broccoli, whose incoherent screeching they blame on his pants being too tight.
Rudy's attempt at an untapped market - live elevator music - is unsuccessful, so the Raisins's next attempt to find some outlet for their performance is as a singing telegram service, performing "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" to a stranded mountain climber in an extended comedy bit.
After reading a headline about the Raisins rescuing the same mountain climber they nearly scared half to death, a myopic film director, confusing them for meatballs, casts the group in a spaghetti western, singing "Shotgun" in a shootout with a chili pepper bandito.
"Everyone who saw the film liked it." "I talked to both of them myself!" Additional film roles follow, including parodies of "2001" (The monolith is a jukebox playing "At the Hop") and "Star Trek" (Mr. Spork receives an alien message: "Papa Oom Mow Mow").
However, none of the film are ever released, due to "import restrictions on foreign produce...leaving the raw stock rotting on the docks". We cut to another gag commercial break, which includes the real "Late Show" commercial from 1986 that introduced the California Raisins.
We also receive a pun-filled news update from anchorman Dan Radish: "The unemployment rate skyrocked to an all-time high last month. Experts blame the job shortage on the rising popularity of wax fruit. As a result, thousands of local apples and pears have been canned."
Their film career over, the Raisins do a goodwill tour of the North Pole, highlighted by a performance of "Cool Jerk" to an audience of snowmen. "I'd rate it right up there with kissing fruit flies." "Yeah, I'd rather vacation in a Waldorf salad."
Despite the hardships, the Raisins are now inseparable thanks to their Arctic tour...due to the fact they are now frozen solid. Disaster strikes as the 21-hour return flight to Fresno runs out of gas en route.
At the exact same moment, the Herbicides - including Lick Broccoli and Zoot - are performing live on the "Ed Succotash Show". The audience is mortified, but the performance is soon crashed (literally) by the Raisins's return flight home. They perform "Signed, Sealed, Delivered".
The performance goes well, leading to albums (including the real Atlantic soundtrack album for this special) and magazines (including a nude centerfold in "Bokchoy"). When asked how she's taking the success, A.C. and Beebop's mom replies: "They're not in their room?"
Our final gag ad break features a spot for a fruit dating hotline with a talkative peach: "I'm studying to be a cobbler." "You must be rolling in dough!"
Cecil wraps up by attesting the Raisins's fame to pure dumb luck and a Shakespearean pun: "Some are born grape, others achieve grapeness, and some have grapeness thrust upon them." The Raisins sing their signature song "Heard It Through the Grapevine". Zoot: "I wrote that song!"
So that was "Meet the Raisins!" What did I think? On the surface, you wouldn't think an animated special parodying "the rise and fall of" musician biographies filled with Motown song covers and produce puns would work,...
but it does thanks not only to the so-bad-they're-good caliber of the puns, but especially the choice of the cover songs and quality of the performance as well as the Looney Tunes slapstick and distinct visual style of Will Vinton and team's Claymation.
So, what happened to the California Raisins in our world after their heyday? They'd stick around for a tad longer, including a second TV special in 1990, "The Raisins: Sold Out!" This one involved the Raisins dumping Rudy for a dubious producer in an attempt to get rich quick...
but soon learning the error of their ways. This special was not as entertaining as the first in my opinion, because though it has a few good puns and covers (including one of "Respect"), most of the running time is devoted to a Saturday-morning-cartoon level plot.
Coincidentally, the Raisins actually DID get their own Saturday morning cartoon, which ran for a single season in 1989 on CBS with animation by Murakami, Wolf, and Swenson (the same studio who did their biggest hit at the time, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles").
For the California Raisins, that would be about it though - Raisinmania came and went and CALRAB went under (in part due to the fact that most of their revenue was being spent on licensing California Raisins merchandise rather than promoting raisins and compensating farmers).
The trademark of the California Raisins characters was acquired by the California state department of agriculture, who licenses them to CALRAB's successor, the California Raisin Marketing Board. You can see a California Raisin character logo on Sun-Maid raisin boxes to this day.
And raisins are still a popular snack today thanks to the ads that started this whole mess. To that we can thank Will Vinton, in whose memory this little recap was inspired by and is dedicated to.
You made not only talking about raisins, but watching and listening to them sing, fun. Thanks, Will. This concludes this recap. We now turn this feed back over to its regular unscheduled and unplanned tomfoolery...
