Trivia / Porky Pig

• Creator Backlash: Allegedly, Porky became an unpopular choice for some Warner staff, due to being less flexible and colorful than newer more abrasive stars like Bugs and Daffy. Director Frank Tashlin in particular noted his dislike for Porky. He resented having to make endless shorts around him. Even Porky's own creator, Friz Freleng, only used him sporadically in his own cartoons. Freleng later made fun of how much more boring Porky was in comparison to other characters:
  Freleng: Nobody liked working with Porky Pig much because he was sort of a square.
• Creator's Pest: Apparently, according to several WB sources, Porky Pig is a Scrappy to many creators and executives of the series, explaining his lack of spotlight. Director Frank Tashlin in particular thought Porky was "a terrible character", and resented most of his filmography being devoted to him compared to more abrasive and flexible characters like Bugs and Daffy. His fellow director Norm McCabe thought Porky was too much of a "boy scout" to do much with. Ironically among the few of the staff that loved Porky was producer and later head of marketing, Leon Schlesinger, which may explain why Porky's career flourished far less upon his death.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Porky was originally voiced by Joe Dougherty, who suffered from an actual stutter. He was eventually replaced when the stutter made recording too difficult. His replacement, Mel Blanc, reproduced the stutter, and it has since become one of Porky's defining characteristics.
• Long-Runners: Porky starred in cartoons from 1935 to 1965, making him second only to Daffy Duck in terms of sheer longevity.
• The Other Darrin: While all the cast went through this trope following Blanc's death, Porky is one of a small number of characters for whom Blanc was The Other Darrin. Joe Dougherty initially played Porky, but was ultimately replaced by Blanc after Dougherty couldn't control his real life stutter during recording sessions, and then by Bob Bergen, who has played him in almost all official projects since then. It seems he's the only Looney Tunes character whose voice was replaced depending on who could do the best stutter.
  • Bergen was very briefly replaced by Billy West for the short "My Generation G-G-Gap" after producer Larry Doyle fired him for protesting the direction that the shorts were taking (West also provides his "That's All Folks" at the end of all of Doyle's finished shorts). West was also planned to voice Porky in the other Larry Doyle-produced Porky shorts, but the series was quickly put to a halt, with Bergen taking over the role again in all later projects.
  • Other actors who have voiced Porky post-Blanc include Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey, Greg Burson, Rob Paulsen, and Eric Bauza.
• Throw It In!: Porky's original voice actor was given the boot because his inability to control his very-real stutter made recording sessions last for hours. When Mel Blanc took over, he kept the stutter in and played it for comedy.
• What Could Have Been: In the early 1940s, Bob Clampett wanted to ditch the slimmer, redesigned Porky in order to go back to the original Fat Porky design, but Leon Schlesinger wouldn't let him, so he just did that to Elmer Fudd instead.