Tex Avery and His TV Ads

In 1955, Fred "Tex" Avery left his career as a big screen legend of film animation and joined the small screen relatively new world of television commercial animation, creating such icons as those screaming roaches in the "Raid" pesticide ads and the politically incorrect "Frito Bandito."

Tex Avery the Legend

Fred "Tex" Avery is best known for creating, or at least playing an essential part of the development of stellar cartoon characters for Warner Brothers Animation include Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Elmer Fudd. He is, however, most critically acclaimed for the cartoon shorts that he created after leaving Warner and going to work for MGM Animation. His no-holds-barred eyeball-popping MGM characters included Screwy Squirrel and Droopy, along with his ribald characters, The Wolf and The Girl.

After MGM folded its animation wing, Avery went to work again for Walter Lantz, his boss in the earliest years of his career. This time he worked on Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy cartoons

Cascade Studios

Cascade Studios was an independent animation production company, one of the pioneer producers of animated advertisements for television. Tex Avery experienced a more unaccredited behind-the-scenes success when he went to work at Cascade, but it enabled his career as an animator to extend for another 20 years.

To fans, his "Raid" roaches were a dead giveaway. They screamed and their eyes and tongues bulged in absolute horror as the slogan boomed, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead."

The Frito Bandito

Avery's iconic Frito Bandito character was introduced in 1967 with another animation legend, Mel Blanc, doing the Bandito's voice. Unfortunately, Frito-Lay's corn chip character was an unflattering Mexican ethnic stereotype, a bandit with an ammunition belt, two guns, and a gold tooth. In 1971 The National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation League launched a lawsuit against Frito-Lay and Cascade. And the Frito Bandito faded into retirement.

Tex Avery's Last Years

In 1979 Tex had left Cascade Studios to go to work for Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, former colleagues at Walter Lantz Studios during his early years in the business. At the time, Hanna Barbera was the leading children's television animation studio. Kwicky Koala was the last cartoon character that Tex Avery created. The show debuted on CBS in 1981 and only lasted one season. Fred "Tex" Avery died in 1980 during the production of "The Kwicky Koala Show."