Aspects of Art Clokey’s personality are displayed in Gumby: Pokey’s cynicism is Clokey in real life; Gumby represents optimism; Prickle shows his analytical side and the Blockheads (above) represent mischievousness.

GR: In addition to what Tim Burton’s been doing lately, I’ve also heard that Vinton Studios is now doing some stop-motion under Henry Selick. Does that in any way affect what you guys are doing?

JC: Absolutely not. It never has. We support stop-motion wherever it’s being made. It’s a wonderful art form! What we’ve always done for 50 years with Gumby and Davey and Goliath is 223 Gumby episodes, 65 Davey episodes, six Davey specials, a Gumby feature film and a Davey movie that aired last Christmas. The characters my parents created are what our studio produces. When other studios do stop-motion or clay animation, we support it because it supports the art form of stop-motion. We are story driven just like Pixar. We are driven by telling Gumby stories. We are very much in the camp that clay animation has an appeal that can’t be matched.

GR: Does your father have a favorite Gumby character?

JC: Well, they’re all him! He’s the voice of Pokey and Prickle. Pokey is his personality in real life — more cynical and wanting to have an ice cream cone rather than go on an adventure. But Gumby is my dad too. Gumby is what my dad sees as the best parts of himself — the optimism and the strong character. My dad really believes in character as power. Gumby represents my dad’s soul. Pokey represents my dad’s human form, as does Prickle because he’s more analytical. The Blockheads represent my dad’s mischievous side. It’s very telling. If you watch Gumby episodes, it opens up my dad’s psyche to the world.

Gumby is a part of Americana. His kind of physical humor like Laurel and Hardy, is timeless and he connects with kids.

GR: Is there any particular reason why you guys are pushing for this resurgence in Gumby right now?

JC: My mom Ruth and my dad Art wanted something of value for children. They still feel that way today. They said to me seven years ago, “Our mission to you is to get Gumby back on TV,” because they want kids to be able to experience the joy of Gumby episodes again. That’s why I’m doing it. We want to produce a new movie. We have a couple new scripts. One is based on one of my dad’s classic scripts that he never produced. We have a new script that our studio’s creative team has made. We’re excited about doing a new Gumby series and remastering the old series and getting them back on TV. The reason we’re doing the resurgence is because we’ve heard from thousands and thousands of fans that they want Gumby back on TV. Because they love Gumby.

GR: How does Gumby fit into the children’s “mediascape” as everything now seems to be dominated by edgier channels like Cartoon Network?

JC: But that was always the case. I mean Bugs Bunny and Road Runner were edgy too. Gumby wasn’t competing with those shows. Gumby is a different world. In the ‘80s, Gumby was very ‘80s. He did lots of things that paralleled with the times. When you watch Gumby now, he will reflect the times and kids today. Gumby and Pokey’s characters always stay in tact, but the adventures they have change with the times.

GR: You mentioned a forthcoming Gumby movie. Since Gumby was designed as a character for animated shorts, will the characters’ wit and charm be sustained across an 80-minute feature?

JC: Yes. It’s funny, you know, back in 1956 and 1957 the first Gumby episodes produced for NBC’s The Gumby Show were 12-minute shows with six minute shorts. Then in 1960, my parents cut them in half and they’ve been two separate shows ever since. I’m putting those shows back together when I’m remastering them, back to their original ‘50s form. When I put them back together, there is a definite beginning, middle and end. It’s like a 12-minute Pixar movie. So my dad was telling his stories like that when he originally made Gumby. Stories are always the most important thing.