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Since there has been a push for more Talespin related topics I decided to make one of a rather big subject of the show that surprisingly hasn't got a topic to herself yet, Rebecca Cunningham.

Discussing Becky is interesting since she is perhaps the most polarized element of the show, half the fans adore her and think she is the heart of the story, other fans hate her guts and think she's an annoying b****. Having already talked about Kit and Col Spigot, what are your views on Miss Cunningham and her effect on the show?

According to Jymn Magon, writer and co-creator, she was torn apart between pleasure and her business at H4H. She expected Baloo to be on time, reliable, trustworthy, and not screw up on his job; this could explain why she was constantly on his back 24/7--it showed she really looked to Baloo as a friend, and maybe as a romantic partner (although, it's only hinted).

I think that might be the one element that places her as a pseudo-replacement for Bagheera from The Jungle Book in Baloo's chemistry, though at the same time shows her differences from him. Bagheera had a similar role in the film, he took on an important duty because his overconfidence made him expectant everyone would obey and be reliable towards him, only for his shine to slowly wither as everything falls apart. Rebecca is similar, she was somewhat idealistic in her methods and almost in a whimsy about getting her 'office and two of her very own employees', then Baloo started to act up and her temperament started rising quickly (Sally Struthers was good at showing these mood swings, in her opening seconds she goes from pleasantly greeting Baloo to a Vicky Guererro-esque 'EXCUSE ME!').

However, Rebecca is someone who views herself as Bagheera but is probably more like Baloo deep down. She has a very similar arrogance and obnoxiousness as him, something which led to Baloo acting as the straight man to her own eccentricities at times. If she weren't brought up in very different standards from Baloo she may have ended up very similar to him. I think it's the fact they both equally foil and provide for each other in much more realistic manner than some other ficitional couples (which usually just follow the 'stupid male vs competant female' routine) that leads to the romantic pairing becoming popular.

Rebecca may be unique as she seemingly the one character who developed outside the pilot, her arrogance and snobbishness toned down slightly and some aesops actually seemed to stick (I think anyway, it might just be the different airing order or that they simply ran out of 'Jerk Rebecca' stories but either way it led to a good approach for her). As she began to learn nobody's perfect (especially not herself) she seemed to warm up more to Baloo, which of course led to some rather affectionate moments.

She did an AMAZING job on TaleSpin actually, maybe I would even go as far as to say she was the best actress of the bunch. (though they were all very talented)
You can almost SEE her feelings only by HEARING her.

Example : talking about "Save the Tiger" again, the part where Baloo decides to leave Higher for Hire, she says "Oh I'll be fine! Don't worry about me. I'll get a new plane and a pilot. Only the best for Higher for Hire"...but the tone of her voice clearly shows she doesn't believe it one second. It's VERY well played.
And this is also a simple example of what a kid would not understand, but an adult would. Sometimes people think that to make different levels of readings, a series/film needs to show violence/sex/nostalgia/other kind of references. Well, to me this single part underlines how much they're wrong!
I have often noticed that kids usually hate Rebecca. I think this is the major reason.

I really do think that most people who hate her only see the surface of the character. Sure, from an external point of view, she may seem as annoying as a business woman can be, only caring for making money. But there are a LOT of examples in the show that proves she was much more than that. Like, her sweetness and love for Molly and for mens (in both Her Chance to Dream and Molly Codled), her friendship/love(?) for Baloo (shown in Stormy Weather, Last Horizons, Save the Tiger, My fair Baloo,...) and she cares for Kit too (the lullaby cut from Plunder & Lightning) and there are many others I forget...
Actually, when you sum up all of it, it's clear that deep inside, she cares about all of them as a family more than she cares about her business.

Again, "Save the Tiger"...Am I the only one who has noticed that on the part she tries to explain to Baloo what Higher for Hire means to her, she says "No! It means a home, a life and...and everything that's important to me!", she actually grabbed Baloo's cap and holding it right on her heart? I DONT think this is any kind of coincidence.


Exactly! They are completly NOT stereotypical. And that's probably what made some people not liking the series, because it was clearly more original on that part. (and when people are given something TOO different from what they're used to, they usually end up not liking it at first. The inclusion of Jungle Book characters in completly different settings was another part of the problem of being TOO original...)
I don't even have any example of such characters in the Disney universe (maybe Kuzco...but he is much more a jerk than both B&B were.)

True, Struthers was able to reach all different sorts of fluctuations in emotion for both serious and comical effect. I could argue she was the best sounding VA in the show (Gough and Cummings were good but usually worked only on comical characters so only displayed a certain amount of emotion).

I think it might be due to the fact that kids are more moralistic than adults. They don't appreciate flaws and humanized aspects, they like wacky aspects sure but they often have a very 'good and evil' view of things. It's usually only when we get older that we appreciate flaws and the goody goody types we once adored seem to be rather bland in actuality (you'd be surprised how often the older fans adore villainous characters for example). I wasn't that big on Rebecca as a kid but I now I think her arrogance and hamminess are what makes her entertaining a lot of the time, especially considering the era's tendacy to make rather bland idealized female characters at the time.

I think Rebecca also brought out a lot of chemistry with Baloo, which despite the aforementioned problem with using Jungle Book characters, at least allowed us to see the character with addtional depths not shown in the original movie. Rebecca wasn't just an exasperated straight man like Bagheera, she had her own eccentricities that allowed Baloo to show his own shades of responsibility and logic. It was a very two-way relationship. Perhaps this is the reason I like the idea of Rebecca appearing in a Jungle Book feature so much.

I never noticed that emotion in Save The Tiger beforehand. It' just a shame Baloo was acting like a total swine in that episode. I think some fans noted the shame that Baloo never got some huge development in his treatment of Rebecca, he liked her sure, but we never saw just how far he'd go in his devotion to her like we did vise versa in that episode albeit in contrast to his treatment of Kit which was shown as self sacrificial from the very first episode (we did get a little close in 'Her Chance To Dream' however, he did at least seem very determined to bring her back). Sadly being a syndicated show, status quo had to be kept and no matter how much of a friend they seemed to grow Baloo was back to trying to buy back the Sea Duck and bailing.

You may have heard the story about the woman who sent the wrong DNA results last November. Marion Cunningham, the wife of Howard Cunningham, is the mother of Joanie and Richie and surrogate mom to Fonzie. As a housewife, Marion Cunningham handles the usual tasks of a housewife: cooking family meals, cleaning and doing the laundry while her husband works. Here, she shares her experience with readers. https://www.savinggain.com/view/zero-breeze

Yes, she is an interesting character.