http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/04/13/saturday-morning-hanna-barbera-videos/

Posted Apr 13th 2008 2:05PM by Richard Keller

When you look at the history of television you can usually connect names to certain eras of programming. For instance, producer Aaron Spelling can be connected with many of the dramas and primetime soap operas of the 70s and 80s; Garry Marshall can be matched to many of the great ABC comedies of the 70s; Mark Goodson and Bill Toddman can be hooked up with the daytime game shows that pocked the television landscape for three decades.

When the names William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are mentioned two words come to mind: Saturday mornings. Without the creations that the Hanna-Barbera studios put out year after year Saturday mornings would have looked much different. Oh, other studios like Rankin-Bass and Filmation would have probably picked up the slack, but then we wouldn't have known about Space Ghost, Scooby-Doo, Mutley, Jabberjaw, or the Wonder Twins.

From the late 50s until the early 90's Hanna-Barbera was a major presence on television. Their shows produced countless imitations (some coming from Hanna-Barbera itself), thousands of characters, and memories that will last our lifetime.

And, it all started with a cat and a mouse.

William "Bill" Hanna (1910-2001) and Joseph Barbera (1911-2006) first met at MGM in 1938. Joe came from the Van Beuren Studios/Terrytoons, where he was animator and script writer (and produced a series called Tom and Jerry -- no relation to the cat and mouse), Bill came from Leon Schlesinger Productions, where he was head of their Ink and Paint Department.

The two would join together at MGM to direct theatrical short cartoons: Joe was the layout artist while Bill was the director. Their first short was the 1940 Puss Gets the Boot, which would become the first Tom and Jerry cartoon and be nominated for an Academy Award a year later. It was that cartoon that began a partnership that would produce 114 Tom and Jerry shorts, seven Academy Awards for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject, and 14 nominations.

All looked great for the duo. By 1944 they had established H-B Enterprises in order to independently produce sponsored films and, later, television commercials. A decade later they would be put in charge of MGM's animated division. This new title would be short-lived as the movie studio decided to shutdown their animated division in 1957. So, what did Joe and Bill do? Since they were already producing commercials for television, they decided to jump head first into the wonderful world of animated television programs.

Their first offering was The Ruff & Reddy Show, which premiered on NBC in December, 1957 and featured a dog and cat team that fell into many mishaps. Like many of the serialized theatrical shorts of the day, Ruff and Reddy featured cliffhanger storylines during each four-minute cartoon. It also featured the first appearance of the limited animation technique that the studio would be famous, and notorious for, throughout its lifetime. The show lasted until 1960, when it was cancelled by the network.

The next cartoon Hanna-Barbera produced was 1958's The Huckleberry Hound Show, featuring a blue dog with a Southern accent who was always looking for a job. This was the production company's breakout show. Not only did viewers connect to the doleful little hound, but they also enjoyed the two supporting features: Yogi Bear and Pixie and Dixie. After running for four seasons, winning an Emmy Award in 1960, and begetting The Yogi Bear Show in 1961, Huckleberry Hound ended its original run in 1962.

rom the late 50s until the early 90's Hanna-Barbera was a major presence on television. Their shows produced countless imitations (some coming from Hanna-Barbera itself), thousands of characters, and memories that will last our lifetime.

And, it all started with a cat and a mouse.

to be continued...

continued...

The 1970s was also the decade where Hanna-Barbera revisited some of the old favorites in new adventures. The Pebbles and Bam-Bam Show returned to the town of Bedrock and the adventures of Pebbles Flintstone and Bam-Bam Rubble as teenagers. Yogi's Ark and Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977) featured many of the studio's stars of the 60s and early 70s in further adventures. Joe and Bill even got to work with the two characters that started their careers as Tom and Jerry premiered in 1975 along with The Grape Ape. Only this time around, thanks to the rigid standards of Saturday morning television, Tom and Jerry were the best of friends.

As the 70s moved into the 80s things began to change for Hanna-Barbera. As viewers began to age and studios like Filmation and Rankin-Bass began to produce more and more fare for Saturday mornings, Joe and Bill's organization began to shift from original content and move towards the production of licensed properties. Some of these included animated versions of The Smurfs, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Shirt Tales, Pac-Man and GoBots, which were a very bad imitation of the Transformers. They also began to team up with other studios, like Ruby-Spears (founded by two former members of the Hanna-Barbera team) and Warner Brothers television to produce such forgettable shows as The Dukes (cartoon version of The Dukes of Hazard), Wildfire, and the animated version of Teen Wolf.

By the early 90s, with most of their staff moving to Warner Brothers animation department and the major networks shifting away from animated fare, Hanna-Barbera's reign on Saturday mornings was basically over. They had a few shows on the schedule -- A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The Flintstone Kids, and Tom and Jerry Kids -- which featured younger versions of their classic characters, but nothing else that really drew the viewer's attention like their shows of the 60s and 70s. By 1991 both Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears were sold to Turner Broadcasting.

This was not the end for Hanna-Barbera, though. With the purchase by Turner the studio got a second life on cable, with much of their old library and new product being featured on TBS, and the newly founded Cartoon Network. The studio, now renamed Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, produced The New Adventures of Captain Planet (the sequel to the DIC-produced Captain Planet and the Planeteers) and 2 Stupid Dogs, for the Superstation, and Swat Kats and The Pirates of Dark Water for syndication (although Pirates first ran on ABC). It even produced a series called Jump, Rattle and Roll that was exclusively aired on, of all places, the Disney Channel.

As the 90s progressed, production of original Hanna-Barbera shows shifted to Cartoon Network, which was home to many older H-B shows before the Boomerang network came along. Shows like Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, The New Adventures of Johnny Quest and The Powerpuff Girls, would garner a new set of Hanna-Barbera fans, old and young. When Time-Warner purchased Turner Broadcasting in the mid 1990s the Hanna-Barbera were shutdown and merged with Warner Brothers Animation, ending a nearly four-decade run for the animation studio.

Despite the poor animation and, sometime, cheesy plot an dialogue. the hundreds of cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera will always have a soft spot in our lives. And, with networks like Boomerang as well as numerous DVDs, those cartoons can be passed down for new generations to enjoy.

The Hanna-Barbera menageries remains my favorite batch of cartoons, because those are the characters that I grew up with. [But then that's obvious from my avatar!] Warner Bros.'
Looney Tunes gang are a very close second. Then, Jay Ward (and, of
course, Disney's classic characters). The '50s and early '60s were a great
time to be a kid (in my opinion).

i absolutely love many of hanna barbera's cartoons, and i would choose them over warner bros. and disney every time. okay, HB had a few cartoons, which are worth forgetting such as two stupid dogs but they have been consistent throughout the decades. as well as yogi, boo boo, blooper and snapper, atom ant, jetsons to name but many from the 60s, i also liked cow and chicken, pirates of dark water and johnny bravo of the 90s.

they had a winning formula, but also their characters are instantly memorable to many of us and will live in our hearts for a very long time

Such a shame Hanna Barbera Productions had to shut down as they had a uniqe style, even in the 90s before they merged into Warner. Even a shame that a lot of the lesser shows will never get a DVD release.

Such a shame Hanna Barbera Productions had to shut down as they had a uniqe style, even in the 90s before they merged into Warner. Even a shame that a lot of the lesser shows will never get a DVD release.

yeah, when i first read that they had to close production, i was shocked. they were one of the best animation companies around and it is thanks to them we were able to watch the flintstones, top cat, yogi bear and scooby doo to name but many. i know that dynomutt is out on dvd in the US, but it hasn't been released in the UK sadly. it was also one of my personal favourites as well

In the early 60's, three H-B cartoons were on Prime-Time as 1/2 hour shows. These three were Top Cat The Flinstones and The Jetsons.

And three years after H-B stopped making Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons, they joined-up with Columbia Pictures (Which was their Production Studio between 1958-1967) to make another theatrical cartoon called Loopy de Loop. They made 49 Theatrical Shorts between 1960-1965. Amazing, isn't it?

In the early 60's, three H-B cartoons were on Prime-Time as 1/2 hour shows. These three were Top Cat The Flinstones and The Jetsons.

And three years after H-B stopped making Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons, they joined-up with Columbia Pictures (Which was their Production Studio between 1958-1967) to make another theatrical cartoon called Loopy de Loop. They made 49 Theatrical Shorts between 1960-1965. Amazing, isn't it?

absolutely. their track record in animation production speaks for itself. also no offence but unlike warner bros and disney, H-B were arguably the first real company whose shows were targeted at children AND adults. the flintstones and top cat, which was based on sgt bilko, had that sitcom feel to it, and none more so as those were the very few shows that had a laughter track in the background