Yogi Bear's co-creator dies at 95

[theshark8777]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.

Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife, Sheila, at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons.

The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

The partners, who had first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s and '60s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."

Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons."

Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.

"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year -- without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.

"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from prime time to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.

"While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work."

Hanna, who died in 2001 at age 90, once said he was never a good artist, but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."

The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.

Jerry was borrowed for the mostly live-action musical "Anchors Aweigh," dancing with Gene Kelly in a scene that become a screen classic.

After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves.

With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed -- and expensive -- action featured in theatrical cartoon.

Like "The Simpsons" three decades later, "The Flintstones" found success in prime-time TV by not limiting its reach to children.

The program, a parody of "The Honeymooners," was among the 20 most popular shows on television during the 1960-61 season, and Fred's shout of "yabba dabba doo!" entered the language.

The Jetsons, which debuted in 1962, were the futuristic mirror image of the Flintstones.

"It was a family comedy with everyday situations and problems that we window-dressed with gimmicks and inventions," Barbera once said.

"Our stories were such a contrast to many of the animated series that are straight destruction and blasting away for a solid half hour."

The show ran just one season on network TV but was often rerun, and the characters were revived in the 1980s in a syndicated show.

Barbera said he liked the freedom syndication gave the producers, with none of the meddling from network executives.

"Today, Charlie Chaplin couldn't get his material by a network," he once said.

Even so, the influence of Hanna-Barbera was felt for decades. In 2002 and again in 2004, characters from the cartoon series "Scooby-Doo" were brought to the big screen in films that combined live actors and animation.

Hanna-Barbera, meanwhile, received eight Emmys, including the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1988.

"Joe Barbara was a passionate storyteller and a creative genius who, along with his late partner Bill Hanna, helped pioneer the world of animation," said friend, colleague and Warner animation President Sander Schwartz.

"Joe's contributions to both the animation and television industries are without parallel -- he has been personally responsible for entertaining countless millions of viewers across the globe."

Neither Hanna, born in 1910, nor Barbera, born in 1911, set out to be cartoonists.

Barbera, who grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, originally went into banking. Soon, however, he turned his doodles into magazine cartoons and then into a job as an animator.

Hanna, who had studied engineering and journalism, originally went into animation because he needed a job.

Although not the hit factory it was in the '50s and '60s, the Hanna-Barbera studio remained active through the years.

It eventually became a subsidiary of Great American Communications Co., and in 1991 it was purchased by a partnership including Turner Broadcasting System, which used the studio's library when it launched cable TV's Cartoon Network in 1992. Turner is now part of Time Warner.

Funeral arrangements were pending, Miereanu said. In addition to his wife, the animator is survived by three children from a previous marriage, Jayne, Neal and Lynn.

[Jenya]

Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera Studios Dies at 95 (Update2)

By Steven Bodzin

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna- Barbera Studios and creator of Oscar-winning characters Tom and Jerry as well as Huckleberry Hound and the Flintstone family, died today of natural causes at home. He was 95.

Warner Bros. Animation, which acquired Hanna-Barbera in 1996, announced his death in a statement today. Barbera, who continued working at the studio throughout his life, ``was still a very active part of the development'' before he died, spokesman Gary Miereanu said today in a telephone interview.

As an animator at MGM, Barbera collaborated with William Hanna to create Tom and Jerry, the cat and mouse characters that won seven Academy Awards in 10 years. He and Hanna started a studio in 1957 after MGM scrapped its animation department. They created the ``Huckleberry Hound Show'' in 1958 and introduced Yogi Bear as a character on the show ``Quick Draw McGraw.''

Modern television cartoons such as ``The Simpsons'' ``definitely owe a debt to the things that Hanna-Barbera did back then,'' said Andrew Farago, gallery manager at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. They made televised cartoons ``mainstream,'' he said.

``The Flintstones,'' which featured Fred Flintstone working at a quarry sometimes called the Slate Rock and Gravel Co., was the first animated series in prime time when it debuted in 1960. The show continues to air in more than 80 countries, Warner Bros. said.

Barbera and Hanna, who died in 2001, also created the animated sitcom ``The Jetsons,'' starring George Jetson who worked at Spacely Space Sprockets.

Determined to Entertain

Barbera abandoned a career in banking to become a cartoonist when he was in his 20s, according to the Warner Bros. statement. Mark Evanier, who wrote scripts for Hanna-Barbera from 1975 to 1984, emphasized Barbera's longevity in a telephone interview.

``When he was 80, he looked 60'' Evanier said. ``He had more energy than anyone in the room.''

Barbera was a pleasure to work with, though there were disputes sometimes, Evanier said.

``Still, it was more pleasant to disagree with Joe than to agree with some other people in the business,'' Evanier said. ``He didn't take it personally.''

Barbera's legacy remains today. Television show ``Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!'' is the most-popular broadcast children's show on Saturday morning since debuting Sept. 23, Miereanu said. ```Tom and Jerry Tales' is still one of the highest-rated kids' shows on TV,'' he said.

Barbera is survived by his wife Sheila and three children, Jayne, Neal and Lynn, Warner Bros. said.

SOURCE: Bloomberg.com

[Superstar]

Wow, he was 95. At least he lived a long life before he passed R.I.P

[Cactus Jack]

RIP Joe Barb

[FOLrocks1]

That's sad. I loved their cartoons.

[MuppetDanny]

He will be missed

[Sharop]

RIP, Mr Barbera.

I really like a lot of those old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Popeye, Scooby Doo, The Snorks, Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines...

[Jonathan]

RIP Mr. Barbera.

[theshark8777]

I miss the old Hanna Barbara cartoons. They launched Cartoon Network and now are hard to find. Yes some of them are on Boomerang, but some have just disappeared.

[Nighthawk76]

I think that The Flintstones was the first show that I ever watched.

[Karen*]

Awww. He sure touched a lot of people with all those classic cartoons he helped create. RIP.

[cmcb06]

R.I.P. Mr. Barbera, you will be missed.

Thanks for the memories.

[Lex Luthor]

Thanks for the memories