What RUINED Hanna-Barbera?

[TMC]

Hanna-Barbera is a company that ruled televised animation for decades. There was a time when they controlled over 80% of the market but then it came crashing down. How did this happen? How did this studio fall so far from grace?

[1960'sTVfan]

I can't say exactly what "ruined" Hanna-Barbera, but I know their 1970's cartoons aren't nearly as good when compared to HB's 1960's heyday when they were turning out some awesome cartoons. Hanna-Barbera were animation kings in the 1960's, then the quality of their cartoons began declining in the 1970's. I've never cared for Scooby Doo, it's my opinion that about the time when Scooby Doo started is when Hanna-Barbera's decline began.

[Steve_uk]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I can't say exactly what "ruined" Hanna-Barbera, but I know their 1970's cartoons aren't nearly as good when compared to HB's 1960's heyday when they were turning out some awesome cartoons. Hanna-Barbera were animation kings in the 1960's, then the quality of their cartoons began declining in the 1970's. I've never cared for Scooby Doo, it's my opinion that about the time when Scooby Doo started is when Hanna-Barbera's decline began.

No I've come to this conclusion too. I don't know whether children's tastes remained constant or the cartoons of the 1980s were just more visually appealing. The 2002 Scooby Doo film was a horrible mistake.

[king of comedy]

Times change and so did animation.

[Hawkee]

Out of all the cartoon companies today Hanna-Barbera is still the king because they are known for producing and creating classic cartoons but I think if it wasn't for Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Network would not exist and cartoons would not be shown on TNT and TBS in the 90's. But I think Hanna-Barbera got ruined in the 80's and 90's because they kept producing cartoons with good quality but some of their cartoons were cool but some were bad ideas. Take for instance I never understood how Hanna-Barbera created The Flintstone Kids in the 80's and when my mom and I saw it in reruns I thought The Flintstone Kids was cute but having The Flintstones characters as kids just didn't seem right and I would've perferred seeing The Jetsons as kids rather than The Flintstones. Another thing that I think ruined Hanna-Barbera was why did they try to put their popular characters in animated movies? Like I could never understand why they made the movie The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones and when I first saw it during movie day at my preschool I thought it was one of the worst ideas in Hanna-Barbera's history ever. But I think Hanna-Barbera's cartoons started to improve when they started focusing on making their popular cartoon characters such as Yogi Bear The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo having cartoons of their own and starring in merchandise. But the biggest cartoon star that has become even bigger for Hanna-Barbera is Scooby-Doo and now has starred in tons of direct to video movies and even featured in a series of WWE cartoons that air a lot on Cartoon Network. But when Joseph Hanna died you could tell that Hanna-Barbera would still be ruined and the quality of their cartoons went downhill. Take for example when Hanna-Barbera created The Powerpuff Girls for Cartoon Network it was an instant hit but I cannot figure out why they made the characters to have big heads and small bodies and that shocked me that Hanna-Barbera did this. But it would be nice if Hanna-Barbera would bring their classic cartoon characters such as Wally Gator Augie Doggie Magilla Gorilla Quick Draw McGraw and Huckleberry Hound into a new series for the new generation to enjoy
Bestie

[DadTheKing]

Hi, Bestie! I wish the old ones were being made again!
DTK

[tlc38tlc38]

The constant need to make cartoons of popular sitcoms & action dramas sure didn’t help the studio.

[MrCleveland]

I think that when Bill Hanna died...H-B was ruined!

Hanna-Barbera was competitive in the 80's and 90's but when Disney came into the TV world...many independent stations got lost in the competition.

That...and when Turner bought all of H-B shows...most got lost! But I hope that many classic shows get a revamp...and I'll say that Loopy de Loop is my fave....

[dee2364]

I didn't watch that YouTube video. I'm sick and tired of kids posting "informational" videos about cultural phenomenons they missed by 20 years. (What could someone who wasn't alive during a particular era know enough about it?) The comments section confirmed my suspicions that the video was riddled with inaccuracies; apparently, he claims that HB created The Smurfs. The characters were created by the Belgian artist, Peyo.

As for whether there was a "downfall", there wasn't any. Tastes changed, and times changed. I was an avid watcher of Saturday morning cartoons right into the 1990s, and there was a major shift in what kids wanted to watch. In the 1980s, it was all about shows based on action figures and toys (He-Man, She-Ra, Jem, GI Joe, etc.) or established characters from the comics (Garfield).

Then in the 1990s, it was all about anime (Sailor Moon, Pokemon) and cable TV. Kids were into more "quirky"/irreverent stuff like Spongebob Squarepants. Plus, the studios began taking over morning blocs. So, Disney had its morning bloc on ABC, FOX had its bloc (called FOX Kids) and the WB had its bloc (called Kids WB). There was less room for HB to dominate Saturday morning kids programming like in the past.

I think animated programming started aiming more towards a teenage, college age crowd, too. Stuff like The Tick, The X-Men and Batman and Beyond were definitely not for the type of young kids that HB used to target.

Also, I'm going to be the dissenting voice and say that HB was never all that creative and as a result, started running out of steam very early. All they did was take a popular TV show or movie and make a cartoon show out of it. So, the cartoon shows they produced were only as good as whatever show they could rip off or adapt. Once TVs and movie shows became too adult, they didn't have much to base new stuff on and went the "quantity over quality" route or kept running their most popular IPs (The Flintstones, Scooby Doo) into the ground.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

Their interesting shows came in the late fifties to maybe the mid sixties. After that, the quality fell off.

That's basically my opinion also. After The Flintstones six season run ended in 1966 is when the decline of Hanna-Barbera began, although they still had a few decent cartoons during the late 60's/early 70's.

[MrCleveland]

H-B tried to change with the times...

60's-Have anatomically correct animals and 1/2 hour TV Shows. (Example: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, The Flinstones, and The Jetsons to name a few).
70's-Have Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo Clones, shows based on TV Shows, and superhero-like shows. Later, it was a revamp of Yogi Bear and The Flinstones.
80's-Have a variety like we did in the 70's...shows that are based on toys (Pound Puppies), video games (Pac-Man), TV Shows (Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour), Comics (Richie Rich), Greeting Cards (Shirt Tales), Foreign Cartoons (Smurfs and Snorks), and I can go on...H-B had a lot of cartoons...not as much as the 70's, but...cartoons had better quality starting by then!
90's-Have original shows on Cartoon Network (Example: Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, and Johnny Bravo to name a few).

H-B tried to change with the time...the 80's DIDN'T ruin H-B...Bill Hanna's death in 2001 did....

[TMC]

Originally Posted by MrCleveland

H-B tried to change with the times...

60's-Have anatomically correct animals and 1/2 hour TV Shows. (Example: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, The Flinstones, and The Jetsons to name a few).
70's-Have Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo Clones, shows based on TV Shows, and superhero-like shows. Later, it was a revamp of Yogi Bear and The Flinstones.
80's-Have a variety like we did in the 70's...shows that are based on toys (Pound Puppies), video games (Pac-Man), TV Shows (Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour), Comics (Richie Rich), Greeting Cards (Shirt Tales), Foreign Cartoons (Smurfs and Snorks), and I can go on...H-B had a lot of cartoons...not as much as the 70's, but...cartoons had better quality starting by then!
90's-Have original shows on Cartoon Network (Example: Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, and Johnny Bravo to name a few).

H-B tried to change with the time...the 80's DIDN'T ruin H-B...Bill Hanna's death in 2001 did....

I found this docu-series recently. It's pretty good and detailed:


(This is just part 1, but he's got 3 videos so far)

[merlinjones]

HB quality started to go down the tubes when the company was bought by Taft Broadcasting in 1968 and was no longer an independent studio. That deal also severed the successful connection with Columbia/Screen Gems. Comedy was replaced by more superheroes/action by networks. Bill & Joe chose to go with the flow. Then the networks started to cut the budgets as the price of making shows rose. When the bulk of production shifted from USA to Asia around 1970 quality plummeted. At the same time, networks and pressure groups like Action for Children's Television became more involved in content creation, approval and entertainment (along with "violent" comedy or action based shows) was shoved away in favor of educational/prosocial material. The animation pro artists of the classic era started to retire and live-action shows cheaper to make started to be bought by networks instead of more expensive animation. Exasperated animators gave up the pretense of quality by early 70s and just began to crank it out (preproduction mostly) for union paychecks.

[TMC]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first studio retrospective where I'm taking a look at Hanna-Barbera Productions from their opening in 1957 through 1969! This video is a little bit of history, some anecdotes, a lot of cartoons, and whatever else I felt fit the topic, so I hope you enjoy!

Hi everyone! This one took a while, but I finally got it out. Welcome to the second part of my first studio retrospective where I'm taking a look at Hanna-Barbera Productions from 1970 through 1979! This video is a little bit of history, some anecdotes, a lot of cartoons, and whatever else I felt fit the topic, so I hope you enjoy!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

I found this docu-series recently. It's pretty good and detailed:


(This is just part 1, but he's got 3 videos so far)

In this second episode of the FLOHB documentary, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera would introduce some of their most popular characters to the world on Saturday morning and prime time TV in the 1960s.

In the third episode of the FLOHB: we take a look at how Hanna-Barbera ruled Saturday morning in the 70s thanks to a cowardly great dane. how the Smurfs saved them from their inevitable decline in the 80s and became one of the biggest cartoon shows at the time and how media mogul Ted Turner eyed the library for a huge idea he had.

------Contents of the video------

• 0:00 Memorial
• 0:05 Teepublic/amazon music unlimited ad
• 0:26 disclaimer
• 0:28 logo
• 0:33 prologue
• 1:39 intro
• 2:25 history of Scooby Doo
• 15:33 Scooby-Dooby Rip offs
• 16:49 other 70s HB cartoons
• 18:36 Political correctness on Saturday mornings
• 20:10 Superfriends
• 23:14 competition for HB/rise of Filmation
• 25:14 animation overseas
• 26:02 Charlotte's Web
• 29:26 live action HB projects
• 30:22 ad break/Faking Filmation plug
• 31:14 the rise of 80s syndicated cartoons
• 32:54 The Smurfs
• 36:25 changes at HB
• 39:00 A new Boss David Kirschner
• 41:23 Universal's HB productions (Funtastic world of HB ride/Jetsons the Movie)
• 43:12 Ted Turner
• 44:24 end of vid/ Patreon ad
• 44:49 credits
• 45:20 teaser for part 4

A new cable channel hits the scene introducing a new generation of fans to Hanna Barbera's library, HB would also be responsible for the network's early hits and would turn out to be their swan song.

------Contents of the video------

• 0:00 memorial
• 0:08 Frederator logo
• 0:12 teepublic/amazon music unlimited ad
• 0:32 disclaimer
• 0:34 logo
• 0:40 prologue
• 3:54 intro
• 4:40 the birth of Cartoon Network
• 6:53 Betty Cohen
• 7:50 Bill and Joe and CN
• 8:09 early 90s HB Projects
• 8:40 Fred Seibert
• 11:00 2 Stupid Dogs
• 14:54 Swat Kats
• 17:52 HB movies of the 90s
• 20:14 What a Cartoon
• 24:37 HB's last saturday morning hurrah
• 25:23 Dexters Lab
• 28:44 failed revivals
• 30:07 Time Warner/Turner merger
• 32:14 Johnny Bravo
• 37:42 Cow and Chicken
• 40:34 Cahuenga closes down/move to Sherman oaks
• 42:36 Powerpuff girls
• 48:51 new era
• 49:20 Boomerang/ Flintstones in viva rock vegas
• 50:25 Cartoon Network Studios is born
• 51:44 William Hanna's death/a look back at partnership with Joe Barbera
• 52:58 aftermath/now what?
• 53:49 patreon ad
• 54:18 credits

We wrap up our retrospective with taking a look at adult takes of classic HB characters from adult swim and the now infamous John K, Joseph Barbera's final projects during his twilight years and what Warner Bros have been doing with the classic Hanna Barbera IPs.

------Contents of the video------

• 0:00 frederator logo
• 0:04 disclaimer
• 0:07 logo
• 0:12 prologe
• 2:04 intro
• 2:51 Space ghost coast to coast
• 7:51 adult swim's beginnings
• 9:02 Harvey Birdman on the case
• 11:50 This aint yo daddy's Hanna-Barbera
• 13:49 Teepublic/audible ad break
• 14:39 Joseph Barbera goes solo
• 15:55 The Karate Guard- Joe's swan song
• 18:17 Joe's death
• 19:06 WB owns HB
• 21:20 SCOOB
• 23:51 Tom and Jerry (2021)
• 24:25 HB Returns (kinda)
• 25:04 Jellystone
• 27:38 conclusion
• 29:30 closing remarks
• 29:50 the end
• 29:57 patreon
• 30:40 credits