Hanna-Barbera - History - Television Cartoons

Television Cartoons

Hanna-Barbera was one of the first animation studios to successfully produce cartoons especially for television. Previously, animated programming on television had consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of theatrical cartoons. Their first cartoon series for television, The Ruff & Reddy Show, featuring live-action host Jimmy Blaine and several older Columbia-owned cartoons as filler, premiered on NBC in December 1957. In 1958, H-B had their first big success with The Huckleberry Hound Show, a syndicated series aired in most markets just before primetime. The program was a ratings success, and introduced a new crop of cartoon stars to audiences, in particular Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. The show won the 1960 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming. The studio began to expand rapidly following the success of Huckleberry Hound, and several animation industry alumni – in particular former Warner Bros. Cartoons storymen Michael Maltese and Warren Foster, who became H-B's new head writers – joined the staff at this time.

By 1959, H-B Enterprises was reincorporated as Hanna-Barbera Productions, and was slowly becoming a leader in television animation production. After introducing a second syndicated series, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, in 1959, Hanna-Barbera migrated into network primetime production with the animated ABC sitcom The Flintstones in 1960. Loosely based upon the popular live-action sitcom The Honeymooners yet set in a fictionalized stone age of cavemen and dinosaurs, The Flintstones ran for six seasons in prime time on ABC, becoming a ratings and merchandising success. It was the longest-running animated show in American prime time television history until being beaten out by The Simpsons in 1996. During the early and mid-1960s, the studio debuted several new successful programs, among them prime time ABC series such as Top Cat, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest. New shows produced for syndication and Saturday mornings included The Yogi Bear Show (a syndicated spinoff from The Huckleberry Hound Show), The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series featuring Wally Gator, The Magilla Gorilla Show and The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show. Hanna-Barbera also produced several television commercials, often starring their own characters, and animated the opening credits for the ABC sitcom Bewitched (the Bewitched characters would appear as guest stars in an episode of The Flintstones). The studio also produced a few theatrical projects for Columbia Pictures, including Loopy De Loop, a series of theatrical cartoons shorts, and two feature film projects based on its television properties, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! (1964) and The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and two TV specials, Alice in Wonderland (or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?) (1966) and Jack and the Beanstalk (1967), the first ever Hanna-Barbera television production to be done in live-action/animation.

Hanna-Barbera moved off of the Kling lot in 1963 (by then renamed the Red Skelton Studios), when the Hanna-Barbera Studio, located at 3400 Cahuenga Blvd. in Studio City, California, was opened. This California contemporary office building was designed by architect Arthur Froehlich, its ultra-modern design included a sculpted latticework exterior, moat, fountains, and after later additions, a Jetsons-like tower. The Columbia/Hanna-Barbera partnership lasted until 1967, when Hanna and Barbera sold the studio to Taft Broadcasting while retaining their positions there.

Starting in 1965, Hanna-Barbera tried its hand at being a record label for a short time. Danny Hutton was hired by Hanna-Barbera to become the head of Hanna Barbera Records or HBR from 1965 to 1966. HBR Records was distributed by Columbia Records, with artists such as Louis Prima, Five Americans, Scatman Crothers (who later lent his voice to a few Hanna-Barbera cartoons, such as Hong Kong Phooey), and The 13th Floor Elevators. Previously, children's records with Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters were released by Colpix Records.

After the success of The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show in 1965, H-B debuted two new Saturday morning series the following year: Space Ghost, which featured action-adventure, and Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles, which blended action-adventure with the earlier Hanna-Barbera humor style. A slew of H-B action cartoons followed in 1967, among them Shazzan, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, Young Samson and Goliath, The Herculoids and an adaptation of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four along with new syndicated shows based on famous celebrities such as The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show and Laurel and Hardy. Between these programs and others remaining on the air (reruns of The Flintstones, Jonny Quest and The Jetsons).

In 1968, Hanna-Barbera mixed live-action and animated comedy-action for its NBC anthology series, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, while the successful Wacky Races (and its spinoffs The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines), aired on CBS, returned H-B to straight animated slapstick humor. Hanna-Barbera's next runaway hit came in 1969 with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, a CBS program which blended elements of the H-B comedy series, the action series, and rival Filmation's then-current hit program The Archie Show. Scooby-Doo centered on four teenagers and a dog solving supernatural mysteries, and was popular enough to remain on the air and in production until 1986. A cavalcade of H-B Saturday morning cartoons featuring mystery-solving/crime-fighting teenagers with comic pets soon followed, among them Josie and the Pussycats, The Funky Phantom, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Clue Club and Jabberjaw. Cattanooga Cats came next and aired on ABC in 1969. By 1977, Scooby-Doo was the centerpiece of a two-hour ABC program block titled Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, which also included Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, and Laff-a-Lympics.

During the 1970s in particular, most American television animation was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The only competition came from Filmation, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Ruby-Spears, and a few other companies that specialized primarily in prime time specials (e.g. Rankin-Bass, Chuck Jones and Lee Mendelson-Bill Meléndez). Filmation, in particular, lost ground to Hanna-Barbera when the failure of Filmation's Uncle Croc's Block led ABC president Fred Silverman to drop Filmation and give Hanna-Barbera the majority of the network's Saturday morning cartoon time. Besides Scooby-Doo and the programs derived from it, Hanna-Barbera also found success with new programs such as Harlem Globetrotters, The Addams Family and Hong Kong Phooey along with the hit 1973 feature film Charlotte's Web. The syndicated Wait Till Your Father Gets Home returned Hanna-Barbera to adult-oriented comedy, although the show was more provocative than The Flintstones or The Jetsons had been.

The studio revisited its 1960s stars with Flintstones spin-offs such as The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and The Flintstone Comedy Hour, both aired on CBS. In 1980, all four Flintstones specials aired in primetime on NBC as a limited-run revival of the original 1960s series. "All-star" shows featuring Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and other H-B animal stars included Yogi's Gang and Yogi's Space Race and the Scooby-Doo spin-offs, The New Scooby-Doo Movies and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. Hanna-Barbera also produced new shows starring older cartoon characters from the theatrical era of cartoons such as Popeye (The All-New Popeye Hour), Casper the Friendly Ghost (Casper and the Angels) and its founders' own Tom and Jerry (The New Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show). Super Friends, a Hanna-Barbera produced adaptation of DC Comics' Justice League of America comic book, remained on ABC Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1986.

The 60-minute shows CB Bears and The Skatebirds aired on NBC and CBS respectively in 1977. H-B introduced new productions like, The Kwicky Koala Show, Yogi's First Christmas, A Flintstone Christmas, Amigo and Friends (a remake of the Mexican animated series Cantinflas Show, it was a joint venture between Hanna-Barbera and Televisa), Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper, The Last of the Curlews, The New Fred and Barney Show, the 1982 feature film Heidi's Song, Cyrano, The Flintstone Comedy Show, Great Comedy Concert, Casper's First Christmas and Scooby Goes Hollywood.

A slew of live shows and rides based on classic Hanna-Barbera series and characters were made for various theme parks including Kings Dominion. The studio also made a string of live-action television and film projects, including The Gathering, Going Bananas, C.H.O.M.P.S., The Runaways, Benji, Zax and the Alien Prince, Korg: 70,000 B.C. and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Annual specials on both The Flintstones and Hanna-Barbera aired, including Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue, centering on Fred Flintstone's birthday, The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration, focusing on the show's 25 years on air, The Flintstone Kids' "Just Say No" Special, focusing on Fred and the gang refusing to do drugs and Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration, centering on the 50-year partnership of Hanna and Barbera in animation.