Election day has finally come, so let's celebrate the occasion by looking at a couple of Hanna-Barbera election-themed pins. Here are several that were released in 1964, pitting Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound against Magilla Gorilla and Droopy. I don't know about you guys, but Yogi's got my vote!
Here are two Jetsons pins released in the early eighties. Both George Jetson and Astro are shown running for president. I take it Lectronimo and Elroy are their vice presidential candidates.
Finally, we have one pin the studio commissioned just in time for the 1988 election. This one features Fred Flintstone running for president, and that's about it. From what I could find, there weren't any other pins made for this particular election. Does that mean Fred wins by default?
If you've ever watched an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon and noticed a scene where a character sports a particularly toothy grin, the chances are high that it was Ed Love who animated it. An animator who worked on everything from Fantasia to The Flintstones, Love began working for HB in the late fifties and would continue to work with them in some form or another for three decades. His style was lovely, and he managed to get a lot of mileage out of the studio's limited animation style, making him one of the best animators for them. His last major work was on the DIC series The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog in the early 1990s. Love would pass away a few years later in 1996 of heart failure.
As you can expect, videos of the older Hanna-Barbera staff aren't exactly plentiful, but they are out there. Here's one of Ed Love being interviewed by Harvey Deneroff at the Golden Awards Banquet in 1984. It's a short and concise interview, but it's amazing getting to hear from one of Hanna-Barbera's most celebrated artists, who comes off as nothing short of a joy here.
It's been a minute since I did a new entry in my "Hanna-Barbera actors on TV" series, but I'm back, and this time around, I thought I'd get a little festive. Since Halloween is today, and the franchise recently celebrated its 55th anniversary, this installment will be all about a certain group of meddling kids and their dog. You all know by this point that I'm not the biggest Scooby guy, but it felt wrong to have October go by and not do something related to the series. Let's look at the actors behind the original Scooby-Doo, and some of their onscreen TV appearances!
I'll start with Casey Kasem. Between his work in radio and animation, Kasem didn't make a whole lot of appearances in live-action TV roles, but that's not to say they were nonexistent. One of them is from the Hawaii Five-O episode "Steal Now Pay Later." This is probably the angriest Kasem has ever been in a role I've seen. I certainly couldn't see Shaggy getting this upset!
I couldn't find a clip of this particular appearance online, but when it comes to the original Daphne voice actor Indira Stefanianna, there's no live-action role more notable than her appearance in M*A*S*H. She appeared in the episode "Love Story" as Lieutenant O'Brien, and was credited as Indira Danks.
Velma's original voice actor, Nicole Jaffe, never appeared in a live-action TV role (though she did appear in a film with none other than Frank Welker!), so I'll instead look at her second voice, the late Pat Stevens. And just like Stefanianna, her most notable role was in the series M*A*S*H. She played a nurse character in over a dozen episodes between 1974 and 1978.
I've already looked at Scooby himself, Don Messick, in another entry in this series. But what if I told you his only starring role in a live-action series, The Duck Factory, also featured an appearance from Fred Jones himself, Frank Welker? This occurred in the episode "The Duck Stops Here," where Welker plays a voice actor trying to take Messick's most famous character voice after he loses it. Though we don't see them interact in the episode, it's great fun to see the two onscreen doing what they do best. It also feels like a bit of foreshadowing, as Welker would eventually inherit many of Messick's characters after his retirement.
And that's everything for October, folks! I'll wrap this up by congratulating Scooby-Doo on 55 years, and I hope you all have an especially spooky Halloween!
With Halloween coming tomorrow, here's a fun set of print advertisements for Hanna-Barbera's home video offerings that appeared throughout the 1980s. This first one focuses on a Flintstones Halloween video, although a Scooby-Doo title is also advertised. We see Fred and Barney taking on the roles of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster respectively, making this probably the most interesting ad from a visual standpoint.
This second ad, dated to 1983, focuses on a trio of VHS releases perfect for Halloween viewing: Winsome Witch, Casper, and...Squiddly Diddly, I guess. You're probably wondering why they didn't toss in a Scooby video for this ad instead of Squiddly. I thought the same thing, but from what I've seen, there wasn't a Scooby-Doo video at all until near the end of the decade. Kind of crazy for how popular the show's always been.
Now, for what's likely the oddest advertisement of the bunch, here's one from '88 that promotes a selection of Hanna-Barbera titles, chief among them Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park, quite possibly one of the most embarrassing things to come out of both Kiss and Hanna-Barbera. This was one of its only home video releases, as the band has gone to great lengths to distance themselves from this mess. Yes, that means we'll probably never get this as a Blu-Ray from Warner Archive. Tragic, I know. That being said, "a little strange and a lot of fun" isn't a bad description of this movie, though I'd say "a little strange" is a bit of an understatement.
I've been sharing several examples of Hanna-Barbera-branded candy this month, but until now, they've all originated in the U.S. Here's something a little bit different. Released in the early 1980s by the Argentine company Billiken, these are candies that were released in tins featuring a pretty impressive variety of Hanna-Barbera characters. Even better, each tin contained a small figurine of a random character. In that way, I guess you could compare them to Kinder surprise eggs. Below is a print ad for the tins, complete with a little Fred in the corner telling kids to "ask us at your kiosk" for the treats.
As you can see, they had a great selection of characters appearing on these tins, especially if you're a fan of the earlier series. Here's a better look at a few of the tins, starting with a Flintstones one. This one features Fred, Pebbles, and Bamm-Bamm. Fred is saying "If we continue eating Billiken pebbles, they are going to call us the Pebblestones." You can also get a look at one of the included toys, which is a little Ranger Smith. It's not too bad considering the toy's stature!
This second tin is based on Precious Pupp. We see Granny Sweet say "Pupp! Where did the Billiken pebbles go?" Precious simply laughs in response.
I'll share one more tin, this being of Atom Ant, who says "The secret to my powers? Billiken pebbles!" Somehow, I always knew.
Now, let's take a look at the toys that were included with these. Here are nineteen of the figures. I don't know if these were the only ones available, but it wouldn't surprise me if more were offered. These offered a rather diverse selection of characters, including some who didn't appear on the tins themselves. Their size and design seem reminiscent of Marx's Hanna-Barbera figurines from the sixties. And who wouldn't want a tiny Touche Turtle with their candy?
As great as those early Boomerang bumpers that aired in the States were, the Latin American channel wasn't a slouch, either. They've had some lovely commercials over the years, including today's video. This aired in 2005 and promoted the network's October offerings. Throughout the month, a special block was played called "Boooomerang," which aired spooky and Halloween-related programs. It's got an appropriately haunted atmosphere and aesthetic, and it's rather interesting to see Boomerang do something with Halloween that's not related to Scooby-Doo. Variety? American Boomerang's never heard of it!
Concept art really is a fascinating thing. Who doesn't want to see what their favorite characters almost looked like? Not so long ago, I looked at some rough early designs for The Jetsons and Quick Draw McGraw, and I'm back with more! First off is this piece for Huckleberry Hound. As you can see, the Huckleberry sketch really emphasized the "Hound" aspect of his character, which was toned down in his final design. It was also drawn by Ed Benedict, who designed many a Hanna-Barbera character.
Here's an earlier take on Atom Ant, though compared to others, he's not too dissimilar from how he looked in the final product. It's mostly his colors that are different.
Next is this Jerry Eisenberg piece for Dastardly and Muttley, or as it was almost called, Stop That Pigeon! If you're wondering why the main character looks so different from Dastardly, that was because the Hanna-Barbera folk weren't actually sure if they could use him or Muttley for the series, due to its nature as a coproduction with Heatter-Quigley.
The last one for today is this concept art of Jabberjaw. I think this was done by Eisenberg as well, but I cannot say for certain. While I think most others prefer the final designs to the concept versions of every character thus far, I must say, I dig this version of the character way more than the actual version. It's got far more character, and feels right at home alongside the likes of, say, Yogi Bear. Of course, this is Jabberjaw we're talking about, so I guess it wasn't that big of a loss that we didn't see this version.
