Remembering Ted Turner

 Media mogul Ted Turner passed away yesterday at age 87. Over the years, Turner was known for many things. He was the man who built CNN, a staunch environmentalist, and a key player in baseball team the Atlanta Braves' rise to prominence. Yet, for animation enthusiasts, he'll always be known as the father of Cartoon Network.

After having acquired much of the old MGM library, as well as Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ted Turner had an impressive cartoon catalog under his belt. Thousands of hours of animation isn't much good if there isn't somewhere to watch it all, and that's where Cartoon Network began. While Ted never acted as the network's president (that honor instead goes to Betty Cohen), without Ted's purchase of those assets, the channel would have never existed. And without CN, it goes without saying that the last 30 years of western animation would be a lot different.

To honor Turner's life and career, I thought I'd share two videos featuring Ted discussing Cartoon Network. The first one comes from a longer interview with Ted Turner, conducted by the Archive of American Television. For the most part, it focuses on the "how" and "why" behind Cartoon Network's creation. 

This second clip showcases Ted Turner introducing Cartoon Network as it launched in Latin America in 1993. As you'd imagine, he walks viewers through what they'll see from the channel, and thanks them for joining.

Thanks for the memories, Ted Turner. While there's a lot of rich American businessman, there's not quite anyone like the mouth of the south.

Video of the Week: 90s Yogi Bear PSA

 It's time for this weeks featured video, and this time around, Yogi Bear's got the spotlight. For whatever reason, Yogi seems to show up in a lot of public service announcements from throughout the years. I previously looked at a anti-smoking PSA with Yogi (check it out here), and now, we have Yogi bringing awareness to the risks of melanoma in this commercial from the American Melanoma Foundation. 

You probably noticed the surprisingly stunning animation depicted in this PSA. I was too, until I learned this was storyboarded by Scott Shaw. He's a huge HB fan, and he's worked on the characters across several mediums. His work is awesome, and stuff like this makes me wish he got to do a full series or movie where the characters were this expressive. Mike Kazaleh directs the short, and he also worked with Shaw on a number of old Fruity Pebbles commercials. Check out his Youtube channel if you'd like to see some of those.

Early Dexter's Lab Promos

 Dexter's Laboratory turned 30 years old this week. Normally on this blog, I tend to ignore the nineties-era Hanna-Barbera toons. They're great shows, just not the stuff I want to talk about. But considering the occasion, and the show's importance to the studio at that time, it felt right to post a little something special.

Today, I've got three great commercials for Dexter's Lab early on in its run. This one was among the first promos to air for the series. It's a pretty standard clip of Dexter explaining the show's premise. A not too special ad for a cartoon that would go on to be one of the most influential of its time. 

This next commercial is similar, but presented in a more creative way. This time around, Dexter's sister Dee Dee tells the viewers a poem about our protagonist. It features a couple moments of new animation, and it's overall the more charming of the two.

This last one aired a year after the show's debut, and is easily the most interesting one of the bunch. This commercial doubles as an interview with the series creator, Genndy Tartakovsky. He tells viewers what the show's about, what he tries to accomplish with it, and his thoughts on the characters. Would've loved to hear even more from him, but you can only cover so much in a minute long advertisement.

That's all I've got to say about Dexter and his lab today, but maybe I'll talk about these shows more often if people are interested in that. It's definitely a fun era to look back on, and Dexter's Lab is a big reason for that.

Craig Kellman Flintstones Goodness

 I've long been a fan of cartoonist Craig Kellman's take on the Flintstones characters from the mid-nineties. If you feel the same, then I hope you'll be as delighted as I was with today's find. From around 1994, here is a style guide filled to the brim with Kellman's Flintstones art. The entire guide can be found here, but I thought I'd look at some of the more interesting pages.

The first legitimate page is an interesting one. In it, the history of The Flintstones is discussed, as well as the impetus behind these redesigns. The background is adorned with several Wilmas, all with a clear Ed Benedict influence.

Another cool detail in this style guide is that there are pieces based on moments from specific episodes. Below are two examples, taken from the episodes "Hot Lips Hannigan" and "Fred Flintstone Before and After" respectively. 

And, as is typical with these guides, a few pages depict the art used on merchandise. In this particular instance, it's t-shirts. I don't know about any of you, but I would have definitely loved to rock any of these! Overall, it's a really cool little book, and it's a shame that there doesn't seem to be one for Kellman's take on other Hanna-Barbera characters.

Video of the Week: The Jetsons Air Pollution PSA

 Earth Day was earlier this week, so this felt like an appropriate video to share here. It's a Jetsons-themed PSA discussing the dangers of air pollution, with George Jetson urging kids and their parents to call the National Clean Air Coalition. Because when you think of saving the environment, you think of The Jetsons. I kid, but considering the pro-environment message of the film this ad heavily borrows clips from, it does make sense. I also believe this is the first time Jeff Bergman voiced George Jetson solo. 

A Handful of Hanna-Barbera from Hardees

 Remember Fender Bender 500? Probably not, as it was merely a segment of another series, Wake, Rattle, and Roll. It's more or less Wacky Races, but with monster trucks and a cast spanning many other Hanna-Barbera series. It only lasted a year, but by some miracle, it managed to squeak out a happy meal promotion with the Hardee's fast food chain. As far as I know, these are the only collectibles based on the show. Unsurprisingly, they're focused on the vehicles from the show.

As far as early nineties Happy Meal toys go, these aren't too shabby. Apart from the thousand-yard stare every character seems to have, they're fairly accurate representations of the characters and their vehicles. And, as a bonus, here's the box these meals came in. They've got colorful artwork of some of the characters, and a little puzzle involving road signs. I also find it funny how they had to cram in logos for both Fender Bender 500 and Wake, Rattle, and Roll onto the box.

Recycling with Huck and T.C.

 Today's post is centered around quite an odd find. Top Cat and Huckleberry Hound have been used to advertise a lot of things over the years, but what about for cleaning the environment? 

This is a 1989 magazine ad for Friskies pet food, which is said to be the only animal products that come in recyclable cans. And, if that wasn't enough of a selling point, they managed to enlist two Hanna-Barbera faithfuls to help promote it. A pretty odd set of characters, too, if we're being real. That, and I'm not sure I'd trust Top Cat as being the greatest of product spokesmen. Still, it's very funny to see these two in here, of all places.