Hanna-Barbera Store Concept Art

 Many times on this blog have I talked about the short-lived Hanna-Barbera stores that popped up in the nineties, but would you believe me if I told you it wasn't the first time the company attempted to enter the retail market? Much to my surprise, there were plans as far back as the 1970's to launch a Hanna-Barbera store. Here's some concept pieces for what the store could've looked like, which come from a Heritage Auctions listing. Check out their page about the auction for more info. 

One of the pieces that really caught my eye was this one, featuring Squiddly Diddly using his tentacles as a clothing rack. A very neat use of the character, though I couldn't for the life of me imagine Squiddly Diddly of all characters getting the spotlight at a store. 

Another interesting idea shown in this collection is an area based around Charlotte's Web, which Hanna-Barbera brought to life as a feature film in 1973. Judging by its presence here, I'm assuming all this art was made within a few years of that. The area is called "Charlotte's Yardage," and is themed to look like it came straight out of the movie. As much as I like the idea of every area being themed to a specific character, I feel like it would've made the store lack cohesion had it become a reality. I'd say that that was a reason this take on a Hanna-Barbera store never went anywhere, but that's just a guess on my part.

Here's a Scooby-Doo section, featuring a giant Scooby statue, and a background that feels straight out of the series. It seems like the idea here was that this area in the store would've been for footwear, which is a little random to theme around Scooby, to say the least.

Last but not least, is this totem pole of sorts, which I'd bet money on would've been the centerpiece of the store. It's got a nice selection of characters, but the statue itself is kind of odd in all honesty. Maybe it would've looked better had it actually been made, but it just looks awkward more than anything here.

And that's a quick look at Hanna-Barbera's first (as far as we know) attempt to get into retail. The artwork is pretty stunning, but as I mentioned before, the lack of cohesion I feel held it back. While it only lasted two years, I believe the actual Hanna-Barbera stores were much better thought out in terms of both representing the brand and feeling like one cohesive store, rather than a bunch of themed areas mashed together. But what do you all think? Should they have brought this version of the store to life, or is it best left as a couple of concept sketches?

Video of the Week: A Great Big Show Tonight

 For this week's featured video, I've got quite a fun one. Below is an animated intro that played before international versions of the "Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera" programming block, beginning in the year 1989. The short features a collection of Hanna-Barbera stars embark on a rocket ride (not unlike the Universal Studios ride that appeared a year later) before arriving to a theater full of familiar faces as the block begins.

The intro was animated by Colossal Pictures, a defunct animation studio that had an impressive resume of work for dozens of clients, Hanna-Barbera included. The animation isn't too special, but it's at the very least flashier than anything HB themselves were doing at the time. It's an entertaining intro that played before shows that, quite frankly, were anything but. Sorry to all the Galtar fans out there.

Alan Reed Headlines

What happens when Fred Flintstone crosses paths with the man who brought him to life, Alan Reed? The obvious: they headline a county fair.

Way back in 1963, Alan Reed teamed up with his animated persona to partake in the "Fred Flintstone Varieties," a show that took place at that year's Winnebago County Fair. Below is an article that appeared in the August 11th, 1963 edition of the Morning Star, which previews the event. Also appearing are two photos of Reed and Fred together, one of which was an advertisement for the program that ran in another paper. Reed's appearance here reminds me of a certain park ranger, and that Fred costume is certainly something. Still, you can never go wrong with the original and best Fred Flintstone.

Fred Flintstone's 'Voice' Headlines Fair 'Varieties'

   

    WREX-TV will present Alan Reed, whose voice is known to millions of television-watchers as Fred in the popular cartoon series, "The Flintstones," as headliner of the Grand Stand Show Saturday, Aug. 17, at the Winnebago County Fair.
    

    Commissioned to present the show by the Winnebago County Fair Association, WREX-TV will stage two performances of the "Fred Flintstone Varieties" at the fair grandstand at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. The show will be free to the Fair crowd.
    

    Supporting Reed in staging the show will be Channel 13's Roddy Mac as master of ceremonies; The Guardsmen, arena folk-singing favorites; Bob Bellenger's Trampoline Troop; and WREX-TV's Barker John and Clem.
    "Fred Flintstone," in the person of Reed, and Pebbles, his television daughter, also will make appearances at the Fair grandstand during the Saturday night harness racing and Sunday at 6 p.m.

Ruff and Reddy: The Finger Puppets

 Despite being the first characters created by the studio, Ruff and Reddy had a surprisingly little amount of merchandise made for it. Both back then and today, the characters are seldom seen outside of the cartoons, but there is one thing you can't take away from them: they got turned into finger puppets. Cool, I guess? I don't know, you guys can be the judge of this one.

Above are the three puppets produced: Ruff, Reddy, and Professor Gizmo. I'm not going to act like I know for certain, but I'm confident this is the only piece of Gizmo merch ever made. In all honesty, the likenesses for the characters aren't bad, especially for 1959. It's just an all-around weird concept for a product, at least for these characters. But for how weird it is, they could have definitely done a lot worse.

The Quick Draw McGraw Dart Gun

 The news of Quick Draw McGraw coming to Blu-Ray has me in a Quick Draw kinda mood, so here's a cool piece of old-school merchandise starring everyone's favorite sheriff of the wild west. Produced by Knickerbocker, a toy company that was no stranger to the Hanna-Barbera characters, we have a Quick Draw McGraw dart gun. Below is the toy, still in its original packaging. We see Quick Draw, Baba Looey, as well as both the gun and its accompanying darts. Maybe it's the posing, but there's something about Baba Looey here that feels really off to me. 

The gun, as you can see, is pretty simple. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. If you look closely, however, you can see a little symbol featuring McGraw's mug. I guess they needed something to make it clear that this was different from other toy guns. It's very silly, but I can't help but love it.

Quick Draw McGraw Heads to Blu-Ray

Before you say anything, I'll answer both the questions you're probably thinking. Yes, you are reading that headline right, and no, this isn't a late April Fools joke. After literal decades of fan demand, Quick Draw McGraw will make its home video debut on September 29th. 

The set will retail for $40, and, as the packaging mentions, includes all 45 half-hour episodes, newly remastered for this release. That means that not only do you get the entirety of Quick Draw McGraw, but also Snooper and Blabber and Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy as well. This will also include a featurette titled "The Good, The Bad, and The El-Kabong", which was previously seen on the "Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's Volume One" DVD set. These sets were also the only time episodes of Quick Draw had been released up to this point, funnily enough.

If you've followed this blog or other HB-centric sites like Yowp's blog, you're probably more than aware of the issues that got in the way of previous attempts at bringing Quick Draw McGraw to home video. There were several reasons, music licensing being the main culprit, but it looks like those problems have finally been solved. It's kinda wild to me, but in a good way. When this blog started, the idea we'd get something like this or Huckleberry Hound released on Blu-Ray seemed like a pipe dream. Now, just a few years later, both of those have become reality. I once again tip my hat to the wonderful guys at Warner Archive, who I'm sure worked their hardest to get both of these projects off the ground. I cannot wait to get my hands on this, and I'm excited to see what they have in store for the future. 

Video of the Week: George Jetson Battles Heartburn

 It seems like The Jetsons had a solution to all the problems of modern life. Or, almost all of them. You'd think heartburn would be a thing of the past, but according to today's video, apparently not. 

This advertisement for Tums QuikPaks aired in 2008, and features George Jetson needing one such pack after eating a nasty chili dog capsule. An admittedly strange premise for a commercial, but the clip itself sports some very nice, albeit a bit stiff, animation that feels right at home with the original series. I also can't speak for everyone, but I recall seeing this one all the time on TV back then. Anyone else feel the same?