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.

Old-School Space Ghost Merch

 I don't know why, but I've been in a bit of a Space Ghost mood lately, so here's some classic Space Ghost merchandise to go along with it. Long before he was an Adult Swim icon, he was an icon of bath accessories, of all things. Alongside him is Frankenstein Jr., or "Franky, Jr.", as the packaging names him.

For something a bit more interesting, look to these four frame-tray puzzles Whitman released based on the show. I'm not quite sure who did the art for these, but they look lovely. I'd have loved to see a Space Ghost comic in this style. 

I've saved the most interesting piece for last. Well, it's as interesting as a Space Ghost paper saver could be. What's so captivating about it, you ask? Take a look at the fellow at the bottom right.

You won't see anyone who looks like that in the show, but below is how the character of Zorak looked in the Gold Key comics. I'm assuming this design was an early take on Zorak that both Gold Key and the company that made this ended up using. Likely, both things were in production before the character's design was finalized.

The Wacky World of Failed Wacky Races Series

Wacky Races may be one of the more fondly remembered Hanna-Barbera shows, but despite its popularity, the show has had a shocking number of spin-offs and sequels that never saw the light of day. Some never made it past the pitch stage, while others were able to get a pilot out before the plug was pulled. Today, I thought I'd look at three different attempts to put a fresh spin on those wacky racers.

1. Wacky Races: Coast to Coast - Back in 1993, Mike Lazzo, the then Vice President of Cartoon Network, was eager to find ways to repurpose older Hanna-Barbera shows into something new. The channel was given a list of lesser-known Hanna-Barbera properties they could work with, and Wacky Races was on that list. The idea was to stitch several episodes together as if they were on one giant road trip, from coast to coast. 

Why didn't this pan out? Blame Space Ghost. Lazzo found himself watching old Space Ghost episodes shortly after discussing the show, and thought it'd be a fun idea to turn him into a late-night talk show host. It was a favorite of Lazzo's, so between doing something with him or Wacky Races, the choice was a no-brainer. I can't blame him, either. As novel a concept as the Wacky Races show sounded, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast was a far more interesting pitch.

2. Wacky Races Forever - Probably the most well-known of the failed Wacky Races series, Wacky Races Forever was a pilot made by WB Animation back in 2006. The show was to focus on a new generation of racers, though several classic characters would appear as well. For those interested, the five-minute pilot can be seen below.

So, if this one made it all the way to a pilot, why didn't it get the greenlight? The answer is simple: nobody was interested in it. Neither Kids WB nor Cartoon Network picked up the show, so it died on the vine. CN must've had a change of heart, though, as a decade later, they would air a reboot series also produced by WB Animation. 

3. Wacky Races Stop-Motion - In 2022, WB announced that Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe was hard at work developing a new, stop-motion version of Wacky Races. It never materialized, but the series was to be made by Wabber, a UK animator well known for his claymation work. In 2023, he published a short development piece done for the series focusing on Dastardly and Muttley.

Wabber didn't elaborate on why the series never came to be, but take note of the year it was announced. 2022 was the same year WB merged with Discovery, and following that merger, the company began killing projects left and right. The animation side of the company was hit especially hard, and I have no doubt this series was one of those casualties. It's disappointing for sure, as I think this looked the best out of these three pitches, but I guess that's the business for you. 

That's all for today, but don't think those are the only canceled Wacky Races projects. There was a TV movie in development in the late eighties that we never saw (see this post for more), and an animated feature film was announced in 2018. While that hasn't been outright canceled, the lack of any meaningful updates since then indicates it more than likely has been. But of the three discussed here, which ones would you have liked to see? Or, are we better off without them? I'd love to know what you all have to say.

Video of the Week: Flintstones Vitamin Commercial

 Not to get too personal here, but I've been fighting a nasty virus for the last week or so. Maybe if I had some Flintstones vitamins, things would've gone differently!

For this week's featured video, I'm sharing this 1972 commercial for those very vitamins. We've got Fred Flintstone himself suited up to tell viewers about how great these vitamins are, especially for fussy eaters. Like in most other appearances during this time, Fred is voiced by his original actor, Alan Reed, who apparently made more money off gigs like this than he did the proper Flintstones series.

Framing the Hanna-Barbera Fellows

 Here is a pretty cool newspaper ad I came across a while back. Now, on the back of select Kellogg's cereal (and by now, I mean 1962), you can get a free "pin-me-up" of your favorite Hanna-Barbera characters.

The eight characters included here are Snagglepuss, Yogi, Mr. Jinks, Quick Draw McGraw, Doggie Daddy, Baba Looey, and Top Cat. If you'd like to know what these looked like, here's a photo I found of the Top Cat frame. Nothing too extreme, but they are charming nonetheless. Any of my readers collect these way back when?