Hanna-Barbera Superstars Return to TV!

 Among Hanna-Barbera loyalists, there's been a lot of talk regarding the "Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10" TV movies since they made their debut on Blu-Ray this last February. I'll save my own opinions on the films for my own review of the box set (which, I promise, is coming very soon), but until then, how about we look back to when the films were first announced to the general public? Coming from the Friday, August 21st, 1987 edition of Newsday, Joe Barbera speaks about how the movies came into being, and what viewers could look forward to seeing. Accompanying them is a nice ad that was sent out in emails, promoting the films' arrival to DVD over a decade ago!

A Comeback by the Hanna-Barbera Bunch

    After several seasons in which American kids turned their attention to toy-driven, metal-faced cartoon warriors, the old, cuddly bunch from Hanna-Barbera is staging an amazing comeback -- the Flintstones, Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby Doo, Snagglepuss and even old Top Cat.
    The venerable Hanna-Barbera clan, owned by Taft Broadcasting, is producing 10 two-hour prime-time movies under the series name "Hanna-Barbera's Superstars" to air over the next year.
    Already, Worldvision, which is also owned by Taft and is syndicating the shows for Hanna-Barbera, has sold them in more than 70 percent of the nation's TV market.
    It will be the Hanna-Barbera cartoons' most significant evening TV exposure since "The Flintstones" became TV's first prime-time cartoon show in the early 1960s.
    What's behind the resurgence?

    "If there's such a thing as nostalgia, that's what's going on," said Joe Barbera, the patriarch of TV cartoons and creator of "The Flintstones," "Yogi Bear" and "The Jetsons."
    "Our shows have no death raids, no creatures from outer space, no characters with half-metal faces that talk in low growly voices," Barbera said. "Our characters are warm. We just have fun and people are searching for that again."    
    Barbera was noticeably taken by the Worldvision movie deal. "We offered them new Joe Barbera characters and they said, 'No, we want Yogi and the gang.' People want Yogi, well we're making new Yogi episodes."    
    Hanna-Barbera doesn't dominate Saturday morning TV as it did a decade ago, when it controlled almost 70 percent of the Saturday cartoon market. But it's still the leader, at about 35 percent.
    The company has found other lucrative outlets by battling in the TV syndication market and producing a highly successful Biblical videocassette series.
    Barbera, who is personally overseeing the scripts of the films, said owning established toon stars allows you to "concentrate on writing creative stories and play off the characters' personalities."
    In one of the upcoming movies, the Jetsons will meet the Flintstones. For Halloween, Scooby Doo becomes a reluctant werewolf. One of the films is a western, called "The Good, the Bad and the Huckleberry Hound."
    Barbera said the characters retain their charm in new settings partly because the same actors who supplied the original voice tracks are still employed by the Hanna-Barbera studio.
    People like Don Messick [voice of Boo-Boo, Ranger Smith, Scooby Doo and the Jetsons's Astro] and Mel Blanc [Barney Rubble and Dino] are going at it full-steam for us," Barbera said.

                                                                                                            -Scripps-Howard News Service

Overall, it's intriguing to hear about these movies in an early state, but I do find it a little funny how Joe remarks that their shows don't have any aliens in them. I guess Superfriends, Herculoids, and the Gobots weren't on his mind at that moment?