A Hanna-Barbera Voice Actor Jamboree

 It's no secret that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera earned an impressive list of awards throughout their legendary partnership. They racked up Oscars, Emmys, Annies, and so on. One of the more overlooked awards, however, was in 1983, when the pair were gifted a Golden IKE Award by the Pacific Pioneers in Broadcasting.

Now, a lot of you are probably wondering what the Pacific Pioneers in Broadcasting even is. From what I've gathered, it was a company founded in 1966 with the mission to preserve the Golden Age of radio. It appears to still be active, and since its inception, it's gone on to also focus on preserving the history of classic TV. By the time the eighties rolled around, the company was run by a fellow named Harry O'Connor. O'Connor seems to have had a lot of history with several of the biggest names in classic animation. In the late sixties, for example, filled several roles (the most notable being producer) at Mel Blanc Associates, which dabbled in several business ventures, like the creation of ads for both TV and radio.

In January of 1983, the duo that launched Hanna-Barbera was given a Golden IKE Award in Studio City, located in Los Angeles, California. And let's just say they brought in a lot of friends for the occasion.

Just take a moment to soak in that image. The amount of talent in that room is truly astonishing. Unfortunately, Joe Barbera and Daws Butler didn't seem to be present, though. This photograph was taken by the Daily News, and is dated on the back to January 21st, 1983. Despite my best efforts, however, I couldn't find any articles from this paper during this time focused on the event. I was able to find these two other photos, both featuring Mel Blanc. The first features him alongside Fred and Barney, while the other, a color photo, showcases him standing alongside Henry Corden and Gay Autterson. I imagine this one came from some magazine of the day.

Overall, this is a really cool piece of Hanna-Barbera history if you ask me. How many other photos have you seen featuring so many classic voice actors together? I didn't know him personally (O'Connor passed away in 2013), but Harry really seemed to have respect for all those amazing cartoon voice actors who came from radio. Beyond his relationship with Blanc, shortly after this, Casey Kasem and Gary Owens both became board members of the PPB. He seemed to have a love of these mediums that's rare both back then and especially now. I think I should turn this story over to you guys now. Did any of you see stories about this event in the press back then? If you did, I'd be happy if you left a comment informing me of what you remember!

Bill and Joe Look Back

 The year is 1994. The Flintstones, at the time the longest-running prime-time animated series, is about to get the live-action film treatment. Hanna-Barbera is gearing up for a major reinvention of the way they approach cartoons, with the What a Cartoon! show launching on Cartoon Network the following year. It was a busy time for the company, but where were the men the studio was named after? At this point in their careers, Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna didn't have much of a say in the day-to-day operations, but they'd still come in frequently and offer their opinions. The thing the two were far more concerned with now was their legacy. After rarely giving interviews throughout the 70s and 80s, the 90s saw Bill and Joe become far more candid, giving many interviews that chronicled the entirety of their animation careers.

One such piece appeared in the Asbury Park Press on May 22nd, 1994. Check out a conversation with Bill and Joe as they look back on their humble beginnings, their days at MGM, the formation of Hanna-Barbera, and the origins of one of their most enduring creations, The Flintstones.

Cartoon Czars

By MARK VOGER
PRESS STAFF WRITER

    

    Two wrongs made a right in 1957; 1.) MGM closed down its animation studio, effectively putting William Hanna and Joseph Barbera out on the streets, and 2.) the still-new medium of television was in dire need of fresh cartoons.
    Since that time, Hanna and Barbera have built a cartoon empire, producing 3,500 half-hours of animation for 350 different series, specials, movies, etc., handily snaring eight Emmys (to add to their seven Oscars).
    Just consider the pantheon of characters created by these two living legends of animation: Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie, Pixie and Dixie, Snooper and Blabber, Touche Turtle, Squiddly Diddly, Snagglepuss, Dick Dastardly, Wally Gator, Magilla Gorilla and hundreds more.
    How would your childhood have been, had these characters never existed?
    On Friday, Hanna-Barbera Productions' greatest creation is getting Spielberg-icized. "The Flintstones"—starring John Goodman as gruff-but-lovable caveman Fred—is a shoo-in as this simmer's "Batman" or "Jurassic Park." Perhaps you've already obtained your tie-in glass mug from "RocDonalds?"
    Hanna and Barbera, both 83—who made bare-foot cameos in the forthcoming film—spoke with SECTION X in back-to-back phone interviews conducted in January, a week before the Los Angeles earthquake that shook their studios.

 Early Days

    Born in New Mexico, William Hanna began his career in the early '30s at Harman-Ising Studios, working on "Looney Tunes" and "Merry Melodies." He joined MGM's animation studio as a director and story editor in 1937.
    Born in New York's Lower East Side, Joseph Barbera did magazine illustrations before working at Fleischer Studios and Van Buren Studios. Hanna hadn't been at MGM long before Barbera joined him at MGM's animation studio in June of '37.
    For MGM, the fledgling team created Tom and Jerry, the cartoon cat and mouse, in their very first joint effort: "Puss Gets the Boot" (1940).
    Recalls Hanna: "We had this cat-and-mouse idea, and made one. It was looked at and we were told not to make any more. They felt the cat and the mouse was good for just one, period.
    "Well, that show went into the Texas circuit, and a lady—her name was Mrs. Short—wrote a letter to our boss and said, "When are you going to make some more of those delightful cat and mouse stories?"
    "So, he said, 'Go ahead and make some more.'
    "We started making them then, and I think that was practically the only thing we did for the next 20 years."
    During their two decades at MGM, Hanna and Barbera developed a kind of "shorthand" production system that gave them an advantage over competing studios.
    Recalls Barbera: "Back then, when (Friz) Freleng or Tex Avery did a cartoon, they'd sit and work on the idea and mull it over. Sometimes, they talked to a story man, but they still controlled the story. Each individual—like Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng or Tex Avery—had to work on the story, sketch it themselves, time it themselves and hand it out to the animator themselves.
   "That way, they were hard pressed, I'll tell you. Tex never got more than four or five out a year, and the studio was screaming at him that he was supposed to be doing eight cartoons a year.
    "When we started—Bill had been timing and directing, and I had been a story man and an animator— we almost automatically split the job up.
    "Say, for instance, we had an idea. We called it 'Bowling Alley Cat,' a 'Tom and Jerry.' I'd say to Bill, "That's a heckuva good title. Why don't we do that?" He'd say, 'Fine.' Now, he's busy at that moment handing out the animation for one we just finished, right? So I would start on  'Bowling Alley Cat.'
    "We never had a script. I would write the story as I drew it. And I would also be laying it out, production-wise. So, when I got it through, it was ready to go into production. As I finished the boards, I would hand them to Bill and he would time it out, make what you call 'sheets' (drawings), call the animator in, give him the artwork we had done and give him the scenes to do.
    "It was that simple."

The shutdown of 57'

    But by 1967, Hollywood's golden age had long since faded and business was slipping.
    "Television, at that particular time, was making inroads on the theaters, and they were suffering," Hanna recalls. "Warner Bros. was closing down, MGM was closing down, Disney was slowing down, and there were very few (animated) pictures being produced for the theater at all."
    "MGM was in great financial trouble," Barbera says. "They discovered that they could reissue our older 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and get as much income as making a new one. That's how popular Tom and Jerry were. So, they said, 'Wait a minute. Let's not make any new ones. We don't have to spend the money."
    "Which was very shortsighted of them."
    "I think we had made 160 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons," Hanna says. "That many cartoons could service the theatrical circuits without any trouble at all. They had plenty there to keep the whole thing going indefinitely, and they tried to, but they didn't figure it right."
    "They hit the panic button," Barbera says. "Because, the next man who took over the presidency of MGM said, 'Who the hell did this? It's the stupidest move you ever made!'"
    Says Hanna: "So, Joe and I were the first ones to turn to television. We had to. There was no other place for us to go."

TV or not TV? 

    Not that television welcomed Hanna and Barbera with open arms.
    "Television was brand new," Barbera says, "and we were turned down and rejected by everybody because they knew that making cartoons the way we were making them was too expensive. Those cartoons we made for MGM cost anywhere from $40- to $60,000 for five minutes. That's what they were running.
    "Finally, Screen Gems agreed to do a series of five-minute shorts. I had worked up a storyboard and my daughter, Jayne—she was about 12—colored it at home. We went to Screen Gems and they kind of reluctantly decided to make a deal with us to produce five-minute cartoons. And do you know what the budget we got for that was? $3,000. We went from $60,000 to $3,000."
    "In order to accomplish this," says Hanna, "we had to change the way we made cartoons. In 'Tom and Jerry,' there was hardly any dialogue at all. It was all action. It required a great many drawings to make. When we made the cartoons for television, we used a lot more dialogue, and not as many drawings are required for that."
    "We'd use every trick that we knew about," Barbera says. "Taking drawings and moving them. Jiggling the screen. Zooming your camera in and out. Doing every trick you can to impart motion with the least amount of drawings.
    "Now this is out of—either you call it "Yankee ingenuity" or desperation. But you have to remember that we had to do it. There was no market and there was no money. So, we had to adapt.
    "And what happened was, we rejuvenated the whole industry. No one was doing cartoons when we did that. It worked, and it worked very, very well. The entire industry came back."

Off and Running

    "Ruff and Reddy" was the first animated series produced by Hanna and Barbera for television. After the success of "Ruff and Reddy," Hanna-Barbera productions cranked out one small-screen hit after another: Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw and Augie Doggie all brightened the childhoods of the baby boomers of the late '50s and early '60s.
    "We blossomed," Barbera says. "Instead of doing eight five-minute cartoons a year—which would be 40 minutes, right?—we were doing an hour and a half to two hours a week."
    As such, Hanna and Barbera had to further streamline their respective roles in their burgeoning operation.
    "We both worked on the development of characters," Hanna says. "When we would have a character and a format set up in our minds, Joe would then work with the writers/ He also directed the voice talent.
    "For my role, I was doing the timing and the animation. I worked with the artists, going over the scenes. Joe and I together would look at the pencil tests, and call for whatever corrections were needed."
    Barbera took on another role, "I ended up going out, being the salesman," he says. "I had to get on the darn plane in the wintertime and fly to Chicago or New York or St. Louis or wherever to pitch the shows. When I came back, I'd put 'em into work and record 'em and cast 'em, and Bill would supervise the production end.
    "It got to a point where they thought it was so easy that Bill would walk in and say, 'Hey, I need seven shows this year,' and walk out, right?
    Do you know what it means to sell one show?"

Birth of Bedrock

   

Of all the shows he pitched, Barbera's toughest sell might have been when he tried to convince network executives and advertising sponsors to buy a revolutionary concept: the first-ever prime-time animated series, "The Flintstones."
    "There were a lot of misgivings about whether it would work or not," Barbera recalls. "It caused quite a flurry. I can understand that, because it was so new. They were afraid. An animated show on prime time? At 8 o'clock at night?"
    The producer spent eight weeks in New York trying to sell the series. "I was pitching and pitching and pitching," he says. "People on Madison Avenue would be told, 'Go on up to the Screen Gems office and get a look at this crazy guy doing all the voices and all the sound effects.' That's the way I had to do it, right? This was a cartoon show—this was not live action. So, I'd take all the parts, do all the voices and keep pitching.
    "Everybody loved it. Nobody bought it. They kept loving it and passing, until the very last day."
    After ABC-TV finally bought "The Flintstones," Hanna and Barbera gave the project a great deal of special attention.
    "At that time, our thinking was, we were making a nighttime show," Hanna recalls. "Let's try and do as good a job as we can, and live up to the confidence they had in us to do it. W worked hard on developing the models, the selection of the voices, the quality of the animation."
    The rest is television history. "The Flintstones" debuted on Sept. 30, 1960, and for six seasons used its prehistoric setting to poke fun at exploding suburbia and advancing technology.
    Adults and children alike followed the adventures of Fred, Wilma, Pebbles, Barney, Betty, Bamm-Bamm, Dino and all the other citizens of Bedrock.
    Many more Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoon series followed, but none seem to possess that same spark of resonant warmth and humor as "The Flintstones." Both Hanna and Barbera consider the thexploits of the "modern Stone Age family" to be their crowning achievement.
    "The outstanding thing, and possibly the most original," says Barbera, "was 'The Flintstones.'"
    Says Hanna: "I think that—whether I should admit this or not—Joe and I, going back to 'Tom and Jerry,' have been very lucky in being able to do cartoons that have universal appeal. 'Tom and Jerry' seemed to be as well liked by adults as by children.
    "'The Flintstones,' of course, was geared more to adults, but I guess we were just lucky that kids seemed to enjoy 'The Flintstones,' too.
    "So, I honestly think we just kind of lucked out."

That's it for this piece, but I'm not done sharing words from Bill and Joe just yet. I'm currently working on a review for the recently released book, Hanna and Barbera: Conversations. Spoiler alert: it's excellent, and if you want to know more about the history of the studio, it covers that and then some. The review should go up sometime next week, but I've got a few surprises in store until then. Check back tomorrow, and we'll discuss one of the many awards the duo received, and the many friends who came along to celebrate the occasion.

1990 Jetsons Ceramic Mugs

 Ever wanted to take a sip of coffee straight out of George, Jane, Judy, and Elroy's craniums? I doubt anyone will say yes to that, but if you did, these guys have got you covered. Released in 1990 as just one of the many product tie-ins to the Jetsons feature film, this is a set of four ceramic mugs released by a company called Vandor. From my research, they're still around and making mugs today, although nothing quite as interesting as this set. 

Above is a group photo of the mugs; goodness gracious, they are creepy! Well, the George mug isn't too bad in all honesty, but the others? I could do without them thank you very much! Jane and Judy look particularly ghastly. I also can't imagine these would work all that well practically. They look like they'd suffer the same problems most of those "character heads as coffee mugs" have. They're neat in design and a fun oddity, but I couldn't see myself or anyone else drinking something out of them. And how come we didn't get Rosie, Astro, or Spacely?

An Early Mother's Day Post

 What's this, a blog post on Saturday? Has the world fallen into chaos? No, but I have some really big news that I felt deserves a little post of its own. If you're a regular visitor to the Cartoon Research website, you may know this already, but if you aren't (you definitely should be), I'm ecstatic to say that I contributed to a post uploaded to the site this past Friday. The piece, written by Michael Lyons, celebrates Mother's Day by looking at "The Blessed Event," the episode of The Flintstones where Pebbles is born. Lyons, who I've mentioned here a couple times and collaborated with for my "Favorite Flintstones" post in February, was kind enough to ask both myself and Greg Ehrbar (another name I bring up frequently) to say a few words on why the episode stands as one of the most important in the series.

As somebody inspired to create this blog partially by the Cartoon Research team, contributing to a post on the website was nothing short of a dream come true, and it was a lovely piece to work on. You can find Lyons' post right here. His features are some of my favorite on the site, so adding to those was something special. 

That said, I hope everyone has a great Mother's Day tomorrow, and I'll sign off with this funny Cartoon Network print ad from 1993 celebrating the holiday. Be sure to thank the Wilma Flintstones, Jane Jetsons, and Race Bannons in your life, and I'll see you guys again next week!

Gary Owens Remembered

He was a voice actor, a radio DJ, a writer, a comedian, and a surprisingly good basketball player. This is Gary Owens, friend of those who want no friends, going places and losing things.

Born in South Dakota on May 10th, 1934, Owens was a man of many talents. He's best known for his various disk jockey gigs and as the announcer of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, but for us here at The Exposure Sheet, we will remember him best as one of the most underrated cartoon voice actors of the 1960s. Gary Owens's cartoon history actually goes back to before he ever voiced any characters. His radio career saw him cross paths with legends like June Foray and Paul Frees, and he wrote for Jay Ward cartoons like Rocky and Bullwinkle. But his booming voice and deadpan sense of humor were a perfect fit for cartoons, and in 1965, he played his first cartoon character when he took on the title role of Roger Ramjet. Just a year later, Hanna-Barbera got ahold of him, and he began voicing his most enduring character, Space Ghost.

Over the next forty years, Gary Owens was heard in an impressive catalog of cartoons. You could hear him in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Ren and Stimpy, Batman: The Animated Series, SWAT Kats, and Dynomutt. Many of these shows had him taking on the role of narrator, making him the go-to voice in animation when you needed someone to set the stage for your show. Owens even had a small cameo appearance in Space Ghost's late-night series, Coast to Coast, and would reprise the role in a 2011 episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Tragically, that would be his final voice-acting role.

On February 12th, 2015, Gary Owens died of complications from diabetes. He had been dealing with the condition since childhood, and it sadly claimed his life. In memory of him on what would've been his 90th birthday, below is a piece dedicated to him from UPI writer Vernon Scott, relatively early in his animation career. 

Regular 'Laugh-In' Show Opener Is Busy Radio Announcer, Writer
By Vernon Scott

   

     HOLLYWOOD (UPI): Gary Owens is the nut on "The Rowan and Martin Laugh-In" who stands in front of a microphone, holding a cupped hand to his ear and opens the show by announcing "Morgul as the friendly drelb."
    There is no Morgul. A drelb is a furry, sick-looking abominable snowman. But Owens is real enough and even shows flashes of sanity.
    In addition to his playing straight man to the resident dingalings on the show, Owens is a disk jockey for radio station KMPC in Hollywood from 3-6 p.m. daily.
    When he isn't taping the "Laugh-In" or spinning records, the South Dakota native is doing commercials. Last year his voice was heard in no fewer than 350 commercial pitches in addition to providing the vocal cords for cartoon characters "Space Ghost" and "Roger Ramjet."
    Owens is married to a pretty girl named Arieta whom he met on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University. They exchanged vows in 1956. They are the parents of Scott, 9, and Christopher, 5.
    Their Encino estate in the San Fernando Valley is complete with a swimming pool, a full-time maid, and three dogs: Two dachshunds, Julie and Rosebud, and a terrier who answers to Skoshi.
    Owens is proud of the fact that he began bread-castings in the Dakotas when he was only 16. He did his first announcing job with another Dakotan, Lawrence Welk.
    The many-faceted Owens has three offices, one at home, another at KMPE, and a third in a Hollywood office building which is filled with filing cabinets of gags, trivia, and information for his radio show.
    At the moment he is completing his first book, "Gary Owens Looks at Radio," a tome on humor scheduled for publication in September.
    Owens manages to juggle his busy schedule because the producers of the NBC TV comedy sensation allow him to "wild-track" his "Laugh-In" bit on tape Tuesday mornings. He returns Wednesday evenings—after his radio show—to tape scenes with other members of the wacky staff.
    To relieve the tensions of his fast-paced life, Owens plays basketball on a regulation outdoor court flanking his home.

Video of the Week: Wacky Races Go Live

Over the years, many Hanna-Barbera cartoons have been looked at to make the jump from the second dimension to the realm of live-action (I'll discuss many of these attempts later this month), but one that has not is their 1968 classic, Wacky Races. There was an animated movie announced in 2018, but it looks like there's not a lot of interest in turning this series into a feature film. Now, a TV commercial, that's a different story. In 2013, Peugeot commissioned an ad for their Peugeot 208, and the Wacky Races cast came along for the ride.

I've shared a lot of commercials featuring the Hanna-Barbera characters on this blog, but out of them all, this might be my favorite. For one, it's nice to see the characters do more than simply shill for the advertised product. Secondly, you can tell this was a labor of love from the crew here. All of the characters and vehicles make the jump from animation to live-action very well. Even Muttley looks pretty good, which is impressive considering the small budget this commercial undoubtedly had. When you look at this ad, you can understand why we've never gotten a Wacky Races live-action movie. This commercial already did it perfectly!

Yogi Bear and Friends Call it a Night

 There's nothing better to have by your bedside than a lamp, and over the years, many Hanna-Barbera series have been represented in lamp form. Today, I'm going to showcase some of my favorites, from the bizarre to the beautiful. Let us begin with a few you've probably seen before. These are some of the very first Hanna-Barbera lamps released. Below, you'll see Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw. Others were produced as part of this line, but these seem to be the most common. Yogi doesn't look too far off his animated counterpart, but Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw could use a little work. This was one of several pieces of early Huckleberry Hound merchandise to sport the infamous red color scheme, while Quick Draw looks a bit more like Dino in cowboy clothes than everyone's favorite sheriff.

Around the same time these lamps were released, the Arch Lamp Company made these headlamps for both Yogi and Huckleberry Hound. I only discovered these very recently, and I have to say, I really like these ones. Yes, the colors are still off, but they look pretty close to the characters. For 1962, I'm impressed!

Moving on to the 80s, here's a Flintstones lamp, as well as a Jetsons one. Both look pretty similar, so I imagine these were made by the same company. I could easily have made this post just about Flintstones lamps, but I decided to focus on this one for now, as it's another that many don't seem to know even exists. The Jetsons lamp is interesting if solely for the fact that it features Orbitty, a character made for the 80s episodes, but was mostly ignored in merchandise. Here, we see him asleep with both Elroy and Astro.

This next one is a really special one, and one I'd love to have in my own collection. Released in 1996, this is a lovely lamp featuring Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, the former of whom appears to have gotten his behind pricked by a cactus. These sport Craig Kellman's redesigns for the characters, and I never would have imagined such designs would translate so well in 3D. Ain't it crazy to see this one compared to that first Quick Draw lamp? 750 of these were made, but I don't know where this lamp was sold. If I had to guess, I'd say the WB Studio Store, but your guess is as good as mine.

For the last lamp I'm showing in this post, I thought I'd go with what is perhaps the most obscure one. This is a lido lamp made in 2000, to help promote the launch of Cartoon Network's Boomerang. Like the Quick Draw lamp, I have no idea where this was sold, but considering there isn't a lot of info on it online, it's safe to say this is one of the rarer Hanna-Barbera lamps. The piece uses the Boomerang branding and is adorned with those memorable figurines that were featured in the channel's original bumpers. 

Snacks at the Hanna-Barbera Studio Store

 Now here's a little something I found on eBay the other day that caught my eye. Below is a bottle of candy representing Scooby-Doo and the snacks named after him.

Ok, so it's an old piece of Scooby-Doo-themed candy. There's been plenty of those over the years, so what's special about this one? Unlike your various Scooby cookies and Scooby gummies, this was offered only to Hanna-Barbera employees at the studio's store, which opened in the early 1990s. I've talked about the offerings of said store a few times in the past, but I never once heard anything about candy until now. Others were also available to purchase, such as this bottle referred to as Droopy's Drops (pictured alongside a Droopy keychain the store also sold).

I couldn't tell you what the Scooby snacks tasted like (and judging by their appearance, they don't look particularly tasty), but the Droopy candy was similar to jawbreakers, according to an older eBay listing. Maybe there were more done, but these were the only ones I could find anything about online. If any of my readers happened to have worked for Hanna-Barbera back then, did you ever try any of these? Furthermore, do the Scooby snacks taste as bad as they look?

Coming This June: MeTV Toons!

 Well, this might be the biggest piece of news I'll share on this blog all year.

In case you've been living under a rock the last couple of days, it was announced this past Thursday (and leaked the day prior) that MeTV, who has built an impressive roster of classic cartoons over the years, will be launching a spin-off network dedicated to classic cartoons. The channel, titled MeTV Toons, premieres on June 25th and will be available through several means, including OTA television, and free ad-supported services (think Tubi). Helping out with the channel are animation historian Jerry Beck and voice actor Bob Bergen. Beck will develop original content (but not new animation), while Bergen fills the role of the network's voice. If you'd like to know more about that original content, check out Cartoon Brew's write-up on the news.

Beck also took to Cartoon Research to dish out further details on the channel. He states it will not be a copy of Boomerang, but more like Cartoon Network in its early years. Here's that Cartoon Research article for those who've yet to read it. You can also check out the channel's official website, which features a teaser and a collage of cartoons that will be featured. They're pulling series from WB, MGM, UPA, Hanna-Barbera, and Fleischer, just to name a few. Probably one of the most exciting details about this channel is that there will be some shows not seen in decades on television appearing here, though Beck remains mum on what those shows will be (gotta have some surprises down the line!). 

So, what shows from the Hanna-Barbera catalog will be featured on the channel? From what marketing material we've seen, expect the following titles.

• Tom and Jerry
• The Flintstones
• The Jetsons
• Top Cat
• Scooby-Doo
• Jonny Quest
• Yogi Bear
• Wally Gator
• Snagglepuss
• Huckleberry Hound
• Touche Turtle
• Secret Squirrel
• Josie and the Pussycats
• Captain Planet
• Magilla Gorilla
• The Smurfs
• Dynomutt
• Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles
• Gobots
• 2 Stupid Dogs
• Atom Ant
• Captain Caveman
• Breezly and Sneezly
• Abbott and Costello 
• Kwicky Koala

And, for added measure, here's every show advertised on the channel's webpage! Credit goes to Hanna-Barbera Screencaps on Twitter for putting it together.

Quite the list if you ask me! As you can see, there are a few shows here that most probably wouldn't label as "classic cartoons", like 2 Stupid Dogs for example, but seeing as these shows aren't really available on cable or streaming, I think it's fine that they're here. Overall, I am ecstatic over this news, and I can't wait to tune in when the 25th of June comes around. An animated counterpart for MeTV has been rumored for quite some time (I believe there were rumblings around a trademark being registered last fall), and it's fantastic to finally see it not only become a reality but look even better than I could have ever imagined! It's also kinda funny this is happening right as Boomerang is, unfortunately, going to their old habits. I'll keep you all informed on the channel in the weeks leading up to its premiere, but for now, that's all of the key details announced thus far. Will you be tuning in to MeTV Toons?

Video of the Week: Hoyt Curtin at Work

 When people think of great composers in film and TV music, Hoyt Curtin isn't a name you usually see pop up, but he should be. Think of a random Hanna-Barbera cartoon; the chances are high that he did the music for it. Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Smurfs, Superfriends, Jetsons, and many more owe their musical identity to him. Some of these are themes we are born into the world knowing the lyrics to, and there are not many who can say they've accomplished that. He could compose everything from the whimsical to the adventurous, showing a level of range you don't often see in TV composers. His work on Jonny Quest I am especially a big fan of, and it's one series he really got to flex his talents on. Curtin worked with Hanna-Barbera on and off for nearly thirty years, beginning with Ruff and Reddy in 1957 until officially retiring in 1986. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 78, but his music continues to thrive, through both the cartoons themselves and the compositions on their own.

Of course, a lot of you probably already know all that. What you may not know is that Hoyt Curtin got the chance to sit down with NBC for an interview on his prosperous career. This is from a short-lived series called Sunday Best, which aired on NBC in the early 90s. I don't know if Curtin did any other TV interviews, so this is a real treat to watch. It's truly wonderful that he lived long enough to see the legacy his music had on pop culture, and from this short clip, you can really get the sense he loved his work. 

The Flintstones Take to a Galaxy Far, Far Away

 In 1977, a little independent movie would be released into theatres, and change Hollywood practically overnight. For those who've never heard of it, it was something called Star Wars. At least, I think that was the name. Regardless, with the movie's immense success, legions of copycats were quick to appear, and if there was anything the top brass at Hanna-Barbera liked, it was chasing trends. That led them to ask a question nobody asked before, and nobody has asked since: What if we crossed Star Wars with The Flintstones? 

Above is a piece of art commissioned for such a pitch. This comes from an old Heritage Auctions listing, but information about the concept is sparse apart from the fact it was created in the late seventies. I cannot say for certain, but I believe this was drawn by Iwao Takamoto, who did a lot of the art for Hanna-Barbera's pitches. Had this been greenlit, it looks like it would've followed Fred and Barney going on Star Wars-esque adventures in space, battling against a prehistoric-styled Darth Vader. In the end, the pitch didn't go anywhere, and Hanna-Barbera went instead with Yogi's Space Race as their attempt to cash in on the sci-fi craze of the time. If you'd like to know more about that series, check out Michael Lyons' piece on it on Cartoon Research. Maybe I'll discuss that show some other time, but until then, may the fourth be with you!