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.