Dexter's Laboratory turned 30 years old this week. Normally on this blog, I tend to ignore the nineties-era Hanna-Barbera toons. They're great shows, just not the stuff I want to talk about. But considering the occasion, and the show's importance to the studio at that time, it felt right to post a little something special.
Today, I've got three great commercials for Dexter's Lab early on in its run. This one was among the first promos to air for the series. It's a pretty standard clip of Dexter explaining the show's premise. A not too special ad for a cartoon that would go on to be one of the most influential of its time.
This next commercial is similar, but presented in a more creative way. This time around, Dexter's sister Dee Dee tells the viewers a poem about our protagonist. It features a couple moments of new animation, and it's overall the more charming of the two.
This last one aired a year after the show's debut, and is easily the most interesting one of the bunch. This commercial doubles as an interview with the series creator, Genndy Tartakovsky. He tells viewers what the show's about, what he tries to accomplish with it, and his thoughts on the characters. Would've loved to hear even more from him, but you can only cover so much in a minute long advertisement.
That's all I've got to say about Dexter and his lab today, but maybe I'll talk about these shows more often if people are interested in that. It's definitely a fun era to look back on, and Dexter's Lab is a big reason for that.
I've long been a fan of cartoonist Craig Kellman's take on the Flintstones characters from the mid-nineties. If you feel the same, then I hope you'll be as delighted as I was with today's find. From around 1994, here is a style guide filled to the brim with Kellman's Flintstones art. The entire guide can be found here, but I thought I'd look at some of the more interesting pages.
The first legitimate page is an interesting one. In it, the history of The Flintstones is discussed, as well as the impetus behind these redesigns. The background is adorned with several Wilmas, all with a clear Ed Benedict influence.
Another cool detail in this style guide is that there are pieces based on moments from specific episodes. Below are two examples, taken from the episodes "Hot Lips Hannigan" and "Fred Flintstone Before and After" respectively.
And, as is typical with these guides, a few pages depict the art used on merchandise. In this particular instance, it's t-shirts. I don't know about any of you, but I would have definitely loved to rock any of these! Overall, it's a really cool little book, and it's a shame that there doesn't seem to be one for Kellman's take on other Hanna-Barbera characters.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Man, do I love George O'Hanlon. Whether he's Joe McDoakes or George Jetson, he was an amazing comedic talent who is criminally overlooked. Even during the height of his career, he seemed to be glossed over, as evidenced by the lack of interviews and pieces on him. Luckily, I found a pretty fantastic one that appeared in the Times Union on the 11th of August, 1954. At least these guys knew what was up!
As you can tell by that date, there are no mentions of The Jetsons here. Instead, the focus is on Joe McDoakes, but there's also some great insight into his life before he entered show business. There's two things I want to note regarding this article. For one, the paper mentions that O'Hanlon is married to a Nancy Clark. Many websites have mentioned him being married to a "Nancy Owens," but from my research, I found nothing to support that. There's also heavy refrences to a TV series titled Real George that O'Hanlon was working on. The show never came to be, but its pilot was featured in the NBC Sneak Preview series.
He Put the "Mc" in Joe McDoakes
Talk five minutes with George O'Hanlon of Hollywood, U.S.A., and you know why the familiar Joe Doakes became "Joe McDoakes" in the title of Warner Bros. popular comedy series. The "Mc" would be a "must" for a picture starring THE O'Hanlon. You also discover why theatermen rate "Joe McDoakes" as the top live comedy one-reelers showing in movie houses today. This O'Hanlon is a really funny guy, one of those unfortunately rare fellows who, like Goldsmith's heroine, probably could "spread a horse-laugh through the pews of a tabernacle." The witty, good-humored Hollywood actor whose value to his studio is attested by a freshly-signed seven-year contract that allows him as much free time as a schoolboy on summer vacation, is presently hanging his hat (with the turned-up brim) in our town. At the Sheraton, to be exact, where he and his very glamorous wife, the former Nancy Clark, a Paramount Pictures player before their marriage two years ago, are staying during a two-week visit to Rochester. O'Hanlon is here for an acting stint before Easterman Kodak Company cameras. During his visit to Rochester he is renewing a friendship with Harold S. Rand, newly appointed manager of the War Memorial with whom he served in the Air Force during World War II. Born in showbusiness as the son of vaudeville performers, George grew up just late enough to find the demand for his own song and dance act fading with the closing of the nation's variety theaters. One swing around the last of the "big time" circuit (that by then was small time) proved to the New York-born young man that it might be smart to follow Horace Greeley's advice. He headed West. Hollywood, he admits, did not welcome him with open arms. But by the time Uncle Sam wiggled his finger at him for the Air Force in 1942, George had plated in several major features and many Columbia and Warner Bros. shorts. When the Air Force found it could carry on without George O'Hanlon in 1945 he came back to Glitterville in the new role of an actor with an idea. Together with his friend Dick Bare, a director-producer, he made a one-reel comedy (it was no comedy financing the production, the Irishman wryly admits) in which the major character was a brash young extrovert whose self assureance continually kept him in hot water. The Brothers Warner saw it, liked it, and bought it. They signed O'Hanlon, who wrote it and played the leading role, and friend Bare to make a series of one reelers. The title: "Joe McDoakes." This has been O'Hanlon's major occupation since then (1946) but he has found time to play in other Warner productions (the latest: "Cattle Town,") and to turn his comic talents to television. Now, under his new contract, O'Hanlon promises to deliver eight pictures a year (he still writes and plays the title role in the "McDoakes" series). The balance of his time he will devote to a comedy series for TV which he and Bare will produce.
Taking their title from a current teenage slang expression, O'Hanlon-Bare & Co. have named their new creation "Real George." George, of course, will play George, described by George O'Hanlon as a composite of Mr. Peepers and Charlie Chaplin without the baggy pants. The series goes before the cameras when the actor returns to Hollywood. There's another George figuring largely in the O'Hanlon's plans. He's George O'Hanlon III, their eight-months-old son waiting back home at Malibu Beach. Mrs. O'Hanlon, retired from professional life "so I can raise a family," is pressed into service only when hubby need her "real bad." Although he didn't say so, one suspects George already is planning on working Junior into the script of "Real George" or "Joe McDoakes." This funny guy from Hollywood knows that being funny is serious business. And there's no use wasting time getting down to business.
Easter's on Sunday, so this seemed like an appropriately timed post. Here's a promo that aired on Cartoon Network in 1995 for Yogi the Easter Bear, a direct-to-video movie that came out the previous year. I can't say I remembered this film too well, but I cannot imagine it being worse than some of the other Yogi Bear projects at that time.
This particular airing of the movie was part of a block called "Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theatre". It was essentially the prototype for the more famous "Cartoon Theatre," and only lasted one year. A shame, as the interstitials made for it are lovely to look at.
Three years. Somehow, it feels like both a lot of time and no time have passed, but it was on that day that this blog began. And thus far, I'm beyond happy with how it has come along.
I could talk about my favorite posts and all that jazz, but really, the best part of this blog has been connecting with you guys. I know that may sound cliché, but it's the honest truth. I'm simply amazed that so many people not only still enjoy the classic Hanna-Barbera toons, but also enough to discuss them online with others. Every single one of your comments is greatly appreciated, and I thank all of you for the support over the years.
Over the last three years, it's been interesting to see a renewed interest in these shows. Warner Archive is giving us new releases left and right, there are Flintstones and Jetsons feature films in the works, and half of MeTV Toons' programming is their library. It's been extremely cool to see these things happen, and I'm praying that the WB-Paramount merger doesn't harm these. Man, you wanna talk about a sentence I'd never imagine saying...
This is where I'd discuss upcoming posts and plans, but just to be safe, I'm going to hold off on that this time. I don't want to say I'm doing something and then fail to deliver, so I'll hold off on big announcements until they're set in stone. But as a tease, I will say that you can look forward to two months focused on two Hanna-Barbera shows, should everything go to plan. I've also got a few other special posts in the works, and I can't wait to share them in the future. Believe me when I say I've got some good stuff coming!
