Video of the Week: A Super Bowl Sweepstakes Spectacular

 Super Bowl Sunday is nearly upon us, and I've got two short videos to celebrate. Both of these aired on TNT back in 1995 as part of a sweepstakes promotion with Purina that enticed viewers with a trip to the Super Bowl XXX. The first one features Top Cat, who I believe is still voiced by Arnold Stang. As far as I know, this was one of the last (if not the last) times Stang voiced the character.

The second ad in this series focuses on Huckleberry Hound and Mr. Jinks. It's pretty surprising to see Jinks here, as he really doesn't show up in a lot of these kinds of productions. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe Greg Burson voices both of them. 

Coloring in Christmas With Yogi and Friends

 Have the holidays got you stressed? Perhaps you should sit down and relax with a coloring book featuring your favorite Hanna-Barbera stars. Over the years, many were produced, including a couple of holiday-themed ones. Here's a look at some of them, starting with what might be the best of them all: a Yogi Bear coloring book. This was released by Whitman in 1961 and features beautiful artwork adorning the front. Eagle-eyed viewers might also notice Pixie and Dixie near the bottom!

These next two are more themed toward all of the Hanna-Barbera characters, and their covers show them partaking in different Christmas activities. Of the two, I definitely prefer the first. The art and composition are just much nicer to look at. Honestly, some of the characters in the second look more like bobbleheads than the actual characters, though it's nice to see Mr. Jinks appear on one of these. 

Here are two Flintstones-focused coloring books. The first, from what I could gather, features art based on the 1977 Christmas special, while the second features appearances from other Hanna-Barbera characters. It's interesting to see the Flintstones alongside the Jetsons years before their crossover. Outside the World's Fair comic, merchandise like this is among the earliest instances of the characters crossing paths. It's a fun crossover all in all, even if a lot of the characters seem off proportionally. And is it just me, or did Wilma steal from Betty's wardrobe?

Video of the Week: Pixie and Dixie Take a Cue From 'The Shining'

Halloween is fast approaching, so here's a short but spooky Cartoon Network commercial to help get you guys into the spirit. I don't know when this ran specifically, but it was sometime in the nineties. In it, we see Pixie, Dixie, and Mr. Jinks parody one of the most iconic scenes of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. A funny commercial, and they really couldn't have picked a better set of characters for this homage.

A Magic Carpet Ride with Huckleberry Hound

 Boy, did Hanna-Barbera love to slap their characters on everything and anything. If you need proof, here is a collection of Huckleberry Hound rugs from the early 1960s. Yowp's discussed these on his blog a few times, but I don't believe he's shared the full collection of them. Or, at least, all the carpets that I could find online. According to a newspaper ad he shared on one post, these would've set you back $5.98 back in the day. Each one measures 22 x 38 inches and comes to us from Belgium.

I'm not quite done yet, though! In the early days of Cartoon Network's website, they actually had concept sketches for these rugs available. They didn't have art for all of the pieces I've shared today, but they did for the majority of them. Oddly enough, the website just labels them as sketches for "Huckleberry Hound merchandise", making no mention of the merchandise the art was made for. Perhaps those creating the website didn't even know themselves?