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Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
Company typePrivate company (1957–1967)
Subsidiary (1967–2001)
Name-only unit (2001–present)
IndustryAnimation
Television production
Founded1957[1]
FounderWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
George Sidney
Defunct2001
FateFolded into Warner Bros. Animation
SuccessorWarner Bros. Animation
Cartoon Network Studios
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
,
United States
ProductsTelevision series
Telefilms
Direct-to-video releases
Specials
Theatrical movies
ParentIndependent
(1957–1967)
Taft Broadcasting
(1967–1987)
American Financial Corporation (1987–1988)
Great American Broadcasting (1988–1991)
Turner Broadcasting System (1991–1996)
Time Warner
(1996–2001, 2003–present)
AOL Time Warner
(2001–2003)

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. (also known at various times as H-B Enterprises, H-B Production Company, and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons) was an American animation studio that dominated American television animation for nearly four decades in the mid-to-late 20th century. It was formed in 1957 by former MGM animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (creators of Tom and Jerry) and live-action director George Sidney in partnership with Columbia's Screen Gems television division.[2]

Over the years, Hanna-Barbera produced many successful animated shows, including The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs, among others, earning eight Emmys,[3] a Golden Globe Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among other merits. The company's fortunes declined in the mid-80s after the profitability of Saturday morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication.

It was purchased in late 1991 by Turner Broadcasting System, who used much of its back catalog to program its new channel, Cartoon Network.[4][5] After Turner purchased the company, both Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as mentors and creative consultants. Original programs for Cartoon Network were produced by the studio in the mid-90s, including the Cartoon Cartoons shows.

In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, and Hanna-Barbera became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation. With Hanna's death in 2001, it was absorbed into its parent, and Cartoon Network Studios continued the projects for the channel's output. Barbera continued to work for Warner Bros. Animation until his death in 2006.

The studio now exists as an in-name-only company used to market properties and productions associated with "classic" works, such as Yogi Bear. In 2005, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored Hanna and Barbera with a wall sculpture of them and the characters they created.

History

File:Bill-hanna-and-joe-barbera.jpg
Founders William Hanna (left) and Joseph Barbera pose with several of the Emmy awards the Hanna-Barbera studio has won.

Melrose, New Mexico native William Hanna and New York City-born Joseph Barbera first teamed together while working at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio in 1939. Their first directorial project was a cartoon entitled Puss Gets the Boot (1940), which served as the genesis of the popular Tom and Jerry series of cartoon theatricals. Hanna and Barbera served as the directors and story men for the shorts for eighteen years. Seven cartoons of the series won seven Oscars for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) between 1943 and 1953, though the trophies were awarded to their producer Fred Quimby, who was not involved in the creative development of the shorts.[6]: 83–84  With Quimby's retirement in 1955, Hanna and Barbera became the producers in charge of the MGM animation studio's output.[7] Outside of their work on the MGM shorts, the two men moonlighted on outside projects, including the original title sequences and commercials for the hit television sitcom I Love Lucy.[8]

MGM decided in early 1957 to close its cartoon studio, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release.[7] Hanna and Barbera, contemplating their future while completing the final Tom and Jerry and Droopy cartoons, began producing animated television commercials.[1] During their last year at MGM, they developed a concept for an animated television program about a dog and cat pair who found themselves in various misadventures.[1] After they failed to convince MGM to back their venture, live-action director George Sidney, who'd worked with Hanna and Barbera on several of his features – most notably Anchors Aweigh in 1945 – offered to serve as their business partner and convinced Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, to make a deal with the animation producers.[2]

Screen Gems took a twenty percent ownership in Hanna and Barbera's new company, H-B Enterprises,[2] and provided working capital to produce. H-B Enterprises opened for business in rented offices on the lot of Kling Studios (formerly Charlie Chaplin Studios)[8] on July 7, 1957, two months after the MGM animation studio closed down.[1] Sidney and several Screen Gems alumni became members of H-B's original board of directors, and much of the former MGM animation staff – including animators Carlo Vinci, Kenneth Muse, Lewis Marshall, Michael Lah, and Ed Barge and layout artists Ed Benedict and Richard Bickenbach – as H-B's production staff.[1]

Television cartoons

Hanna-Barbera was one of the first animation studios to successfully produce cartoons especially for television.[9] Previously, animated programming on television had consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of theatrical cartoons. Its first series for television The Ruff & Reddy Show, featuring live-action host Jimmy Blaine and several older Columbia-owned cartoons as filler, premiered on NBC in December 1957. The studio had its first big success with The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958, a syndicated series aired in most markets just before primetime. The program was a ratings success, and introduced a new crop of cartoon stars to audiences, in particular Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming. The studio began to expand rapidly following the success of Huckleberry Hound, and several animation industry alumni – in particular former Warner Bros. Cartoons storymen Michael Maltese and Warren Foster, who became H-B's new head writers – joined the staff at this time.[1]

By 1959, H-B Enterprises was reincorporated as Hanna-Barbera Productions, and was slowly becoming a leader in television animation production. After introducing a second syndicated series, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, in 1959, Hanna-Barbera migrated into network primetime production with the animated ABC sitcom The Flintstones in 1960. Loosely based upon the popular live-action sitcom The Honeymooners, yet set in a fictionalized stone age of cavemen and dinosaurs, the show ran for six seasons in prime time on ABC, becoming a ratings and merchandising success. It was the longest-running animated show in American prime time television history until being beaten out by The Simpsons in 1996. During the early and mid-1960s, the studio debuted several new successful programs, among them prime time ABC series such as Top Cat, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest.

New shows produced for syndication and Saturday mornings included The Yogi Bear Show – a syndicated spinoff from The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series featuring Wally Gator, The Magilla Gorilla Show, The Peter Potamus Show and The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show. Hanna-Barbera also produced several television commercials, often starring its own characters, and animated the opening credits for the ABC sitcom Bewitched (the Bewitched characters would also appear as guest stars in an episode of The Flintstones). Hanna-Barbera also produced Loopy De Loop, a series of theatrical cartoon shorts and Hanna and Barbera's second short subject series (the first being Tom and Jerry for MGM).

The former Hanna-Barbera building at 3400 Cahuenga Blvd. West in Hollywood, California, seen in a 2007 photograph. The small yellow structure (lower right) was originally the "guard shack" for the property entrance to the east of the building.

Hanna-Barbera moved off of the Kling lot in 1963 (by then renamed the Red Skelton Studios) when the Hanna-Barbera Studio, located at 3400 Cahuenga Blvd. West in Hollywood, California, was opened. This California contemporary office building was designed by architect Arthur Froehlich. Its ultra-modern design included a sculpted latticework exterior, moat, fountains, and after later additions, a Jetsons-like tower. After the success of The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show in 1965, H-B debuted two new Saturday morning series the following year: Space Ghost, which featured action-adventure, and Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles, which blended action-adventure with the earlier Hanna-Barbera humor style. A number of H-B action cartoons followed in 1967, among them Shazzan, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, Young Samson and Goliath, The Herculoids and an adaptation of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four along with new syndicated shows based on famous celebrities such as The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show and Laurel and Hardy.

The Columbia/Hanna-Barbera partnership lasted until 1965, when Hanna and Barbera announced the sale of the studio to Taft Broadcasting.[10] Taft's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera was delayed for a year by a lawsuit from Joan Perry, John Cohn, and Harrison Cohn - the widow and sons of former Columbia head Harry Cohn - who felt that Hanna-Barbera had undervalued its 18% share in the company when it was sold a few years prior.[11] By December 1966, the litigation had been settled and Taft finally acquired the company for $12 million.[10] Hanna and Barbera stayed on to run the company, and Taft became Hanna-Barbera's new distributor. Screen Gems retain distribution rights to the previous series until its final H-B deal for the 1966-67 shows (Space Ghost and Dino Boy, Frankenstein Jr, etc.) expired in 1974.[10] In 1968, Hanna-Barbera mixed live-action and animated comedy-action for its NBC anthology series, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, while the successful Wacky Races, and its spinoffs The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, aired on CBS, returning Hanna-Barbera to straight animated slapstick humor. ABC would air Cattanooga Cats, which debuted the following year.

Next came Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969, a CBS program which blended elements of H-B's comedy programs, action shows, the live-action sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and the old time radio show I Love a Mystery.[12][13] The series centered on four teenagers and a dog solving supernatural mysteries, and was so popular that the company made more new Saturday morning cartoons featuring mystery-solving, crime-fighting teenagers with comical pets and mascots, such as, Josie and the Pussycats, The Funky Phantom, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Speed Buggy, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kids, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Clue Club, Jabberjaw, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and The New Shmoo. By 1977, Scooby-Doo was the centerpiece of a two-hour ABC program block titled Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, which also included Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Captain Caveman and Laff-a-Lympics.[citation needed]

Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s

During the 1970s in particular, the majority of American television animation was produced by Hanna-Barbera.[citation needed] The only competition came from Filmation, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Ruby-Spears, and a few other companies that specialized primarily in prime time specials, such as Rankin-Bass and Lee Mendelson-Bill Meléndez. Filmation, in particular, lost ground to Hanna-Barbera when the failure of its show Uncle Croc's Block led ABC president Fred Silverman to drop Filmation and give Hanna-Barbera the majority of the network's Saturday morning cartoon time.[citation needed] Besides Scooby-Doo and the programs derived from it, the studio also found success with new programs such as Harlem Globetrotters, Where's Huddles, The Addams Family, These Are The Days and Hong Kong Phooey. The syndicated Wait Till Your Father Gets Home returned Hanna-Barbera to adult-oriented comedy, although the show was more provocative than The Flintstones or The Jetsons had been.[citation needed]

The studio revisited its 1960s hits starting with the Flintstones spin-offs The Flintstone Comedy Hour, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, The Flintstone Comedy Show and The New Fred and Barney Show. In 1980, all four Flintstones specials aired in prime time on NBC as a limited-run revival of the original series. "All-star" shows featuring Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and others included Yogi's Gang and Yogi's Space Race and the Scooby-Doo spin-offs, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The Scooby-Doo Show, and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. New shows arrived featuring stars from the theatrical cartoon era, such as Popeye (The All-New Popeye Hour), Casper the Friendly Ghost (Casper and the Angels) and its founders' own Tom and Jerry (The New Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show).[citation needed] Super Friends, a Hanna-Barbera produced adaptation of DC Comics' Justice League of America comic book, remained on ABC Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1986. The Kwicky Koala Show, the first and only project of Tex Avery for Hanna-Barbera, first aired in 1981.[citation needed] Hanna-Barbera also tried its hand at live-action production, though its success in selling such programming was limited by its track record as an animation studio.

The studio produced a handful of live-action specials, such as the Emmy-winning The Gathering (1977). Its live-action department sold the action series Man from Atlantis to NBC after being spun-off as Solow Production Company.[14] A number of live shows and rides based on classic Hanna-Barbera series and characters were made for various theme parks, including Kings Dominion.[citation needed] The studio tried its hand at being a record label for a short time when Danny Hutton was hired to become the head of Hanna Barbera Records (HBR) from 1965 to 1966.[15] It was distributed by Columbia Records, with artists such as Louis Prima, Five Americans, Scatman Crothers and the 13th Floor Elevators. Previously, children's records with Hanna-Barbera characters were released by Colpix Records.

Production process changes

Early H-B Enterprises logo used from the studio's inception in 1957 until 1960.

From 1957 to 1995, Hanna-Barbera produced prime-time, weekday afternoon, and Saturday morning cartoons for all three major networks and syndication in the United States. The small budgets that television animation producers had to work within prevented them, and most other producers of American television animation, from working with the full theatrical-quality animation the duo had been known for at MGM. While the budget for a seven-minute Tom and Jerry entry of the 1950s was about $35,000, Hanna-Barbera was required to produce five-minute Ruff and Reddy episodes for no more than $3,000 a piece.[2] To keep within these tighter budgets, Hanna-Barbera modified the concept of limited animation (also called semi-animation) practiced and popularized by the United Productions of America (UPA) studio, which also once had a partnership with Columbia Pictures.

Character designs were simplified, and backgrounds and animation cycles (walks, runs, etc.) were regularly re-purposed. Characters were often broken up into a handful of levels, so that only the parts of the body that needed to be moved at a given time (i.e. a mouth, an arm, a head) would be animated. The rest of the figure would remain on a held animation cel. This allowed a typical 10-minute short to be done with only 1,200 drawings instead of the usual 26,000. Dialogue, music, and sound effects were emphasized over action, leading Chuck Jones – a contemporary who worked for Hanna and Barbera's rivals at Warner Bros. Cartoons when the duo was at MGM, and one who, with his short The Dover Boys practically invented many of the concepts in limited animation – to disparagingly refer to the limited TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and others as "illustrated radio".[16]

In a story published by The Saturday Evening Post in 1961, critics stated that Hanna-Barbera was taking on more work than it could handle and was resorting to shortcuts only a television audience would tolerate.[17] An executive who worked for Walt Disney Productions said, "We don't even consider [them] competition".[17] Ironically, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hanna-Barbera was the only animation studio in Hollywood that was actively hiring, and it picked up a number of Disney artists who were laid off during this period. The studio's solution to the criticism over its quality was to go into features. The studio produced six theatrical features, among them higher-quality versions of its hit television cartoons and adaptations of other material. Hanna-Barbera was also the first animation studio to have their animation work produced overseas. One of these production companies was a subsidiary started by Hanna-Barbera's called PhilToons in the Philippines.[18]

Slow rise and fall

Competing studios such as Filmation and Rankin/Bass began to introduce successful syndicated cartoons (He-Man, She-Ra and Thundercats) based upon characters from popular toy lines and action figures.[citation needed] Hanna-Barbera continued to produce for Saturday mornings but no longer dominated the market. Ruby-Spears Enterprises, founded in 1977 by former H-B employees Joe Ruby and Ken Spears was purchased by Taft Broadcasting from Filmways in 1981 and that studio would often pair their productions with Hanna-Barbera's programs.[citation needed] In 1979, Taft bought Worldvision Enterprises, which then became the syndication distributor for most of the company's shows throughout the 1980s. It was also during this time that the studio switched from cel animation to digital ink and paint for some of their shows. Both Hanna-Barbera and Worldvision had their own home video labels (Worldvision Home Video and Hanna-Barbera Home Video) while many of the studio's productions were released by other VHS distributors.[citation needed]

The Smurfs debuted in 1981 on NBC, based on Belgian cartoonist and creator Pierre Culliford's popular comics and stories. It centers around the society of tiny, blue creatures lead by Papa Smurf. It all began when Hanna and Barbera were called by Fred Silverman in 1979, offering an "on the air" commitment if they could secure the television rights to the characters, which had caught the attention of Silverman's young daughter.[citation needed] It ran for nine seasons becoming a ratings success, winning two Daytime Emmys and a Humanitas Prize. It was also the highest rated program in eight years becoming the longest-running Saturday morning cartoon in Hanna-Barbera's history and the highest for an NBC program since 1970.[citation needed] Some of their shows were produced at their Australian-based studio, a partnership with Australian media company Southern Star Entertainment, including Drak Pack, The Berenstain Bears and Teen Wolf.[citation needed]

The next big hit was The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, a Hanna-Barbera produced series for direct-to-video about three young adventurers traveling back in time to watch biblical events take place in the past. Barbera tried to get support for the series for 17 years when finally, Taft supported it.[19] After the success of CBS's hit 1984 Saturday morning cartoon series Muppet Babies, which featured toddler versions of the popular Muppets characters, the studio began producing shows featuring "kid" versions of popular characters, based on both their own properties (The Flintstone Kids and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo) and properties from other companies (Pink Panther and Sons and Popeye and Son).[citation needed] Barbera, Michael D. Antonovich and the Los Angeles Earthquake Preparedness Program devloped a new project featuring Yogi Bear called Shakey Quakey Schoolhouse.

In 1985, new versions of Yogi Bear (Yogi's Treasure Hunt) and Jonny Quest (The New Adventures of Jonny Quest) along with brand new originals, such as Galtar and the Golden Lance, Paw Paws, Sky Commanders, Fantastic Max, The Further Adventures of Superted and Paddington Bear were introduced for the weekday and weekend syndication block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. DC Comics named Hanna-Barbera as one of the honorees in its 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for its work on the Super Friends cartoon series.[20] New shows were introduced featuring Yogi Bear (The New Yogi Bear Show) and Scooby-Doo (The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo) along with The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley and Wildfire.

After two decades, The Jetsons were revived for new episodes, running from 1985 to 1987 syndicated.[citation needed] The studio followed the lead of its competitors by introducing new shows based on familiar licensed properties,[citation needed] such as Pac-Man, Mork and Mindy, Snorks, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, Pound Puppies, The Gary Coleman Show, Challenge of the GoBots, Laverne & Shirley in the Army, Shirt Tales, The Little Rascals, Richie Rich, The Dukes and Monchhichis. Throughout all of this, both Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears were affected by the financial troubles of their parent company Taft, which had just been acquired by the American Financial Corporation in 1987 and had its name changed to Great American Broadcasting the following year.[citation needed]

Many of the business deals were overseen by Charles Mechem, CEO of Taft Broadcasting.[citation needed] Along with the rest of the American animation industry, the company had gradually begun to move away from producing everything in-house in the late 70s and early 80s. Much of its product was outsourced to studios in Australia and Asia, including Wang Film Productions, Cuckoo's Nest Studios, Mr. Big Cartoons, Mook Co., Ltd., Toei Animation, and its own Philippines-based studio Fil-Cartoons. In 1989, much of its staff responded to a call from Warner Bros. to resurrect their animation department.[citation needed] Tom Ruegger and a number of his colleagues left the studio, moving to Warners to develop hit programs such as Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman: The Animated Series and Animaniacs.[citation needed]

The rights to the Hanna-Barbera properties were licensed to Universal Studios, resulting in new theme park attractions and live stage shows, such as The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera film ride. David Kirschner was appointed as the head of the studio in 1989, with Hanna and Barbera remaining as co-chairmen [21] and launched new programs, such as Yo Yogi! and The Pirates of Dark Water. Less than successful and burdened with debt, Carl Lindner, Jr.'s Great American put both Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears up for sale in 1990. The Smurfs appeared in the drug prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, produced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.[citation needed]

Turner rebound

File:HBIwao&Me.jpg
Hanna, Iwao Takamoto, a studio employee, and Barbera, from July 14th, 1996

In November 1991, the Hanna-Barbera studio and library, as well as much of the original Ruby-Spears library, were acquired by a 50-50 joint venture between Turner Broadcasting – which by that time had also bought the pre-May 1986 MGM library – and Apollo Investment Fund for $320 million.[22] This was with the intention of launching an all animation based network aimed at children and younger audiences.[citation needed] Turner's president of entertainment Scott Sassa hired Fred Seibert, a former executive for MTV Networks, to head the Hanna-Barbera studio.

He immediately filled the gap left by the departure of most of their creative crew during the Great American years with a new crop of animators, writers, and producers, including Pat Ventura, Craig McCracken, Donovan Cook, Genndy Tartakovsky, David Feiss, Seth MacFarlane, Van Partible, Stewart St. John, and Butch Hartman with new production head Buzz Potamkin.[citation needed] In 1992, the studio was renamed H-B Productions Company, changing its name once again to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. a year later, the same year that Turner acquired the remaining interests of Hanna-Barbera from Apollo Investment Fund for $255 million.[23] In the early-90s, new versions of classic properties were introduced, such as Tom & Jerry Kids and Droopy: Master Detective.

Production assumed on TBS's Captain Planet and the Planeteers in 1993, renaming it The New Adventures of Captain Planet. New programs were introduced that were quite different from their old classics, including Wake, Rattle, and Roll (a.k.a. Jump, Rattle and Roll), Midnight Patrol, The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda, Young Robin Hood, SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Dumb and Dumber, 2 Stupid Dogs, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures, Fish Police, Gravedale High and Capitol Critters.

Launch of Cartoon Network

In 1992, Turner launched Cartoon Network, to showcase its huge library of animated programs, of which Hanna-Barbera was the core contributor. As a result, many classic cartoons, especially those by H-B, were introduced to a new audience.[24] The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera ended in 1994, so that Turner could refocus the studio to produce new shows exclusively for the Turner-owned networks. In February 1995, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network launched World Premiere Toons (a.k.a. What A Cartoon!), a format designed by Seibert.[citation needed] The program featured forty-eight new creator-driven cartoon shorts developed by its in-house staff. Several original series emerged from the project, giving the studio their first bona-fide mass appeal hits since The Smurfs. The first series based on a World Premiere short was Genndy Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory in 1996, than other programs followed, including Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken and The Powerpuff Girls, then new regular series The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and Cave Kids.[citation needed]

After the merger between Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner in 1996, the conglomerate had two separate animation studios in its possession. Though under a common ownership, Hanna-Barbera Productions and Warner Bros. Animation operated separately until 1998.[citation needed] After thirty-five years at 3400 Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, CA, the Hanna-Barbera lot was closed and studio operations were moved into the same office tower as the Warner Bros. Television Animation division in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, adjacent to the Sherman Oaks Galleria.[citation needed]

Cartoon Network Studios era

See also: Cartoon Network Studios

Around 2000, the Hanna-Barbera name began to disappear from newer shows by the studio in favor of the Cartoon Network Studios label. This came in handy with shows that were produced outside the company, but Cartoon Network had a hand in producing as well as shows the studio continued to produce. In April 2008, Cartoon Network would create their own animation anthology not unlike World Premiere Toons known as The Cartoonstitute, headed by two animators who got their start on the World Premiere Toons project, Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti, with help from McCracken's wife, Lauren Faust, who is also an animator for Cartoon Network. The project was closed down due to the late 2000s recession, however, not unlike its "predecessor", it had spun off two series Regular Show and Uncle Grandpa, the latter of which had been originally the basis for Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, but would later become its own series.

Hanna passed away of throat cancer on March 22, 2001. Barbera continued to work for Warner Bros. Animation on new projects relating to the Hanna-Barbera and Tom and Jerry properties until his death on December 18, 2006.[25] Today, Hanna-Barbera is an in-name-only unit of Warner Bros. Animation, which administers the rights to its catalog and characters. New Warner productions based upon the studio's "classic" properties such as The Flintstones or Scooby-Doo are copyrighted by Hanna-Barbera, though Warner Bros. Animation is the one that produces these works. Most Cartoon Network shows previously produced by Hanna-Barbera, such as Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and What a Cartoon!, are copyrighted by the channel itself.

Production

Visual style

Like most animation studios, Hanna-Barbera had a particular style and appearance which it is well known for. Although they were not the pioneers of the process, Hanna-Barbera were proficient in "limited-animation" style, in order to meet the "time vs. expense" demands of television production, which gave their cartoons a unique look for the time. Their overall style consisted of appealing but simplified character and setting designs, with straight-line sides contrasting the opposing projecting mounds and rounded angles, and a bolder edge line quality, all adding to the overall stylistically flat appearance. Most of their shows involved animals as central characters, with a range of anthropomorphization, from more "realistic" animals capable of understanding human speech and concepts; to talking animals with varied fluency in the English language; to upright walking animals wearing clothes and using props. Many of their iconic classic comedy cartoon characters wore stylized interpretations of out-of-fashion hats, resembling, for example, the pork pie, along with pieces of formal wear, which became part of their trademark design style. This is likely a reference to the influence of different iconic classic physical comedic performers, in particular: Buster Keaton (pork pie); Harold Lloyd (boater); Roscoe Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy (bowler); the Marx Brothers, and Jacques Tati.

The other common styles early Hanna-Barbera is known for, used for their action- or adventure-based shows, were the result of the personal styles of artists and designers who had worked for them during the studio's growth, most notably Alex Toth, Doug Wildey, and Iwao Takamoto; and with often little or no credit at the time. Looping backgrounds were also common in the stylistically limited approach of the studio, often resulting in repeated imagery in scenes involving moving shots with longer camera holds, such as walk sequences, and especially typical of run-cycles. All of which has become part of the cliche look, often still imitated today, sometimes as parody or for humorous effect. Even after the studio's revival and subsequent merger into other still-growing studios, some of its shows maintained elements of its iconic design qualities; for example, shows like 2 Stupid Dogs, which in particular helped launch the careers of several creators, often developing and collaborating on projects together, and whose own styles still retain elements of the classic Hanna-Barbera look.

Some of them include Paul Rudish, Rob Renzetti, Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCracken, Seth MacFarlane (My Life as a Teenage Robot, Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, etc.); Butch Hartman (The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and T.U.F.F. Puppy); Miles Thompson, and Zac Moncrief. Many other creators and shows from Cartoon Network and other studios also continue to be influenced by the well established Hanna-Barbera style they grew up with, along with other limited and stylized shows by other studios of the same era. Other shows Hanna-Barbera produced during the nineties looked quite different from the classic Hanna-Barbera style, sometimes using fuller animation.

Music

The H-B Productions had different segments and times for incidental tracks production. Between 1957 and 1960, the incidental track was basically by symphonic arrangements, being Ruff and Reddy's series had its own symphonic themes. These themes used in the 1958 and 1959 to 1960s seasons to the first H-B shorts with Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, Snooper and Blabber and Augie Doggie. From 1959 to 1960 series Loopy De Loop and The Flintstones, softly orchestrated themes, some of them almost sounding concrete music and some played only by accordion, were used in other H-B cartoons between 1961 and 1963 – like Top Cat, Snagglepuss, Touché Turtle, Wally Gator and the Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound 1961 seasons and all of its segments – and eventually between 1964 and 1967, and rarely then until the eighties. Other incidental tracks, organ music played as The Jetsons score themes and arrangements mostly based on polka music, they were used in cartoons like The Magilla Gorilla Show and its segments.

Most Hanna-Barbera series through 1985 had original theme music by Hoyt Curtin, with lyrics (when used) by Hanna and Barbera themselves. Incidental music for the studio's cartoons through 1960 came from stock production music purchased from Capitol Records. The studio's first original scores were written by Curtin for a short-lived theatrical cartoon series, Loopy De Loop, distributed by Columbia Pictures. These scores were re-edited to form the nucleus of an original music library, to which Curtin added new themes with each subsequent series. Curtin's comedy themes were usually arranged for a small combo. For Jonny Quest, Curtin adopted a big band "crime jazz" musical style; these themes were re-used in many other adventure-type series that followed. Another composer, Ted Nichols, added to this with themes and scores for "The Fantastic Four," "Space Ghost," and others. Incidental tracks created for Johnny Quest, Space Ghost and Herculoids were written between 1964 and 1968, and were also eventually used in cartoons like The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show and Space Kidettes or also some Peter Potamus episodes.

In 1967, another incidental tracks, between new polka arrangements and some rock/soul influences, were adopted in several cartoons as Wacky Races, Cattanooga Cats and Josie and The Pussycats. With these themes, other orchestral themes were created for Scooby Doo's incidental tracks. These themes were largely used until 1973. In the seventies, other orchestral themes, with less creative arrangements in relation to the other described above, were used in 1973 to the eighties, including 1975's Tom and Jerry seasons, new series as Hong Kong Phooey, Jabberjaw, Scooby Doo and Flintstones ~~ 70's and 80's production. In the eighties, the incidental tracks in H-B cartoons were made by keyboard arrangements, and it is used until the end of the production company.

Hanna-Barbera's musically-oriented series such as The Banana Splits, Josie and the Pussycats, and The Cattanooga Cats employed such diverse talents as Barry White, Mike Curb, and Cheryl Ladd (then Cheryl Stoppelmoor) as studio musicians, arrangers, and vocalists. The Smurfs featured music based on classical themes, re-arranged by Curtin. Also from the early 1960s up until the early 1990s, Hanna-Barbera would often recycle music between shows in another attempt of cutting back; it was not uncommon to hear some music cues from The Flintstones show up on segments in The Yogi Bear Show, or some music from Wacky Races on Cattanooga Cats.

Hoyt Curtin retired circa 1989 and his successors moved away from his jazz-oriented style to concentrate more on synthesized music. Beginning around 1993, Hanna-Barbera began to steer toward full orchestral music, more often than not matching with the actions and movements on the screen, very much like Carl Stalling's music for the Warner Bros. cartoons of the past.

Sound effects

Hanna-Barbera was also noted for their large library of sound effects. Besides cartoon-style sound effects (such as ricochets, slide whistles and more), they also had familiar sounds used for transportation, household items, the elements, and more. When Hanna and Barbera started their own cartoon studio in 1957, they created a handful of sound effects, and had limited choices. They also took some sounds from the then-defunct MGM animation studios. By 1958, they began to expand and began adding more sound effects to their library. Besides creating a lot of their own effects, they also collected sound effects from other movie and cartoon studios, such as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation, and even Walt Disney Productions and Hasbro Studios after Hanna-Barbera became a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner in October 10, 1996.

Some of their famous sound effects included a rapid bongo drum take used for when a character's feet were scrambling before taking off, a "KaBONG" sound produced on a guitar for when Quick Draw McGraw, in his Zorro-style "El Kabong" crime fighting guise, would smash a guitar over a villain's head, the sound of a car's brake drum combined with a bulb horn for when Fred Flintstone would drop his bowling ball onto his foot, an automobile's tires squealing with a "skipping" effect added for when someone would slide to a sudden stop, a bass-drum-and-cymbal combination called the "Boom Crash" for when someone would fall down or smack into an object, a xylophone being struck rapidly on the same note for a tip-toeing effect, and a violin being plucked with the tuning pegs being raised to simulate something like pulling out a cat's whisker. The cartoons also used Castle Thunder, a thunderclap sound effect that was commonly used in movies and TV shows from the 1940s to the 1970s. Other common sounds such as Peeong (a frying pan hitting sound with a doppler effect) and Bilp were used regularly in all of its cartoons. Eventually, other cartoon studios began using the sound effects.

Hanna-Barbera Records (the studio's short-lived record division) released an LP record in 1965 entitled Hanna-Barbera's Drop-Ins, which contained many classic sound effects and dialogue clips from H-B characters. Only available for radio and TV stations and other production studios, it was meant to be the first in a series of records. In 1973, and again in 1986, H-B released a second sound effect record set; a seven-LP set entitled The Hanna-Barbera Library of Sounds, which, like the previous set, contained several of the classic sound effects. Like the previous set, this was only available to production companies and radio/TV stations. The 1986 version was also available as a two compact-disc set. In 1993, the last president of the studio, Fred Seibert recalled his early production experiences with early LP releases of the studio's effects, and commissioned Sound Ideas to release a four-CD set entitled The Hanna-Barbera Sound FX Library, featuring nearly all of the original H-B sound effects used from 1957 to 1990, a more vast collection compared to the early LP releases.

The sound effects were digitally remastered, so they would sound better on new digital soundtracks. A fifth CD was added in 1996, entitled Hanna-Barbera Lost Treasures, and featured more sound effects, including sounds from Space Ghost and The Impossibles. Also in 1994, Rhino Records released a CD containing some of Hanna-Barbera's famous sound effects, titled simply as Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Sound FX, and also included some answering-machine messages and birthday greetings and short stories starring classic Hanna-Barbera characters, and was hosted by Fred Flintstone. In 1996, it was reissued with the Hanna-Barbera's Pic-A-Nic Basket of Cartoon Classics CD set, which also contained three other CDs of H-B TV theme songs and background music and songs from The Flintstones. Here, the CD was relabeled as The Greatest Cartoon Sound Effects Ever.

In the 1980s, Hanna-Barbera slowly began to cease using their trademark sound effects. This was especially true with the action cartoons of the time such as Sky Commanders. By the 1990s, with cartoons shows such as Rick Moranis in Gravedale High, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone, The Pirates of Dark Water, Fish Police, SWAT Kats, 2 Stupid Dogs, What a Cartoon! and Johnny Bravo, the sound effects were virtually nonexistent, being replaced with newer, completely different sounds (mostly from Sound Ideas's Series 6000 "The General" library), as well as the Looney Tunes sound library by Treg Brown. The sound effects were also featured in several Cartoon Network Studios' productions (typically action-themed), like Samurai Jack and on the 2003–2005 Nicktoons television series My Life as a Teenage Robot.

A few early 1990s cartoons continued to use the sound effects, such as Tom & Jerry Kids and The Addams Family. The H-B/Cartoon Network Studios output of the late 1990s typically had its own set of sound effects (to make them distinctive from each other), including some selected from the classic Hanna-Barbera sound library, as well as some new ones and various sounds from Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons (this was especially true of What a Cartoon!, Dexter's Laboratory and Cow and Chicken). Several of the classic H-B sound effects are still used occasionally in several Cartoon Network Studios' productions (typically comedy-themed). However, on the recent Warner Bros. produced Scooby-Doo shows (What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated), the Hanna-Barbera sound effects are very rarely used. Ironically, Warner Bros. does use them more often on The Looney Tunes Show rather than Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. End of story.

List of Hanna-Barbera productions

Main article: List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons. New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 560–562. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
  2. ^ a b c d Hanna, William and Ito, Tom (1999). A Cast of Friends. New York: Da Capo Press. 0306-80917-6. Pg. 81–83
  3. ^ "William Hanna – Awards". allmovie. Retrieved August 12, 2008.
  4. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Hanna-Barbera Sale Is Weighed". The New York Times. July 20, 1991. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  5. ^ Carter, Bill (February 19, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; A New Life For Cartoons". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  6. ^ Barbera, Joseph (1994). My Life in "Toons": From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing. p. 207. ISBN 1-57036-042-1.
  7. ^ a b Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons. New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 547–548. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
  8. ^ a b Leonard Maltin (1997). Interview with Joseph Barbera (Digital). Archive of American Television.
  9. ^ Benzel, Jan (February 23, 1992). "Caveman to Carp: The Prime-Time Cartoon Devolves". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  10. ^ a b c Rogers, Lawrence H. (2000). History of U. S. Television: A Personal Reminiscence. Bloomington. IN. USA: AuthorHouse. pg. 444-447
  11. ^ Shostak, Stu (03-11-2011). "Interview with Jerry Eisenberg, Scott Shaw!, and Earl Kress". Stu's Show. Retrieved 03-18-2013. Jerry Eisenberg, Scott Shaw!, and Earl Kress were all former employees of Hanna-Barbera over the years, and relate the history of the studio to host Stu Shostak
  12. ^ Laurence Marcus & Stephen R. Hulce (October, 2000). "Scooby Doo, Where Are You". Television Heaven. Retrieved on June 9, 2006.
  13. ^ Shostak, Stu (05-02-2012). "Interview with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears". Stu's Show. Retrieved 03-18-2013.
  14. ^ Shostak, Stu (12-20-2006). "Interview with Mark Evanier". Stu's Show. Retrieved 06-17-2014.
  15. ^ Davidson, Chris (March 27, 2007). "Animation + Rock = Fun: The Danny Hutton Interview". Bubblegum University.
  16. ^ The Golden Era
  17. ^ a b (Dec. 2, 1961) "TV'S Most Unexpected Hit – The Flintstones" The Saturday Evening Post
  18. ^ Basler, Barbara (December 2, 1990). "TELEVISION; Peter Pan, Garfield and Bart – All Have Asian Roots". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  19. ^ The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible: The Creation. 1987. VHS. Hanna-Barbera
  20. ^ Marx, Barry (1985). Fifty Who Made DC Great. New York: DC Comics Inc. p. 41.
  21. ^ David Kirschner named new head of Hanna-Barbera Productions; founders Hanna and Barbera to assume roles as studio co-chairmen. (William Hanna, Joseph Barbera)
  22. ^ "TBS Buys Animator Hanna-Barbera Library for $320 Million". Atlanta: AP. October 29, 1991. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  23. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; TURNER BUYS REMAINING 50% STAKE IN HANNA-BARBERA". The New York Times. December 30, 1993. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  24. ^ Carter, Bill (February 19, 1992). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Turner Broadcasting Plans To Start a Cartoon Channel". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  25. ^ "Cartoon creator Joe Barbera dies". Dallas Morning News/AP. December 18, 2006. Archived from the original on August 16, 2008. Retrieved August 16, 2008. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; February 25, 2008 suggested (help) [dead link]

Bibliography

  • Barbera. Joseph (1994). My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century. Atlanta: Turner Publishing. 157-036042-1
  • Burke, Timothy and Burke, Kevin (1998). Saturday Morning Fever : Growing up with Cartoon Culture. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-16996-5
  • Hanna, William (1999). A Cast of Friends. New York: Da Capo Press. 0306-80917-6
  • Lawrence, Guy (2006). Yogi Bear's Nuggets: A Hanna-Barbera 45 Guide. Spectropop.com
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