Hanna-Barbera

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Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
Company typeIn-name-only Subsidiary
IndustryTelevision
Cinema
PredecessorMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio
FoundedJuly 7, 1957; 66 years ago (1957-07-07)
Founders
DefunctMarch 12, 2001; 23 years ago (2001-03-12)
FateSeparated from Cartoon Network Studios and absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation
SuccessorCartoon Network Studios
Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Animation Group
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
,
United States
ProductsTV shows
Theatrical feature films
Specials
Direct-to-video projects
TV movies
Theatrical short films
Commercials
ParentWarner Bros.

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. (simply known as Hanna-Barbera and also referred to as H-B Enterprises, H-B Production Company and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc.) is an American animation studio that serves as a division of Warner Bros. Animation. It was founded in 1957 by former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors and Tom and Jerry creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. For more than three decades in the mid-20th century, it was a prominent force in American television animation.

The studio is known for creating a wide variety of popular animated characters and throughout the next 30 years, it produced a succession of cartoon shows, including The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs. Hanna and Barbera together won seven Academy Awards, a Governors Award, eight Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[1][2] for their achievements and were also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993.

Hanna-Barbera's fortunes declined in the mid-1980s when the profitability of Saturday morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication. In late 1991, the studio was purchased from Taft (by then named Great American Broadcasting) by Turner Broadcasting System, who used much of its back catalog for its new channel, Cartoon Network.[3][4] After Turner purchased the company, Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as creative consultants and mentors.

The studio became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation in 1996, following the Turner and Time Warner merger, and would be absorbed into that company before Hanna's death in 2001. In 2005, Hanna and Barbera were honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a wall sculpture of themselves and their characters at the Television Academy's Hall of Fame Plaza.

Cartoon Network Studios continued the projects for the channel's output. Barbera went on to work for Warner Bros. Animation until he died in 2006. As of 2017, the studio exists as an in-name-only unit used to market properties and productions associated with the Hanna-Barbera library, specifically its "classic" works.

History

1939–1957: Humble beginnings, theatrical shorts and birth of a TV studio

William Hanna, a native of Melrose, New Mexico and Joseph Barbera, born of Italian heritage in New York City, first met while working at the MGM cartoon studio (thru its Rudolf Ising unit), an animation division of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1939 and thus began a partnership that would last for decades. Their first directorial production and collaboration was the Academy Award-nominated Puss Gets the Boot, released to theaters in 1940. It served as the basis for the popular long-running Tom and Jerry series of short subject theatricals. Hanna and Barbera served as directors of the shorts for over 20 years, with Hanna in charge of supervising the animation[5] and Barbera in charge of the stories and pre-production.

Hanna also provided the screams, yelps, howls and yells for Tom Cat. In addition to the series being nominated for twelve more Oscars, seven of the cartoons won a total of seven Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) between 1943 and 1953. The trophies were awarded to their producer Fred Quimby, who was not involved in the creative development of the shorts.[6]: 83–84  Hanna and Barbera also did new animated and live-action musical sequences for Anchors Aweigh, Invitation to the Dance and Dangerous When Wet and a handful of new one-shot cartoons for MGM: Gallopin' Gals, Officer Pooch, War Dogs and Good Will to Men, a remake of Peace on Earth.

With Quimby's retirement in 1955, Hanna and Barbera became the producers in charge of the MGM animation studio's output,[7] supervising the last seven shorts of Tex Avery's Droopy series and directing and producing a short-lived Tom and Jerry spin-off series, Spike and Tyke, which ran for two entries. In addition to their work on the cartoons, the two men moonlighted on outside projects, including the original title sequences and commercials for the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.[8] Due to the rise of television, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided in early 1957 to close its cartoon studio, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release.[7]

Contemplating their future while completing the final Tom and Jerry cartoons, Hanna and Barbera began producing animated TV commercials[9] and during their last year at MGM, they had developed a concept for an animated TV program about a dog and cat in various misadventures.[9] After they failed to convince the studio to back their venture, live-action director George Sidney, who had worked with Hanna and Barbera on several of his features for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (including the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh, which featured Jerry Mouse in a dance sequence with Gene Kelly) offered to serve as their business partner and convinced Screen Gems, a TV production subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, to make a deal with the producers.[10]

A coin toss would determined that Hanna would have precedence in the naming the new studio. Harry Cohn, president and head of Columbia Pictures, took an 18 percent ownership in Hanna and Barbera's new company, H-B Enterprises,[10] and provided working capital. Screen Gems became the new studio's distributor and its licensing agent, handling merchandizing of the characters from the animated programs.[11] The duo's cartoon firm officially 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 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studio closed down.[9]

Sidney and several Screen Gems alumni became members of the studio's board of directors and much of the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation staff — including animators Carlo Vinci, Kenneth Muse, Lewis Marshall, Michael Lah and Ed Barge and layout artists Ed Benedict and Richard Bickenbach — became the new production staff for the H-B studio.[9] Conductor and composer Hoyt Curtin was in charge of providing the music while many voice actors came on board, such as Daws Butler, Don Messick, Julie Bennett, Mel Blanc, Howard Morris, John Stephenson, Hal Smith and Doug Young.

1957–1969: Success with television cartoons

File:Hblogo1950s.jpg
Hanna-Barbera's first studio logo, used from 1957 to 1960.

H-B Enterprises was one of the first American cartoon studios to successfully produce cartoons specifically for TV.[12] Previously, animated programming was primarily rebroadcasts of theatrical cartoons. Its first original animated television series, The Ruff and Reddy Show, premiered on NBC in December 1957.[13] Next was its first big hit The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958, a syndicated animated show aired in most markets just before primetime. A ratings success, it introduced a new crop of cartoon stars to audiences, in particular Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks and Yogi Bear. It was the first to win an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming.

File:Hannabarberameeting.jpg
(from left to right) Barbera, Hanna and Warren Foster, studio employee (seated) (from left to right) Dan Gordon and Alan Dinehart

H-B began expanding rapidly following its initial success; several animation industry alumni – in particular former Warner Bros. Cartoons storymen Michael Maltese and Warren Foster, who became new head writers for the studio – joined the staff at this time as well as Joe Ruby and Ken Spears as film editors and Iwao Takamoto as character designer.[9] By 1959, H-B Enterprises was reincorporated as Hanna-Barbera Productions and started slowly becoming a leader in TV animation production from then on. A second syndicated cartoon show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show and its only theatrical series, Loopy De Loop, followed in 1959.

Next, the studio then migrated into network prime time production with the ABC smash hit The Flintstones in 1960. Loosely based upon the CBS series The Honeymooners, the series was set in a fictionalized stone age of cavemen and dinosaurs. At one time, Jackie Gleason considered suing Hanna-Barbera for copyright infringement, but decided not to because didn't want to be known as "the man who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air". The show premiered and ran on the air for an amazing six seasons, becoming a ratings and merchandising success, the longest-running animated show in American prime-time TV history and the top-ranking animated program in syndication history until being beaten out by The Simpsons in 1996.

In 1961, The Yogi Bear Show, the studio's first spinoff, premiered in syndication followed by Top Cat for ABC. The three shows Wally Gator, Touche Turtle and Dum Dum and Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har aired as part of The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series. The Jetsons and The Magilla Gorilla Show debuted in 1962 and 1963. Several animated TV commercials were produced as well, often starring their own characters (probably the best known is a series of Pebbles cereal commercials for Post featuring Barney tricking Fred into giving him his Pebbles cereal). Hanna-Barbera's own Ed Benedict produced the opening credits for Bewitched, in which animated caricatures of Samantha and Darrin appeared. These characterizations were reused in the fifth season Flintstones episode, "Samantha", voiced by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York.

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.

In 1963, its operations moved off the Kling lot (by then renamed the Red Skelton Studios) to new location at 3400 Cahuenga Blvd. West in Hollywood, California. This 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. Newer programs of Jonny Quest, The Peter Potamus Show, Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel and Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt came in 1964 and 1965. The Hanna-Barbera and Screen Gems partnership lasted until 1965, when Hanna and Barbera announced the sale of the studio to Taft Broadcasting.[11]

Taft's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera was delayed for a year by a lawsuit from Joan Perry, John Cohn, and Harrison Cohn – the wife and sons of former Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn, who felt that the studio undervalued the Cohns' 18% share in the company when it was sold a few years previously.[14] In 1966, Laurel and Hardy, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles and Space Ghost debuted on the air. By December 1966, the litigation had been settled and the studio was finally acquired by Taft for $12 million. It would fold it into its corporate structure in 1967 and 1968,[11] becoming its distributor.

File:Hb1968logo.jpg
The studio's "Zooming Box" logo, used from 1968 to 1973. It was later revived from 2003 to 2009.

Hanna and Barbera stayed on to run the company while Screen Gems retained licensing and distribution rights to the previously Hanna-Barbera produced cartoons,[11] along with the trademarks to the characters into the 1970s and 1980s.[11][15] A number of comedy and action cartoons followed in 1967, among them are The Space Kidettes, The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, The Herculoids, Shazzan, Fantastic Four, Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor and Samson & Goliath (a.k.a. Young Samson).

New programs arose in 1968, such as The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, The Adventures of Gulliver and The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, while the successful Wacky Races and its spinoffs The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines aired on CBS, returned Hanna-Barbera to straight comedy, followed by Cattanooga Cats for ABC. The studio had its first (and only) record label Hanna-Barbera Records,[16] headed by Danny Hutton and distributed by Columbia Records.

It featured music artists and performers of Louis Prima, Five Americans, Scatman Crothers and the 13th Floor Elevators. Previously, children's records with Yogi Bear and others were released by Colpix Records. Next came Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969, which blended elements of comedy, action, the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and the radio show I Love a Mystery.[17][18] The series, which ran for two seasons on CBS, centered on four teenagers and a dog solving supernatural mysteries.

1970–1979: Peak and new ventures

Hanna-Barbera is referred to as "The General Motors of animation" and as it turned out, it would eventually go even further by producing nearly two-thirds of all Saturday morning cartoons in a single year. At its peak, the company controlled over 80% of children's programming for television and at the top of its game, it secured the top three Saturday morning ratings as well, making it the world's largest animation powerhouse. On the horizon, the studio produced a steady stream of new prime time shows, fresh Saturday morning cartoons, mystery-solving and crime-fighting programs featuring teenagers with comical pets and or mascots, superhero and action-adventure productions and many new spinoffs for TV broadcast.

File:HBlogo1974.jpg
The studio's "Rainbow" logo, used from 1974 to 1978.

These include Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Where's Huddles, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, The Funky Phantom, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, The Flintstone Comedy Hour, The Roman Holidays, Sealab 2020, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, Speed Buggy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Yogi's Gang, Super Friends, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Inch High, Private Eye, Jeannie, The Addams Family, Hong Kong Phooey, Devlin, Partridge Family 2200 A.D., These Are The Days, Valley of the Dinosaurs, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, The Tom and Jerry Show, The Great Grape Ape Show, The Mumbly Cartoon Show, The Scooby-Doo Show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Clue Club, Jabberjaw, Laff-A-Lympics, CB Bears, The Robonic Stooges, The All-New Super Friends Hour, The All-New Popeye Hour, Yogi's Space Race, Galaxy Goof-Ups, Buford and the Galloping Ghost, Challenge of the Super Friends, Godzilla, Jana of the Jungle, The New Fred and Barney Show, Casper and the Angels, The New Shmoo, The Super Globetrotters, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The World's Greatest Super Friends and Hanna-Barbera's first engish dub series Amigo and Friends.

The majority of American television and film animation were made by Hanna-Barbera (including the 1973 animated film Charlotte's Web, which was owned by Paramount Pictures) with their major competition came from DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and Filmation Associates. With the failure of its show Uncle Croc's Block, Fred Silverman, president of ABC, dropped Filmation and gave H-B the majority of the network's Saturday morning cartoon time.[citation needed] Along with the rest of the American animation industry, it began moving away from producing all its cartoons in-house in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By this point, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears left to found their own studio Ruby-Spears Enterprises in 1977, with Filmways as its parent company. In 1979, Taft bought Worldvision Enterprises, which would become the syndication distributor for the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

In a different venture, the studio tried its hand at producing TV shows and films entirely in live-action, though its success selling such programming was limited by its track record as an animation company. Hanna-Barbera had already gotten into live-action earlier in the late sixties (mixing it with animation). Its live-action unit was spun off and renamed Solow Production Company, which immediately following the name change, was able to sell the action series Man from Atlantis to NBC.[19] Hanna-Barbera's most distinguished live-action production by far was The Gathering, an Emmy award-winning TV movie starring Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton, written by James Poe and directed by Randal Kleiser.

International expansion and educational projects

File:Hannabarberasouthrenstar.jpg
Logo for the Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia studio in 1986.

In Australia, Hanna-Barbera Pty. Ltd. was formed in 1972 as an Australian unit of the American studio. In 1974, 50% of Hanna-Barbera Australia was acquired by the Hamlyn Group, which in 1978 was acquired by James Hardie Industries. In 1983, both Taft and James Hardie Industries reorganized the division as Taft-Hardie Group Pty. Ltd. The company established a division in Los Angeles known as Southern Star Productions, headed by Buzz Potamkin in 1984. New cartoons produced by this unit, would be animated by the Hanna-Barbera studio in Sydney, Australia and carried the name Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia. In 1987, Hanna-Barbera Poland was established to produce cartoon shows and VHS videocassettes for Polish-speaking audiences. It operated under that name until 1993.

In Italy, Hanna-Barbera's cartoons had become very popular. The studio launched a major thrust into the European market with the introduction of the Hanna-Barbera Hour, which was supported by an integrated European marketing program. For earthquake preparedness, Yogi Bear, one of Hanna-Barbera's most famous creations, was chosen to be spokesman and mascot for Earthquake Preparedness Month in California. Its most notable event is the Shakey Quakey Schoolhouse exhibit, a project by Barbera and Michael D. Antonovich.

Production process changes

From 1957 to 1995, Hanna-Barbera had produced nightly prime time, Saturday morning and weekday afternoon cartoons for all three major networks and syndication in the United States. The small budgets that TV 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 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. While the budget for MGM's seven-minute Tom and Jerry shorts was about $35,000, the Hanna-Barbera studios was required to produce five-minute Ruff and Reddy episodes for no more than $3,000 a piece.[10]

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 television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and others as "illustrated radio".[20] 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.[21] An executive who worked for Walt Disney Productions said, "We don't even consider [them] competition".[21] Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman argues that Hanna-Barbera attempted to maximize their bottom line by also recycling story formulas and characterization instead of introducing new ones.

Once a formula for an original series was deemed successful, the studio would keep reusing it in subsequent series.[22] Besides copying their own works, Hanna-Barbera would draw inspiration from the works of other people and studios.[22] Lehman considers that the studio served as a main example of how animation studios which focused on TV animation differed from those that focused on theatrical animation. Theatrical animation studios tried to maintain full and fluid animation, and consequently struggled with the rising expenses associated with producing it.[22] Limited animation as practiced by Hanna-Barbera kept production costs at a minimum. The cost in quality of using this technique was that Hanna-Barbera's characters only moved when absolutely necessary.[22]

Ironically, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hanna-Barbera was the only studio in Hollywood that was actively hiring, and it picked up a number of Disney artists who were laid off during this period. Its solution to the criticism over its quality was to go into features. It produced six theatrical features, among them are higher-quality versions of its TV cartoons and adaptations of other material. It was also the first animation studio to have their work produced overseas. One of these companies was a subsidiary started by Hanna-Barbera called Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines.[23] Wang Film Productions got its start as an overseas facility for the studio in 1978.[24]

1980–1990: Rise, fall and decline

File:Bill-hanna-and-joe-barbera.jpg
Hanna (left) and Barbera pose with several of the Emmys the Hanna-Barbera studio won.

1980 saw the debuts of Super Friends, The Flintstone Comedy Show, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Richie Rich. New programs emerged in 1981, such as Laverne & Shirley, Space Stars, The Kwicky Koala Show and Trollkins. Taft purchased Ruby-Spears from Filmways the same year, becoming a sister company to Hanna-Barbera. While other animation companies of Rankin/Bass, Filmation, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, introduced successful shows based on action figures and toy lines, Hanna-Barbera continued to produce for Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons, but no longer dominated the TV animation market as it did formerly and its control over children's programming went down from 80% to 20%.

Hanna-Barbera's highly successful Daytime Emmy-nominated and winning show The Smurfs, based on the characters and comics created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford (known as Peyo) and centering on a gang of little blue forest dwelling creatures led by Papa Smurf, premiered and aired on NBC for nine seasons, becoming the longest-running Saturday morning cartoon series in TV history, a significant ratings success and smash hit, the top-rated program in eight years and the highest for an NBC show since 1970.[citation needed] Fresh animated cartoons of Pac-Man, The Little Rascals, The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour, Jokebook, Shirt Tales and The Gary Coleman Show first aired in 1982.

File:HBstarogo1979.png
The studio's "Swirling Star" logo, used from 1979 to 1985, based on a logo designed for Taft by Saul Bass.

The Dukes, Monchhichis, The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, The Biskitts and Lucky Luke came to the airwaves in 1983. The studio set up a computerized digital ink and paint system and was really innovative for its time. It was the first to use digital coloring long before other animation studios used the process. It did not require as much effort as time consuming labor of painting on cels and photographing them. It had been used on some cartoons but not all of them however. Many of Hanna and Barbera's shows were outsourced to Cuckoo's Nest Studios, Mr. Big Cartoons, Mook Co., Ltd., Toei Animation and Fil-Cartoons in Australia and Asia. The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Snorks, Challenge of the GoBots, Pink Panther and Sons and Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show all aired in 1984.

File:Hanna-Barbera swirling star logo.jpg
CGI version of the studio's "Swirling Star" logo, used from 1986 to 1992. It was revived on The Powerpuff Girls from 1998 to 2001.

In 1985, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo along with Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Galtar and the Golden Lance and Paw Paws (the three shows introduced in The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera) debuted while new episodes of The Jetsons premiered. The studio presented The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, its first made-for-video series.[25] The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, Pound Puppies, The Flintstone Kids, Foofur and Wildfire aired in 1986. Sky Commanders and Popeye and Son debuted in 1987.

Hanna-Barbera was affected by financial troubles of Taft, which been acquired by the American Financial Corporation in 1987 and renamed Great American Broadcasting the following year.[citation needed] A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, The New Yogi Bear Show, Fantastic Max, The Further Adventures of SuperTed and Paddington Bear followed in 1988 and 1989. Worldvision and its programming assets was sold to Aaron Spelling Productions except for Hanna-Barbera's library, which remained owned by Great American. The staff got a call from Warner Bros. to resurrect its animation department[citation needed] and Tom Ruegger and his colleagues left to develop new TV programs there.[citation needed]

David Kirschner was named CEO of Hanna-Barbera with Barbera and Hanna remaining as the company's co-chairmen.[26] In 1990, under Kirschner's direction, the studio formed Bedrock Productions, a unit for various movies and TV shows.[27] Great American put Hanna-Barbera, along with Ruby-Spears, up for sale after being less successful and burdened in debt. New cartoon shows of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda, Tom & Jerry Kids, Wake, Rattle, and Roll (later as Jump, Rattle, and Roll), Rick Moranis in Gravedale High and Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone first aired for broadcast.

1991–1996: Turner rebound and partnership with Cartoon Network

File:Hb1994logo.jpg
One of the studio's "All Star" logos, used from 1993 to 2001.

In 1991, Young Robin Hood (a co-production with Canada's CINAR), The Pirates of Dark Water and Yo Yogi! (widely cited as one of the worst cartoons of all time) aired. In November of that same year, the Hanna-Barbera studio and library, as well as much of the Ruby-Spears library, were acquired by a 50-50 joint venture between Turner Broadcasting—which by that time also bought the pre-May 1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library—and Apollo Investment Fund for $320 million.[28] 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 Hanna-Barbera.

He filled the gap left by the departure of most of their crew during the Great American years with new animators, directors, producers and writers, including Pat Ventura, Craig McCracken, Donovan Cook, Genndy Tartakovsky, David Feiss, Seth MacFarlane, Van Partible, Stewart St. John and Butch Hartman with Buzz Potamkin as new production head.[29] In 1992, the company was renamed as H-B Production Company, and more new shows, such as Fish Police, Capitol Critters and a second Addams Family series, made their debut. Meanwhile, Turner launched the world's first 24-hour all-animation channel, Cartoon Network to broadcast its huge library of animated classics, of which Hanna-Barbera was the core contributor. As a result, many cartoons, especially the Hanna-Barbera ones, were rebroadcast.[30]

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

In 1993, it changed its name once again to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. That same year, Turner acquired the remaining interests of Hanna-Barbera from Apollo Investment Fund for $255 million[31] while new cartoons - Droopy, Master Detective, The New Adventures of Captain Planet (in Planet's case, taking over from previous production firm DiC Entertainment), SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron and 2 Stupid Dogs debuted. In 1994, Turner Broadcasting refocused the studio to produce new shows exclusively for its networks. In 1995, Dumb and Dumber (the final Hanna-Barbera series to air on a broadcast network) aired, then came What a Cartoon! (known as World Premiere Toons), an animation showcase led by Seibert.

It featured new creator driven shorts developed for Cartoon Network by its in-house staff. Several new original series emerged from the project, giving the company its first smash hit since The Smurfs and the first show based on a What a Cartoon short was Genndy Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory. This spawned a multitude of new programs for the network better known as Cartoon Cartoons. New animated shows Cave Kids and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest premiered in 1996. Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner that same year.

1997–2006: Final years and absorption

In 1997, while Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel made their TV debuts, the Hanna-Barbera building was facing demolition and was not to be named a Los Angeles city landmark despite pleas from people who wanted it protected as an irreplaceable part of entertainment and California history. Seven years later, after a long struggle, the studio building in the Cahuenga pass appeared to be safe from the wrecker's ball. As one of the last "big name" studios with an actual Hollywood zip code, Hanna-Barbera operated on its original lot until 1998, when its studio operations, company archives and extensive animation art collection were all moved northwest to Sherman Oaks, California as it occupied space in the office tower adjacent to the Sherman Oaks Galleria with Warner's animation unit.

With its final new series The Powerpuff Girls and the Tom and Jerry televised short The Mansion Cat, Hanna-Barbera absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation on March 12, 2001 while its name disappeared from newer cartoons by the studio in favor of the Cartoon Network Studios label. New animated shows were produced outside of the studio during the late 1990s and early 2000s, most notably Stretch Films' Courage the Cowardly Dog, Curious Pictures' Codename: Kids Next Door, Renegade Animation's Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi and many others, but even Cartoon Network itself lend a hand in producing as well as more cartoons the animation firm continued to produce (ex.: Regular Show, We Bare Bears, Camp Lazlo and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends).

After a partnership in animation for 62 years, Hanna died of throat cancer on March 22, 2001 and Barbera would then move on to work at Warner Bros. Animation on new cartoon shows of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! and Tom and Jerry Tales, the three TV programs that first aired on Kids' WB, along with the theatrical animated short The Karate Guard until his death on December 18, 2006.[32]

2007–present: New projects based on legacy properties

File:Hanna-Barbera 2017.png
Hanna-Barbera logo used in the 2017 reboot of Wacky Races, based on the 1974–78 "Rainbow" logo.

Warner Bros. continued to produce new projects based on legacy Hanna-Barbera properties. The Scooby-Doo franchise was rebooted twice, with Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated being produced and aired from 2010 through 2013 and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! debuting in 2015. In 2017, a reboot of the 1968 series Wacky Races premiered on the Boomerang streaming service.

Merchandise

Hanna-Barbera released its early VHS titles through Worldvision Home Video but due to the shakeup at then owner Taft, which was transformed into Great American Communications, Worldvision was sold off. Accordingly, the animation company began its own home video line, Hanna-Barbera Home Video, which lasted until 1991 when Turner bought the studio and subsequently put the video line on moratorium. Thereafter, all Hanna-Barbera titles were distributed by Turner Home Entertainment. Then, following the Turner and Time Warner merger, Warner Home Video would handle the home video releases of the cartoons and later by Warner Archive.

DC Comics announced a comic book initiative titled Hanna-Barbera Beyond, to re-imagine some of the company's classic cartoons into some darker and edgier settings. The first comic books on the line are Future Quest, Scooby Apocalypse, The Flintstones and Wacky Raceland.[33] New titles arrived in March 2017 crossing over with the DC Universe.[34] On June 29, Warner Bros. celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the formation the studio with a Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection.[35]

List of Hanna-Barbera productions

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

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ "William Hanna – Awards". allmovie. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  2. ^ "Hanna-Barbera Sculpture Unveiled Animation Legends Honored in Hall of Fame Plaza". Emmys.com. March 16, 2005. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  3. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Hanna-Barbera Sale Is Weighed". The New York Times. July 20, 1991. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  4. ^ Carter, Bill (February 19, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; A New Life For Cartoons". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  5. ^ Barbera 1994, p. 83–84.
  6. ^ Barbera 1994, p. 207.
  7. ^ a b Barrier 2003, pp. 547–548.
  8. ^ a b Leonard Maltin (1997). Interview with Joseph Barbera (Digital). Archive of American Television.
  9. ^ a b c d e Barrier 2003, pp. 560–562.
  10. ^ a b c Hanna, William and Ito, Tom (1999). A Cast of Friends. New York: Da Capo Press. 0306-80917-6. Pg. 81–83
  11. ^ a b c d e Rogers, Lawrence H. (2000). History of U. S. Television: A Personal Reminiscence. Bloomington. IN. USA: AuthorHouse. pg. 444-447
  12. ^ Benzel, Jan (January 23, 1996). "Caveman to Carp: The Prime-Time Cartoon Devolves". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
  13. ^ Barbera 1994, p. 123.
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ "BRIEFCASE: Great American Broadcasting". Orlando Sentinel. August 19, 1989. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  16. ^ Davidson, Chris (March 27, 2007). "Animation + Rock = Fun: The Danny Hutton Interview". Bubblegum University. Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Laurence Marcus & Stephen R. Hulce (October, 2000). "Scooby Doo, Where Are You Archived 2013-01-28 at the Wayback Machine". Television Heaven. Retrieved on June 9, 2006.
  18. ^ Shostak, Stu (05-02-2012). "Interview with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears". Stu's Show. Retrieved 03-18-2013.
  19. ^ Shostak, Stu (12-20-2006). "Interview with Mark Evanier". Stu's Show. Retrieved June 17, 2014.
  20. ^ "The golden era - Cartoons - film, director, music". filmreference.com.
  21. ^ a b (Dec. 2, 1961) "TV'S Most Unexpected Hit – The Flintstones" The Saturday Evening Post
  22. ^ a b c d Lehman 2007, p. 25.
  23. ^ Basler, Barbara (December 2, 1990). "TELEVISION; Peter Pan, Garfield and Bart – All Have Asian Roots". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  24. ^ Violet, Chang (May 1, 1998). "Wang's World". Taiwan Info.
  25. ^ The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible: The Creation. 1987. VHS. Hanna-Barbera
  26. ^ David Kirschner named new head of Hanna-Barbera Productions; founders Hanna and Barbera to assume roles as studio co-chairmen. (William Hanna, Joseph Barbera)
  27. ^ Lev, Michael (January 9, 1990). "Hanna-Barbera Follows Disney Map". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
  28. ^ "TBS Buys Animator Hanna-Barbera Library for $320 Million". Atlanta: AP. Oct 29, 1991. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  29. ^ "What A Cartoon! Frame Grabs
  30. ^ Carter, Bill (February 19, 1992). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Turner Broadcasting Plans To Start a Cartoon Channel". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  31. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; TURNER BUYS REMAINING 50% STAKE IN HANNA-BARBERA". The New York Times. December 30, 1993. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  32. ^ "Cartoon creator Joe Barbera dies". Dallas Morning News/AP. December 18, 2006. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. Retrieved August 16, 2008.
  33. ^ "Get to Know Hanna-Barbera Beyond". DC Comics. November 26, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  34. ^ Couto, Anthony (December 12, 2016). "DC'S HEROES & HANNA-BARBERA CREATIONS TO CROSSOVER IN MARCH ANNUALS". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  35. ^ http://www.timewarner.com/blog/posts/20170628-happy-birthday-hanna-barbera
Bibliography

External links

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