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Boo Boo's Revenge
Hanna-Barbera cartoons rarely made fun of themselves in the olden days, but it happened in one of those little cartoons between the cartoons on either The Huckleberry Hound Show or The Yogi Bear Show....
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Clean Getaway
“What are you doin’ with the soap?” ringmaster Huckleberry Hound asks Pixie and Dixie, in one of those little cartoons between the cartoons. “It’s for Jinks. He’s chasing us,” says Dixie. We hear Jinks...
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The Life and Times of Yowp
Before he played a cowardly Great Dane that solved mysteries (I’ve forgotten the character’s name, Scrubby or something), and before he portrayed Astro on The Jetsons, what was the first dog Don...
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Quick Draw McGraw, the Psychological Release
The first Hanna-Barbera cartoon series were not only hits with viewers, but with critics and even watchdog groups. A Catholic publication in March 1960 was complimentary about the H-B shows then on the...
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The Cat Man
Newspaper cartoonist Feg Murray had a daily syndicated feature where he drew and profiled a celebrity. Who would have guessed one of his subjects was cartoon writer Mike Maltese? Here is the drawing...
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Ruff and Reddy at 65
Who would have thought a dog and cat that barely moved on screen would be the start of a TV empire? It was on this date, 65 years ago, NBC aired the first Ruff and Reddy Show. It was a rarity, back...
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High Hopes For T.C.
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had high hopes for Top Cat. The Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw shows were still attracting audiences in syndication. Both had been nominated for Emmys in 1960—and...
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Sing Along With Touche
Earl Kress was among a handful of wonderful people who loved and really knew Hanna-Barbara cartoons, and would go out of his way to help others who did, too, even if it was just to chat by e-mail....
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Flintstones Daily Comics, Dec. 1961, Pt. 2
The Flintstones daily comics for the last half of December 1961 were pretty much centred around Fred and Wilma. Pebbles hadn’t been invented, so she couldn’t be the focus of the gags. Barney enters...
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Tally Ho Ho Ho Backgrounds
Fernando Montealegre was among the first staffers at Hanna-Barbera, jumping over from MGM where he started as an assistant animator and became a background artist. In keeping with the times, his work...
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Musical Magilla
As a cartoon show, Magilla Gorilla was a great merchandising opportunity. Hanna-Barbera already had a marketing deal in place with the Ideal Toy Corp., which inflicted Pebbles Flintstone on television...
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Explaining Doggie Daddy
Of the three cartoon series that made up The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Augie Doggie was the last, even though, in a way, it was first. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, as you well know, directed the Tom and...
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Farewell, Jimmy Weldon
This post starts with an apology to you. Fans of the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons have likely already read of the death of the voice of Yakky Doodle, Jimmy Weldon, at the age of 99, and may wonder why...
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Making The First Flintstones
“How long did it take to animate a Hanna-Barbera cartoon?” That question has been put to the Yowp blog before. I could say “How should I know? I’m a cartoon dog,” but that answer is neither...
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Whip Up Some Cereal
The Quick Draw McGraw Show was bought and paid for by Kellogg’s, so the cereal maker made sure it had its imprint in the opening and closing animation. As the Randy Horne Singers cheerfully bleated out...
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H-B Podcast
A Hanna-Barbera podcast? Well, it had to happen some time. No, I have nothing to do with it; I really have neither the time nor inclination to put one together. But you're in luck. Greg Erhbar does...
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Voices and a Margrock
It is quite possible Hanna-Barbera’s silent partner wasn’t so silent in 1963. When H-B Enterprises started in 1957, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera weren’t the only ones behind the studio. The two had a...
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Wilma
Jean Vander Pyl didn’t have a big name on television when she was cast to play Wilma Flintstone in 1960. The others were a bit different. Bea Benaderet appeared on TV on Burns and Allen, continuing her...
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A Few Hanna-Barbera Staff Pictures
There’s something pleasing about seeing pictures of the people who worked on the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Of course, publicity photos of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera have been around since their...
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The Biggest Show in Town
One of the earliest public praises for The Huckleberry Hound Show came from the “Musing the Muses” column by Ms Jean Saxon in the Orange Leader of November 9, 1958. The series was available for viewers...
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Birthday Bear
The Yogi Bear Show wasn’t ready when it went on the air for the first time on this date in 1961. The problem was simple. Hanna-Barbera didn’t have enough lead time to get the series together. Kellogg’s...
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Quick Draw McGraw on Blu-ray
Are we ever, EVER, going to see The Quick Draw McGraw Show on any kind of home video format? I get asked that a lot. Let’s hear from someone who should have an answer. First, the background. A...
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Super Bowl Bear
Since it is the Super Bowl weekend (at least if you’re reading this at the time it was posted), let us look at the work of Carlo Vinci in Yogi Bear’s football opus. Rah Rah Bear (1959). Here’s a...
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Hanna-Barbera's Caricaturist
I think you know who these guys are. Caricatures appeared periodically at Hanna-Barbera, especially on The Flintstones; we don't need to name them. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were caricatured, too. The...
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Mr. Jinks vs Dog
Hanna-Barbera cartoons have been tarnished with a reputation of little real animation, with a lot of eye blinks and maybe an arm and mouth moving, the rest of the character left on one cel, frame after...
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