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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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He Was Zin
John Stephenson lasted only five episodes before being replaced as Doctor Benton Quest on Jonny Quest in 1964. But another actor on the show got shoved out of a role even faster. The evil Dr. Zin was...
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That Oh-So-Merry, On-the-Telly, Huckleberry Hound
The Huckleberry Hound Show was a phenomenon. Critics liked it, and even admitted watching it. Colleges formed Huck Hound clubs. An island in the Antarctic was named for the star. It not only was the...
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Dear Old Dad
Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy had several forefathers that were combined into a pleasant cartoon series. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera partly borrowed from themselves, as they had a father-son dog team in...
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Huck Shines in the Sunshine State
Not too long after The Huckleberry Hound Show debuted on the week of September 29, 1958, newspaper columnists began praising the series. An early thumbs-up for Huck and his gang came from the...
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Daws Butler: Living the Characters
Daws Butler once told interviewer Larry King that he did not do “voices.” He did “characters.” If anyone was the glue that held the Hanna-Barbera cartoons together in the early years, it was Daws...
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Not a Groupie For Loopy
Hanna-Barbera debuted two cartoon series in 1959. One is my favourite—the Quick Draw McGraw Show. The other is Loopy de Loop. I’m afraid I’m not a fan of Loopy. He’s a French-Canadian wolf who’s not...
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He Was Hadji
Whenever Hanna-Barbera had kid characters in the 1950s, adults who had come from radio did the voices. Things changed when Jonny Quest came along in 1964. Someone made the decision to go with boy...
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Jonny Quest is 60
Kids like to laugh. Kids like a bit of adventure, too. That’s why Jonny Quest turned out to be such a success. You’d think that a TV show that lasted one season was a failure. Maybe in live action it...
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Quick Draw McGraw at 65
My favourite Hanna-Barbera series first appeared on television screens 65 years ago today. The Quick Draw McGraw Show was Hanna-Barbera’s attempt to gently lampoon the types of shows popular on...
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Farewell to Elliot Field
The last of Hanna-Barbera’s voice actors from the 1950s has passed away. Elliot Field was 97. He died last Monday, the 23rd. Elliot was the afternoon drive jock at KFWB in Los Angeles when Joe Barbera...
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The Many Bears of Yogi
If I say “Yogi Bear” to you, you’ll likely think of pic-a-nic baskets and “The ranger won’t like it, Yogi.” But that isn’t how Yogi started out. Warren Foster came to Hanna-Barbera in 1959 to take over...
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President Huck
How long have animated cartoon characters been “running” for the U.S. presidency? Well, Popeye and Bluto did. So did Betty Boop (as the crowd chanted her name to the “We Want Cantor” musical vamp)....
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Bear For Punishment Backgrounds
One way of getting into a Yogi Bear cartoon was a pan over a long background while Don Messick, as narrator, sets up the plot. One of those cartoons was Bear For Punishment, which first aired on the...
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Jerry Eisenberg
The saddening news has come in that Jerry Eisenberg has died. He was 87. Jerry was one of the crew at MGM under Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. He was a second-generation animation artist as his dad Harvey...
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Yogi Bear is On the Air. Hey, Hey, Hee!
“MeTV is running old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. What do you think, Yowp?” I have been asked by blog readers. I’m not really sure why anyone is all that interested; like anything else I’ve written about...
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Not So Magical Bear
Yogi Bear tries a magic trick in one of those cartoons-between-the-cartoons on the Huckleberry Hound Show. Alakazam, Alagazoom Come out, little bear, wherever you ere, are.“Hiya, Yogi,” says Boo Boo,...
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Iwao, a Happy 100
Iwao Takamoto would have turned 100 today. While this blog isn’t much on birthdays, Iwao’s career at Hanna-Barbera began at the tail-end of The Yogi Bear Show (he laid out Bear Foot Soldiers) and, as...
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Huckleberry Hound Goes Home
Daws Butler was the backbone of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio in the Kellogg’s era. He voiced almost all the main characters and was, indirectly, responsible for most of the others. Butler’s cartoon...
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The Unfinished Snagglepuss
Why would Hanna-Barbera leave some cartoons unseen? I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to that one. All I know is it happened. The last production number for a cartoon in the Yogi Bear Show was R-83....
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Music For Cat and Dog in Space
This blog was begun for the purpose of identifying the background music in the original Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The first music employed by the studio came from the Capitol Hi-Q library, started in...
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Plugging Huck
Hanna-Barbera may have ended production of new Huckleberry Hound cartoons in 1962, but he was still deemed a big enough star that box ads were taken out in newspapers that year for his half-hour show....
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The Huckleberry Hound Show on BluRay
This is news that fans have been waiting for. Many of you know that about 20 years ago, the first season of The Huckleberry Hound Show came out on DVD. Sales weren’t as good as expected, and that...
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