Clik here to view.
The Present Catches Up to the Future
The future used to be fun. Today the future, it seems, is a negative, hopeless place of doom. In fiction, even superheroes aren’t very heroic. “Poor me,” they wail, in filmed or drawn frames of dark...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hey There
Yogi Bear provides a great example of the power of press kits. Movie studios sent (at least they did at one time) news releases, publicity photos and other paraphernalia to help get free newspaper ink...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, May 1970
Some nicely drawn expressions and some well-composed final panels highlight the Yogi Bear comics that appeared in Sunday papers this month in 1970. Gene Hazelton’s designs are getting more stylised,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Catty Castle
Huck and the rest of the main players on his show spend a day at the sea shore in a little series of vignettes before we’re requested to join them again next week. Yogi dives into the beach at low...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Arnold Stang on Top Cat
Arnold Stang was busier outside the studio than in it in 1961. Variety of July 19th of that year reported he was hitting the promo circuit for the animated feature film Alakazam the Great. Then it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Piano Hands
Yogi Bear is a concert pianist in one of those little cartoons between the cartoons on the Yogi Bear Show. Ed Love has Yogi at the piano a good period of time, so he’s got to do something to make sure...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flintstones Weekend Comics, May 1970
There’s a lot of Pebbles but nary a sight of Betty and Barney in the Flintstone newspaper comic run for this month 49 years ago. She’s at the centre of one comic and kind of provides the commentary for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The High Fallutin-est
My favourite Hanna-Barbera cartoon series turns 60 years old this September 28th. Quick Draw McGraw debuted on that date in 1959 on KTTV Los Angeles and other stations (though it aired on other days of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rolling Through Jellystone
One thing kids couldn’t appreciate when they first saw The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958 was the colours in the cartoons. The show was aired in black and white in its original run sponsored by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mark of the Carlo
Limited animation at Hanna-Barbera didn’t necessarily mean an eye blink or a mouth changing shape while a character’s body remained rigid. Not when you had Carlo Vinci at work in the early days....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, June 1970
Yogi Bear’s world is filled with good intentions but things don’t quite work out for him in the newspaper comics this month 49 years ago. He tries to help Ranger Smith wake up, he comes up with an idea...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Was Boo Boo a Boo Boo?
Did Yogi Bear really need Boo Boo on his show? Before we look at that, let’s look at Boo Boo in one of those little cartoons between the cartoons on the Yogi Bear Show. He looks like he’s in pain...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hey, Boss, Lemme Watch Huck!
Huckleberry Hound didn’t need a lot of hype to become a hit. People found the show upon its debut in 1958 (in some cases because of newspaper ads placed by local TV stations) and critics discovered it,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Best To You...
Kellogg’s bankrolled the first three half-hour Hanna-Barbera series in syndication. Not only did the shows plug Kellogg cereals in the commercial breaks, the sponsor was worked into the opening and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flintstones Weekend Comics, June 1970
Hurray! Baby Puss is back! Yes, Baby Puss, the cat that put out Fred at the end of every Flintstones episode. The sabre tooth tiger didn’t appear often in the actual Flintstones cartoons and seldom in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jinks in Space
Hanna-Barbera’s love of outer space wasn’t confined to The Jetsons’ debut in 1962. It started right at the beginning of the studio with the Muni-Mula serial which opened Ruff and Reddy on December 15,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hanna-Barbera is Ready (and Reddy)
Hanna-Barbera might not have become a huge cartoon empire if Sam Singer had been competent. Back in the ‘50s, unlike some of the other movie studios, Columbia Pictures wasn’t afraid of television...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mugging and Smoking With Fred
Daring Dino? Ferocious Fred? Neither of the adjectives in front of those cartoon characters’ names seems all that appropriate. But who can argue with paying 75 cents for a mug with their mug on it? In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, July 1970
We don’t generally see too many other bears in Jellystone Park. Boo Boo, yes. Maybe the occasional rival for Yogi. (My favourite is the hammy bears at the start of the animated “Be My Guest Pest” in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Costly Than Dobie Gillis
“Adult cartoon” was a sales pitch bandied about in 1960 as The Flintstones was about to debut. And it only made sense. Animated cartoons were something found in kiddie matinees at theatres and on...
View Article