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Jailhouse Yock
Remember the gag in Tex Avery’s The Peachy Cobbler (1950) where the elves hammered nails into each other’s butts? The same thing happens in one of the mini-cartoons that ended The Quick Draw McGraw...
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It's George Jetson's What?
No, I am not wishing George Jetson a happy birthday today. The reason is simple. There’s not a scintilla of proof that his birthday is today. Some cartoon fans abhor a vacuum. They also love back...
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Farewell, Jane Jetson 1.0
July 31st may not have been the birthday of George Jetson, but it was the day after the death of the first woman to play George’s wife. Comic actress Pat Carroll died on the weekend of pneumonia at age...
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More Huckleberry Hound and Augie Doggie Music
There are many stories about the world being a lousy place. I could tell some. You could tell some. But this is a story about the world being a less lousy place because there are still kind and...
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Flintstones Daily Comics, Dec. 1961, Pt. 1
There’s a site which has posted the Monday-through-Saturday newspaper comic strips of The Flintstones. I wasn’t going to post my copies because of that, but since they’re taking up space in my...
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An Interview With Hoyt Curtin
Times were changing in the late 1950s when it came to background music on television. Some producers had been relying on leased stock recordings from production music companies; live orchestrations...
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Oh, Dear. Oh, My. Another Birthday
The Jetsons wasn’t the only effort from the Hanna-Barbera studio to make its first appearance 60 years ago. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera decided that, instead of having a half-hour show that a sponsor...
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He's Ready to Animate Ruff and Reddy
This year (as of July 7th) marks the 65th birthday of H-B Enterprises. The studio only had one main accomplishment in 1957—it convinced Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems division to put up the money for a...
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Promoting George and Jane
The Jetsons started life, according to Bill Hanna at a lunch at the Brown Derby, as a stand-by series just in case TV viewers didn’t warm to Arnold Stang playing a cat. The lunch was with UPI’s Vernon...
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What the Jetsons Means Today
The Jetsons turns 60 today, a 20th Century show set in the 21st Century that we now watch in the 21st Century. In 1962, there was still general optimism for the future, that technology would make life...
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Gallopin' All the Way Starting Tonight
This ad appeared in the Los Angeles Times 63 years ago today, marking the debut of The Quick Draw McGraw Show, replacing Wild Bill Hickok in the Kellogg Monday through Friday line-up. It seems Monday...
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When He's 64
“The biggest show in town” debuted 64 years ago today. To the right are the TV listings in the Monday, Sept. 29, 1958 edition of the Kittanning (Pa.) Leader-Times. You can see Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV,...
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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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