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Jerry Eisenberg

February 12, 2025, 10:58 pm
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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 had worked with Barbera at Van Beuren in New York. Harvey later laid out cartoons for the Hanna-Barbera unit at Metro (Harvey is on the right of the photo) and was also responsible for the storyboard for Yogi's Birthday Party and the Top Cat opening animation.

After leaving MGM, Jerry worked under Ken Harris in the Chuck Jones unit at Warner Bros.

His name first shows up on the Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw shows in the 1961-62 season, providing layouts for Magician Jinks, Chilly Chiller and Person to Prison (both with Snooper and Blabber). He laid out the half-hour prime time shows in the 1960s and there are other credits you can find on-line.

Our sympathies go to Jerry’s wife, who is from the Maillardville area near Vancouver.

Jerry was kind enough to spend an hour and a half with me on the phone some years back. The interview has been transcribed in six parts. You can read part one here. He has a lot of fun stories because he was a fun guy, liked by everyone in the animation business, as best as I can tell. I'm sorry we never got a chance (due to technical issues on my end) to do another interview as there was so much more of his career we never discussed.
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Yogi Bear is On the Air. Hey, Hey, Hee!

February 17, 2025, 7:21 pm
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“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 cartoons, you can take my opinion or it leave it.

I’m happy the old cartoons are getting some exposure, and may attract new viewers. It’s no secret there are some series that leave me cold (sorry, Magilla) but there’s nothing wrong with watching the original Huck Hound and Yogi Bear shows, especially in higher definition versions than anyone has seen before. To think that 60-plus years ago, our antenna was pulling in these same cartoons on a black-and-white Philco on channels that were, in some cases, about 120 miles away. (I confess I have not owned a set in almost 30 years so I am not watching MeTV or any TV. Sorry, Philco).

Long-time readers here know my favourite of all the H-B series is The Quick Draw McGraw Show, which MeTV is not airing. I have no inside knowledge about the situation. Perhaps Jerry Beck has some insight. To speculate, it could be a case, like the late Earl Kress told me when he tried to assemble a DVD set of the show years ago, some elements are missing or are in poor shape. And the first two seasons use the Langlois Filmusic library, which could not be cleared for home video use. I suspect Warners would like to recoup some restoration costs through BluRay sales. (The cartoons also feature the Capitol Hi-Q library, but most of the cues are by Phil Green which, the way Earl put it, could be cleared through EMI. Other ones by Bill Loose were a problem).

Like Yogi in hibernation, this poor old blog is supposed to be slumbering peacefully, but Strummer Petersen sent me some of the in-between cartoons that are airing on the Yogi show on MeTV, and I felt obliged to post some frames from one of them.

Long before “universes” based on who owns a cartoon, Quick Draw, Yogi and Huck interacted with other characters who appeared on their programme in little vignettes between the cartoons. This makes perfect sense, unlike mushing Jonny Quest and the Snorks in some kind of warped cross-breeding that you’d find in Tex Avery’s Farm of Tomorrow.

In one of the in-between shorts, Yogi is a waiter in a Brown Derby-like restaurant (at least, judging by the Hanna-Barbera star pictures on the wall). His customer is Yakky Doodle (played by Jimmy Weldon).



“What is the speciality of the house?” enquires the duck.



“Roast duck. What else?” replies Yogi. We get a stretch take out of Yakky, who flies away in horror.



I love Yogi’s quick expression as he realises punking Yakky has been a success. Take that, you annoying duck!



“I can understand his sensitivity,” Yogi confides in us. I feel the same way about bear claws.” He does his Yogi laugh as he swings his head from side to side.



But Yogi, ducks can be eaten. No one eats bear claws. Oh, well.

Ed Love is the animator of this little piece.

MeTV viewers, I hope you enjoy the old cartoons on television once again. Maybe El Kabong will swing onto the small screen in high-def some day.

Update: Reader Matt Hunter tells me a bear claw is like a Danish pastry. I've never heard of it. But now the gag makes sense.
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Not So Magical Bear

March 22, 2025, 7:16 am
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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, after popping out of the hat. He then jumps off stage. “Hello, there, Boo Boo,” Yogi responds, waving at him.



But that’s not the end of it. Yogi’s magic has conjured up another Boo Boo. And another. And another (in recycled animation).



“I goofed somewheres,” he says to the TV viewing audience. But he writes it off when the director cuts to a closer shot. “But you’ve gotta admit, it’s a pretty slick trick.” Iris out.



Yeah, it’s not hilarious, but it’s a pleasant enough interlude. Kids probably liked the idea of multiple Boo Boos just popping up (with assistance from the Hanna-Barbera sound effects library).

Then it’s on to a commercial for Kellogg’s, the Best to You Each Morning....
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Iwao, a Happy 100

April 29, 2025, 5:22 am
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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 you likely know, carried on for a number of years. He deserves a tribute.

When Iwao arrived at the studio the senior layout artist was Dick Bickenbach, who was part of Hanna-Barbera on Day One (July 7, 1957), and had worked with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at MGM starting in the mid-1940s. Iwao became the head designer in the mid-1960s at the time the studio focused on Saturday mornings. He is known for designing Astro on The Jetsons, Mugger (the Muttley-esque circus dog) in the feature Hey There, It's Yogi Bear, The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones and a Great Dane who needs no introduction.

Iwao (I don’t understand why his name is pronounced EE-WOE) penned an autobiography with Mike Mallory. He talks of his time at Disney and, before that, life in an internment camp where Japanese living in California were forcibly moved after Pearl Harbor lest any of them be secretly in cahoots with Tojo.

This is a thoroughly lazy post as I’ve clipped short segments from the book for those of you would haven’t read it. About his arrival, he writes:

At the time I signed on in 1961, Hanna-Barbera's chief designers were Bick Bickenbach [left], Gene Hazelton, and the artist who really seemed to set the style for the studio, Ed Benedict. Ed had also come from the MGM short cartoon department, but there he had worked mostly in Tex Avery's unit instead of Bill and Joes. I did not have much of a chance to know or work directly with Ed, but I learned a lot just from looking at the work that he did, not so much in regard to his character designs, but his backgrounds. I loved his thinking process, and the simplicity in which he got across his ideas in shows like “The Flintstones.” Ed's designs made the homes really look like they were dug out of a boulder, with a flat granite slab on top, looking like it had just been lowered down there on the head of a dinosaur. The result was almost cave-like, but at the same time strangely modern; a real primitive but fun environment which set the pattern for visual stylings that are still being used today in animation.

One of the originals at H-B was Dan Gordon, who had worked with Joe Barbera at the Van Beuren studio. Both then moved to Terrytoons in 1936 and later did side-work in comics on the West Coast. Dan lost a son in an accidental house fire and his last years were far removed from Hollywood and anything to do with animation. Here are Iwao's stories about Gordon:

Among the hugely creative people who were there in the early years was Dan Gordon, who was a designer, an animator, a storyman, an all-around talent. He had been in the business for decades and was a great gag man, but he also suffered from the affliction that affected so many others in the industry: alcoholism. I don’t really know why drinking was so prevalent within the business, but I've often wondered if it had carried over into film from the newspaper trade. Quite a few of those who went into animation in the early years were cartoonists out of New York, and newspapermen of that era were known for their thirst. Perhaps they carried their drinking from the periodical end of the business into he animation end of it. At Disney’s, a large percentage of the fellows drank quite a bit because of the pressure that they felt. I might run into a group of them at an establishment called Alphonse’s, which was a favorite watering hole, but they would also have open bottles of vodka in their desk drawers in the office.

Back in the 1930s, Dan had been one of the artists who moved with Max Fleischer down to a new studio in Florida to produce the feature film Gulliver's Travels. Stan Green, my assistant at Disney’s, had also been down there at that time. Stan used to drive Dan to and from the studio, because Dan was usually too inebriated to drive himself. One time, Stan said, Dan had not bothered to close the car door after getting in, and when Stan took a sharp turn, the door flew open, and in a flash there was no more Dan. He had fallen out onto the road. But he was so “protected” by alcohol that he was not even hurt.

At the time I was working with him, Dan used to hang out in the Cinegrill, which was a famous club attached to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on Hollywood Boulevard. Sometimes after a late evening at the studio, I would go to the Cinegrill with Harvey Eisenberg’s son Jerry, who also worked as a layout artist at the studio, for dinner, and invariably Dan would be there, hanging out. We would go over and buy him a drink—Dan’s refreshment of choice was the boilermaker—and on one occasion I remember sitting with him and conducting an impromptu story meeting about how some project we were working on lacked a script. Dan always communicated with little drawings, rather than try to describe what he was thinking, and I remember that his hands were constantly shaking. I wondered, “How the devil is he going to draw anything with his hands shaking like crazy?” But he picked up a pencil, and brought his quivering hand down toward the paper, and as soon as the point of the pencil touched it, everything solidified. His shaking stopped and very quickly a little idea sketch emerged. Despite his drinking, Dan remained full of ideas.

I'm a little disappointed Iwao didn't have anything about Mike Maltese in the book, but he did say this about another former Warner Bros. writer who migrated to H-B after working for John Sutherland Productions:

Warren Foster was technically considered a writer, but like all cartoon writers from the old days, he drew his scripts. Warren had been on the staff of the Warner Bros. cartoon studio for decades, but once he moved over to Hanna-Barbera, he all but took over “The Flintstones” for its first season, and I believe his influence was one of the key factors for its success. I say this because one time Bill Hanna told me: “Joe and I wrote the first episode and Warren wrote all the rest of them.” He put it as simply as that. I remember Joe describing Warren sitting at his desk, working like crazy, drawing and writing a sequence down, and periodically breaking out in laughter. Warren just couldn’t contain himself, he was having such a good time, and Joe used to love to stand around outside his door and just watch him.

Hanna-Barbera took some knocks for its limited animation, the only kind practical for television at the time, though it looked an awful lot better than the almost static series for TV that came before. Iwao made this comparison:

Some people have suggested over the years that one did not have to be as good an artist for this style of animation than the full, elaborate Disney style, but that is not the case. Because many of the drawings had to be held on screen for a long time, as opposed to one-twenty-fourth or one-twelfth of a second, the poses had to be extremely accomplished and funny in and of themselves. That takes a lot of talent, and the Hanna-Barbera studio had it, with Bill and Joe themselves right at the top of the list.

Iwao passed away in Los Angeles on January 8, 2007.

You can read his book at Archive.org.
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Huckleberry Hound Goes Home

May 19, 2025, 12:27 pm
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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 career was shifted into high gear at MGM (the studio of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera) when he auditioned for director Tex Avery and was handed a stream of parts, continuing after Avery was let go in 1953.

Avery came up with a low-key wolf with a southern accent for Billy Boy (released in 1954). Butler insisted the voice was borrowed from a neighbour of his wife Myrtis in Albemarle, North Carolina. The character was a heavy influence when Joe and Bill came up with Huckleberry Hound in 1958.

Butler’s cohort at H-B was Don Messick, whom he had recommended to Avery for voice work while still at MGM. And Doug Young, who was the Durante-inspired voice of Doggie Daddy on The Quick Draw McGraw Show in 1959, was also a recommendation from Daws, who had done the same voice for Bill and Joe at MGM.

The Butler family paid occasional visits to see Myrtis’ folks. The local paper, the Stanly News and Press, talked to Daws during one trip in 1960, arguably the height of Huck’s popularity. This is from July 1. Daws gets into the philosophy behind the earliest Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

TV’s Huckleberry Hound Man is Visiting in Albemarle
The voice behind the popular Huckleberry Hound TV series cartoon characters is in Albemarle this week.
He is Charles Dawson Butler, better known under his professional name of Daws Butler.
Currently, he and his wife and four sons are visiting here in the home of his wife's mother, Mrs. E. M. Martin, of 128 Summit Avenue.
Mrs. Butler is the former Miss Myrtis Martin of Albemarle.
The most impressive thing about Mr. Butler, of course, is his voice—after you get over the initial shock that he's only five feet two inches tall.
What he lacks in stature, he makes up for in voice, volume, and in warmth of personality and showmanship that is no less than captivating.
His speech has the glibness of a circus barker, yet, it has the depth and adoritness [sic] of a serious student and practitioner of show-business, one wise and experienced in the life of an actor.
Worldwide Audience
About his work as the voice behind Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and related characters in the syndicated cartoons which reach a worldwide audience, he is most enthusiastic.
Occasionally to illustrate a point, he assumed the voice of one of his cartoon characters and demonstrated his versatility. His eyes laugh and his voice has that extra special lilt to it.
He can talk about cartooning and animation for hours and hours and cover all the intricacies that go into the production of a completed cartoon. Incidentally, the seven-minute cartoon requires about three weeks to complete, from beginning to end.
His part of it, the voice part, requires only a fraction of this time. In fact, he has put the voice in as many as half a dozen cartoons in one day. The day before he left on his current vacation, he taped four or five.
Mr. Butler works very closely with Don Messick, another animator who puts the voice in Bobo Bear [Boo-Boo] and Pixie. Each man also has many secondary and minor talking parts.
Huckleberry Hound is now in its third year. A companion cartoon series, "Quick Draw Drama" [sic], also features voice characterizations by Butler, Messick and Doug Young. About a year and a half old now, the latter series features such characters as Baba-Looey, Super-Snooper, Blabber-Mouse, and Auggie Doggie.
Won An Emmy
This year Huckleberry Hound was awarded an "Emmy" in the children's category by the TV industry.
The name of the outfit which produces the shows is Hanna-Barbera Productions. The producers are Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, both veterans in the field.
"Originally, the show was aimed primarily at kids," Butler said. "But now it has grown into a family show and is reaching a wider audience than ever.
"When we got together to launch the thing, we were looking for something like a Tennessee Ernie for kids. If you remember the old Tom and Jerry cartoons you may see some vestige of them in our show."
Butler considers their early cartoons as primitive compared to what they are turning out today. When their mail and surveys indicated a big upswing in adult viewers, they threw in some adult appeal. A certain level of humor was injected for the adults to balance the show with the strictly juvenile portion.
Character Emphasis
Warmth and close character identification are the attributes most stressed by the producers, Butler says.
"Our characters are not just voices and names," he said. "Each is a distinct personality with obvious tags and philosophies. That is the secret of the whole thing."
Many TV cartoon viewers think the story and animation come first in a cartoon, then the voice. This isn't the case at all. Butler says. The voice comes first and the animation and drawing shaped to correspond.
The Kellog[g] Company sponsors the shows.
Butler does the commercials, also, rather, is the voice behind the commercials.
In addition to his regular work on the two syndicated cartoon shows, he does freelance work commercials.
Huckleberry and the other cartoon regulars are produced by a topflight staff of professionals, Butler said. They constantly inject new blood and new material into the show to keep it fresh, exciting, and secure in its top-spot position.
The few competitors of their shows he termed as crude.
"Ours is pure fantasy," he said, "A never-never land where animals talk and do impossible things and have a whale of a lot of fun. This way, you're not fettered. You do not have to adhere to the norm. You have freedom to experiment and move around in.
"Our show has grown and it has improved. Those little extra touches and subtlies [sic] like a jerk of the head or a special nuance of the voice go a long way toward making a quality product."



Native Of Ohio
Born in Ohio, Butler was reared in Oak Park, Ill., where he emerged from his formal schooling with an ambition to be a cartoonist. Shy and awkward about reciting in school, he later forced himself to participate in talent contests and speaking engagements to overcome his handicap. This self-therapy continued until he joined three other entertainers and founded an act which took them to stage floors over half the nation.
Uncle Sam called in May, 1942 and he was a yeoman in the U. S. Navy until 1946. While working at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., he met his wife who was employed there by the government.
There he immediately went into radio work, auditioning at the cartoon studios every chance he got until he landed a job.
Then it was but a matter of hard work and making the right contacts until his talent was recognized and carried him to top jobs.
Today, he and his family live in a comfortable home in Beverly Hills, a 20-minute drive from his studio.
Sons In TV, Too
The four boys of Mr. and Mrs. Butler are David, 16; Donald, 13; Paul, 10; and Charles, six.
All of them, under the expert coaxing of their father, have been in bit parts in TV commercials. And some not so small parts.
One of them has landed an important part in a Hans Christian Anderson classic now under production.
The Butlers and Mrs. Martin plan to leave Friday for a week's stay on Ocracoke Island on the eastern North Carolina coast.
After returning here, the Butlers will leave on July 12 to return home. Although Mrs. Butler has returned here and her mother has visited them in California, Mr. Butler says this is his first visit back here in 17 years. "I love your wonderful green country here," he said. "It's so fresh and natural and unspoiled. Out where we live much of it is manmade and artificial."
The Huckleberry Hound man sees a very bright future in cartooning. "It's good and American," he said. "It's been tried and proven and accepted as a permanent part of the entertainment world. It's here to stay."

There was a post-script to the story. The paper’s editorial section printed this on July 5. It is a very good assessment of Daws’ abilities.

Fred Morgan’s Musings
That Huckleberry Hound TV cartoon guy is quite a versatile showman and actor. He visited in Albemarle last week and is due to come back here late this week prior to leaving for California.
I enjoyed immensely my brief visit with Daws Butler and his family and the intriguing glimpse into this phase of show-business that he gave me.
Daws is the kind of guy you appreciate instinctively.
He came up the hard knock way through the ranks to his present position as one of the very top cartoon voices in the field, overcoming a latent shyness and fear of anything to do with audio performances before an audience no matter how small.
Daws says there are no hard and fast restrictions and barriers in his shows between him and his co-workers, all seasoned professionals. Their working relationship is always flexible and open to suggestion and change for the betterment of the program.
You have to hear Daws in his various and ludicurous [sic] character voices to fully appreciate this man's talent and capabilities.
My interview with him was a riot of laughs, for I couldn't resist laughing spasmodically during the full hour I was there.
You would have, too.
I'd ask Daws a question and Huckleberry Hound would answer me.
Or Yogi Bear. Or Mr. Jinks. Or Super-Snooper. Or Blabber-Mouse. Or any one of a dozen or more characters.
You ought to hear Huck say, "It's good to be in old N. C."
Or Yogi drawl, "I like the feel of a real Tar Heel."
Or other such gag lines which bubble out of Daws with magnificent ease.
He does more than just say the lines. He puts action and showmanship into it.
This is important, Daws says, not only to give him a more genuine control of tone and nuance of voice that he wants to put into the line, but to give the artists and animators an idea for the actions and facial expressions of the character who is speaking the lines. The artists and animators always watch Daws as he records the voice and note these subtleties which they incorporate into the finished product.
In cartooning as in any successful creative work, Daws says is vital to capture the intrinsic emotions and motivations of your characters. He does this admirably well.
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Marvin Coley had an excellent radio interview with Daws, too [on WABZ], which I managed to catch. That Daws is really a swell fellow and I hope cartooning will continue to kind to him.

Over the years, I’ve talked to people who knew Daws. Everyone praised his kindness, generosity and assistance. As time moves along without a pause, it’s a little difficult to think he passed away 37 years ago. His voice, or at least the ones he gave his characters, is still there. I hope it always will be.
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The Unfinished Snagglepuss

June 7, 2025, 7:00 am
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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. But ten years ago, I posted panels for a storyboard for R-88, a Yogi cartoon titled “Beast Feast.” It never appeared on the air and possibly could have been abandoned during production.

At the time, I wondered if there were also productions R-84, R-85, R-86 and R-87 that were not finished or did not air. It turns out the answer is “yes.”

Animation director Robert Alvarez has an incredible collection of discarded artwork from various studios. For a number of years, he has been posting and re-posting it on Facebook. The other day, he re-posted a nine-panel sheet for a Snagglepuss cartoon which I did not recognise. I checked the production number up top and it is R-86, so this is from another cartoon that either wasn’t finished, or was not broadcast.


The drawings (and lettering) look to be the work of story director Alex Lovy. Mike Maltese likely wrote the story, and it appears reminiscent of The Wabbit who Came to Supper (Warner Bros., 1942) in which Elmer Fudd gets a telegram telling him he'll lose his inheritance if he harms Bugs Bunny. That story was written by one M. Maltese.

Whether Robert has the whole board, I haven’t asked, lest I impose on him. Some time ago, he posted these two sheets. The production number is faded on the first one, but I suspect these are both from R-86. You can click on them to enlarge them.


I thank Robt. for allowing me to purloin these. Pur-lion, even.

P.S. As you know, I’m resting the Tralfaz blog. This blog is supposed to be on permanent hiatus as well, but I have cobbled together new monthly posts you’ll see through the summer.
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Music For Cat and Dog in Space

June 21, 2025, 7:11 am
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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 1956 by John Seely, who had been co-writing with label composer Bill Loose.

When we began Yowping in 2009, you could not find any of the cues on-line. Though the late Earl Kress arranged for a handful (by EMI’s Phil Green) to be released on Rhino Records about 30 years ago, reels and discs with the cues were in the possession of collectors.

The internet has evolved and, over the years, library music fans who were into Hi-Q have shared their bounty with others. We’ll gloss over an involved and thorny story to remark that, very recently, a generous individual has digitised a number of the library’s D (“Dramatic”) series discs that were not in circulation.

Ruff and Reddy was H-B’s first series for television, debuting December 14, 1957. A decision was made to pay for library music rather than go to the expense of scoring each cartoon individually. Someone, and I’m not certain who, picked cues from the D series and either Greg Watson or Warner Leighton cut them onto the sound track. (Jack Shaindlin’s Langlois Filmusic library was also heard in the studio’s cartoons starting in 1958).

Thanks to the anonymous person mentioned above, some of those cues are now available. We pass them along. The first cue is by Spencer Moore (and is from reel S-4), the other three are by Geordie Hormel in D-32. I believe all of them were heard in the Muni-Mula storyline.


L-628 DRAMATIC BRIDGE


ZR-91A WEIRD-EERIE


ZR-92B WEIRD-EERIE


ZR-93C WEIRD EERIE

There is more Ruff and Reddy music in this post.

We’ve written about the two cartoons seen on the first show, so here’s a little bit about the third cartoon in the Muni-Mula adventure, The “Whama Bama Gamma” Gun, which opened the second show on December 21, 1957.

Narrator Don Messick begins the cartoon with an animation-saving recap from the last episode. Ruff and Reddy seal themselves in a space ship control room to get away from two metallic robots, but the flying saucer begins to drop.

The new adventure begins with the space ship seemingly under control, with braggart Reddy at the helm. Though there are no credits, the mouth shape on Ruff below shows the episode was animated by Ken Muse.



Speaking of mouths, there are times the lower lip goes past Reddy's jowl lines, though it likely wasn't noticeable on TV.



As in the earlier episodes, there are silhoutte drawings. I presume Dick Bickenbach was the layout artist; he claimed to have been working on Ruff and Reddy while still at MGM with Hanna and Barbera.



One of the robots burns a hole in the door, but Reddy manages to swat its gun away and holds the two of them.



Outer space weightlessness kicks in and everybody starts slowly rising. Ruff pulls on a lever that opens a hatch at the top of the space ship and the robots float up into space.



Gravity returns. Note the dry brush.



The space ship is pulled into a hole that opens up on the planet Muni-Mula.



Messick urges us not to miss the next episode (which will follow after the live-action host and an exciting Columbia/Screen Gems cartoon).

The music (the final cue is from reel L-4):
0:00 – Title card.
0:06 – ZR-91C WEIRD-EERIE (Hormel) – Recap.
0:22 – ZR-91B WEIRD-EERIE (Hormel) – Saucer starts tipping, “I feel kinda empty.”
2:07 – No music – Ruff floats up.
2:12 – ZR-91C WEIRD-EERIE (Hormel) – Ruff grabs lever.
2:44 – No music. Ruff on top of Reddy.
2:50 – ZR-53 COMEDY MYSTERIOSO (Hormel) – Saucer flies to Muni-Mula, end of cartoon.

Let us add a bonus cue, not heard at Hanna-Barbera. In 1958, Warner Bros. contracted with John Seely to use music from the Capitol Hi-Q library. The reason we've been told over the years is a musicians strike, but I have found nothing about it in any trade publication. Seely got screen credit but he was an executive at Capitol so I doubt he actually clipped together the cues to write a score.

You will hear an edited version of this cue from the D series during the mouse-running part of Hip-Hip-Hurry! It is also by Hormel.


ZR-57 CHASE.
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Plugging Huck

July 5, 2025, 7:11 am
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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.

Here are a few. These chatty ones are for a TV station in Indianapolis.



This is one for a station in Amarillo. I think. The ad doesn't mention a station or channel.


Flint, Michigan to the left; Roanoke, Virginia to the right.



Cincinnati.

It is only appropriate that Huck is seen and heard in North Carolina, where his accent should be familiar to viewers.


Portland, left; Tulsa, right.



Sioux Falls, above; Atlanta, below. They had trouble spelling Huck's name in South Dakota.


This is for Miami, Nov. 29, 1962. Whose brilliant programming idea was it to run Huck opposite The Jetsons? Maybe it was "Bobb."

There are other ads, but this is good enough for now.

If Huck wasn’t on your TV set, you could get your blue hound fix at home by watching him on a Give-a-Show projector by Kenner. It wasn’t a home movie like, say, a Super-8 of Woody Woodpecker. It was a strip of slides. That had to suffice for us kids in the ‘60s. There was no sound so we could practice our impressions of Daws Butler doing Yogi. Look at the price!


Jon B. Knutson in Olympia had a wonderful blog with links to Give-a-Shows he had put together with Capitol Hi-Q music in the background. We had linked to it here in 2010, but it seems to have died the following year. Too bad. There’s so much on the internet that has disappeared. We are still here, however.

The Yowp blog is supposedly on hiatus, but we do have some new posts that will appear periodically (closer to monthly instead of weekly), we hope, through to Christmas, which has been our traditional H-B music post.
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The Huckleberry Hound Show on BluRay

July 16, 2025, 5:24 pm
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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 partially weighed into a decision not to release the remaining three seasons. There were also issues finding elements of the half-hour series but, more importantly, there were money problems trying to get the rights to use the Jack Shaindlin and Bill Loose cues as they had returned to the composers’ heirs.

This, evidently, has been worked out. The Huck show, in its entirety, will be available on Blu-ray next month.

The Warner Archive news release contains the following:

To faithfully present these episodes as originally aired, you’ll be able to enjoy each show containing original bumpers and bridges, as well as rarely seen vintage commercials featuring the characters from the series.

This means all the Huck, Pixie and Dixie, Yogi and Hokey Wolf cartoons that appeared on the show (Yogi, of course, was spun off and some of his cartoons appeared exclusively on his show). You can read more in this release.
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The Mastermind of Muni-Mula

August 2, 2025, 7:06 am
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When you only have $2,700 to make a cartoon, you have to find ways to avoid spending cash without looking like you’re avoiding spending cash.

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera found clever ways to do that in the early episodes of Ruff and Reddy.

The fourth cartoon in the first adventure, The Mastermind of Muni-Mula, has some good examples. It opens with a recap of the previous episode, with about 32 seconds of animation being re-used. New animation follows, with about 30 seconds of eye-blinks in the darkness, as well as a match being lit.



The camera operator then opens up the aperture to reveal Ruff, Reddy and some Muni-Mula robots. The next 12 seconds is nothing but head turns, five positions on Ruff and Reddy, some of which are held for several frames. As well, the background and control panel overlay are used in several episodes.



The metallic men take our heroes to see The Big Thinker. Ed Benedict (or whoever) designed them without feet. No need for a walk cycle. The cel with the characters stays in place while the cameraman moves the background. The only animation is eye-blinks in the first scene below.

I like the backgrounds and layouts in these scenes, which are fairly short to keep the pace going. They show off the vastness of the space ship.



Ruff and Reddy are dropped in front of a large metallic head with two faces, a pleasant one and an angry one. The pleasant face gives Daws Butler a chance to do a Liberace-type voice.



The head reveals to Ruff and Reddy why they’ve been brought to Muni-Mula. He plans to make robot duplicates of them and invade the Earth. He doesn’t give a reason, but being an evil, mind-controlling dictator is reason enough.

Here’s another of Ken Muse’s silhouettes.



Ruff and Reddy’s body proportions are stretched upwards in the scene below; they almost look like hand puppets. But this puts them in a proper place in the frame. Ruff is looking at a finger, while Reddy is looking upward to where the head’s eyes would be.



Off they go. The characters pass behind overlays, just like in a theatrical cartoon, to lend a bit of depth to the scene.



Reddy is between two halves of a pressing machine. There’s no animation here, either. Reddy is held on a cel, while the two halves of the presser are on cels that are slid toward each other.



Hanna and Barbera called this “planned animation.” The term is silly, because all animation is planned. But the way they spoke at the time, it seems they wanted to differentiate what they were doing to other TV animated series at the time, such as Crusader Rabbit or the earlier Telecomics, which were practically still drawings.

This episode aired December 21, 1957.

Three cues from the Capitol Hi-Q ‘D’ series are heard, one by Spencer Moore and the rest by Geordie Hormel.

0:00 – Title card.
0:06 – ZR-90C WEIRD-EERIE (Hormel) – Start of cartoon
0:48 – No music – “Yeow!”
0:54 – ZR-90C WEIRD-EERIE (Hormel) – “That’s my finger,” lights up.
1:10 – No music – “In case you came in late…”
1:18 – L-657 EERIE DRAMATIC (Moore) – “I never saw so many twins…” Big Thinker scenes, metal men take them out of the chamber.
3:04 – No music – “I’m just scared again…”
3:09 – ZR-93K WEIRD-EERIE (Hormel) – “…a long assembly line,” end of cartoon.
3:28 – Title card.
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The Man They Called Gunnite

August 23, 2025, 7:30 am
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The writers on The Flintstones developed side characters over the six seasons the cartoon series was on the air. Some were recurring, some died a natural death. But there was a one-shot character that found a home in another place.

Pop celebrity culture always came in for a gentle spoofing in animated cartoons. In the ‘30s and ‘40s, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Jack Benny and other radio/movie stars were caricatured. Catchphrases were borrowed from network radio shows.

When television animation became practical, Hanna-Barbera (and especially Bob Clampett’s Snowball Productions) lightly spoofed other television shows.

In the first season of The Flintstones, the series took gentle aim at Peter Gunn, which ran three seasons from 1958-1961 and had a terrific and the quintessential crime-jazz theme composed by Henry Mancini. Art Phillips is credited as the writer who turned Gunn into private eye Perry Gunnite, hired by Fred Flintstone to track down whoever wrote a love letter to Wilma (it turned out to be Fred when he was in high school). Gunnite was voiced, Cary Grant style, by John Stephenson. (Note the nod to 77 Sunset Strip to the left).

There wasn’t a need for a detective on the series, so Gunnite made only one appearance in “Love Letters on the Rocks” (aired February 17, 1961). However, there was a need elsewhere.

Comic books, at least at one time, needed characters besides the title ones to fill space. The best thing is they didn’t have to interact with the main characters. They could have their own stories. That’s what happened with Perry Gunnite.

He appeared in two adventures “Flintstones on the Rocks,” published by Dell in 1961. It is an excellent comic book with great art (by Harvey Eisenberg?) and some fun, single-page featurettes. It also includes a publicity photo of Joe Barbera, Bill Hanna, Warren Foster and my favourite cartoon writer, Mike Maltese. You can find it here.

Here is the first of the two Gunnite stories. You can click on each page to read it.



The TV episode was solely animated by Carlo Vinci. Fred does one of those Carlo head shakes with the rubbery nose. It is on four drawings, animated on ones.



Here is it, slowed down.



Someone will mention the Gunnite walk cycle if I don’t.

It is eight drawings. The “knee up” is held for six frames. The following drawing is used twice, the cameraman moving the background slightly to the right the second time. The rest of the drawings are on ones.



Once again, the pose is held for six frames, then the next drawing is shot twice, with the background moving very slightly in the third frame.



And the cycle repeats. Watch it below.

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Touche Thompson

September 2, 2025, 7:14 am
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Perhaps the role of Touche Turtle was a consolation prize.

As far as I can tell, Bill Thompson never publicly spoke about it, but fellow voice actor Hal Smith related how, in 1960, Thompson had been cast as Fred Flintstone, but his voice couldn’t handle the role, so some soundtracks were scrapped, and the part was recast.

Around the time The Flintstones debuted, Hanna-Barbera was developing other cartoons, one of which included a turtle with a bent sword and a plumed hat. It’s safe to say the character developed into Touché Turtle. That proved to be Thompson’s only starring role at Hanna-Barbera.

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera drew a lot from their 20 years at MGM for their early work at their own studio. Thompson was part of that. He was the voice of Droopy from when Tex Avery created him until the studio closed in 1957 (with time out for the war).

Like Daws Butler, Alan Reed and many cartoon actors, Thompson came from network radio. If you want to know about his pre-cartoon voice work, here’s a story from the Indianapolis Star of March 7, 1937.

HOOSIERS ON THE AIR
BY JOHN C. SPEARS.
TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Bill Thompson is best known to dialers as the dialect comedian of the Fibber McGee and Molly program heard each Monday evening at 7 o'clock over NBC. How he twists and stumbles through the English language, using over ten different dialects, is quite a story.
Thompson says this business of being a comedian, and especially one of many dialects, is a very serious profession. He says that in order to become adept in so many characterizations, he has studied the rudiments of each language he later butchers and bungles when combining it with English.
Thus, if he wants to get laughs using Assyrian and Egyptian dialects he first does a little research with these languages in order to better tear them to pieces. He says those are two tongues he's studying now, since they haven't been used on radio for comedy purposes to any extent as yet.
Although young in years, Bill Thompson has been in the amusement profession practically since birth. His parents, both on the stage in musical comedy and vaudeville, located in Terre Haute around 1913, and it was there Bill was born.
It wasn't long until the parents returned to the theater circuits, taking infant Thompson along. In Grand Rapids, at 2, Hill first appeared on the stage, doing a little tap dance. He received $2.50 for the dance.
At 5, Thompson was doing what is known as a “single” in vaudeville, and was press-agented as "Jackie Coogan's double." While working in theaters, Bill often came in contact with another vaudeville actor, an old-timer named Arthur Donaldson. This gentleman became very much interested in Thompson, and it was through his efforts Bill tried dialect on the stage.
Donaldson was also a make-up expert for character parts, and he was impressed with Thompson's ideal face for this type of portrayal. Bill also had a Scotch grandfather, and liked to imitate him. He's never used Scotch dialect on the radio, he says, but hopes to before long.
SO THAT'S HOW Thompson chose dialect comedy as his specialty. His education, like many whose parents were on the stage, came from private tutors. When he was 12, his stage career stopped, during which period he went to school for the first time in his life. School work then occupied his time, and he went to high school in Chicago. While there, and in 1934, NBC held a contest for professional entertainers in connection with the Century of Progress exposition. Bill entered and did ten dialects in one sketch, called an "International Broadcast."
Besides winning the contest prize, NBC signed a contract with him to appear on programs from the Chicago studios of the network. He was first heard on the Saturday Jamboree and Breakfast Club programs. The characters he now does with Fibber McGee and Molly are Nick the Greek; Vodka, the mad Russian, and Horatio K. Boomer, windjammer extraordinary.
To the ladies we pass along the information he's unmarried. For the fact-finders, Bill is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, has a dark complexion and brown hair and eyes.

Thompson’s first cartoon roles, according to Keith Scott’s research, were at Warner Bros. where they needed a W.C. Fields sound-alike (just like Horatio K. Boomer) for a couple of shorts around 1940. Thompson’s next role was the starring character at MGM in Blitz Wolf (1942).

Network radio died, though Fibber McGee and Molly carried on as long as it could, stripped down thanks to lower budgets. Thompson moved on. The Edmonton Journal of Feb. 3, 1964 explains.

Radio’s Old ‘Timer’ Takes New Attack
By BILL PAYNE
Of The Journal
What's in a voice?
If the voice is Bill Thompson's, the answer to that question is as complex as his colorful theatrical and business career.
And for further information ask Old Timer of Fibber McGee and Molly fame. Old Timer one of Mr. Thompson's characterizations.
William Thompson, Jr., manager of community services for an international oil company, is in Edmonton to address several professional and service organizations. His theme is serious—declining respect for law enforcement officers.
These speaking engagements are far removed from the vaudeville stage of the Roaring Twenties, when Indiana-born Billy Thompson and his parents did song and dance routines for American audiences.
As the family vaudeville act travelled through the United States, young Billy began his voice training — not in music — but in dialects and impersonations.
From Radio To Youth
The 1930s were the booming years of radio, rocketing to stardom such memorable characters as Fibber McGee and Molly, Charlie McCarthy and Fred Allen.
The Fibber McGee and Molly show, with its wide range of character roles, was a "natural" for Bill Thompson.
By 1940, the Old Timer with his "That ain't the way I heard it, Johnny” was a fixture in the American entertainment scene.
Even though Bill's radio career was time-consuming, he began to expand his talents and energies in the direction of community service — particularly in youth work.
His was the voice of the little white rabbit in "Alice In Wonderland," of Mr. Smee in "Peter Pan," and of no less than five characters in Disney's canine cartoon, “The Lady and the Tramp."
When NBC, in 1956, dropped the Fibber McGee show Mr Thompson retired from the entertainment world and devoted himself entirely to community service.
In his recent tours, he has become alarmed at what he terms the "rapid decline in respect for constituted authority."
"And I wanted to do something about it," he adds.
That "something" has brought Mr Thompson on his current speaking tour — pointing out to citizens, particularly parents, their personal responsibility in cultivating in children a respect for police and other law enforcement officers.

Meanwhile at Hanna-Barbera, it was taking some time to get Touché away. Joe Barbera didn’t mention Touche in a phone interview with The Oregonian published Sept. 26, 1960, but did mention a five-year order (from Screen Gems, we presume) for a new series featuring Hairbreadth Hare and Lippy the Lion with Hardy-Har-Har. Barbera told Harry Harris of the Philadelphia Inquirer, published Oct. 9, about another series starring Ribbons and Rosie, two female characters.

The first mention of the three Touché/Lippy/Wally Gator cartoons in the popular press seems to have been in Hank Grant’s column in The Hollywood Reporter of Aug. 17, 1961, saying production was about to start (and four acres had been purchased and blueprints made for a new, four-storey studio). Apparently, a press release was sent out because the Birmingham Post-Herald reported six days later on the cartoons, but also added “Snaglepuss”, said Fibber McGee was being considered for Lippy’s voice and “Dawes” Butler would take on the role of Wally. There must have been some confusion as the Minneapolis Star reported on Oct. 5 that “Old Timer” Bill Thompson would be “Tooshay Turtle” and Daws would be Lippy. On top of this, syndicated columnist Marie Torre wrote on Oct. 29 that Wally Gator planned “to lift characters and action from the popular comic strip, ‘Pogo.’”

The three, five-minute cartoon series were designated for syndication. Unlike the early syndicated shows (Huck, Quick Draw, Yogi), these would not be tied in with an agency or sponsor; Screen Gems would sell them directly to stations. Colour ads taking up several pages aimed at TV management began appearing in Broadcasting magazine in late January 1962. Variety of Jan. 31 pointed out there would 52 of each series made at a cost of almost $1,500,000, with stations getting the option of dropping them into daytime cartoon shows or stringing together half-hours twice a week.

A Variety update on March 7 revealed seven stations had bought the cartoons (WPIX New York, WTTG Washington, KPTV Portland, WTIC-TV Hartford, WGAL-TV Lancaster Pa., WOC-TV Davenport Ia. and KOVR Stockton). On June 21, the Reporter said the 156 episodes had been purchased by KCOP Los Angeles for a September start.

When Touché and the rest first appeared on television isn’t clear. We do know KCOP aired a half-hour preview on Monday, August 27, 1962 starting at 7:30 a.m. (before the station normally signed on), hosted by Beachcomber Bill Biery and introduced by programme director Bob Guy (Reporter, Aug. 24). The Beachcomber Bill show debuted (in colour) on Monday, Sept. 2. At 6:30. Up the I-5 at KPTV, the cartoons began airing the same evening at 6 p.m. as “Lippy Lion” (in black and white).

Arlene Garber, TV editor of the Hollywood Citizen-News, caught the KCOP preview and approved of the cartoons, saying “these creative efforts by Hanna-Barbera may very well be among those which satisfy cartoon lovers in the season coming up.” Her column of Aug. 28, 1962 also mentioned The Jetsons, but here’s what she said about Touché, et al., including the basic plots of each cartoon.

Cartoons Stir Young Minds
There may be more in cartoons for children than most of us think.
Because those animated antics are not performed by real people, but the creations of paper and ink, they could easily stir the young minds much more than a western adventure show or a "Dennis the Menace."
It seems that an animated figure running across the screen leaves a lot to the imagination, especially to the willing imagination of children.
Hanna-Barbera Studios' latest creations, "Touche' Turtle,""Wally Gator" and "Lippy the Lion" give credence to this idea. All three were previewed Monday morning on Channel 13, before they start their regular run next week at 6:30 p.m.
First thing that will tickle the young viewers' curiosity is probably the names of these new cartoon characters. Just saying Touche' Turtle and Lippy the Lion out loud must be fun for kids.
Lippy the Lion turned out to be just goofy enough to have a feline friend called Hardy Har Har. And the two of them seemed exactly the type of characters who would run from a loud pirate captain, without any thought of fighting back.
Because they came across the screen as believable personalities you might never meet in this world, I'm sure the youngsters will not think any of their escapades are impossible.
A TURTLE
Touche' Turtle had a rather throaty voice to go with his hard-shelled, soft-hearted personality. His pal Dum Dum was an over-grown puppy type who was agreeable to anything.
These two got involved with a rather tame gorilla in what appeared to be a loose spoof on the movie of "Mighty Joe Young." And they did it without filling the screen with terrifying violence.
I imagine that Touche' Turtle could become everyone's favorite, as he romps through his adventures as the unheroic underdog.
Wally Gator turned out to be an alligator with more size than sense or courage. His troubles began after an old English hunter mistook him for a dragon on his front lawn.
This segment had some of the best comedy lines of the three cartoons. Children must have enjoyed it when Wally Gator asked, "What are you, an alligator hater?" or "Don't you recognize a confirmed coward when you see one?" All three series have successfully relied upon continuous action based on story lines with which the viewer can associate himself.
Hanna-Barbera will be giving youngsters lots of laughs, plus something for the imagination to feed upon with their Channel 13 schedule this fall. And adults won't be turning away from them either.

The three cartoon series were okay and likeable, but that was about it. There wasn’t a whole lot about them that was new. The plots seemed familiar, the character designs seemed familiar, the voice work seemed familiar, as if Hanna-Barbera had done the same things funnier before. Blanc’s Hardy voice was the same as the Happy Postman on the Burns and Allen radio show. And Thompson’s Touché pretty much sounded like the later Droopy, who was little more up-tempo than the slower voice of the 1940s. Regardless, they saw a lot of TV time.

It’s a shame Hanna-Barbera didn’t take advantage of Thompson’s talents more often. It could have been Thompson was too busy. It may be that the dialects he used in the 1930s and ‘40s were starting to go out of fashion in the 1960s. Or it may have been a case of health. Whatever it was, he provided a couple of voices for Disney post-Touché and was only 58 when he died on July 15, 1971.
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Mr. Jinks' Weighty Problem

September 20, 2025, 6:50 am
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Mr. Jinks may have been better in the little cartoons between the cartoons on the Huckleberry Hound Show than he was in the actual Pixie and Dixie cartoons.

After the show opening, and before the show closing, host Huck would appear in 60-second interconnected routines with the stars of the other cartoons in the half-hour: Yogi Bear and Pixie and Dixie with Mr. Jinks. Jinksie’s motivations are clear in every one of them. He’s out to get the meeces, but something always backfires.

One of vignettes takes place in a gym. In this one, Pixie and Dixie are pulling on weights to “get in shape for Jinksie.” Cut to Jinks with scissors to cut the wires (strong scissors!) to “bend them out of shape.” I really like the expressions here. Note the little tongue behind the “o”-shaped mouth.

Of course, you can probably guess what’s going to happen.



I honestly can’t tell you who the animator is here. It looks like Ed Love does the sequence before this with Yogi at the punching bag.

These mini-cartoons have been very nicely restored and you’ll be able to see them on the Huckleberry Hound Blu-Ray set.
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Stony Curtis

October 1, 2025, 7:18 am
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Like a rotting brontosaurus carcass on a desert, The Flintstones stunk in the final season.

Sorry, fans of the Great Gazoo. The character was a gimmick (though Harvey Korman was great, as always). Sorry, fans of “A Screen Gems Presentation.” Samantha and Darren Stephens were suddenly turned into cartoon characters eons before they existed because Bewitched and The Flintstones were distributed by the same company? What was the idea behind inventing a “Stone World War One”? And don’t get me started on that treacly episode where Bamm Bamm and Pebbles chirp a song denuded of its religious references.

Then there was the studio’s tendency to be lazy and add “stone” or “rock” to names, whether or not it fit. Thus viewers were subjected to “Romeorock” and “The Beau Brummelstones.”

A name which worked much better was Tony Curtis. “Stony Curtis” may seem obvious, but it was an appropriate pun for a character on The Flintstones (not a stretch like “Arnold Palmrock”).

Guest stars have been used for a long time to bolster ratings, going back to the days of network radio. There’s no denying Curtis was a star at the time he was converted into a cartoon character; The Great Race was appearing in theatres and he starred in a number of acclaimed films before that.

It appears the Hanna-Barbera publicity machine got in gear in late April 1965; that’s when newspapers starting running blurbs in their entertainment columns that Curtis would appear on the premiere episode of the sixth season. Sources indicate Curtis recorded his part on June 21. The episode was not the season opener. It was the third show to air, on October 1.

If you’re wondering what Curtis thought of the experience, it seems he didn’t (at least publicly) deem working on a cartoon demeaning. The September 25-October 1 edition of TV Guide wrote about it.



IT WAS TYPE CASTING
Tony Curtis is playing Stony Curtis on THE FLINTSTONES
“It does your ego good to wind up in the cartoons,’ says Tony Curtis of his role as Stony Curtis, prehistoric movie star, in an episode of The Flintstones (ABC, Oct. 1). “It is also intriguing to see the caricature and hear the voice. I liked the idea of doing it, and I thought it would be good for my daughters [Kelly, 9, and Jamie, 6; Alexandra is only 1] to see.”
Aside from all that, it gave Tony a chance to do a good turn. “I never got paid so well in my life,” he said of the wages he received from Hanna-Barbera Productions for his voice work. “I go in for a few minutes’ time and they pay me three or four hundred bucks. I added some money to it and sent it to a summer-camp fund.”
Curtis had full approval of the role he was to play, that of a film idol visiting the Stone Age town of “Bedrock,” and of the sketches. “We had an ascot tie on him and he took it off,” said Joe Barbera, co-producer (with Bill Hanna) and director of the episode. “He wanted to look like a cave man, so we didn’t dress him up.” When he actually recorded, said a bystander, Tony took direction as though “doing a major movie role.”
Curtis is the second major movie star to do a Flintstones; the other was Ann-Margret, who played “Ann-Margrock.” Barbera hopes to have other stars like “Cary Granite,” “Jackie Gleastone,” or the “Cartrocks” of the “Rockerosa Ranch.”
As for his own Stone Age name, Tony is happy enough with it. “At least it’s better than ‘Phony Curtis,’ ” he said.



Curtis “took direction as though doing a major movie role”? This would have been news to the Hollywood Women’s Press Club which, in late 1964, voted Curtis the Sour Apple award as “the most uncooperative male star.” (The AP’s Bob Thomas reported Curtis was bewildered because “the girls” had honoured him as the most cooperative male star twice).

Barbera’s comment about Cary Granite is odd, as the character appeared in the series’ first season. The Cartrocks appeared in season five. Considering the possibility of a lawsuit stemming from The Flintstones’ similarities to The Honeymooners, it’s no wonder Jackie Gleastone did not visit Bedrock. (Gleason revealed in the August 1986 issue of Playboy he had mulled over the suit. Gleason also told writer Bill Zehmer “In fact, the guy who did Fred's voice (Alan Reed) dubbed in things for me in motion pictures, whenever they were looping and I couldn't make the session”).

Curtis mentioned the role in his autobiography, American Prince: A Memoir (Harmony, 2008).

In the fall of 1965, George Pal, my director in Houdini, introduced me to several executives at Hanna-Barbera — the company that had created the cartoon The Flintstones— to explore the possibility of using my voice on the show. Was I interested in helping to create a new cartoon character named Stony Curtis? I said, "Let's do it." I loved the idea, plus The Flintstones was one of the most popular shows on television. Later, people asked me why I did it. I did it because I was invited to, and because it looked like it would be fun! And it was.

Curtis’ star-power didn’t help. The Arbitron ratings gave CBS’ The Wild, Wild West a 18.1 rating and a 40 share. The Flintstones placed second with an 11.8 rating and 26 share, while Camp Runamuck on NBC ended up with a 7.6 rating and a 17 share.

As far as I can recall, one stone/rock name pun didn’t make it into the episode. It would have been entirely logical for Fred to point out that Stony’s real name was “Bernard Quartz.”
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High-Seas Huck

October 11, 2025, 8:31 am
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The last Huckleberry Hound cartoon to appear on TV (not including reruns) was E-195 Two For Tee-Vee. But a later one that went into production has been discovered by faithful reader Ted Watts.

We’ve posted story panels from an unfinished Yogi Bear cartoon. Ted has found layout drawings for production E-196. There’s no title on this but Huck somehow meets up with pirates and hula babes.

My wild guess is these are by Jerry Eisenberg, who provided layouts for a few Huck show cartoons in the final, 1961-62, season. You’ll notice the rotund pirate. Jerry said that Joe Barbera used to grouse that Jerry made his characters fat like him (Jerry, not Joe). And the dark-haired short pirate sure looks like a caricature of Jerry’s long-time buddy, Hanna-Barbera writer Tony Benedict.



How far along this got into production and why it never appeared on TV is anyone’s guess. Jerry’s gone now, so we can’t ask him.

There was an unmade Pixie and Dixie cartoon, too. You can see story drawings in this old post.
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The Mad Monster of Muni-Mula

November 1, 2025, 7:22 am
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This episode of the Muni-Mula story simply moves the plot a little bit. Narrator Don Messick tells us the Big Thinker is using Ruff and Reddy to make an army of robots to invade Earth. (Well, actually, he says “robutts.” Janet Waldo recalled that she tried to get Penny Singleton to stop pronouncing the word that way on The Jetsons).

Have we talked about Messick’s narration in the early days of this series? It’s not bombastic. It’s very matter-of-fact and calm, much like Roy Whaley in the original Crusader Rabbit show, or even the anonymous voice-over man in Bucky and Pepito (also debuting in 1957), though Messick is more polished.

The footage shows a metallic Muni-Mulan stamping out a mould of Ruff and Reddy, then disposing of them down a chute as they aren’t needed any more.



The H-B sound effects library hasn’t been built up yet, so there is no clanging sound as the two sides of the mould press slam together. Mind you, no sound effect means saving time and, therefore, money. There are portions of the episode where Reddy pops from pose to pose without any in between.

The moulds are pressed.



“The real Ruff and Reddy stand by and watch helplessly as the mechanical Ruffs and Reddys are turned out like hotcakes.” I think Charlie Shows mixed some metaphors in the dialogue here. Note the silhouette drawings.



The camera pans over the painting machine. This could have come from Dan Gordon’s storyboard or Dick Bickenbach’s layouts (he said he worked on the first Ruff and Reddys).



Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera save money by having the fake Ruffs and Reddys on a cel while the background moves.



Finally, a “robot brain” is added which gives them power to obey orders of the Big Thinker.



All this does is get Reddy’s “dandruff” up. (I guess kids watching this on Saturday mornings never heard that old one before. Cecil of “Beany and” fame used the same line). Notice how the background isn’t a solid colour. The stripes (which you can’t see very well on this murky dub from cable TV) add something, though the show was broadcast in black and white. What’s with Ruff’s weird knuckles?



Headstrong Reddy zips to the conveyer belt, somehow thinking holding up his hand at a robot will stop it. Instead, he gets zapped by the robot brain helmet and turns into a robot, and begins to walk in a stiff, 12 drawing cycle by Ken Muse.



This is a pretty decent cliff-hanger, as the kid viewers are probably wondering what will happen next.

This segment originally aired on December 28, 1957.

Greg Watson, or whoever cut the sound in this, relies on only two Capitol Hi-Q cues, one by Spencer Moore and the other supposedly by Bill Loose and John Seely. It’s a sped-up version (with the same arrangement) as “Night Battle” by Joseph Cacciola on the Sam Fox/Synchro library.

0:00 – Opening title (silent)
0:05 – L-653 EERIE DRAMATIC (Moore) – Start of cartoon
2:51 – No music
3:00 – TC-217A CHASE-MEDIUM (Loose-Seely) “Hold it!” to end of cartoon
3:28 – Closing title.
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Blu-Ray? Oh, Dear! Oh, My!

November 15, 2025, 6:59 am
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“Gee, Yowp,” says my in-box, “why aren’t you writing about these?”



Um. How can I put this delicately?

These are not great cartoons.

They are wallpaper. They’re pleasant enough and killed air time in between routines with Crazy Donkey on Channel 11 when I was a kid.

But they’re filler.

I can tell you my favourite cartoons on the Huck Show. Or the Quick Draw and Yogi Bear shows. But the plots of the five-minute cartoons (this includes Touché Turtle) are completely unmemorable. I can’t recall a single one.

Earl Kress used to joke it seemed every Lippy cartoon ended with the pair of them on a raft, with Lippy yelling “Paddle faster, Hardy,” as they escaped from who-knows-what. (None of them actually ended that way).

These cartoons, to me, marked Hanna-Barbera’s slow, downhill slide. Does any of the animation or background art in these stand out to you? Anyway, just as Hanna-Barbera would repeat plots with different characters, I am repeating myself from this post.

The best part of Wally was the theme song, which I can only assume was written by Hoyt Curtin and Bill Hanna before it was decided to take Wally out of the swamp in the opening animation. I have never been a big fan of the Golden Records’ versions of the Hanna-Barbera music, but I like their take on Wally’s theme. The low-key arrangement for the little combo is quite good, especially the piano.

For fans of Mel Blanc constantly moaning "Oh dear, oh my," the discs will be available on December 15th.

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Tony Benedict R.I.P.

November 29, 2025, 4:20 am
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When the Hanna-Barbera studio opened in 1957, Charlie Shows was hired as the staff writer, though Joe Barbera had a lot of say about what went into the studio's cartoons.

Shows left in late 1958 and was replaced by Mike Maltese of Warner Bros. Several months later, Warren Foster was hired from John Sutherland Productions (formerly of Warners) to take over the Huckleberry Hound Show.

The studio expanded into prime time in 1960 with the Flintstones and another writer was needed. That's when Tony Benedict was tempted away from UPA.

Word has reached me this morning that Tony has passed away. I know his health had not been good for several years.

Tony started off working on Huckleberry Hound and Yakky Doodle cartoons. He was the creator of Alfie Gator; Tony loved the Alfred Hitchcock TV show and grabbed hold of a chance to parody it. He punched up gags on the half-hour prime-time shows from TV sitcom writers (non-cartoonists) to add visual elements. The Jetsons came along and Tony's legacy is the creation of Astro.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be a young guy coming into a studio and the people you have to keep up with are Maltese and Foster, two of the greatest comedy cartoon writers ever.

He made his on-camera debut in Here Comes a Star, a half-hour promotional film for TV stations about to air The Magilla Gorilla Show.

He was a man with a sense of fun and enjoyed his time with paisanos Maltese and Joe Barbera.

I had the great pleasure to talk with Tony. You can hear our conversation below.

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The Box That Socks

December 6, 2025, 6:58 am
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No, Huckleberry Hound, it’s not a present for you, we hear in this Pixie and Dixie cartoon-between-the-cartoons. “It’s a jack-in-the-box SURprise for Jinks,” Dixie tells Huck. Jinksie grabs the box.



Jinks thinks he’s outsmarted the meeces. The jack-in-the-box will open up at the top, so he’ll duck down and his head will be beside it when he flips the latch. Wrong again, Jinks.



There’s a cycle of four drawings that fades out to end the vignette. What’s unusual about this cycle is one drawing is held for three frames and the other three are held for two frames. But it’s a different drawing held longer in each cycle. In the re-creation below, we’ve held the same drawing three times. It has been slowed down. Sorry for the TV bug.



And it’s on to the next Pixie and Dixie cartoon.

The wide mouth on Jinks above should be a give-away that this was animated by Carlo Vinci (the head moves in Vinci-esque angles when Jinks talks). I’m pretty sure the backgrounds are by Fernando Montealegre.
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Hocus Pocus Focus/Muni-Mula Mix-Up

December 14, 2025, 4:08 am
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Don Messick had an odd voice that I first heard on The Herculoids. I don’t know exactly how he did it; probably by wiggling his tongue inside his mouth.

Gloop and Gleep weren’t the first Hanna-Barbera characters to have this weird, wavy voice. He gave it to the Muni-Mula robots in the first adventure of Ruff and Reddy.

Here’s one of the robots in “Hocus Pocus Focus.”

After a recap of the previous episode, where Reddy is turned into a mindless robot, just like his mechanical duplicates, Ruff chases after him. Ken Muse draws a cycle of three Ruffs, animated on twos. The Ruffs are slid over a roller-painted background (possibly by Fernando Montealegre).



Ruff chases after Reddy, who has gone with the duplicate Ruffs and Reddys into The Big Thinker’s room. After about four animation-saving seconds of a static shot, with camera shakes to simulate a fight, a robot tosses him out.



Please don’t be one of those people who asks why the garbage can is labelled in English, but the robots don’t speak it. Okay, if you’re one of those people, the answer is The Big Thinker speaks to the robots in English, so they understand it. Let’s move on.

Real Ruff pretends to be a robot Ruff to get past the guard. We know it’s the real Ruff because he winks at the audience.



Once inside, Ruff has a dilemma: which one is the real Reddy? (Yeah, I know, “Ten Little Flintstones.” Let’s move on).



The way to find out: the real Reddy won’t sound metallic when hit with a hammer. It sounds like Greg Watson or whoever handled the sound struck the side of a cowbell to make the noise.



Ruff escapes with Reddy only to be followed by a cleverly-designed (by Ed Benedict?) flying camera for which this episode is named. It transmits what it sees back to The Big Thinker, who issues a command to bring the Earthlings back to him. Reddy, still under robot control, grabs Ruff and the cartoon ends with them heading toward TBT.



Two Spencer Moore cues from the Capitol Hi-Q “D” series are heard in this one, along with something that sounds like a work part (ie., a musical effect, like a stab, a sting or a button) from the “S” series (to be honest, I’m too lazy to hunt around to see if I have it). Science fictions films of the day loved these Moore cues. L-1203 is heard in the immortal Teenagers From Outer Space.

0:00 – No music.
0:06 – L-657 EERIE DRAMATIC (Moore) – Start of cartoon.
1:52 – No music – “Don’t you know me, Reddy?...
1:58 – Musical stab (Unknown) – Camera pans down line of robots.
2:02 – L-1203 EERIE HEAVY ECHO (Moore) – “Which one of these Reddys…” to end of cartoon.

The next episode is “Muni-Mula Mix-Up.” A recap segues into Ruff demanding Reddy put him down. Remarkably, he does. Narrator Messick explains that because Reddy has a peanut brain and a thick skull “the cosmic rays [that put him under The Big Thinker’s control] bounced off like water off a duck.” Yeah, that’s the best comic analogy Charlie Shows could come up with.

Anyway. Reddy’s eyes swirl as he comes out of the spell.



What now? “Let’s get out of this creepy place,” says Reddy, though you have to wonder where he thinks he can go. There’s lots of pose-to-pose movement here without in-betweens. They try to get past a robot guard (wjo scratches his head in reused animation) by pretending to be Ruff and Reddy mechanical duplicates (who walk in reused cycle animation), but are again watched by the Hocus Pocus Focus.



Reddy ignores Ruff’s advice to ignore the camera and tries to swat it away. Ruff tries to “ground this contraption.” There are three seconds of a shot of Ruff with the only animation being eye blinks. Some metallic sound effects are heard, then after ten frames of Ruff in a stretch shock take, he ducks and Reddy enters the scene. There are 28 frames of Ruff, with Reddy riding the Hocus Pocus Focus on a cel pulled across the background from left to right. The only animation is three drawings of the propeller of the camera in a cycle.



Ruff tries to stop Reddy by holding onto him. Cut to a scene of the doors of The Big Thinker’s chamber. They open. But, for some reason, they don’t go into the chamber. They go past it. There’s no reason for the doors to open. Maybe that’s the Muni-Mula Mix-Up.



“Once again, Ruff and Reddy are face-to-face with The Big Thinker,” says the narrator. “Once again” gives Bill Hanna an excuse to reused some limited animation and even a dialogue track from Daws Butler.

Cut to The Big Thinker who, unexpectedly, isn’t The Big Thinker. As we hear the sound of a ceramic lid clamping down on a teapot, TBT’s head opens and closes, with a wimpy voice saying “Get me out of here." A little man with a voice like Bill Thompson’s Droopy (it’s Don Messick here) emerges and pleads with Ruff and Reddy to get him off Muni-Mula. That’s where the episode ends.



The cues:

0:00 – No music – Title card.
0:06 – TC-221A HEAVY AGITATO (Bill Loose-John Seely) – Starts of cartoon to skull explanation.
1:09 – No music – Reddy’s eyes swirl.
1:14 - L-653 EERIE DRAMATIC (Spencer Moore) – “Sometimes, it pays...” to end of cartoon.

What’s that, fans? Today is Ruff and Reddy’s birthday? The pair got mentioned in Faye “My-eyes-are-up-here” Emerson’s column of Dec. 9, 1957:

The Russians stole thunder from cartoonists Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera when they shot their dog into space. The animators had already started working on what they though was a “fantasy,” a TV serial about a dog and cat who venture into outer space. The cartoon show, “Ruff and Reddy,” debuts Dec. 14 on NBC.

This business about the Soviet Space-Pooch was raised in a news release the previous month. This was in the Miami Herald.

Cartoon Animal In Outer Space
NEW YORK, Nov. 13—NBC-TV is preparing to send a cat and a dog into outer space the latter part of December via a new cartoon program just purchased from Screen Gems. These plans were revealed immediately following the Russians' announcement of the launching of Muttnik.
"Ruff and Reddy" are the names of the two NBC space travelers. Their adventures will be depicted in a new four-minute animated serial produced in color by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, creators of the famous "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.
NBC plans to program the "Ruff and Reddy" show Saturday mornings. Each half-hour installment will consist of two episodes from the "Ruff and Reddy" adventure serial and two first-run cartoons from the Columbia Pictures library. The show will he emceed either by a human host or by Ruff and Reddy themselves.

NBC decided to go with a human host. Cartoon hosts would have to wait a year for The Huckleberry Hound Show.
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Yuletide Yogi, Holly Jolly Jetsons and Twisting Tom Cat

December 25, 2025, 12:00 am
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Yogi Bear got into the spirit of Christmas (the secular, not religious version), though not on his TV show. A couple of storybooks with Yuletide Yogi were published in the early ‘60s. One was a Little Golden Book which we reprinted in an old post. The other was “Yogi Bear Helps Santa,” a 1962 publication by Whitman Press. The artist was Lee Branscome, who later animated Jonny Quest. It seems to me he had been an in-betweener at Warners; correct me if that’s wrong.

Instead of posting all the pages here, I shall be as lazy as someone who has just feasted on a Christmas turkey and link to a copy at archive.org.

Christmas is not something I celebrate but in the past I’ve posted music and other things as my gifts to you for coming here and reading what I, rather unacademically, have to say. The blog actually ended regular posts in mid-2019 but, as you can see, I have continued with occasional entries here and there. So it is that you’re getting another music post out of me.

This music is courtesy of the late Earl Kress. He dubbed these (judging by the hiss, onto cassette) when he was working on various Hanna-Barbera music projects. It’s a little tough keeping track of what’s been posted on this blog before, but I don’t believe these have been, or appeared in commercial H-B music releases.

Before we get there, let us ask the musical question: have you bought Greg Ehrbar’s book on Hanna-Barbera’s music? You must read this. It has all kinds of information you didn’t know, starting with Scott Bradley’s scores for Bill and Joe at MGM, to the Capitol and Langlois stock music in the first TV cartoons, to Hoyt Curtin and Ted Nichols, to Colgems/Golden Records, to the studio’s decision to get into the rock music business. You can get it right from the publisher, the University Press of Mississippi. It is worth the money.

I don’t have cue sheets, so I cannot tell you if Curtin gave all these cues names. However, a few of them had names when slated.


J-112


J-128


J-200 BOSS'S THEME


J-202


J-205 ROCK AND ROLL


J-206


J-210 ROSEY THE ROBOT ALTERNATE


J-220 JUDY IS SAD


J-220 GEORGE'S THEME


J-228


J-231


J-257


J-258


J-261


JW-10

Now, here’s a piece of music I’d love to post but I have never seen it. A saxophonist named Dave Ede was inspired by Mr. Jinks and the Twist craze popularized by Chubber Checker to come up with “Twistin’ Those Meeces To Pieces”. Ede was the host of the BBC radio’s Go Man Go show. He got together the Rabin Band and together they played a David Wilkinson-composed twist version of “Three Blind Mice.” It was released in mid-1962. Has anyone heard it?

This has been a mixed year for early Hanna-Barbera fans. We have fortunately seen the Blu-ray release of all cartoons in the Huckleberry Hound Show. Seasons two and three had been partly hung up for years because of clearing music composed by Bill Loose and Jack Shaindlin. Unfortunately, we lost writer Tony Benedict and layout artist Jerry Eisenberg this year to failing health.

This blog is still considered finished, but there will be a few posts into the new year.
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Adults and Quick Draw McGraw

January 10, 2026, 7:34 am
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TV critics managed to find ways to watch The Quick Draw McGraw Show even when they didn’t have to.

Larry Thompson of the Miami Herald outlined his subterfuge in his column of December 6, 1960. At least one of his kids didn’t appear to be too happy about it.

Psychology in Action
THIS WOMAN was company for dinner, and we sat around in the front room making small talk until I looked at my watch.
I called to my wife: "Don't forget, this is Quick Draw McGraw night. We'd better start dinner soon or the children won't have time to see it."
"And what," asked the lady, "is Quick Draw McGraw?"
"That," I explained, "is a cartoon character on TV. He's on every Tuesday night. So are Doggie Daddy, and Snooper, the cat detective. Our kids love the program."
"It is very considerate of you to try to arrange the dinner schedule so they can see it," the lady said.
"Oh, yes," I said. "I believe in letting the children see the programs they enjoy, as long as they are uplifting, amusing, or wholesome. A parent can't be too careful about the TV programs his children watch."
We were called to dinner, and, as usual, the children dawdled over the food.
* * *
“IF YOU DON'T HURRY," I said, "you'll miss Quick Draw McGraw. Remember, the champion gets to turn on the TV.”
"Aw, you're always the champion on Quick Draw night," said Carl.
I turned to the company.
"That is part of my child psychology," I explained. "I try to cultivate the competitive spirit — in a sportsmanlike, mannerly way, of course — by pretending that I'm in the contest with them. That way they feel that I am sharing their interests."
"Very commendable," said the lady.
“I’m the champ!" I shouted, as I swallowed the last bit of my milk. "I'll go turn on TV. Nobody else can come until they've finished."
I give the lady a knowing glance and she nodded approval at my applied psychology. It was only a few minutes before the children joined me in front of the TV:
* * *
LATER, after the children were in bed, our company commented on my excellent behavior as a father.
"Mrs. Thompson," she said, "you are most fortunate to have a husband who takes such an interest in his children. I have never seen a better example of child psychology in action."
"You mean about Quick Draw McGraw?" asked my wife, and the lady nodded.
"He does that every Tuesday night," my good wife said. "Only child psychology has nothing to do with it. He likes Quick Draw McGraw. He acts the same way when Huckleberry Hound is on."
* * *
AND I REALLY do feel sorry for grown-ups who don't have children to give them an excuse to look at those funny cartoon programs.

Thompson never really explained the “contest” or “champion” part. Maybe someone had to finish their dinner first.

Perhaps the story was in conjunction with a visit to Miami by costumed Hanna-Barbera characters. The Herald published the photo shoot below on Dec. 11.



Quick Draw was featured on the front page of the TV section of the Vallejo Times-Herald of December 31, 1960. Looking at the gopher, I wonder if this publicity art was drawn by Gene Hazelton. The story on the next page is short but explains Quick Draw’s appeal.

Quick Draw Held Funniest Cowboy
This TV fast gun is a horse.
Television watchers have grown to love this western hero with the four legs. His name is Quick Draw McGraw, at 6:30 p. m., Thursday, Channel 2. There's affection, too, for his fearless but slightly dumb sidekick named Bobba Looey. Mr. Looey is a Mexican burro.
Quick Draw and his pal are the animated cartoon creations of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, whose success on TV was already assured when they introduced such stars as Ruff and Ready [sic], Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.
The creators feel an important reason for their success is the good taste in their productions. Parents and PTA groups have yowled long and loud over the sadism, violence and sex innuendos permeating most of the ancient theatrical cartoons rerun on TV the past several years.
HURT PRIDE
When "Quick Draw McGraw" shoots a bad man, usually just his pride is hurt, or the seat of his pants is singed. It's doubtful either that you'll ever find him casting lecherous glances at some Betty Boop saloon hostess. In spite of such distillation, Hanna and Barbera have injected enough western satire into "McGraw" to make him palatable to adults, who make up 60 per cent of their audience.
This season the boys got away from their exclusive diet of talking animals to take on “The Flintstones," a talented bunch of cave dwellers of the Stone Age. But that's another story.

Indeed. The Flintstones’ success all but killed feature stories on the Emmy-nomimated Quick Draw. Prime time is prime time, after all.

Still, the Kelloggs affiliate in St. Louis took out a two-page ad in the Post-Dispatch for a Quick Draw contest.


The Oregonian’s Harold Hughes fit in Quick Draw in part of his column of December 26, 1960. After talking about how former Portlander Bill Selleck set up a really low-budget commercial animation studio (25 frames a minute for $900 a minute), Hughes has some thoughts on Hanna-Barbera. Story missing conjunctions, other words.

BEST WAY to watch old Huckleberry Hound is to stretch out on the floor with the kids. The wind-up Yogi Bear strip is a riot. Maybe Forest Service should recruit army of wind-up Smokey Bears, put them to work fighting forest fires.
BILL HANNA AND JOE BARBERA are the heads behind Huck Hound, The Flintstones, Ruff 'N' Ready [sic], Quick Draw McGraw and the like. They plan series next year built around Yogi Bear, and there is report of full length movie on Yogi.
HANNA AND BARBERA were unemployed three years ago, like Selleck, came up with a cheaper way of producing cartoons by cutting the number of frames per minute, thus reducing the vast amount of drawing that Disney does. But both Bill and Joe worked 20 years doing cartoons for MGM, gave birth to cat-and-mouse team known as Tom and Jerry.
JOE ATTENDED banking school, took up doodling, became "cartooner." Bill studied engineering and journalism in college, worked as a structural engineer before joining Leon Schlessinger's [sic] cartoon company. Both are doggie daddies, trapped in the suburbs.

Since we’re looking at December 1960, there was merchandise just in time for Christmas, with Knickerbocker plush dolls of Quick Draw, Baba Looey, Snooper, Blabber (and, of course, Huck and Yogi).

But the one I kind of like is the Quick Draw McGraw Private Eye game, with 4 player tokens on plastic stands, 48 cards, a spinner and a 15¾ by 18½ inch folding board. One store was selling it for $1.98. Quite a while ago, I posted pictures of various H-B games. I decided to check eBay to see if one of these private eye games was for sale. I found several.

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Creepy Creature Feature

January 24, 2026, 7:27 am
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Ruff and Reddy may have had a low budget but there were attempts at making them visually interesting. Unlike later series where every cartoon was laid out like it was taking place on a stage, Ruff and Reddy had angle shots and characters in silhouette.

In “Creepy Creature Feature,” a shot was tried that I don’t recall in any other Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Professor Gismo is asleep at the controls of his rocket ship. When he suddenly wakes up, not only does the camera move in on the artwork, it changes angles clockwise.



Whether this came from Dan Gordon’s storyboard, the layout artist (I presume it’s Dick Bickenbach), or director Bill Hanna, is your guess.

The cartoon starts with the usual 30-second recap with re-used animation. While Daws Butler repeats the final line from the previous episode, it is not the same recording; the inflections are different.

The episode revolves around the little man who emerges from The Big Thinker’s metallic head. In flashback, we learn he is an inventor atop Mount Cucamonga who has built an interplanetary rocket ship. However, the ship is pulled into a strange planet (in animation re-used from earlier episodes), where it crashes.



I’d love to paste together the pan shot of the crashed S.S. (“Space ship” not “Steam ship”) Gismo, but the on-line copies out there are 25-year-old recordings from a cable TV feed and the colour is too poor. Here are the start and end of the pan.



Silhouette shot as the professor explains.



The professor is locked inside a metal monster, which turns out not to be The Big Thinker at all. It would appear to be a robot TBK uses to communicate. The professor points to the actual Big Thinker on a throne. Again, we can’t paste together the right-to-left pan shot, but the background artist (likely Fernando Montrelegre) uses lots of metal arches you can see in the drawings below.



It turns out the real Big Thinker is asleep (maybe that’s how Gismo could escape; it’s never explained). Headstrong Reddy, even after a warning, destroys The Big Thinker with a little hammer that, somehow, he happened to be carrying.

Reddy does this even after Prof. Gismo warns him The Big Thinker is guarded by the Creepy Creature. And here he comes now! Reddy’s conjoined eyes look like something Mike Lah would draw, but this episode is handled by Ken Muse.



We’ll have to wait to see what the creature looks like.

The professor’s name is usually spelled “Gizmo.” It’s not in this episode.

Three Geordie Hormel cues make up the background music.

0:00 – No music.
0:06 – ZR-91B WEIRD EERIE (Hormel) – Start of cartoon, Gismo explains his space trip.
1:55 – No music – Planet swallows S.S. Gismo, camera shakes.
2:09 – ZR-91C WEIRD EERIE (Hormel) – Pan over rocket, “But what.”
2:35 – No music – Pan shot.
2:37 – ZR-53 COMEDY MYSTERIOSO (Hormel) – Big Thinker on throne, end of cartoon.
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On the Road With Huck and Yogi

February 7, 2026, 8:38 am
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Thanks to the folks at the Leo Burnett ad agency, fans of Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear got to see them in the...

Well, we can’t say “in the flesh” because the flesh was buried under furry suits designed like the cartoon characters.

For a number of years, Huck, Yogi and others toured across North America, appearing at fairs with a special show.

One of the stops was Tampa, Florida. (Somehow, I expect, if anyone could come up with a rhyme for “Florida orange” it would be Yogi).

Columnists in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s loved the early syndicated Hanna-Barbera characters. Charles Robins of the Tribune was one. He didn’t cover the stage show, but got out his pad and pencil when the characters did a walk-through of the newspaper’s offices as they plugged the debut of Yogi’s show on local TV.

Rare Bear Wins Admiration of Tampa’s ‘Kidaults’
Yogi Proves He Is Better Than the Average Bear As He Captures the Fancy of Fans Young and Old
By CHARLES ROBINS
Tribune Entertainment Editor
Now that it's all over, I'm beginning to wonder if Tampa fell to Jose Gaspar or Yogi Bear last week.
That better-than-average bear, who normally resides in Jellystone National Park, visited the Cigar City for the Gasparilla festivities and turned out to be one of the big attractions of the parade.
Youngsters lining the parade route rushed out to shake his paw and the successful ones probably won't wash their hands for years.
Pretty girls gathered around him.
An enthusiastic crowd turned out at Lowry Park the following day to see the furry hero.
And, to top this moment of glory, WFLA-TV announced that Yogi Bear will be seen as star of his own program on that station beginning Wednesday, March 1.
OF COURSE, Yogi is really a cartoon character from the popular Huckleberry Hound series. Wearing the shaggy costume, and doing an excellent job impersonating Yogi's magnificent bear-i-tone voice was Bill Peck, a local performer.
But trying to tell a youngster that Yogi isn't real is about as difficult as trying to convince Virginia that there isn't a Santa Claus.
Fame, of course, is not new to this admirable bear or his popular companions, Huck Hound and Quick Draw McGraw, the slowest horse in the west.
Fred Wilson, a representative of the advertising agency which handles the Huckleberry Hound show, said Huck and his friends were greeted by 10,000 enthusiastic fans on their arrival in Hawaii last year. This crowd, Wilson contends, was larger than that which greeted such non-cartoon personalities as Eisenhower and Jack Benny.
* * *
IN TOLEDO last summer, some 45,000 youngsters turned out to see the troupe at the Toledo Zoo.
"Huckleberry Hound" was chosen as the theme of Ohio State University's homecoming in 1959.
And, also according to Wilson, Yellowstone National Park officials are considering setting aside an area to be known as Jellystone Park, a mythical national park inhabited by Yogi in his TV shows.
In fact, Wilson said, the crew of the U.S.S. Glacier named an uncharted ice island in the Antarctic Huckleberry Hound Island.
For anyone not familiar with the popular cartoon series, Huckleberry Hound is a dog with a drawl somewhat like that of Andy Griffith. The character created by the talent team of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, went on the air in 1958 and was an almost immediate success with the youngsters and quite a few adults.
* * *
QUICK DRAW McGRAW was added in 1959 and Yogi, last year, became the real star of the series. As the remarkable bear's fan mail mounted, Hanna and Barbera decided to give him his own show.
Daws Buster [sic] does the voice of all three characters.
The program, which is carried in some 200 television markets throughout the nation, is aimed at a "kidault" audience, Wilson said.
In fact, it became so popular with the adults that a TV editor in Seattle, Wash., organized the first adult Huck Hound fan club three years ago and more have since popped up throughout the country.
When the characters came up to The Tribune newsroom last week, the more aggressive Yogi immediately made himself at home. He pounded on a desk and screamed "copyboy" in a manner better than the average editor.
* * *
HE CARRIED on his arm a picnic basket, an item which is somewhat of a Yogi Bear trademark. (On the show, he is forever dreaming up new ways of stealing picnic baskets from visitors at Jellystone Park.)
As a Yogi Bear fan myself, I was too wise to this creature not to suspect he was up to something no good.
I suddenly got a horrible thought:
"Had Yogi stolen our city editor's lunch?"
Cautiously I peeked into the basket and immediately felt ashamed of myself.
Inside were several Valentines which had been given to Yogi by some of the young believers who turned out to see him at Lowry Park.
He's more popular than the average bear.

The 1961-62 TV season was the last with new Huck and Yogi cartoons. Hanna-Barbera worked out a new touring stage show. Campbell Titchener’s column in the Rockford Morning Star on Aug. 18, 1963 talked about it, and the reaction kids had when they saw Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear “in person.”

When historians get around to chalking up the important events of the mid-20th century, one of the items for the record must be the advent of the television cartoon show. Not the one where old movie shorts are thrown together for the kiddies, but the one where a talented, high-priced group of artists create a product for an all-age audience. A man who has been involved in much of this is Edwin Alberian, a personable, dark-haired easterner who spent much of Saturday at the Winnebago County Fair under an explorer's helmet with his current companion, Fred Flintstone. Alberian's job is traveling across the country, and farther, with cartoon characters and presenting shows at fairs, rodeos, and other places where kids gather. At our county fair Ed put on a pair of shows Saturday [17] and was on hand at the grandstand Saturday night, where he'll also be tonight.
Ed started out to be a doctor. He got as far as a master's degree in chemistry before deciding that there were enough physicians in his family. He had sung and acted in high school and college, and found himself auditioning for, and winning, roles in Broadway musicals. His flair for song, dance and mime got him an audition for the "Howdy Doody" TV show, and for ten years he was Clarabelle the Clown on the series. So it seemed natural, when the then new production company of Hanna-Barbara found a gold mine in the TV cartoon business, that Ed Alberian should join the gang.
For the past four years Ed has toured with several shows. One is the Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear Show, another the Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey Show, and now he's got the Fred Flintstone Show. Fred is currently the most popular of the cartoon characters, Ed says. What he does is to use prerecorded dialogue and his own comments during a show. The Hollywood actors who are the voices of the cartoon characters to this recording. Then, controlling the timing of the recordings, Ed "talks" to his audience and the cartoons, which are people wearing Huck, Yogi, Quick Draw or Fred costumes. Its [sic] a gimmick that has proven highly successful. Recently Ed and Fred flew New York to Honolulu and back for a one-day show. This July Ed and Quick Draw appeared at the Calgary Stampede in Canada and drew 40,000 people to the stadium.
Ed says the secret to success in this kind of venture is "keeping the kids in the act. Make the audience part of the entertainment." He says at first the children think they're just seeing someone dressed in a Fred Flintstone costume, but as the show progresses they become convinced they're actually seeing Fred. Ed explains that the people who wear the costumes, usually dancers, are highly trained for their parts in the show.
"Kids are always trying to help," Ed says. "They want to help Fred and Huck up and down off the stage, but the funniest thing is they keep bringing Yogi Bear food. Mainly bananas, for some reason." I asked if the food was declined with thanks. "Oh, no," Ed says. "Huck has an insatiable appetite. But that's how we know the kids think he's real."
After 14 years in the children's entertainment business, Ed is convinced he's found a home. "And when I take my two-year-old boy to the cartoon studios," he says, "he really goes wild."

Considering we now have the entire Huckleberry Hound Show restored on Blu-Ray, perhaps it’s time again to dig out the costumes, and get the blue Southerner and the pic-a-bic basket purloiner out on the promotional trail again.
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Quick Draw on TV?

February 15, 2026, 5:00 am
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It would appear fans of Quick Draw McGraw will be able to see the series on TV once again. Eventually.

An announcement on this web site says:

Tubi has confirmed a list of 100 different series from Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network that are joining the free service. The ones in bold join on March 1st. The rest presumably will rollout afterwards.

The Quick Draw McGraw Show is not in bold, so it's anyone's guess when it may appear. It's also your guess whether they will be old TV prints of the cartoons, or if they'll be newly restored, or if they'll be the full half-hours with the interactive bits between Quick Draw and the stars of the other parts of show included.

I have no direct knowledge but the appearance may be dependent on Warner's efforts to remaster the cartoons. I thin'.

The list, by the way, also includes Top Cat and The Yogi Bear Show but nothing else before 1961. Still, the announcement will give viewers more cartoons than they can possibly watch.
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