Hanna-Barbera Original Drawing! Bill Hanna Drawing Signed By Him Extremely Rare

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176277810483 HANNA-BARBERA ORIGINAL DRAWING! BILL HANNA DRAWING SIGNED BY HIM EXTREMELY RARE. HANNA-BARBERA ORIGINAL DRAWING! BILL HANNA DRAWING SIGNED BY BILL HANNA. MEASURES OVERALL 10.5 X 12.5 INCHES
The animation pioneer William Hanna, who with his partner, Joseph Barbera, created such cartoon characters as Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear and Tom and Jerry, died at his North Hollywood home today. He was 90. Mr. Hanna was the co-chairman and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera Studios. The Hanna-Barbera team collaborated for more than a half-century, beginning when the two men worked at MGM in 1937. They created the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons, which featured the antics of a cat-and-mouse team and won seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters. They broke ground by mixing Tom and Jerry with live action stars such as Gene Kelly in ''Anchors Aweigh'' and Esther Williams in ''Dangerous When Wet.'' They found new success in the 1950's with a series of animated comedies for television including ''The Flintstones,'' ''The Jetsons'' and ''Yogi Bear.'' ''Huckleberry Hound and Friends'' won the first Emmy Award for an animated series. Their strengths melded perfectly, the critic Leonard Maltin wrote in ''Of Mice and Magic.'' In a medium in which the best work combined unforgettable characters and funny situations, Mr. Hanna brought cuteness, warmth and a keen sense of timing, while Mr. Barbera supplied the comic gags and skilled drawing. Continue reading the main story ''This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year, without a break or change in routine,'' Mr. Maltin wrote. Mr. Hanna was born in Melrose, N.M., on July 14, 1910. He left college to work as a construction engineer, but lost the job in the Depression. He found work with Leon Schlesinger, head of Pacific Art and Title, a cartoon production company. In 1930 Mr. Hanna signed with Harman-Ising Studios, which created the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon series. He worked at the studio as a member of the story department, as a lyricist and as a composer. One month after being hired at MGM, he formed his partnership with Mr. Barbera. Mr. Hanna said, ''I was never a good artist,'' but added that Mr. Barbera ''has the ability to capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known.'' The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short ''Puss Gets the Boot.'' When it was a hit with audiences and received an Oscar nomination, MGM let the pair continue experimenting with the cat-and-mouse theme, and the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters -- almost always telling the story entirely in action rather than dialogue -- were the result. The team's move into television was not planned; the men were forced to go into business for themselves after MGM closed its animation department in the 1950's. With television's sharply lower budgets, Hanna-Barbera's new animated stars put more stress on verbal wit than on the highly detailed and expensive action of the theatrical cartoon. Like ''The Simpsons'' three decades later, ''The Flintstones'' found success in prime-time television by not limiting its reach to children. It ranked in the top 20 shows in the 1960-61 season and Fred Flintstone's ''yabba dabba doo'' soon entered the language. The show's creators freely admitted that it was a parody of ''The Honeymooners,'' with Fred Flintstone as Jackie Gleason and Barney Rubble as Art Carney. (Likewise, Yogi Bear was modeled on Phil Silvers's character of Sergeant Bilko in ''The Phil Silvers Show.'') ''You can read a lot into it,'' Mr. Hanna once said. ''You can compare Fred and Barney Rubble with Gleason and Carney.'' ''The Jetsons,'' which had its debut in 1962, were the futuristic mirror image of the Flintstones. ''Somebody said, 'What's next?' and we went from the rock era into the future,'' Mr. Barbera said at a celebration when the show turned 25. ''It wasn't that brilliant, really, but we used a lot of gimmicks and gadgets and it worked.'' Hanna-Barbera, which is owned by Warner Brothers, received eight Emmys, including the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented in 1988. William Hanna was one half of one of the most important partnerships in cartoon history - Hanna-Barbera. He and Joseph Barbera revolutionised the art of cartooning and made television the natural home for cartoons. Not only did they create Tom and Jerry, the most enduringly popular cartoon double act, they were also the brains behind a raft of favourite TV characters, among them Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and The Flintstones. At the height of their success, they were making 11 half-hour shows a week. Hanna was born in New Mexico but spent his childhood on the move, as his father was a superintendent of construction for the Santa Fe railway. He stumbled into animation after giving up his job as a structural engineer. His first job in the cartoon business was painting cells and punching animation paper for Harman-Ising, the studio which produced Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. There, Hanna's talent for writing - not just stories, but music and lyrics - and his natural gift for creating gags emerged. Hanna and Barbera met in MGM's newly created cartoon department in 1937. Their first collaboration, Puss Gets the Boot, was based around the antics of the characters that evolved into the Tom and Jerry everyone knows. Although they looked slightly different and weren't called Tom and Jerry, the cat and mouse's character traits - dopey cat and wily mouse - and the cartoon's storyline - cat stalks mouse, mouse outwits cat - became the template for each of the 116 Tom and Jerry cartoons that followed over the next 17 years. Puss Gets the Boot was released in 1940, but it was only after it was nominated for an Oscar that it began to attract attention. Hanna and Barbera set to work on more Tom and Jerry cartoons, always working in the same way, with Hanna concentrating on coming up with (and acting out) ever more inventive gags, and working out the comic timing, and Barbera, the better cartoonist, focusing on the drawings. The cartoons became phenomenally popular, and won seven Oscars for MGM. Quite suddenly, in the late 1950s, MGM, which was suffering from the damaging effects of television, shut down cartoon production, its rationale being that if it merely reissued the old Tom and Jerry cartoons on a regular basis, it would make almost as much money as it would from new cartoons - and it would save on production costs. Hanna and Barbera were devastated. Luckily, Columbia Studio's TV arm was planning to broadcast packages of old theatrical cartoons, and it needed new cartoons to function as ''bookends'' for each show. The partners had just come up with a cat and dog team and the concept of The Ruff and Reddy Show was born. Hanna-Barbera - as they were now known - had to develop a new system of animation which required fewer drawings. Their streamlined system - with condensed storyboards, fewer drawings and use of photocopying - sped up production and became standard for other television animators. Ruff and Reddy hit TV screens in 1957, and its success inspired more characters and more shows. The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958), was the first cartoon series entirely created by Hanna-Barbera: in addition to the adventures of the eponymous drawling dog, each half-hour show featured segments with the mice, Pixie and Dixie, and the inimitable Yogi Bear, who proved so popular that he soon had his own programme. Legend has it that one San Francisco bar had a sign which said: ''No tinkling of glasses or noise during The Huckleberry Hound Show.'' In 1960, Hanna-Barbera were invited to create a situation comedy with cartoon characters. Inspired by the TV sitcom, The Honeymooners, they came up with The Flintstones which was the longest-running cartoon in TV history. It was a new departure for the team, not only because it followed the conventions of a sitcom but also because it featured human characters. Much of the humour lay in the brilliantly clever details of the Flintstones' way of life in prehistoric suburbia. Hanna-Barbera also came up with many new cartoon creations. Top Cat, Touche Turtle, Magilla Gorilla, Atom Ant, and Secret Squirrel are just some of the characters who appeared for the first time in the early 1960s. The Jetsons, a short-lived futuristic variation on The Flintstones, made its debut in 1962 and, while it never had the widespread popularity of its prehistoric counterpart, it has enjoyed a cult following. In the late 1960s, Hanna-Barbera added yet more strings to their bow by branching out into new types of cartoon: they translated literary classics, Marvel comics, and old live-action comedy shorts into cartoon form, they created spin-off shows from their own series, and launched cartoon versions of existing hit live-action shows. They even continued to come up with new characters, one of the most successful being Scooby Doo, the quivering canine whose gang of friends travelled the country solving mysteries. Scooby Doo was on television, in various forms, for more than 20 years from 1969. Hanna-Barbera were also adept at picking up on trends, such as the vogue for kung fu films which inspired the Hong Kong Phooey series of the mid-1970s. It was only in the 1980s, when Hanna and Barbera took a back seat, that the quality of the cartoons began to suffer. Last year the Cartoon Network launched the Boomerang Network, a showcase for the Hanna-Barbera library. Betty Cohen, the president of the Cartoon Network, said of Hanna, who is survived by his wife, two children and seven grandchildren, ''he was a cartoon scientist and a genius at timing''. William Hanna, animator; born July 14, 1910, died March 22, 2001. William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, director, producer, voice actor, cartoon artist, and musician[1] whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. After working odd jobs in the first months of the Great Depression, Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930. During the 1930s, Hanna steadily gained skill and prominence while working on cartoons such as Captain and the Kids. In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna met Joseph Barbera. The two men began a collaboration that was at first best known for producing Tom and Jerry. In 1957, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, creating and/or producing programs such as The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Yogi Bear. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million, but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company until 1991. At that time, the studio was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn was merged with Time Warner in 1996; Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors. Tom and Jerry won seven Academy Awards, while Hanna and Barbera were nominated for two others and won eight Emmy Awards. Their cartoons have become cultural icons, and their cartoon characters have appeared in other media such as films, books, and toys. Hanna-Barbera's shows had a worldwide audience of over 300 million people in their 1960s heyday, and have been translated into more than 28 languages. Contents 1 Early and personal life 2 Early career 3 Tom and Jerry 4 Television 5 Death 6 Legacy 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Early and personal life William Hanna was born to William John and Avice Joyce (Denby) Hanna on July 14, 1910 in Melrose, New Mexico.[2]:5 He was the third of seven children and the only son. Hanna claimed there was no "war between the sexes" nor sibling rivalry in their home.[2]:5[3] Hanna described his family as "a red-blooded, Irish-American family".[2]:9 His father was a construction superintendent for railroads as well as water and sewer systems throughout the western regions of America, requiring the family to move frequently.[2]:6 When Hanna was three years old, the family moved to Baker City, Oregon, where his father worked on the Balm Creek Dam. It was here that Hanna developed his love of the outdoors.[2]:6[4] The family moved to Logan, Utah, before moving to San Pedro, California, in 1917.[5]:67 During the next two years they moved several times before eventually settling in Watts, California, in 1919.[2]:10 In 1922, while living in Watts, he joined Scouting.[2]:11 He attended Compton High School from 1925 through 1928, where he played the saxophone in a dance band.[6] His passion for music carried over into his career; he helped write songs for his cartoons, including the theme for The Flintstones.[5]:67–68[7][8][9] Hanna became an Eagle Scout as a youth and remained active in Scouting throughout his life.[5]:67–68[10] As an adult, he served as a Scoutmaster and was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in 1985.[4][5]:120[11] Despite his numerous career-related awards, Hanna was most proud of this Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.[6] His interests also included sailing and singing in a barbershop quartet.[9][12][13] Hanna studied both journalism and structural engineering at Compton City College,[7][14]:6 but had to drop out of college with the onset of the Great Depression.[15] On August 7, 1936, Hanna married Violet Blanch Wogatzke (July 23, 1913 – July 10, 2014), and they had a marriage lasting over 64 years, until his death. The marriage produced two children,[2]:29 David William and Bonnie Jean,[10] and seven grandchildren.[16] In 1996, Hanna, with assistance from Los Angeles writer Tom Ito, published his autobiography—Joe Barbera had published his two years earlier.[5] Early career After dropping out of college, Hanna worked briefly as a construction engineer and helped build the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.[7][14]:6 He lost that job during the Great Depression and found another at a car wash. His sister's boyfriend encouraged him to apply for a job at Pacific Title and Art, which produced title cards for motion pictures.[17] While working there, Hanna's talent for drawing became evident, and in 1930 he joined the Harman and Ising animation studio, which had created the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series.[1] Despite a lack of formal training, Hanna soon became head of their ink and paint department. Besides inking and painting, Hanna also wrote songs and lyrics.[1] For the first several years of Hanna's employment, the studio partnered with Pacific Title and Art's Leon Schlesinger, who released the Harman-Ising output through Warner Bros. When Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising chose to break with Schlesinger and begin producing cartoons independently for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1933, Hanna was one of the employees who followed them.[1][18] Hanna was given the opportunity to direct his first cartoon in 1936; the result was To Spring, part of the Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies series.[4] The following year, MGM decided to terminate their partnership with Harman-Ising and bring production in-house.[5]:68 Hanna was among the first people MGM hired away from Harman-Ising to their new cartoon studio. During 1938–1939, he served as a senior director on MGM's Captain and the Kids series, based upon the comic strip of the same name (an alternate version of the Katzenjammer Kids that had resulted from a 1914 lawsuit). The series did not do well; consequently, Hanna was demoted to a story man and the series was canceled.[5]:68–69 Hanna's desk at MGM was opposite that of Joseph Barbera, who had previously worked at Terrytoons. The two quickly realized they would make a good team.[2]:Foreword By 1939 they had solidified a partnership that would last over 60 years.[1][18] Hanna and Barbera worked alongside animation director Tex Avery, who had created Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny for Warner Bros. and directed Droopy cartoons at MGM.[2]:33[19]:18 Tom and Jerry In 1940, Hanna and Barbera jointly directed Puss Gets the Boot, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject.[20][21] The studio wanted a diversified cartoon portfolio, so despite the success of Puss Gets the Boot, Hanna and Barbera's supervisor, Fred Quimby, did not want to produce more cat and mouse cartoons.[5]:75–76 Surprised by the success of Puss Gets the Boot, Hanna and Barbera ignored Quimby's resistance[2]:45 and continued developing the cat-and-mouse theme. By this time, however, Hanna wanted to return to working for Ising, to whom he felt very loyal. Hanna and Barbera met with Quimby, who discovered that although Ising had taken sole credit for producing Puss Gets the Boot, he never actually worked on it. Quimby, who had wanted to start a new animation unit independent of Ising, then gave Hanna and Barbera permission to pursue their cat-and-mouse idea. The result was their most famous creation, Tom and Jerry.[5]:78–79 Modeled after the Puss Gets the Boot characters with slight differences, the series followed Jerry, the rodent who continually outwitted his feline foe, Tom.[4][12] Hanna said they settled on the cat and mouse theme for this cartoon because: "We knew we needed two characters. We thought we needed conflict, and chase and action. And a cat after a mouse seemed like a good, basic thought."[7] The revamped characters first appeared in 1941's The Midnight Snack.[2]:46 Over the next 17 years Hanna and Barbera worked almost exclusively on Tom and Jerry,[20] directing more than 114 highly popular cartoon shorts.[22] During World War II they also made animated training films.[5]:92–93 Tom and Jerry relied mostly on motion instead of dialog.[18] Despite its popularity, Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent.[23]:42[24]:134 Nonetheless, the series won its first Academy Award for the 11th short, The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943)—a war-time adventure.[4] Tom and Jerry was ultimately nominated for 14 Academy Awards, winning 7.[25] No other character-based theatrical animated series has won more awards, nor has any other series featuring the same characters.[1][26] Tom and Jerry also made guest appearances in several of MGM's live-action films, including Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Invitation to the Dance (1956) with Gene Kelly, and Dangerous When Wet (1953) with Esther Williams.[15][26][27] Quimby accepted each Academy Award for Tom and Jerry without inviting Hanna and Barbera onstage. The cartoons were also released with Quimby listed as the sole producer, following the same practice for which he had condemned Ising.[5]:83–84 When Quimby retired in late 1955, Hanna and Barbera were placed in charge of MGM's animation division.[1][28] As the studio began to lose more revenue due to television,[9][17] MGM soon realized that re-releasing old cartoons was far more profitable than producing new ones.[5]:2–3, 109 In 1957, MGM ordered Hanna and Barbera's business manager to close the cartoon division and lay off everyone by a phone call.[5]:2–3, 109 Hanna and Barbera found the no-notice closing puzzling because Tom and Jerry had been so successful.[26] Television During his last year at MGM, Hanna branched out into television, forming the short-lived company Shield Productions with fellow animator Jay Ward,[29] :27–29 who had created the series Crusader Rabbit. Their partnership soon ended, and in 1957 Hanna reteamed with Joseph Barbera to produce cartoons for television and theatrical release.[12] The two brought different skills to the company; Barbera was a skilled gag writer and sketch artist, while Hanna had a gift for timing, story construction, and recruiting top artists. Major business decisions would be made together, though each year the title of president alternated between them.[2]:77, 146[5]:120[28] A coin toss determined that Hanna would have precedence in the naming of the new company,[2]:Foreword first called H-B Enterprises but soon changed to Hanna-Barbera Productions.[9][28] Barbera and Hanna's MGM colleague George Sidney, the director of Anchors Aweigh, became the third partner and business manager in the company, and arranged a deal for distribution and working capital with Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures, who took part ownership of the new studio.[2]:81–83 The first offering from the new company was The Ruff & Reddy Show,[12] a series which detailed the friendship between a dog and cat.[10] Despite a lukewarm response for their first theatrical venture, Loopy De Loop, Hanna-Barbera soon established themselves with two successful television series: The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Yogi Bear Show. A 1960 survey showed that half of the viewers of Huckleberry Hound were adults. This prompted the company to create a new animated series, The Flintstones.[27][30] A parody of The Honeymooners, the new show followed a typical Stone Age family with home appliances, talking animals, and celebrity guests. With an audience of both children and adults, The Flintstones became the first animated prime-time show to be a hit.[10][27][31] Fred Flintstone's signature exclamation "yabba dabba doo" soon entered everyday usage,[27][32] and the show boosted the studio to the top of the TV cartoon field.[15] The company later produced a space-age version of The Flintstones, known as The Jetsons. Although both shows reappeared in the 1970s and 1980s, The Flintstones was far more popular.[10] By the late 1960s, Hanna-Barbera Productions was the most successful television animation studio in the business. The Hanna-Barbera studio produced over 3,000 animated half-hour television shows.[27] Among the more than 100 cartoon series and specials they produced were: Atom Ant, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (an imitation of the earlier Spike and Tyke MGM cartoons), Jonny Quest, Josie and the Pussycats, Magilla Gorilla, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, Quick Draw McGraw, and Top Cat.[8][26] Top Cat was based on Phil Silvers's character Sgt. Bilko,[33] though it has been erroneously reported that Sgt. Bilko was the basis for Yogi Bear.[18] The Hanna-Barbera studio also produced Scooby-Doo (1969–91) and The Smurfs (1981–89).[12] The company also produced animated specials based on Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as the feature-length film Charlotte's Web (1973).[5]:228–230 As popular as their cartoons were with 1960s audiences, they were disliked by artists.[34] Television programs had lower budgets than theatrical animation, and this economic reality caused many animation studios to go out of business in the 1950s and 1960s, putting many people in the industry out of work.[18][30] Hanna-Barbera was key in the development of limited animation,[35]:75[36]:54 which allowed television animation to be more cost-effective,[8][12][26] but also reduced quality.[34] Hanna and Barbera had first experimented with these techniques in the early days of Tom and Jerry.[5]:74, 115 To reduce the cost of each episode, shows often focused more on character dialogue than detailed animation.[18][34] The number of drawings for a seven-minute cartoon decreased from 14,000 to nearly 2,000, and the company implemented innovative techniques such as rapid background changes to improve viewing.[30] Reviewers criticized the change from vivid, detailed animation to repetitive movements by two-dimensional characters.[34] Barbera once said that their choice was to adapt to the television budgets or change careers.[35]:75[36]:54 The new style did not limit the success of their animated shows, enabling Hanna–Barbera to stay in business, providing employment to many who would otherwise have been out of work.[30] Limited animation became the standard for television animation, and continues to be used today in television programs such as The Simpsons and South Park.[3][34] Hanna, semior artist Iwao Takamoto, studio employee, and Joseph Barbera at Hanna's birthday celebration at the studio, July 14, 1996. One of the few existing photos of the three together. In 1966, Hanna-Barbera Productions was sold to Taft Broadcasting (renamed Great American Communications in 1987) for $12 million.[5]:162, 235–236 Hanna and Barbera remained at the head of the company until 1991.[37]:16[38][39]:151 At that point, the company was sold to the Turner Broadcasting System for an estimated $320 million,[40] which itself merged with Time Warner, owners of Warner Bros., in 1996.[10] This began a close association with the Cartoon Network. Hanna and Barbera continued to advise their former company and periodically worked on new Hanna-Barbera shows, including The Cartoon Cartoon Show series and hit silver screen versions of The Flintstones (1994) and Scooby-Doo (2002).[13][27][41] Death Hanna died of esophageal cancer at his home in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on March 22, 2001. He was 90 years old.[42] After his death, Cartoon Network aired a 20-second segment with black dots tracing Hanna's portrait with the words "We'll miss you – Cartoon Network" fading in on the right-hand side. This same type of tribute was done for Chuck Jones in 2002 and Hanna's partner, Joseph Barbera in 2006, when each of them died. However, Barbera, unlike the other two, had an audio clip of his voice playing in his Cartoon Network tribute. Hanna is buried at Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California. Legacy Most of the cartoons Hanna and Barbera created revolved around close friendship or partnership; this theme is evident with Tom and Jerry, Dick Dastardly and Muttley, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Wilma Flintstone, and Betty Rubble, Ruff and Reddy, The Jetsons (such as George Jetson for example) family and Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers, as well as Cartoon Network characters that Hanna-Barbera created such as Johnny Bravo and Carl, Jake Clawson/Razor and Chance Furlong/T-Bone, Cow and Chicken and their schoolmates Flem and Earl, I.M. Weasel and I.R. Babboon, Dexter and his supercomputers, and the Powerpuff Girls. These may have been a reflection of the close business friendship and partnership that Hanna and Barbera shared for almost 60 years.[1][2]:214 Professionally, they balanced each other's strengths and weaknesses very well,[3][15][27] but Hanna and Barbera traveled in completely different social circles. Hanna's personal friends primarily included other animators; Barbera tended to socialize with Hollywood celebrities.[2]:52–53 Their division of work roles complemented each other but they rarely talked outside of work since Hanna was interested in the outdoors and Barbera liked beaches, good food and drink.[5]:120–121 Nevertheless, in their long partnership, in which they worked with over 2,000 animated characters, Hanna and Barbera rarely exchanged a cross word.[12] Barbera said: "We understood each other perfectly, and each of us had deep respect for the other's work."[20] Hanna is considered one of the all-time great animators and on a par with Tex Avery.[31] Hanna and Barbera were among the most successful animators on the cinema screen and successfully adapted to the change television brought to the industry.[43] Leonard Maltin says the Hanna–Barbera team "[may] hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year—without a break or change in routine. Their characters are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture".[27][44] They are often considered as Walt Disney's only rivals as cartoonists.[12][45] Hanna and Barbera had a lasting impact on television animation.[37]:16 Cartoons they created often make greatest lists.[10][46] Many of their characters have appeared in film, books, toys, and other media.[13] During the 1960s their TV shows had a worldwide audience of over 300 million people and have since been translated into more than 20 languages.[30] The works of Hanna and Barbera also have been recognized for their music, such as The Cat Concerto (1946) and Johann Mouse (1952), called "masterpieces of animation" in part due to their use of classical music.[1][23]:34[24]:133 In all, the Hanna–Barbera team won seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards,[47][48]:32 including the 1960 award for The Huckleberry Hound Show, which was the first Emmy awarded to an animated series.[10][27] They also won these awards: Golden Globe for Television Achievement (1960),[47] Golden IKE Award—Pacific Pioneers in Broadcasting (1983), Pioneer Award—Broadcast Music Incorporated (1987), Iris Award—NATPE Men of the Year (1988), Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association Award for Lifetime Achievement (1988), Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (1988), Jackie Coogan Award for Outstanding Contribution to Youth through Entertainment Youth in Film (1988), Frederic W. Ziv Award for Outstanding Achievement in Telecommunications—Broadcasting Division College—Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati (1989), stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1976), several Annie Awards,[2]:170 several environmental awards, and were recipients of numerous other accolades prior to their induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1994.[2]:171[10][27] In March 2005 the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Warner Bros. Animation dedicated a wall sculpture at the Television Academy's Hall of Fame Plaza in North Hollywood to Hanna and Barbera.[49] Hanna's audio of Tom Cat's screams have been reused recently in the new 2014 Tom and Jerry Show. See also Golden age of American animation Tom and Jerry filmography List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions Peace on Earth (remade by Hanna and Barbera as Good Will to Men) Tom and Jerry awards and nominations Tom and Jerry: The Movie Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. /ˈhænə ˌbɑːrˈbɛrə/ (simply known as Hanna-Barbera and also referred to as H-B Enterprises, H-B Production Company and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc.) was an American animation studio founded in 1957 by Tom & Jerry creators and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, in partnership with film director George Sidney.[1] It was a prominent force and leader in American television animation as it created a wide variety of popular animated characters and produced a succession of cartoon series, including The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and The Smurfs.[2] Hanna-Barbera also produced new movies for theatrical release and television broadcast along with specials and direct-to-video content. Hanna and Barbera's cartoons won them seven Academy Awards, eight Emmy Awards, a Governors Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[3][4] Now established as a successful company, the two men and Sidney sold it to Taft Broadcasting on December 29, 1966 and be run by Taft for the next quarter-century.[5] By the mid-1980s, when the profitability of Saturday-morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication, Hanna-Barbera's fortunes had declined. Turner Broadcasting System purchased the studio from Taft (by then renamed Great American Broadcasting) in late 1991 and used much of its back catalog as programming for Cartoon Network.[6][7] After Turner purchased the company, Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as creative consultants and mentors. After becoming a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation in 1996 following Turner's merger with Time Warner, it was ultimately absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation in 2001. As of 2019, Warner Bros. now distributes subsequent Hanna-Barbera cartoons, as well as now owning the rights to its back catalogue. Contents 1 History 1.1 1939–1957: Humble beginnings, Tom & Jerry, birth of Hanna-Barbera 1.2 1957–1969: Major success with Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones and others 1.3 1970–1979: Scooby knockoffs, along with live-action and more 1.3.1 International expansion and educational projects 1.3.2 Production process changes 1.3.3 Sound effects 1.4 1980–1990: The Smurf craze, later years 1.5 1991–1996: Turner rebound and rise of Cartoon Network 1.6 1997–2006: Absorption into Warner Bros. Animation, deaths of founders 1.7 Ownership and new projects based on legacy properties 2 List of Hanna-Barbera productions 3 See also 4 References 5 External links History 1939–1957: Humble beginnings, Tom & Jerry, birth of Hanna-Barbera William Hanna, a native of Melrose, New Mexico and Joseph Barbera, born of Italian heritage in New York City, first met at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio in 1939, while working at its animation division (through its Rudolf Ising unit) and started a partnership that would last for six decades. Their first cartoon together, the Oscar-nominated Puss Gets the Boot, featuring a cat named Jasper and an unnamed mouse, was released to theaters in 1940 and served as the pilot for the long-running theatrical short subject series Tom and Jerry. Hanna and Barbera served as directors of the shorts for over 20 years, with Hanna supervising the animation[8] and Barbera in charge of the stories and pre-production. In addition being nominated for twelve Oscars, seven of the cartoons won seven Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) between 1943 and 1953. They were awarded to producer Fred Quimby, who was not involved in the creative development of the shorts.[9]:83–84 The pair also directed the hybrid animated live-action musical sequences in MGM's feature films Anchors Aweigh (notable for its dance sequence featuring Gene Kelly and Jerry), Dangerous When Wet and Invitation to the Dance and wrote and directed a handful of one-shot cartoons, Gallopin' Gals, Officer Pooch, War Dogs and Good Will to Men, a 1955 remake of the 1939 cartoon Peace on Earth. With Quimby's retirement in 1955, Hanna and Barbera became the producers in charge of the MGM animation studio's output,[10] supervising the last seven shorts of Tex Avery's Droopy series and directing and producing a short-lived Tom and Jerry spin-off series, Spike and Tyke, which ran for two entries. In addition to their work on the cartoons, the two men moonlighted on outside projects, including the original title sequences and commercials for the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.[11] With the rise of television, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided in early 1957 to close its cartoon studio, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release.[10] While contemplating their future, Hanna and Barbera began producing animated television commercials[12] and during their last year at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, they had developed a concept for a new animated TV program about a dog and cat duo in various misadventures.[12] After they failed to convince the studio to back their venture, live-action director George Sidney, who had worked with Hanna and Barbera on several of his theatrical features for MGM, offered to serve as their business partner and convinced Screen Gems, a television production subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, to make a deal with the producers.[1] A coin toss would determine that Hanna would have precedence in naming the new studio. Harry Cohn, president and head of Columbia Pictures, took an 18% ownership in Hanna and Barbera's new company, H-B Enterprises,[1] and provided working capital. Screen Gems became the new studio's distributor and its licensing agent, handling merchandizing of the characters from the animated programs.[13] The duo's cartoon firm officially opened for business in rented offices on the lot of Kling Studios (formerly Charlie Chaplin Studios[11]) on July 7, 1957, two months after the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studio closed down.[12] Sidney and several Screen Gems alumni became members of the studio's board of directors and much of the former MGM animation staff — including animators Carlo Vinci, Kenneth Muse, Lewis Marshall, Michael Lah and Ed Barge and layout artists Ed Benedict and Richard Bickenbach — became the new production staff for the H-B studio.[12] Conductor and composer Hoyt Curtin was in charge of providing the music while many voice actors came on board, such as Daws Butler, Don Messick, Julie Bennett, Mel Blanc, Howard Morris, John Stephenson, Hal Smith and Doug Young. 1957–1969: Major success with Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones and others Hanna-Barbera's first studio logo, used from 1957 to 1960. H-B Enterprises was the first major animation studio to successfully produce cartoons exclusively for television.[14] After rebroadcasts of theatrical cartoons as programming, its first TV original The Ruff and Reddy Show, premiered on NBC in December 1957.[15] The Huckleberry Hound Show premiered in syndication in 1958 and aired in most markets just before prime time. A ratings success, it introduced a new crop of cartoon stars to audiences, in particular Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks and Yogi Bear and was the first to win an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming. The studio began expanding rapidly following its initial success and several animation industry alumni – in particular former Warner Bros. Cartoons storymen Michael Maltese and Warren Foster, who became new head writers for the studio – joined the staff at this time along with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears as film editors and Iwao Takamoto as character designer.[12] By 1959, H-B Enterprises was reincorporated as Hanna-Barbera Productions and slowly became a leader in TV animation production from then on. The Quick Draw McGraw Show and its only theatrical short film series, Loopy De Loop, would follow in 1959. The Flintstones premiered on ABC in prime time in 1960, loosely based on the CBS series The Honeymooners. It was set in a fictionalized stone age of cavemen and dinosaurs. Jackie Gleason considered suing Hanna-Barbera for copyright infringement, but decided not to because he didn't want to be known as "the man who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air". The show ran for an amazing six seasons, becoming the longest-running animated show in American prime time TV history, a ratings and merchandising success and the top-ranking animated program in syndication history until being beaten out by The Simpsons in 1996. It initially received mixed reviews from critics, but its reputation eventually improved and is now considered a classic. In 1961, The Yogi Bear Show, the studio's first spinoff, premiered in syndication followed by Top Cat for ABC. The three shows Wally Gator, Touché Turtle and Dum Dum and Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har aired as part of The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series then The Jetsons debuted in 1962. Several animated TV commercials were produced as well, often starring their own characters (probably the best known is a series of Pebbles cereal commercials for Post featuring Barney tricking Fred into giving him his Pebbles cereal) and H-B also produced the opening credits for Bewitched, in which animated caricatures of Samantha and Darrin appeared. These characterizations were reused in the sixth season Flintstones episode "Samantha". The former Hanna-Barbera building at 3400 Cahuenga Boulevard West in Hollywood, California, seen in a 2007 photograph. The small yellow structure (lower right) was originally the "guard shack" for the property entrance to the east of the building. In 1963, its operations moved off the Kling lot (by then renamed the Red Skelton Studios) to 3400 Cahuenga Boulevard West in Hollywood, California. This contemporary office building was designed by architect Arthur Froehlich. Its ultra-modern design included a sculpted latticework exterior, moat, fountains and a Jetsons-like tower. In 1964, newer programs of The Magilla Gorilla Show, The Peter Potamus Show and Jonny Quest aired. Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel and Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt came in 1965. Screen Gems and Hanna-Barbera's partnership lasted until 1965, when Hanna and Barbera announced the sale of their studio to Taft Broadcasting.[13] Taft's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera was delayed for a year by a lawsuit from Joan Perry, John Cohn, and Harrison Cohn – the wife and sons of former Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn, who felt that the studio undervalued the Cohns' 18% share in the company when it was sold a few years previously.[16] In 1966, an animated Laurel and Hardy series debuted on air. Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles and Space Ghost also first aired. By December 1966, the litigation had been settled and the studio was finally acquired by Taft for $12 million. It would fold it into its corporate structure in 1967 and 1968,[13] becoming its distributor. The studio's "Zooming Box" logo, used from 1966 to 1974 and was later revived in 2003 and used for the Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies until 2009. Hanna and Barbera stayed on with the studio while Screen Gems retained licensing and distribution rights to the previous Hanna-Barbera produced cartoons,[13] along with trademarks to the characters into the 1970s and 1980s.[13][17] A number of new comedy and action cartoons followed in 1967, among them are The Space Kidettes, The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, The Herculoids, Shazzan, Fantastic Four, Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor and Samson & Goliath (a.k.a. Young Samson). The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, The Adventures of Gulliver and The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn arose on the air in 1968, while the successful Wacky Races and its spinoffs The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines aired on CBS, returned Hanna-Barbera to straight comedy, followed by Cattanooga Cats for ABC. The studio had its first (and only) record label Hanna-Barbera Records,[18] headed by Danny Hutton and distributed by Columbia Records. It featured many music artists and performers of Louis Prima, Five Americans, Scatman Crothers and the 13th Floor Elevators. Previously, children's records with Yogi Bear and others were released by Colpix Records. Next came the breakthrough hit of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969, which blended elements of comedy, action, the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and the radio show I Love a Mystery.[19][20] The series, which ran for two seasons on CBS, centered on four teenagers and a dog solving supernatural mysteries. 1970–1979: Scooby knockoffs, along with live-action and more Referred to as "The General Motors of animation," Hanna-Barbera would eventually go even further by producing nearly two-thirds of all Saturday morning cartoons in a single year. At its peak, the company controlled over 80% of children's programming for television and at the top of its game, it secured the top three Saturday morning ratings as well, making it the world's largest animation powerhouse. On the horizon, the studio produced a steady stream of new mystery-solving and crime-fighting programs featuring teenagers with comical pets and or mascots, prime time and Saturday morning cartoons, superhero and action-adventure productions and many new spinoffs for TV broadcast. The studio's "Rainbow" logo, used from 1974 to 1979 and later revived in 2017 for the Wacky Races reboot. These include Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Where's Huddles, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, The Funky Phantom, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, The Flintstone Comedy Hour, The Roman Holidays, Sealab 2020, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, the feature film Charlotte's Web, Speed Buggy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Yogi's Gang, Super Friends, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Inch High, Private Eye, Jeannie, The Addams Family, Hong Kong Phooey, Devlin, Partridge Family 2200 A.D., These Are The Days, Valley of the Dinosaurs, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, The Tom & Jerry Show, The Great Grape Ape Show, The Mumbly Cartoon Show, The Scooby-Doo Show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Clue Club, Jabberjaw, Laff-A-Lympics, CB Bears, The Robonic Stooges, The All-New Super Friends Hour, The All-New Popeye Hour, Yogi's Space Race, Galaxy Goof-Ups, Buford and the Galloping Ghost, Challenge of the Super Friends, Godzilla, Jana of the Jungle, The New Fred and Barney Show, Casper and the Angels, The New Shmoo, The Super Globetrotters, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and The World's Greatest Super Friends. The majority of American television animation were made by Hanna-Barbera with their major competition coming from Filmation and DePatie-Freleng. ABC president Fred Silverman gave H-B the majority of its Saturday morning cartoon time after dropping Filmation for its failure of Uncle Croc's Block.[citation needed] Along with the rest of the American animation industry, it began moving away from producing all its cartoons in-house in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Joe Ruby and Ken Spears left to found their own studio Ruby-Spears Enterprises in 1977, with Filmways as its parent company. In 1979, Taft bought Worldvision Enterprises, which would become the syndication distributor for the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The studio would try at producing new shows and films entirely in live-action, though its success selling such programming was limited by its track record as an animation company. Hanna-Barbera had already got into live-action in the late 1960s (mixing it with animation). Its live-action unit was spun off and renamed Solow Production Company, which immediately following the name change, was able to sell the action series Man from Atlantis to NBC.[21] Hanna-Barbera's most distinguished live-action production by far was The Gathering, an Emmy award-winning TV movie starring Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton, written by James Poe and directed by Randal Kleiser. International expansion and educational projects In Australia, Hanna-Barbera Pty. Ltd. was formed in 1972 as an Australian unit of the American studio. In 1974, 50% of the studio was acquired by the Hamlyn Group, which in 1978 was acquired by James Hardie Industries. In 1983, both Taft and James Hardie Industries reorganized the division as Taft-Hardie Group Pty. Ltd. The company established a division in Los Angeles known as Southern Star Productions, headed by Buzz Potamkin in 1984. New cartoons produced by this unit, would be animated by the Australian Hanna-Barbera studio in Sydney and carried the name Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia. In 1987, Hanna-Barbera Poland was established to produce cartoon shows and VHS videocassettes for Polish-speaking audiences. It operated under that name until 1993. In Italy, Hanna-Barbera's cartoons had become very popular. The studio launched a major thrust into the European market with the introduction of The Hanna-Barbera Hour, which was supported by an integrated European marketing program. For earthquake preparedness, Barbera and the studio teamed with Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich for a new project called the Shakey Quakey Schoolhouse Van, headlined by Yogi Bear. Production process changes Since 1957, Hanna-Barbera had produced nightly prime time, Saturday morning and weekday afternoon cartoons for all four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) and syndication in the United States until 1995. The small budgets that TV animation producers had to work within prevented them, and most other producers of American television animation, from working with the full theatrical-quality animation the duo had been known for at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. While the budget for MGM's seven-minute Tom and Jerry shorts was about $35,000, the Hanna-Barbera studios was required to produce five-minute Ruff and Reddy episodes for no more than $3,000 a piece.[1] To keep within these tighter budgets, Hanna-Barbera modified the concept of limited animation (also called semi-animation) practiced and popularized by the United Productions of America (UPA) studio, which also once had a partnership with Columbia Pictures. Character designs were simplified, and backgrounds and animation cycles (walks, runs, etc.) were regularly re-purposed. Characters were often broken up into a handful of levels, so that only the parts of the body that needed to be moved at a given time (i.e. a mouth, an arm, a head) would be animated. The rest of the figure would remain on a held animation cel. This allowed a typical 10-minute short to be done with only 1,200 drawings instead of the usual 26,000. Dialogue, music, and sound effects were emphasized over action, leading Chuck Jones—a contemporary who worked for Warner Bros. Cartoons when Hanna and Barbera was at MGM, and one who, with his short The Dover Boys practically invented many of the concepts in limited animation—to disparagingly refer to the limited television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and others as "illustrated radio".[22] In a story published by The Saturday Evening Post in 1961, critics stated that Hanna-Barbera was taking on more work than it could handle and was resorting to shortcuts only a television audience would tolerate.[23] An executive who worked for Walt Disney Productions said, "We don't even consider [them] competition".[23] Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman argues that Hanna-Barbera attempted to maximize their bottom line by recycling story formulas and characterization instead of introducing new ones. Once a formula for an original series was deemed successful, the studio would keep reusing it in subsequent series.[24] Besides copying their own works, Hanna-Barbera would draw inspiration from the works of other people and studios.[24] Lehman considers that the studio served as a main example of how animation studios which focused on TV animation differed from those that focused on theatrical animation. Theatrical animation studios tried to maintain full and fluid animation, and consequently struggled with the rising expenses associated with producing it.[24] Limited animation as practiced by Hanna-Barbera kept production costs at a minimum. The cost in quality of using this technique was that Hanna-Barbera's characters only moved when absolutely necessary.[24] Ironically, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hanna-Barbera was the only studio in Hollywood that was actively hiring, and it picked up a number of Disney artists who were laid off during this period. Its solution to the criticism over its quality was to go into movies. It produced six theatrical films, among them are higher-quality versions of its TV cartoons and adaptations of other material. It was also the first animation studio to have their work produced overseas. One of these companies was a subsidiary started by Hanna-Barbera called Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines.[25] Wang Film Productions got its start as an overseas facility for the studio in 1978.[26] Sound effects Main article: Hanna-Barbera sound effects This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Hanna-Barbera was noted for their large library of sound effects. Besides cartoon-style ones (such as ricochets, slide whistles, etc.), they also had familiar sounds used for transportation, household items and more. When Hanna and Barbera started their studio in 1957, they created handful of sound effects and had limited choices. They also took some sounds from the then-defunct MGM cartoon studio and various other cartoon and movie studios like Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation and Walt Disney Productions. By 1958, they began to expand and added more sound effects to their library. The Hanna-Barbera sound effects are rarely and sparingly used in children's programs from other studios, along with live-action films, animated films and video games. 1980–1990: The Smurf craze, later years The studio's "Swirling Star" logo, used from 1979 to 1986, was based on a logo designed for Taft by Saul Bass and a CG version of it was used from 1986 to 1992. The original was used again from 1989 to 1990, then its CG counterpart would return and be used in later Cartoon Network content from 1997 to 1999. Super Friends, The Flintstone Comedy Show, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Richie Rich emerged in 1980, then came Laverne and Shirley in the Army, Space Stars, The Kwicky Koala Show and Trollkins in 1981. Taft purchased Ruby-Spears from Filmways the same year. While Filmation, Marvel/Sunbow, Rankin/Bass and DiC introduced successful syndicated shows based on licensed properties (mostly toy lines), Hanna-Barbera continued to produce for Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons, but no longer dominated the TV animation market as it did formerly. Its control over children's programming went down from 80% to 20%. Worldvision Home Video released episodes of earlier Hanna-Barbera shows on VHS until 1988. The highly successful series The Smurfs, adapted from the comic by Pierre Culliford (known as Peyo) and centering on a gang of tiny blue forest dwelling creatures led by Papa Smurf, premiered and aired on NBC for nine seasons, becoming the longest-running Saturday morning cartoon series in broadcast history, a significant ratings success, the top-rated program in eight years and the highest for an NBC show since 1970.[citation needed] In 1982, fresh cartoons Jokebook, The Gary Coleman Show, Shirt Tales, Pac-Man, The Little Rascals and The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour first aired then The Dukes, Monchhichis, The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show and The Biskitts came to the airwaves in 1983. The studio set up a computerized digital ink and paint system and was innovative for its time. It was the first to use digital coloring, long before other animation studios. This process did not require as much effort as time consuming labor of painting on cels and photographing them. Many of Hanna and Barbera's shows were outsourced to Cuckoo's Nest Studios, Mr. Big Cartoons, Mook Co., Ltd., Toei Animation and Fil-Cartoons in Australia and Asia. The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Snorks, Challenge of the GoBots, Pink Panther and Sons and Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show all aired in 1984. In 1985, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo along with Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Galtar and the Golden Lance and Paw Paws (the three shows introduced in The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera) debuted while new episodes of The Jetsons premiered. The studio also presented The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, its first new straight-to-video series.[27] In 1986, new episodes of Jonny Quest and series of Pound Puppies, The Flintstone Kids, Foofur and Wildfire aired while Tom and Jerry (part of the pre-May 1986 MGM film library) would be bought by Turner Entertainment. Sky Commanders and Popeye and Son debuted in 1987. Meanwhile, Taft, whose financial troubles were affecting Hanna-Barbera, would be acquired by the American Financial Corporation in 1987, renaming it Great American Broadcasting the following year.[citation needed] A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, new episodes of The Yogi Bear Show, Fantastic Max, The Further Adventures of SuperTed and Paddington Bear followed in 1988 and 1989. Worldvision was sold to Aaron Spelling Productions except for Hanna-Barbera's library, which remained owned by Great American. Some of the staff got a call from Warner Bros. to resurrect its animation department[citation needed] and Tom Ruegger along with his colleagues left to develop new programs there.[citation needed] David Kirschner would be named CEO of Barbera and Hanna's studio.[28] In 1990, under Kirschner, the studio formed Bedrock Productions, a unit for various movies and shows.[29] Great American put Hanna-Barbera, along with Ruby-Spears, up for sale after being less successful and burdened in debt. New shows Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone, Rick Moranis in Gravedale High, Tom & Jerry Kids Show, an adaptation of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures, The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda and Wake, Rattle, and Roll (later as Jump, Rattle, and Roll) first aired for broadcast. The studio would start its home video line Hanna-Barbera Home Video. 1991–1996: Turner rebound and rise of Cartoon Network The studio's "All-Stars" logos, used from 1993 to 2001. In 1991, Young Robin Hood (a co-production with Canada's CINAR), The Pirates of Dark Water and Yo Yogi! (widely cited as one of the worst cartoons of all time) aired while the Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears libraries, were acquired by a 50-50 joint venture between Turner Broadcasting—which by that time also bought the pre-May 1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library—and Apollo Investment Fund for $320 million.[30] This was with the intention of launching an all animation based network aimed at children and younger audiences.[citation needed] Turner's president of entertainment Scott Sassa hired Fred Seibert, a former executive for MTV Networks, to head Hanna-Barbera. Filling the gap left by the departed Great Americian-era crew with new animators, directors, producers and writers, including Pat Ventura, Craig McCracken, Donovan Cook, Genndy Tartakovsky, David Feiss, Seth MacFarlane, Van Partible, Stewart St. John and Butch Hartman.[31] In 1992, the studio was renamed as H-B Production Company. Fish Police, Capitol Critters and another Addams Family series debuted while Turner launched Cartoon Network, the world's first 24-hour all-animation channel, to broadcast its library of animated classics, of which Hanna-Barbera was the core contributor. As a result, many cartoons, even the H-B ones, were rebroadcast.[32] Hanna, Iwao Takamoto, studio employee and Barbera, from July 14, 1996. In 1993, while changing its name again to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. and Turner acquiring the remaining interests of the studio from Apollo Investment Fund for $255 million,[33] more new cartoons came to broadcast – Droopy, Master Detective, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron and 2 Stupid Dogs made their debuts and in 1994, Turner Broadcasting refocused the studio to produce new shows exclusively for its networks. In 1995, What a Cartoon! (promoted as World Premiere Toons), an animation showcase led by Seibert, featured new creator-driven shorts developed for Cartoon Network by its in-house staff and several new original series emerging from it, gave the network its first smash hit since The Smurfs. Dumb and Dumber aired that year on ABC and would be the final new Hanna-Barbera show to air on a broadcast network. For 1996, Cave Kids and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest premiered while Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner. 1997–2006: Absorption into Warner Bros. Animation, deaths of founders Hanna-Barbera operated on its original lot on Cahuenga Blvd. until 1998, when its studio operations, company archives and extensive animation art collection moved to Sherman Oaks Galleria in Sherman Oaks, California, with Warner's animation unit. As it was too expensive to keep operating out of its own, H-B stayed at the Warner studio. After moving to Sherman Oaks, it appeared that its Cahuenga Blvd. studio would face demolition and despite the efforts of Barbera and others, the building failed to achieve Los Angeles city landmark status. Hanna-Barbera would continue to operate at Sherman Oaks Galleria until 2001, when the studio was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation.[34] Following its absorption, Cartoon Network Studios was revived and took over production of programming for Cartoon Network.[35] Hanna died of throat cancer on March 22, 2001. Sidney, who worked with Hanna and Barbera as their business partner, died from complications of lymphoma on May 5, 2002. In May 2004, the Los Angeles City Council approved a plan to preserve the Cahuenga Blvd. facility while allowing retail and residential development on the site.[36] Barbera would continue work at Warner Bros. Animation until his death of natural causes on December 18, 2006.[37] Ownership and new projects based on legacy properties As of 2019, Warner Bros. now own the rights to Hanna-Barbera's back catalogue, while using its brand to market its properties and productions associated with its library and continues to produce new projects based on its legacy properties, such as the Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry direct-to-video feature films and television shows and other new miscellaneous animated content for direct-to-video, motion picture release and other media. It was announced in 2016 that the reboot film Scoob was in the works and scheduled for release in September 2018, but was pushed back to 2020 and is intended to be the first installment of a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe.[38] In October 2018, it was announced that the feature is now set to be released in the first quarter of 2020.[39] Another film part of the Cinematic Universe will be based on The Jetsons, with Conrad Vernon set to direct[40] and Matt Lieberman writing the screenplay.[41][42] Others part of the upcoming movie series also include a Flintstones film and a Wacky Races film.[39] DC Comics announced a new comic book initiative titled Hanna-Barbera Beyond, to re-imagine some of the Hanna-Barbera studio's classic cartoons into some darker and edgier settings. The first comic books on the line are Future Quest, Scooby Apocalypse, The Flintstones and Wacky Raceland.[43] New titles arrived in March 2017 crossing over with the DC Universe[44] and other projects from Warners as well.[45] List of Hanna-Barbera productions Main article: List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions See also icon Cartoon portal Companies portal Film portal flag United States portal List of Hanna-Barbera characters Boomerang List of films based on Hanna-Barbera cartoons List of Hanna-Barbera-based video games Hanna-Barbera in amusement parks Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection Golden age of American animation Animation in the United States in the television era Laugh track On Thursday, March 22, 2001, one of the fathers of TV animation, William Hanna, died at his home in North Hollywood, California. He was 90 years old. Born in Melrose, New Mexico, on July 14, 1910, Hanna and his partner, Joseph Barbera created such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and Scooby-Doo. Hanna, a trained engineer, began his animation career during the Depression when he took an ink and paint position at Harman-Ising Studios. In 1937, Hanna was hired by MGM, where he met Barbera and the two began a creative partnership that lasted over 60 years. There Hanna and Barbera broke new ground by mixing animation and live-action pitting Tom and Jerry with Gene Kelly in ANCHORS AWEIGH and INVITATION TO DANCE and with Esther Williams in DANGEROUS WHEN WET. The TOM AND JERRY shorts received seven Academy Awards. When MGM closed its cartoon division in 1957, Hanna and Barbera founded their own studio, Hanna-Barbera Studios, and went on to produce more than 3,000 animated half-hour television shows. Just three years after founding their studio, the pairs HUCKLEBERRY HOUND won the first Emmy Award ever given to an animated series and launched the first animated primetime show, THE FLINTSTONES. In 1976, Hanna and Barbera received stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and were inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993. In the 1990s, Hanna served as executive producer for 20th Century Fox's feature film ONCE UPON A FOREST and Universal Pictures' live-action feature THE FLINTSTONES. In 1995, Hanna created two original cartoon shorts (HARD LUCK DUCK and WIND-UP WOLF) for Cartoon Network's "What A Cartoon!" project, marking his first solo directorial efforts since 1941. In 1996, Hanna published his autobiography, A CAST OF FRIENDS, by Taylor Publishing Company. He is survived by his wife of 65 years Violet, son David, daughter Bonnie, grandchildren Laurie Hanna, Molly Hanna, William Hanna, John Hanna, David Williams, Phillip Williams and Emily Williams. Betty Cohen, president of Cartoon Network, said, "We are greatly saddened by the death of one of the most influential animators of our time - Bill was a cartoon scientist and a genius at timing. Cartoon Network and Boomerang wouldnt be around today without him. The cartoons of Hanna-Barbera have influenced and entertained generations of kids and adults and will serve as a legacy to his talent." Jean MacCurdy, president of Warner Bros. Animation, said, "There are literally thousands of people working in the television animation business today who had the honor of training under Mr. Hanna. I was privileged enough to have been one of them. We will miss him terribly."

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