Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and

Joseph Barbera Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist who co-founded the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera. Born to Italian im ...

following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to close its in-house cartoon studio. Headquartered in Cahuenga Blvd. until 1998 and then Sherman Oaks, both in Los Angeles, California, until going defunct, it created many television shows, theatrical films, televised movies and specials, including '' Huckleberry Hound'', '' Quick Draw McGraw'', '' The Flintstones'', '' Yogi Bear'', '' The Jetsons'', '' Jonny Quest'', ''

Wacky Races Eccentricity (also called quirkiness) is an unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive. Eccentricity is contrasted with norm ...

'', '' Scooby-Doo'' and ''

The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (french: Les Schtroumpfs; nl, De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was first created and in ...

''. Its productions have won a record-breaking 8

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. Its fortunes declined by the 1980s as the profitability of Saturday-morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication. Taft Broadcasting acquired Hanna-Barbera in 1966 and retained ownership until 1991 when Turner Broadcasting System took over and used its back catalog as programming for its then-newly-created

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

which launched the following year. Turner later merged in 1996 with Time Warner, which rebranded as WarnerMedia in 2018 and is now part of Warner Bros. Discovery since April 8, 2022. After Hanna died on March 22, 2001, Hanna-Barbera as a standalone company was dissolved and merged into Warner Bros. Animation and later Cartoon Network Studios. Although defunct, Warner Bros. continues to produce new programming and material based on the studio's classic properties and using with their logo occasionally in select projects.

History

''Tom and Jerry'' and birth of a studio (1937–1957)

William Denby Hanna (Bill), native of

Melrose, New Mexico Melrose is a village in Curry County, New Mexico, Curry County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 651 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The town is losing population due to Rural flight, rural exodus. Melrose is served by M ...

and Joseph Roland Barbera (Joe), born of Italian heritage in New York City, first met at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio in 1937, while working at its animation division. Having worked at other studios since the early 1930s, they solidified an "eight-decade" partnership. ''

Puss Gets the Boot ''Puss Gets the Boot'' is a 1940 American animated short film and is the first short in what would become the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoon series, though neither were yet referred to by these names. It was directed by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, ...

'', released in 1940, served as the first entry in the theatrical film series '' Tom and Jerry''. Hanna supervised the animation, while Barbera did the stories and pre-production. Seven of the cartoons won 7 Oscars for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) between 1943 and 1953, and five additional shorts were nominated for 12 awards during this period. However, they were awarded to producer Fred Quimby, who was not involved in the development of the shorts. Sequences were done for '' Anchors Aweigh'', ''

Dangerous When Wet ''Dangerous When Wet'' is a 1953 American live-action/animated musical comedy film starring Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas and Jack Carson, directed by Charles Walters and featuring an animated swimming sequence starring Williams with the cat-a ...

'' and '' Invitation to the Dance'', one-shot shorts ''

Gallopin' Gals ''Gallopin' Gals'' is a 1940 American one-reel Technicolor animated film directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It belonged to the screwball comedy genre. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer in October 26 ...

'', ''The Goose Goes South'', '' Officer Pooch'', ''

War Dogs Dogs in warfare have a very long history starting in ancient times. From being trained in combat, to their use as scouts, sentries, messengers, mercy dogs, and trackers, their uses have been varied and some continue to exist in modern military ...

'' and ''

Good Will to Men ''Peace on Earth'' is a one-reel 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation, cartoon short subject, short directed by Hugh Harman, about a post-apocalyptic world populated only by animals, as it is claimed in the short that human beings have gone extinc ...

'' made and supervised ''The Bear and the Bean''. With Quimby's retirement in May 1955, Hanna and Barbera became the producers in charge of the MGM animation studio's output. In addition to continuing to write and direct new ''Tom & Jerry'' shorts, now in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

, Hanna and Barbera supervised the last seven shorts of Tex Avery's '' Droopy'' series and produced and directed the short-lived '' 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 ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...

''. MGM decided in mid-1957 to close its cartoon studio, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release. While contemplating their future, Hanna and Barbera began producing additional animated television commercials. During their last year at MGM, they had developed a concept for a new animated TV program about a dog and cat duo in various misadventures. 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 Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...

to make a deal with the producers. A coin toss gave Hanna precedence in naming the new studio.

Harry Cohn Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation. Life and career Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City. His father, Joseph Cohn, wa ...

, president and head of Columbia Pictures, took an 18% ownership in their new company, H-B Enterprises, and provided working capital. Screen Gems became the new distributor and its licensing agent, handling merchandizing of the characters from the animated programs as the cartoon firm officially opened for business in rented offices on the lot of Kling Studios (formerly Charlie Chaplin Studios) on July 7, 1957, one year after the MGM animation studio closed. 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 Kenneth Muse (July 26, 1910 – July 26, 1987) was an American animator best known for his work on the ''Tom and Jerry'' series at MGM. Biography Muse worked briefly at Walt Disney Productions, where he was Preston Blair's assistant on '' Fa ...

, Lewis Marshall, Michael Lah and

Ed Barge Edward John Barge (August 29, 1910 – September 29, 1991) was an American animator. Barge was born to Alfred Edward and Margaret G. Barge in San Jose, California. In 1916, the family moved to Bakersfield, where his father was employed by t ...

and layout artists Ed Benedict and

Richard Bickenbach Richard Frederick Bickenbach (August 9, 1907 – June 28, 1994) was an American animator who worked for Warner Bros. Cartoons and as a layout artist and character designer for MGM and Hanna-Barbera Productions. He worked on animation for many ...

—became the new production staff. Hoyt Curtin was in charge of providing the music while voice performers, such as Penny Singleton, Paul Winchell, Janet Waldo, Alan Reed, Henry Corden, Jean Vander Pyl,

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor. He began his career in the 1960s, and holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits as of 2022, making him one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. With ...

, Arnold Stang,

Marvin Kaplan Marvin Wilbur Kaplan (January 24, 1927 – August 25, 2016) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Best known as Henry Beesmeyer in '' Alice'' (1978–1985). Early years Kaplan was born on January 24, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, t ...

Allen Melvin Allan John Melvin (February 18, 1923 – January 17, 2008) was an American actor and impressionist, who was cast in hundreds of television episodes from the 1950s to the early 1990s, often appearing in recurring roles on various series. Some of th ...

Bea Benaderet Beatrice Benaderet ( ; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was an American actress and comedienne. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that ...

, June Foray,

Gerry Johnson Gerry Johnson (April 4, 1918 - January 24, 1990) was an American actress and television host, best known as the voice of Betty Rubble during seasons five and six of the animated television series ''The Flintstones''. Early life Geraldine Adela ...

, Lucille Bliss, Casey Kasem, Gary Owens, Scatman Crothers,

George O' Hanlon George O'Hanlon (November 23, 1912 – February 11, 1989) was an American actor and writer. He was best known for his role as Joe McDoakes in the Warner Bros.' live-action '' Joe McDoakes'' short subjects from 1942 to 1956 and as the voice of Geor ...

, Daws Butler,

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor. He was best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ...

, Julie Bennett,

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, Howard Morris, John Stephenson, Hal Smith, Tim Matheson, Doug Young and

Danny Goldman Daniel Goldman (October 30, 1939 – April 12, 2020) was an American actor and casting director. He was most widely recognized as the voice of Brainy Smurf in Hanna-Barbera's ''The Smurfs'' (1981–1989). Early life Goldman graduated from Far R ...

came on board.

Success with animated sitcoms (1957–1969)

'' The Ruff and Reddy Show'', its very first televised cartoon, premiered on NBC on December 14, 1957. '' The Huckleberry Hound Show'', which came on September 29, 1958, and aired in most markets just before prime time, was the first animated series to win an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. Beginning to expand rapidly following its initial success, several animation industry alumni – in particular former

Warner Bros. Cartoons Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was ...

storymen

Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American story man for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director Chuck Jones, notably "Wha ...

and Warren Foster, became new head writers and joined the staff at this time, along with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears as film editors and Iwao Takamoto as character designer. H-B Enterprises was reincorporated as Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. by 1959, and slowly became a leader in TV animation production from then on. ''

The Quick Draw McGraw Show ''The Quick Draw McGraw Show'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and their third television series overall after ''The Ruff and Reddy Show'' and ''The Huckleberry Hound Show''. Voice actor Daws But ...

'' and '' Loopy De Loop'', its only theatrical short film series, followed that same year. In August 1960, the company moved into a window-less, cinder block building at 3501 Cahuenga Boulevard West, though the building was too small to house the growing staff and some of its employees worked from home. '' The Flintstones'' premiered in prime time on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

in 1960, loosely based on '' The Honeymooners'' and 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 did not want to be known as "the man who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air". The series ran for six seasons, becoming the longest-running animated show in American prime time at the time (until '' The Simpsons'' beat it in 1997), a ratings and merchandising success and the top-ranking animated program in syndication history. It initially received mixed reviews from critics, but its reputation eventually improved and it is now considered a classic. '' The Yogi Bear Show'', '' Top Cat'', '' Wally Gator'', ''

Touché Turtle and Dum Dum ''Touché Turtle and Dum Dum'' is a television cartoon series that aired as one of the segments from the anthology show '' The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series'', produced by Hanna-Barbera. The show also included segments starring ''Wally Gator'' ...

'', '' Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har'' and '' The Jetsons'' soon followed in 1961 and 1962. Several animated TV commercials were produced as well, often starring their own characters (probably the best known is a series of

Pebbles cereal Pebbles is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced in the United States by Post Consumer Brands on October 20, 1971 featuring characters from the animated series ''The Flintstones'' as spokestoons. The product line includes Cocoa Pebbles and Fruit ...

commercials for Post featuring

Barney Barney may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barney (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Barney (surname), a list of people Film and television * the title character of ''Barney & Friends'', an American live actio ...

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". HannaBarbera

In 1963, Hanna-Barbera's operations moved to 3400 Cahuenga Boulevard West in Hollywood Hills/Studio City. 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 and 1965, ''The Magilla Gorilla Show'', ''The Peter Potamus Show'', '' Jonny Quest'', ''The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel'' and ''Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt'' came on air. Screen Gems and Hanna-Barbera's partnership lasted until 1965 when Hanna and Barbera announced the sale of their studio to Taft Broadcasting.Rogers, Lawrence H. (2000).
History of U. S. Television: A Personal Reminiscence
'. Bloomington. IN. USA: AuthorHouse. pg. 444-447 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.Shostak, Stu (November 3, 2011).
Interview with Jerry Eisenberg, Scott Shaw!, and Earl Kress
. ''Stu's Show''. Retrieved March 18, 2013. Jerry Eisenberg, Scott Shaw (artist), Scott Shaw!, and Earl Kress were all former employees of Hanna-Barbera over the years, and relate the history of the studio to host Stu Shostak In 1966, ''Laurel and Hardy (animated series), Laurel and Hardy'', ''Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles'' and ''Space Ghost (TV series), Space Ghost'' first aired and by December 1966, the litigation had been settled and the studio was finally acquired by Taft for $12 million. Taft folded the studio into its corporate structure in 1967 and 1968, becoming its distributor. Hanna and Barbera stayed on with the studio while Screen Gems retained licensing and distribution rights to the previous Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoons, along with trademarks to the characters into the 1970s and 1980s. 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 (1967 TV series), Fantastic Four'', ''Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor'' and ''Samson & Goliath''. ''The Banana Splits, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour'', ''The Adventures of Gulliver'', and ''The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' arose in 1968, while the successful ''

'' and its spinoffs ''The Perils of Penelope Pitstop'' and ''Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines'' aired on CBS, followed by ''Cattanooga Cats'' for ABC. The studio had a record label, Hanna-Barbera Records, headed by Danny Hutton and distributed by Columbia Records. Previously, children's records featuring Hanna-Barbera characters were released by Colpix Records.

Mysteries, spinoffs, and more (1969–1979)

Ruby and Spears created ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' for CBS Saturday mornings in 1969, a mystery-based program which blended comedy, action, and elements from ''I Love a Mystery'' and ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis''.Shostak, Stu (February 5, 2012).
Interview with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears
. ''Stu's Show.'' Retrieved March 18, 2013. Running for two seasons, it centered on four teenagers and a dog solving supernatural mysteries, and became one of Hanna-Barbera's most successful creations and has spawned several new spin-offs, such as ''The New Scooby-Doo Movies'', ''The Scooby-Doo Show'', ''Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979 TV series), Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo'' and many others, which were regularly in production at Hanna-Barbera into the 1990s. Referred to as "The General Motors of animation", Hanna-Barbera eventually went even further by producing nearly two-thirds of all Saturday-morning cartoons in a single year. Several Hanna-Barbera series from the 1970s, such as ''Josie and the Pussycats (TV series), Josie and the Pussycats'', ''The Funky Phantom'', ''The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan'', ''Speed Buggy'', ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids'', ''Goober and the Ghost Chasers'', ''Inch High, Private Eye'', ''Clue Club'', ''Jabberjaw'', ''Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels'' and ''The New Shmoo'' built upon the mystery-solving template set by ''Scooby-Doo'', with further series built around teenagers solving mysteries with a comic relief pet of some sort. ''The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show'' returned ''The Flintstones'' characters to television in 1971 with a new spin-off series based on their now teenaged children while ''The Flintstone Comedy Hour'' and ''The New Fred and Barney Show'' remained in production through the early 1980s. Meanwhile, ''Josie'' received her own spinoff ''Josie and the Pussycats (TV series)#''Josie and the Pussycats in Other Space, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space''. Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and others returned in 1972 for brand new shows, such as ''Yogi's Gang'', ''Laff-a-Lympics'', ''Yogi's Space Race'', and ''Galaxy Goof-Ups'', while ''Tom and Jerry'' were also given a The Tom and Jerry Show (1975 TV series), new series of televised cartoons in 1975. ''The Great Grape Ape Show'' and ''The Mumbly Cartoon Show'' followed soon after. In 1972, Hanna-Barbera opened an animation studio in Australia, with the Hamlyn Group acquiring a 50% stake in 1974. Hamlyn was acquired by James Hardie Industries. In 1988, Hanna-Barbera Australia bought itself out from Hardie and Taft Broadcasting, with the studio changing its name to Southern Star Group. The studio has since become Endemol Shine Australia, a division of Banijay. In 1973, Hanna-Barbera produced the first of several iterations of ''Super Friends'', an action-adventure series adapted from DC Comics' ''Justice League of America'' superhero characters. Following Super Friends (1973 TV series), 1973's ''Super Friends'' on ABC, the show returned to production in 1976, remaining on ABC through 1986 with ''The All-New Super Friends Hour'', ''Challenge of the Super Friends'' and ''The World's Greatest Super Friends''. Other 1970s Hanna-Barbera series included ''Harlem Globetrotters (TV series), Harlem Globetrotters'', ''Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'', ''Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!'', ''The Roman Holidays'', ''Sealab 2020'', ''Jeannie (TV series), Jeannie'', ''The Addams Family (1973 animated series), The Addams Family'', ''Partridge Family 2200 A.D.'', ''These Are the Days (TV series), These Are The Days'', ''Valley of the Dinosaurs'', ''Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch'', ''Dynomutt, Dog Wonder'', ''CB Bears'', ''The Robonic Stooges'', ''The All New Popeye Hour'', ''Godzilla (1978 TV series), Godzilla'', ''Buford and the Galloping Ghost'' and ''Jana of the Jungle''. ''Charlotte's Web (1973 film), Charlotte's Web'', an adaptation of E. B. White's Charlotte's Web, children's novel and Hanna-Barbera's first feature film not based on one of their TV shows, was released in 1973 by Paramount Pictures. While the majority of American television animation during the second half of the 20th century was made by Hanna-Barbera, with major competition coming from Filmation and DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, DePatie–Freleng, then-ABC president Fred Silverman gave its Saturday-morning cartoon time to them after dropping Filmation for its failure of ''Uncle Croc's Block''. 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. Ruby and Spears worked with Hanna-Barbera in 1976 and 1977 as ABC network executives to create and develop new cartoons before leaving in 1977 to start their company, Ruby-Spears, Ruby-Spears Enterprises, with Filmways as its parent division. In 1979, Taft bought Worldvision Enterprises, which became Hanna-Barbera's distributor. New live-action material was produced in the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as new live-action/animated projects since the mid-1960s. Their live-action unit spun off and became Solow Production Company in 1976.Shostak, Stu (12-20-2006).
Interview with Mark Evanier
. ''Stu's Show.'' Retrieved June 17, 2014.

Control decrease and ''Smurfs''-era (1980–1991)

''Super Friends (1980 TV series), Super Friends'', ''Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1980 TV series), Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo'', ''The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang'', ''Richie Rich (1980 TV series), Richie Rich'', ''The Flintstone Comedy Show'', ''Laverne & Shirley (1981 TV series), Laverne and Shirley in the Army'', ''Space Stars'', ''The Kwicky Koala Show'' and ''Trollkins'' debuted in 1980 and 1981. Taft purchased Ruby-Spears from Filmways (which was eventually absorbed into Orion Pictures, Orion the following year), making it a sister studio to Hanna-Barbera. As a result, several early-1980s series were shared between both studios, Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, the animated version of ''Mork & Mindy'' and ''The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour'' among them.Shostak, Stu (01-16-2013).
''Program 305'' (TV animation producers JOE RUBY and KEN SPEARS return to discuss the formation of their own company and creating such series as "Fangface", "Rickety Rocket", "Goldie Gold" and many others. Also - animation writer MARK EVANIER talks about working on "Thundarr" and "Plastic Man" for the team.)
. ''Stu's Show''. Retrieved March 18, 2013. Other of Hollywood's animation factories such as Filmation, Sunbow Entertainment, Marvel Productions, Rankin/Bass Productions, Rankin/Bass, DIC Entertainment, DIC and Saban Entertainment introduced successful Broadcast syndication#Animated_series, syndicated shows based on licensed properties. While Hanna-Barbera continued to produce for Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons, it no longer dominated the TV animation market and its control over children's programming went down from 80% to 20%. ''

'', adapted from The Smurfs (comics), the Belgian comic of the same name by Peyo, Pierre Culliford (known as Peyo) and centering on a group of tiny blue creatures led by Papa Smurf, premiered on NBC and aired 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. ''Jokebook'', ''The Gary Coleman Show'', ''Shirt Tales'', ''Pac-Man (TV series), Pac-Man'', ''The Little Rascals (animated TV series), The Little Rascals'', ''The Dukes (TV series), The Dukes'', ''Monchhichis (TV series), Monchhichis'', ''The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show'' and ''The Biskitts'' were aired in 1982 and 1983. Following an animation strike in 1982, more of Hanna and Barbera's shows were outsourced to studios outside of the United States. Cuckoo's Nest Studios, Mr. Big Cartoons, Toei Animation and Fil-Cartoons in Australia and Asia provided production services to Hanna-Barbera from 1982 through to the end of its existence. ''The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries'', ''Snorks'', ''Challenge of the GoBots'', ''Pink Panther and Sons'', ''Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show'', ''The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians'', ''The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo'', ''Yogi's Treasure Hunt'', ''Galtar and the Golden Lance'', ''Paw Paws'' and new episodes of ''The Jetsons'' premiered in 1984 and 1985. ''The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible'' debuted while in 1986 and 1987, The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, new episodes of ''Jonny Quest'', ''Pound Puppies (1986 TV series), Pound Puppies'', ''The Flintstone Kids'', ''Foofur'', ''Wildfire (1986 TV series), Wildfire'', ''Sky Commanders'' and ''Popeye and Son'' premiered. Taft's financial troubles were affecting Hanna-Barbera, leading to its acquirement by the American Financial Corporation in 1987 and renamed Taft to Great American Broadcasting the next year. ''A Pup Named Scooby-Doo'', ''The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley'', The New Yogi Bear Show, new episodes of ''Yogi Bear'', ''Fantastic Max'', ''The Further Adventures of SuperTed'' and ''Paddington Bear (TV series), Paddington Bear'' followed in 1988 and 1989. Great American sold Worldvision to Spelling Television, Aaron Spelling Productions, while Hanna-Barbera and its library remained with them. In January 1989, while working on ''A Pup Named Scooby-Doo'', Tom Ruegger got a call from Warner Bros. to resurrect its animation department. Ruegger, along with several of his colleagues, left Hanna-Barbera at that time to develop new programs such as ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' and ''Animaniacs'' at Warner Bros. David Kirschner, known for ''An American Tail'' and ''Child's Play (1988 film), Child's Play'', was later appointed as the new CEO of Hanna-Barbera. In 1990, while Kirschner and the studio formed Bedrock Productions, Great American put Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears, up for sale after being less successful and burdened in debt. New shows ''Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone'', ''Gravedale High, Rick Moranis in Gravedale High'', ''Tom & Jerry Kids'', ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures (1990 TV series), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures'', ''The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda'' and ''Wake, Rattle, and Roll'' first aired that year. ''Young Robin Hood'', ''The Pirates of Dark Water'' and ''Yo Yogi!'' would follow in 1991.

Acquisition by Turner and absorption into Warner Bros. Animation (1991–2001)

Turner Broadcasting System outbid MCA Inc., MCA (then-parent company of Universal Pictures), Hallmark Cards and other major companies in acquiring Hanna-Barbera while also purchasing Ruby-Spears as well. The two studios were acquired in a 50-50 joint venture between Turner Broadcasting System and Apollo Investment Fund for $320 million. Turner purchased these assets to launch a then-new all-animation network aimed at children and younger audiences which would be called

. Scott Sassa hired Fred Seibert to head Hanna-Barbera, who filled the gap left by Great American's production crew with new animators, directors, producers and writers, including Craig McCracken, Donovan Cook, Genndy Tartakovsky, David Feiss, Seth MacFarlane, Van Partible and Butch Hartman. Following its new name H-B Production Company and ''Fish Police (TV series), Fish Police'', ''Capitol Critters'' and The Addams Family (1992 animated series), new episodes of ''The Addams Family'' for broadcast, Cartoon Network launched in 1992 and became the first 24-hour all-animation channel, to air its library of cartoon classics, of which Hanna-Barbera was the core contributor. In 1993, the studio again renamed itself to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. (though the Hanna-Barbera Productions name was still used in regards to the pre-1992 properties) and while Turner acquired its remaining interests from Apollo Investment Fund for $255 million, ''Droopy, Master Detective'', ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers, The New Adventures of Captain Planet'', ''SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron'' and ''2 Stupid Dogs'' emerged that year. Turner refocused the studio to produce new shows exclusively for its networks. In 1995, while Bruce Johnson left Hanna-Barbera as executive vice president to start out PorchLight Entertainment, ABC aired ''Dumb and Dumber (TV series), Dumb and Dumber'' while Seibert launched ''What a Cartoon!'' for Cartoon Network. During 1996, ''Dexter's Laboratory'', ''The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest'' and ''Cave Kids'' premiered while Turner merged with WarnerMedia, Time Warner (then WarnerMedia, now Warner Bros. Discovery). ''Johnny Bravo'', ''Cow and Chicken'' and ''The Powerpuff Girls'' made their debuts in 1997 and 1998. After 35 years of being headquartered at Cahuenga Boulevard since 1963, Hanna-Barbera moved to Sherman Oaks Galleria in Sherman Oaks, California where Warner Bros. Animation was located and operated alongside it until its absorption in 2001. Cartoon Network Studios, led by former DiC and Nickelodeon production executives Brian A. Miller and Jennifer Pelphrey, was revived and took over production of programming, after moving to an abandoned telephone exchange in Burbank. Hanna died on March 22, 2001, at the age of 90 years old. The Cahuenga Blvd. studio faced demolition after many of the Hanna-Barbera staff and performers vacated the facilities in 1997, despite the efforts of Barbera and the others to preserve it. In May 2004, the Los Angeles City Council approved a plan to preserve the headquarters, while allowing retail and residential development on the site.

Succession and legacy-based properties (2001–present)

Barbera continued to be involved in the production of new Hanna-Barbera material until his death on December 18, 2006 at the age of 95 years old. Warner Bros. Animation continues to produce new productions based on the legacy properties of Hanna-Barbera since then. Warner Bros. has released several theatrical films based on Hanna-Barbera properties since 2002. Most recently, ''Scoob!'' came out on May 15, 2020, which is intended to be the first installment of a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe. Warner Animation Group also has an animated ''The Jetsons'' film, an animated ''The Flintstones'' film and an animated ''Wacky Races'' film in development, along with more new content. On April 7, 2021, Cartoon Network Studios Europe rebranded as Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe to revive the name. After Warner Bros. Discovery was established through the corporate spin-off, spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T and merge with Discovery, Inc., Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation consolidated their development and production teams as part of a restructuring by Warner Bros. Television, with Audrey Diehl overseeing kids and family, Peter Girardi overseeing adult animation and Sammy Perlmutter overseeing animated long-form productions. Among the legacy Hanna-Barbera properties, the merger does not impact their output as labels, with Cartoon Network Studios continuing to focus on original content and Warner Bros. Animation used for classic franchises.

Production

Production process changes

The small budgets that television animation producers had to work within prevented Hanna-Barbera from working with the full theatrical-quality animation that Hanna and Barbera 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 were required to produce five-minute ''Ruff and Reddy'' episodes for no more than $3,000 apiece.Hanna, William and Ito, Tom (1999). ''A Cast of Friends''. New York: Da Capo Press. 0306-80917-6. Pg. 81–83 To keep within these tighter budgets, Hanna-Barbera furthered the concept of limited animation (also called "planned 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) were animated. The rest of the figure remained on a held animation cel. This allowed a typical seven-minute short to be done with only nearly 2,000 drawings instead of the usual 14,000. Dialogue, music, and sound effects were emphasized over action, leading Chuck Jones—a contemporary who worked for

and whose 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". 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. An executive who worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions said, "We don't even consider [them] competition".(December 2, 1961)
TV'S Most Unexpected Hit – ''The Flintstones''
" ''The Saturday Evening Post'' Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman argues that Hanna-Barbera attempted to maximize their Net income, 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 reused it in subsequent series. Besides copying their own works, Hanna-Barbera drew inspiration from the works of other people and studios. Lehman considers that the studio served as the main example of how animation studios that 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. 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 necessary. Its solution to the criticism over its quality was to go into films. It produced six theatrical feature films, among them are higher-quality versions of its television cartoons and adaptations of other material. It was also one of the first animation studios to have their work produced overseas. One of these companies was a subsidiary began by Hanna-Barbera in November 1987 called Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines, with Jerry Smith as a consultant for the subsidiary. Wang Film Productions got its start as an overseas facility for the studio in 1978.

Digital innovation

Hanna-Barbera was among the first animation studios to incorporate digital tools into their pipeline. As early as the 1970s, they experimented with using Scanimate, a video synthesizer, to create an early form of digital cutout animation, cutout style or Flash animation. A clip of artists using the machine to manipulate scanned images of ''Scooby-Doo'' characters, scaling and warping the artwork to simulate animation, is available at the Internet Archive. Likewise, Hanna-Barbera was perhaps the first proponent of digital ink and paint, a process wherein animators' drawings were scanned into computers and colored using software. Led by Marc Levoy, Hanna-Barbera began developing a computerized digital ink and paint system in 1979 to help bypass much of the time-consuming labor of painting and photographing cels. The process was implemented on a third of Hanna-Barbera's animated programs, televised feature films and specials from 1984 through 1996.

Sound effects

Hanna-Barbera was known for its large library of sound effects, which have been featured in exhibitions at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Ownership

After Hanna-Barbera's partnership with Screen Gems ended in 1966, it was sold to Taft Broadcasting where it remained its owner until 1991 when Turner Broadcasting System acquired the studio and its library for its flagship network, Cartoon Network. In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, then WarnerMedia, now Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio was separated from Cartoon Network Studios and absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation in 2001. Since its closure, Warner Bros. has continued to produce new material and programming based on its classic intellectual property and the classic Hanna-Barbera logo occasionally appears.

Filmography

References

Notes Bibliography * * * * * Lawrence, Guy (2006)
Yogi Bear's Nuggets: A Hanna-Barbera 45 Guide
Spectropop.com. *

External links

*
The Big Cartoon Database: Hanna-Barbera Studios Directory
* {{authority control Hanna-Barbera 1957 establishments in California 2001 disestablishments in California 1966 mergers and acquisitions 1987 mergers and acquisitions 1991 mergers and acquisitions 1996 mergers and acquisitions American animation studios American companies disestablished in 2001 American companies established in 1957 Annie Award winners Companies based in Los Angeles Entertainment companies based in California Entertainment companies disestablished in 2001 Entertainment companies established in 1957 Film production companies of the United States Filmmaking duos Mass media companies disestablished in 2001 Mass media companies established in 1957 Taft Broadcasting Turner Broadcasting System Television production companies of the United States Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Discovery