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Hanna-Barbera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hanna–Barbera Productions, Inc.
Former type Private (1957-1967)
Subsidiary (1967–2001)
Fate Absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation and spun off from Cartoon Network Studios
Founded 1957
Founder(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
George Sidney
Defunct 2001
Headquarters Los Angeles, California, USA
Industry Animation
Products Television shows
Theatrical films
Television specials
Direct-to-video films
Television movies
Owner(s) Independent (1957–1967)
Taft Broadcasting (1967–1987)
Great American Broadcasting (1987–1991)
Turner Broadcasting (1991–1996)
Time Warner (1996–2001, 2003-present)
AOL Time Warner (2001-2003)
Parent Warner Bros. (2001-present)
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2009)
Hanna–Barbera Productions, Inc. (also called Hanna–Barbera Cartoons, Inc., H-B Enterprises, Inc., or simply Hanna–Barbera), was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century. The company was originally formed in 1957 by former MGM animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and live-action director George Sidney, in partnership with Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems television division, as H-B Enterprises. [1]
Established after MGM shut down its animation studio in 1957, H-B Enterprises was re-named Hanna–Barbera Productions in 1959. Over the next three decades, the studio produced many successful cartoon shows, including The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Top Cat, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races and The Smurfs. In the mid-1980s, the company's fortunes declined somewhat after the profitability of Saturday morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication.
In 1991, the company was purchased by Turner Broadcasting System. Both Hanna and Barbera went into semi-retirement, yet continued to serve as ceremonial figureheads for the studio, as well as remaining active as producers and sporadically as writers and directors. During the late 1990s, Turner turned Hanna–Barbera towards primarily producing new material for Cartoon Network, the programming for which was originally significantly made up of reruns from the Hanna–Barbera library. During this period, Hanna-Barbera was responsible for most of the successful Cartoon Cartoons shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel and The Powerpuff Girls. In 1994, the company was renamed Hanna–Barbera Cartoons.
In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner. With Bill Hanna's death in 2001, Hanna–Barbera was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation, and Cartoon Network Studios assumed production of Cartoon Network output. Joe Barbera remained with Warner Bros. Animation until his death in 2006. The Hanna–Barbera name and studio is today used only to market properties and productions associated with Hanna–Barbera's "classic" works such as The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo.
History
The beginnings of Hanna–Barbera
Melrose, New Mexico native William Hanna and New York City-born Joseph Barbera first teamed together while working at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio in 1939. Their first directorial project was a cartoon entitled Puss Gets the Boot (1940), which served as the genesis of the popular Tom and Jerry cartoon series. Hanna and Barbera served as the directors and story men for the Tom and Jerry cartoons for seventeen years, winning seven Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) between 1943 and 1953 for their work. By 1956, they had become the producers in charge of the MGM animation studio's output.[2] Outside of their work on the MGM shorts, Hanna and Barbera periodically moonlit to work on outside projects, including the original title sequences and commercials for the television sitcom I Love Lucy.[3]
MGM decided in early 1957 to close down its cartoon studio, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release.[2] Hanna and Barbera, mulling over what to do next while completing the final Tom & Jerry and Droopy cartoons on the production schedule, began producing animated television commercials.[4] During their last year at MGM, they developed a concept for an animated television program entitled The Ruff & Reddy Show, about a dog and cat team who found themselves in various misadventures.[4] After Hanna and Barbera failed to convince MGM to back their venture, live-action director George Sidney, who'd worked with Hanna and Barbera on several of his features (most notably Anchors Aweigh in 1945), offered to serve as their business partner and convinced Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, to set up a deal with the animation producers.[1] Screen Gems took a twenty percent ownership in Hanna and Barbera's new company, H-B Enterprises,[1] and provided working capital to produce Ruff & Reddy. H-B Enterprises opened for business in rented offices on the lot of Kling Studios (formerly Charlie Chaplin Studios) [3] on July 7, 1957, two months after the MGM animation studio closed down.[4]
Sidney and several Screen Gems alumnae became members of H-B's original 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 - as H-B's production staff.[4] The Ruff & Reddy Show, featuring live-action host Jimmy Blaine and several older Columbia-owned cartoons as filler, premiered on NBC in December 1957.
In 1958, H-B had their first big success with The Huckleberry Hound Show, a syndicated series aired in most markets just before primetime. The program was a ratings success, and introduced a new crop of cartoon stars to audiences, in particular Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. The Huckleberry Hound Show won the 1960 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming. The studio began to expand rapidly following the success of Huckleberry Hound, and several animation industry alumnae - in particular former Warner Bros. Cartoons storymen Michael Maltese and Warren Foster, who became H-B's new head writers - joined the staff at this time.[4]
By 1959, H-B Enterprises was reincorporated as Hanna–Barbera Productions, and was slowly becoming a leader in television animation production. After introducing a second syndicated series, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, in 1959, Hanna–Barbera migrated into network primetime production with the animated ABC sitcom The Flintstones in 1960. Loosely based upon the popular live-action sitcom The Honeymooners yet set in a fictionalized stone age of cavemen and dinosaurs, The Flintstones ran for six seasons in prime time on ABC, becoming a ratings and merchandising success.
Hanna–Barbera moved off of the Kling lot in 1963 (by then renamed the Red Skelton Studios), when the Hanna–Barbera Studio, located at 3400 Cahuenga Blvd. in Studio City, California, was opened. This California contemporary office building was designed by architect Arthur Froehlich, its ultra-modern design included a sculpted latticework exterior, moat, fountains, and after later additions, a Jetsons-like tower. The Columbia/Hanna–Barbera partnership lasted until 1967, when Hanna and Barbera sold the studio to Taft Broadcasting while retaining their positions there.
Television cartoons
Hanna–Barbera was one of the first animation studios to successfully produce cartoons especially for television. Until then, cartoons on television consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of theatrical cartoons. During the early and mid-1960s, the studio debuted several new successful programs, among them prime time ABC series such as Top Cat (1961-62), The Jetsons (1962-63), and Jonny Quest (1964-65). New series produced for syndication and Saturday mornings included The Yogi Bear Show (a syndicated spinoff from Huckleberry Hound, 1961-63), The Hanna–Barbera New Cartoon Series featuring Wally Gator (syndicated, 1962-63), The Magilla Gorilla Show (syndicated, 1963-67), and The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (NBC, 1965-67). Hanna–Barbera also produced several television commercials, often starring their own characters, and animated the opening credits for the ABC sitcom Bewitched (the Bewitched characters would appear as guest stars in an episode of The Flintstones).