Dirt Nap City

Who Were Hanna-Barbera?

• Dirt Nap City • Season 3 • Episode 36

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Despite the name, Hanna Barbera was not the name of a character on a 1990's Disney show, nor was it a female wrestler from the 1920's - in fact Hanna-Barbera is the name of the company founded by two cartoonists, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, who made many of the cartoons that Americans grew up on in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. 

Scooby Doo? Yes. The Flinstones? Check. The Jetsons? Of course. Even the Smurfs! And there were many, many other cartoons that are still popular with children and adults today. 

But who were these two men behind some of the biggest cartoons on television? 
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, voice actor, and occasional musician. Joseph Roland Barbera was an Italian American, amateur boxer and talented artist. Together, they are best known for co-creating Tom and Jerry among many other cartoons that became staples of Saturday mornings for many children.

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Alex:

Hello, everybody and happy New Year to everybody. Happy New Year, Kelly.

Kelly:

Thanks, Alex. Happy New Year to you 2024. I can't believe we made it. We

Alex:

made it. And not only do we make it to 2024, but we made it to season three. Can you believe

Kelly:

Dude, it feels like we just started it feels like we're still in the land of Andre the

Alex:

season one was nine episodes started with Andre the Giant Colonel Sanders and Houdini. And episodes and season two? Well,

Kelly:

that kind of makes sense. Because we did them every other week. And we pretty much did the be is that right? Two weeks in a year? So 26?

Alex:

So that's 34 episodes, about 32 Different people because rock and roll was about several

Kelly:

One and then St. Nicholas was also a team sport, so we didn't. Oh, yeah. But I guess it

Alex:

I thought you were gonna say because St. Nick is also Father Christmas. And it's like 11 right. ever listen to the same Nick. It's not too late. Even though it's after Christmas, you can can get ahead for next year. Yeah, definitely. Well, before I get started on who I want to talk you. So about 10 years ago, Wired Magazine decided they wanted to figure out how many famous people

Kelly:

I love wired, though. Yeah.

Alex:

So how would you go about if you wanted to figure out how many famous people there were? How age? Yeah, this is well, this is 10 years ago. So yeah, sure. Same methodology today, I'd say.

Kelly:

Yeah, I'd say social media.

Alex:

Kind of Yeah. So they they figured out, they just look to see how many. They went to Wikipedia. Wikipedia.

Kelly:

But don't ever never use the.

Alex:

So on live Wikipedia, you can actually click on living people. And they'll tell you all the time, this was 2013. There were 604,000 Living p 604,174. Living people on we meaning that had a individual people that had a wick, not Wikipedia pages, but people that had Wikipedia pages. So take. So then they extrapolated that and figured well, at that rate, or at that proportion, there 28,000 famous people they miss meaning they have a Wikipedia page living in the US. Okay,

Kelly:

yeah, that that's really, that's seems like a low number 28,000

Alex:

famous people that are alive.

Kelly:

Out of what 330 million people? Yeah, in the US. You

Alex:

think there's more famous people than that? Alright, name of let's go.

Kelly:

Alright, hold on. So

Alex:

they said if you include dead people, and this is where we come in. This is our baileywick interesting dead people. There's they said, if you include dead people, there's about 100,000 people, people eligible for this show.

Kelly:

Really, and that was 10

Alex:

years ago and think of all the people that have died. Yeah. And we haven't actually we've Can you name three?

Kelly:

non-famous? Nope. People that aren't American famous, famous Americans, not Americans. we that we've done? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let me see. I'm going back that that. Well, Andre, the in the US eventually. We did Shackleton he was English. Sure you And we did. Trying to think of Springer was actually born in

Alex:

Yeah, that's that's a reach but sure chef prior he was he was born in England. Chef St. Valentine? Sure, Mother Teresa. Henry the eighth. Yeah, I

Kelly:

wonder what the I wonder what the proportion of Americans to non Americans is nap city and 1/3 non American. And

Alex:

I was surprised to learn that Julia Child was American. So remember, there's about 70,000 there's been about 10, nine, between nine and 13,000 Wikipedia people that died each year since a bunch of folks. We have to catch up. Yeah. And you know, at this clip that we're going every So today, I'm going to double my efforts. And I'm going to talk about to people. I don't know if um, we're going to speed this up. So I'm going to talk about to

Kelly:

people. You've already done that once with the pilgrims. Right. You talked about a whole

Alex:

Well, rock and roll. We talked about a few folks too. I mean, Leonard Skinner alone knocks

Kelly:

Yeah, so two people.

Alex:

Yeah. inextricably linked, though. Like Captain Antonio. Like you never would talk about captain Antonio, Alex and Kelly. No, we're not dead man.

Kelly:

Oh, yeah, I've just I've just given examples of inextricably linked Yeah. Okay. I

Alex:

So let me tell you about these folks. They're inextricably linked. You wouldn't even names. Okay. Okay. And one of the guys was born in 1910. Actually in New Mexico territory, which that was a little interesting tidbit that he wasn't born in, in an American state in 1910. New Los Angeles. The other guy was born in 1911 in New York City and died in 2006 in Los Angeles. Now, Angeles? What probably? entertainers? Yeah, they're entertainers and Dana's in the won Academy, an Academy Award and seven, I think, Emmys and would be known for television. Color of the week that you would watch them on their shows on television. Like Saturday Night Live.

Kelly:

Saturday morning. Oh, I was I was going to Siegfried and Roy originally, but now now it

Alex:

not right. Or they both did. I think we've talked about this before. I think this is not the show.

Kelly:

So Saturday morning TV, two people together. And they were born in the 1910 1911. And they was at a children's show. Sure.

Alex:

Sure. Different lots of different children's shows. On Saturday morning. What did you used to

Kelly:

I mean, I think it was the typical Bugs Bunny Road Runner, Scooby Doo. Oh,

Alex:

oh. Scooby Doo was one of theirs Hanna

Kelly:

Barbera. Hey,

Alex:

I don't know if you thought Hanna Barbera was a one lady but it's two people.

Kelly:

I am Hanna Barbera. Yeah, okay. No, I don't know anything about these guys. Bill

Alex:

and Joe. Bill. Hannah and Joe Barbera. Wow.

Kelly:

Okay. And they they were in Yeah, they did a bunch of Scooby Doo was right up their alley. even see the logo right now. What were some other shows they did? Well, you know

Alex:

They started with Tom and Jerry which I'll I'll talk about that but when we were kids I mean Scooby Doo and later they worked on the, the Smurfs. Wow, lots of Migaila, gorilla, all those

Kelly:

kind of Jabberjaw

Alex:

Jabberjaw you these are the kinds of shows I think at that. I didn't have a lot of respect at were really kind of cheap looking. Compared to like, the Bugs Bunny or definitely Disney stuff. a bunch of it out. Adam and Jonny Quest Josie and the Pussycats Quick Draw McGraw you know, the

Kelly:

of the shows with teenagers solving mysteries.

Alex:

A lot of them yeah, a lot of them Yogi Bear. Yeah. Hey booboo, but definitely the kind of that we used to consume as, as children. And you know, this is kind of my wheelhouse, the things about these guys. So Bill, Bill Hanna, that is he started working. You know, like a lot of these that were born in like the 1910s. They seem to just be 20 years old. And all of a sudden they're are no drove an ambulance. Yeah. Or that's another way to do it. So he started working at Pacific And then from there, the studio that made Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Now, you know, do you Merrie Melodies? They didn't do that. But I just do you know the difference.

Kelly:

I know, I remember both logos. And I think Looney Tunes was more popular or more well known,

Alex:

it was actually the same characters. And I think Looney Tunes was in black and white when it And, but they kind of had the same characters that were made by the same studio. And then once Looney difference they would just put there and those of course weren't for television. They were that was 30s. They would put those up between before movies, you know, they were just shorts that they all your all your favorites. You know, what is what did they call that?

Kelly:

Was there. Was there a word for that? When you went to the movie theater, there was the Oh, previews for other movies, trailers, trailers, yeah. Trailers. Yeah. But but then those early doing that. Again, like Alamo Drafthouse has a bunch of like little clips for mold stuff. Oh,

Alex:

And Pixar has actually started putting those in at the beginning of their, like, they make good. Some of those some of those short ones from Pixar, really

Kelly:

good lamp bouncing around. Yeah, I

Alex:

think that's just a logo thing. And that's not a whole show. But so then he went to that head of ink and paint. He wasn't, he was an artist. But you know, he wasn't probably he was also wrote music. In fact, later on, he was the one that this is Bill now that wrote the theme to MGM. And you can imagine that all those places were kind of probably in the same area in LA, MGM, he had a desk opposite Joseph Barbera. And those two became partners for 60 years. They were were the ones I like the the droopy. Yeah. And those kinds of Yeah, those were some weird ones. the funny part is they each wrote an autobiography. I don't know. I mean, you I'm But it would almost I mean, couldn't be they couldn't cover the same ground probably right?

Kelly:

personal life, maybe outside of work, you know, or, or, or their true feelings about. I lot of it would be like yours would probably focus on how much I interrupt you, right? And then mine when I want to be.

Alex:

I get it. I get it. So these guys worked together for 60 years. They each wrote a guys, though. I mean, they didn't have much in common And they didn't socialize. They were really completely different dudes. Joe Barbera was an artist started as a boxer, like he was like a gold was an artist, and he'd send his his drawings to all the popular magazines when he was a kid like magazines. And he actually one time wrote to Walt Disney for advice. And Disney wrote back and said, phone call actually never happened. But then he ended up going to MGM and sitting right across other. Eventually, they got their own. They got their opportunity to write something together. And 1940.

Kelly:

Yeah, and it's a very 1940s time. Exactly, you really see that you wouldn't see that title

Alex:

push gets the boot. So post gets the boot was, of course, a play on the puzzle boots. And it very, very similar to what you'd see on Tom and Jerry today where the cat is chasing the mouse and Tom and Jerry, I don't think the mouse had a name and that show. And I think the cat's name was Academy Award for Best Short Cartoon in 1940. So this is just to give you some context, this is the this is a long time ago. And then they even coming off an Academy Award nomination, their supervisor and mouse cartoons.

Kelly:

We're done with it. We're done playing cat and mouse with you.

Alex:

And this guy's name was Fred Quimby. And I don't know if he was the inspiration for Mayor was a real sob. He was they said he was kind of like, the principal of the office. He was the no for a cartoon company where they were churning out cartoons.

Kelly:

How do you have no sense of humor and work for a company making cat and mouse videos or other

Alex:

They said this guy had no sense of humor. He didn't even get most of the cartoons. But here's every Tom and Jerry Cartoon. Yeah,

Kelly:

I feel like I saw that. I feel like I've seen that Quimby. Yeah. He

Alex:

was the listed as a producer. And every time they got an award like an Emmy or something like invited Hanna Barbera on stage to accept the award. So he was like the suit. Yeah, he was That wasn't a creative. He didn't he never created anything. But he accepted all the awards and that that. That's like a archetype right? Of the suit that gets in the creative his way would take that's really one of the first that did that. So he says no cat and mouse cartoons, but eventually if he if they had listened to him, we'd have no Tom and Jerry. And Tom and Jerry are pretty. I Barbera stuff a while ago, but Tom and Jerry is pretty good, timeless stuff.

Kelly:

It's iconic. Yeah,

Alex:

it's iconic. It's classic. It's other than Disney. It's probably right up there with I mean, Tom and Jerry. And it's timeless. I mean, it's a story of a cat torturing a mouse, and everything something. it backfires. And he's the one that ends up getting hurt in the mouse gets away.

Kelly:

There's some odd things about Tom and Jerry though, and one of them is tell me if I'm just episodes where Tom's chasing Jerry and you know, trying to catch him and Jerry's, you know, Tom's pans and running into painted mouse holes that aren't really there and smashing his face. Never there were episodes of Tom and Jerry, where they were friends where they were they cooperated and Yeah, yeah. Holding hands and walking together. Was that something that happened later in Tom and

Alex:

No, I think you're right. I think that's I haven't researched this. But now that you say that a symptom of kind of the 70s with the way cartoons are done and they and the look of it got a lot you're right I think even the plots changed. I mean can only do so many right? Yeah,

Kelly:

maybe that was it. They just ran out of, but But you mentioned Quimby as as a as a, a suit I don't I don't think that was the case. I think Mayor Quimby on The Simpsons was inspired by like

Alex:

I just mean the name.

Kelly:

Could be but the well, and this would make more sense, you know, Itchy and Scratchy? Of

Alex:

Yeah, of course. Of course. They actually did 114 shorts of Tom and Jerry. And none of those is the 1940s on film aerials on animal schools, and they even did World War Two training films, beat the Nazis, you know, for soldiers. And Tom and Jerry, one, seven Academy Awards. And sounds

Kelly:

of wondered if Jerry Jarrett, because Jerry was a a term. I don't know if it's a derogatory Germans at the time Jerry was, yeah, G er, like German cheering.

Alex:

I never heard that. Yeah, well, they did that for, you know, good 1520 years, or 17 years. laid everyone off by phone call, which seems very time consuming. Like today, you'd send on an a zoom call where everybody's on it. And we see how that goes. But laying everybody off by a phone I probably know by now, like all my friends would have told me.

Kelly:

Yeah, but how do they I mean, they they can't really call you because they're on another you. They can't email you. They might have telegraphed you.

Alex:

I'm in the EMS, you're in the ss. I get fired. And then I call you right away and go oh,

Kelly:

But you get a busy signal because I'm on the call with the with management tonight. Yeah,

Alex:

because they have to go one by one by one by one. No, you have to go through the NOC. CQRS. decided to go on their own. And they said, Well, we're two people. How do we decide, you know, Hana only would friends? Do they flip the coin? You know? Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Nobody, nobody was the themselves HB enterprises handle one coin flip. And that didn't last very long. And they changed they decided after Tom and Jerry about the cat and mouse was called Rough and Ready, and it was about course. I think rough. Should have been the cat though. That's like that's more mixing it up a Yeah, ready was the cat. So they weren't branching out a whole lot. You know, go into a cat and dog But that was the very first Saturday morning cartoon ever was rough and ready.

Kelly:

They got a sponsorship from like a cereal company or a toy company. Yeah,

Alex:

exactly. And you mentioned cereals and toys. Those were the things that people loved about with the Huckleberry hound show. Remember, we were young? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Kelly:

And he had a southern accent right. He did. He did.

Alex:

Kind of an Alabama accent. He kind of looked he kind of had Yeah, easygoing acts any wear a hat out around the same time. Well, they did a they did a poll in 1960 to find out, you know, who was viewers were adults that were watching Huckleberry hound. And Huckleberry hound, I think was one and were they thought, well, this isn't just for children. So they decided they were going to put sim, the Flintstones.

Kelly:

Yeah, the sim stones.

Alex:

This is 2025 27 years before the Simpsons came in primetime. The Flintstones, which, you honeymooners. The show with Jackie Gleason. It's an absolute ripoff of that show, but it it it ABC. And had a laugh track. And it was in black and white actually to the first two seasons.

Kelly:

I thought it was filmed in like, you know, 6 million BC.

Alex:

Oh, no, it wasn't. No, those were just characters.

Kelly:

Oh, the Oh, the dinosaurs weren't real. Oh, no,

Alex:

no. So 1960 The first two seasons were in black and white. That's how long ago The

Kelly:

And they were sponsored by cigarette company.

Alex:

I think they were at the beginning. Yeah, I think there's Yeah,

Kelly:

I remember that. There's some films of them. You know, Fred and Barney talking about, you

Alex:

And then this was going really well for them. People were watching and you had a laugh the day, like you're honeymooners, Bewitched, and well, honeymooners was a lot earlier than that was like in the 50s. This was a rip off of that, but it was later. Then they came out with the Flintstones, right. So these guys you know, the the day don't get super creative. You know, you go

Kelly:

Found a formula that worked and just went with it. Flintstones

Alex:

is the honeymooners. The Jetsons is the Flintstones, you're right, they came up. And that formulas. But I think it turns out, that's what viewers wanted to they wanted. You know, this was really popular, and people just like to turn it on. And it wasn't like today, when people are whatever's on your watch. And you would literally just look at the TV.

Kelly:

And if you already understood the dynamics and the archetypes and you know, everything that's Fred Fred Flintstone was, then you knew who George Jetson was basically,

Alex:

yeah, but here's the thing, that unlike the Tom and Jerry's, or even a lot of the Disney you think about Steamboat Willie, and things like that, where it's one character basically chasing had plots were character driven. I mean, they weren't real deep, but they had a plot. In fact, that made the show. In fact, later on, when animation became very expensive, that's how they anyways, for them. It was about the story, the plots, and that's so they mimicked what what the

Kelly:

it was probably in some ways cheaper, cheaper to produce those than it was to produce actors, but there's no sets, there's no, pretty much anything they can imagine. They don't have to know, with fake dinosaurs in the background, they can just draw them.

Alex:

And just like The Simpsons, you don't have to have if you have 50 characters in the show that I'm looking at you. Yeah. So you can just have you can just pay one person. So yeah, a lot cheaper 1962. That that was the first ABC show in color. Wow, Flintstones, were still in black and white it that futuristic look. So this was 1962, the Jetsons took place in 2062. Did you know that? No.

Kelly:

So we're actually we're actually coming up on that. Well,

Alex:

in fact, George Jetson was born was 40 years old. He's he says there's an episode where he's at looks like you're gonna live to to be 150. And then George says, Oh, good. I have another 110 Right? Well, if he was 40, that means he was born in 2022.

Kelly:

Wow, so he's NZ. He's

Alex:

He's Gen Z, or baby, whatever. After Gen Z. Maybe. Jane was two years younger. So she was born

Kelly:

This is kind of mind blowing. This year,

Alex:

right? Ga s is the year that James Jetsons born and Elroy was born in 2053. Wow, because he Jetsons. This is crazy, was 1962 and it was 24 episodes. Right. 1962 was season one. Season two those 24 episodes. The one Things that we watched when we were kids. From that we were watching the

Kelly:

over and over and over, they only had one, one episode or one season in the 60s, and they

Alex:

until we were 15. So I know we never saw any of those. And there was 41 episodes in season two

Kelly:

is did they look similar? I think they do. Yeah.

Alex:

Because it's Anna Barbera style.

Kelly:

That's real. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:

Did you know The Jetsons didn't live in space? They lived on earth. They live? They Yeah,

Kelly:

they lived on earth in a in a sort of dome department kind of thing. Like, yeah, well

Alex:

remember, though, if you can picture that they lived in these, these buildings that were the Every one of them Yeah, was like a giant. And they explained it in one of the I don't know if it was to be way up in the sky to escape the smog. So to them or just kept going up and up and up and up something about the smoke. We just kept going higher and higher. And that's why we needed to fly were they were on Earth, but they live basically in the clouds. But I always thought they lived on

Kelly:

Now I knew I knew it was Earth. I knew it was Earth. And it was I mean if you think about Strikes Back, that's kind of the same thing. They're all up in clouds, and it's just all clouds

Alex:

people say that they were they predicted a lot of the future. They had of course they had Yeah, video phones. What else they had robots. Made Rosie

Kelly:

the robot. Yeah, wasn't wasn't Rosie. They're made. And and you remember, I do remember And he comes home. And you know, and I think Didn't he have like a recliner that picked him up And in you know, he gets handed a drink and all the stuff that he comes home and he's like, ah, again. That's all he did was he

Alex:

got the quote here? You write on it? When there was an episode, where he complained of his button on and off as many as five times for three hours? Three days a week? Yeah, yeah. So I love thought that things are getting so advanced that the people of the future will barely have to work. times a day for three hours, three hours, and the rest of the time. Because computers and robots are we're gonna have free time. Of

Kelly:

course, of course, they wouldn't think about the fact that the button could be located at office. Right, perfect. But

Alex:

But we see that a lot about predictions of the future. And we always assume that people in do. And it's never accurate. Right? Well, and it never will be accurate.

Kelly:

There's this weird thing about the about retro future, right? It's like future the way it know, absolutely look of everything the flying cars, the but but so much of it, you know, with cars, but just like everybody being in a flying car, I guess when George was 40, that's about 40 we all will be hovering around and flying cars, they might have been spot on with that. But I and zip to work.

Alex:

It'd be cool if you're the only one that had wound. But imagine if everyone that has a car also the same as it is now but it's 3000 feet in the sky. That would be chaos. Well that's

Kelly:

that's what's going on with Amazon and and drone deliveries and all that stuff. Right now. in the sky, but you have three dimensions to work in instead of just a flat plane, right? So so you from above.

Alex:

I would figure that a drone pilot one a flying car. I should have known that. Yeah. So shows and I mentioned some of the ones oddly enough the one that they seem to make get the most one Smurf episode. That was a little while it came out in 1981. I guess we

Kelly:

were we were sort of middle school in high school. Yeah, you don't watch cartoons and for into the Smurfs and I do I did watch Some episodes and here's the thing all you have to know about would be like Smurfy Smurf Alec Smurf with your smurfing with your Smurf Smurf. So

Alex:

so much for Hanna Barbera being all about dialogue and plot, right? Yeah,

Kelly:

you remember Do you remember there? Do remember the Smurfs? Bad Guy their foil? The guy

Alex:

I would have lost a trivia contest there. What are the artists did not like these guys, was really cheap and because the it was focused on plot and character and not art that there was no Looney Tunes going for a maybe cells go? animation cells go for a lot on these guys too. But you Rockwell of the cartoon world. You know, Howard Norman Rockwell didn't get a lot of respect for a

Kelly:

just cranked out a lot of content. And and it looked cheap. And

Alex:

the technology changed a lot because they were studios were not paying what they were they like in a seven minute cartoon previously would be like 14,000 drawings and a seven minute cartoon down to 2000 drawings. And they would do some of those tricks that we talked about in the Walt put a static background and then have the people move through a static background, that repetitive Simpsons is today. I mean, a lot of this. The animation you see now is just like cannibal bears, Disney Looney Tunes day, it's just too expensive to make. Of course, now it's all digital, but but more similar to Hanna Barbera than it is to the old school cartoons of Warner Brothers for

Kelly:

television cartoons for four, you know, Saturday morning television, cartoons, but, and shows like The Simpsons. But ultimately, though, I think the ones there are still really beautifully the movies, right? They're the Pixar movies. And there's a lot of detail and a lot of things going

Alex:

on in them but and they cost millions of dollars to make. Yes, it's

Kelly:

two different animals, right. It's the difference between, again watching a weekly it's know, to different animals.

Alex:

Well, they sold their company in 1966 for 12 million bucks. And then they remained in charge as 1991. And when it was sold to Turner, for $320 million.

Kelly:

I was gonna say 12 million seems really cheap for the IP behind the Flintstones. I mean, the vitamins. Right? I mean, yeah, right. Flintstones vitamins. Can you name any other

Alex:

I don't understand. They haven't been a Flintstones episode in decades, yet Flintstone

Kelly:

Yeah, yeah, I think that's what kids know them as now.

Alex:

What was cool though, is then those two guys got to work on this film versions of Scooby Doo 2002. And the Flintstones live action that they did in 1994. These guys were working on it. So we did. One thing that I want to note is that friendship. You mentioned Tom and Jerry being They seem to be a running theme of Yogi and Boo Boo friend Barney and Wilma and Betty and they all these guys. Friendships, but they did hang out in different circles that Bill used to hang out with kind of boring guys. Right. Bill Bill was Hannah. You, Bill Hannah. And then Joe used to hang out celebrities like Joshua Gabor. Like he was he ran with that crowd like Merv Griffin and those guys. of work, but they but for 60 years, they worked and maybe that was their secret that they just, over 2000 animated characters and rarely even had an argument. Wow. In 1992, Joe met With Michael movie to get them to do a song for Tom and Jerry, the movie had fell through. They didn't get to do read you what Michael Jackson's autograph to Joe Barbera said, Said, says to my hero of yesterday, many cartoon friends he gave me as a child. They were all I had. Wow. And you know, Michael Jackson Yeah, kind of lost his childhood. And you can picture him like having having those those guys is know, but it's kind of, you know, it's a sad thing to write the cartoons is all you had. But

Kelly:

yeah, yeah. Yeah. So very sad.

Alex:

The only thing I really want to close this with is I started wondering whatever happened to thing anymore, right? No, not. And you could, we could probably list some things that have happened And the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network, right? And those kinds of things. that that, first of all, the rise of Saturday morning cartoons didn't come until the 90s, like slot, just like you mentioned earlier for selling toys and selling cereals. And they were low cost thing about those shows is that kids don't care if they're reruns. You know, adults don't like it kind of like that. Yeah, I've seen this man. It's great. Yeah, exactly. Little kids like repetition. run those primetime shows that the Flintstones and the Jetsons, they would run them on Saturday parents were watching it by themselves, they would watch it on Saturday mornings. And then they would like the Warner Brothers cartoons, they would show those on Saturday mornings as well. And in the kind of pop culture, things at the time, like the Beatles had a cartoon and the Jackson Five and the Pussycats that Hanna Barbera did and do you remember Lancelot link, the chimp, the chimp that

Kelly:

I don't remember how Not really. I remember Hong Kong fusing with eBay. Hanna Barbera

Alex:

leaves a lot Link was not a cartoon. Hong Kong free was Hanna Barbera but Lancelot Link was about a chimp who solved crime. Okay. Oh, you would love that. Wow. And the monkeys actually mornings as well. Well, then, in the 70s they went from kind of music based cartoons to everything you had cartoons, the Brady Bunch had a cartoon Gilligan's Island became Gilligan's planet, and Shirley had a cartoon did they really Dukes of Hazzard at a cartoon, happy days at a cartoon. The everybody in space because of the Jetsons. So like, there was a show called Partridge Family 2200, solving,

Kelly:

solving mysteries and singing songs.

Alex:

It's so funny because they everything just changed from from one style to that style. And popular in the 80s cartoons were all about toys. Then you had the Masters of the Universe, GI Joe that's after us. But that's what happened to cartoons after then. And then during kind of the crack down on these, what they called ei laws, educational information laws that said that in these networks or local stations to have three hours a week of children's educational kind of got away with they kind of went away from that like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an that. But with the Reagan administration, they decided they were really going to crack down on time, remember, and that's when you started seeing things. Well, in the 70s. You started seeing this, these kinds of things, but this ei mandate. And in fact, our friend were Weird Al Yankovic had episodes. And they used to get on him all the time about, you have to make an educational, you have at the beginning of the show, and he would scream. The moral of this, like this show. The moral of

Kelly:

say, What was it a cardio winner? Was it a live action?

Alex:

It was I believe it was a cartoon. Wow, I think it was a cartoon. But yeah, because I think the moral and he's the guy that does all those like Futurama. And although he's a famous voice mandate, these these cartoon people stopped watching this stuff because it was going to be Nickelodeon cartoon network where you could watch cartoons 24 hours a day. Then came VHS, video death of Saturday morning cartoons actually blamed some of it on divorce rates going higher. And now up by the CO parent. And so we weren't just watching cars. I don't know how much you can give roll might not be dead. But definitely Saturday morning cartoons are dead. Yeah. And this might be little bit more of these whatever happened Tuesday, on the off weeks where we're not have little 1015 minute episodes where we talk about whatever happened to so like, Whatever thing anymore? Why doesn't anybody do this thing or whatever happened to these things we used to about a little bit of so people can get their dirt nap city fix. On the off week, we talk about

Kelly:

Customs and sayings and traditions and things like that that are dead. Sure. Should I be anymore?

Alex:

Well, that's Hanna Barbera, buddy.

Kelly:

Wow. I know. It's funny. Definitely two names that I haven't thought of in a long time. Scooby Doo, or when I said Scooby Doo. And then you said yes, that was that was in the right vein. that you say it, I don't think I realized so many of those cartoons were made by the same creators. they have a very similar look. And

Alex:

get churning them out. Yeah, just churning factory, while quantity over quality. Yeah, for lived as really good friends. And they were business partners that never argued. And I think that can last like 60 years without an argument. Yeah. And making a lot of money together. Well,

Kelly:

making making things though that have had stood the test of time in terms of culture, right.

Alex:

they had a very comfortable life, right? I mean, 12 Millions is not nothing to sneeze out. like you said, the IP is crazy. Yeah. I mean, the Flintstones movie probably made more than those

Kelly:

I mean, that was the 1960s. But yeah, it feels like on today's standards, when you start you know, cameos and cereal boxes, and all the stuff that that these faces T shirts that these make your money. You don't make your money on the movies. You make your money on all the licensing

Alex:

Yeah, and I think we talked about that when we talked about Jim Henson.

Kelly:

Yeah, yeah. Wow. And even even I saw the documentary about Bob, the painter, Bob Ross. You even though he's done. Oh, yeah. Well, I enjoyed that. Thanks. Very, uh, to people I would have people that I would never think of to explore, and then explore them very well. So thank you. Thank

Alex:

you. All right. Well, that's episode one of season three. We're not probably going to do 41 not Gonna

Kelly:

wait 30 years to do the next season? Well,

Alex:

you never know. You never know we'll see how this goes see us season three goes maybe with

Kelly:

and and you know if you're wanting it, here it is

Alex:

oh, that was good. It take care everybody. Bye

People on this episode

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Alex Milam

Host
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Kelly Shores

Host