I used to work for H-B. Whenever we had company parties, Mr. Hanna always insisted on being the one to serve the cake, and he took great pride in how quickly he could scoop up pieces of cake, put them on plates and hand them to people. He did this with a very fast, jerky motion as if he were a cartoon character himself. It was always a very funny sight. The somewhat gross part was that he used his hand to slide the cake onto the spatula, and always mutilated the cake and got frosting all over himself.
Regarding Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast, it should be noted that when that show was made, Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera were no longer involved in decision-making. That was a production of Turner Broadcasting, which owned H-B at the time, and it was produced in Atlanta without any involvement of the H-B studio.
As to whether H-B cartoons sucked, keep in mind that by 1960, animation in the United States had come to a complete halt due to high costs. Up to that time, most cartoons were shorts made to be shown in movie theaters before the feature, and both MGM and WB decided that they had enough cartoons in their archives that they didn't need to make any more. Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera were the visionaries who realized that people would watch a half-hour cartoon on television, and that the only thing that mattered was that it be funny. They used stylized, limited-motion animation rather than the slick style of MGM or WB because not only was it much cheaper, it was funnier too. That vision has guided the TV animation industry ever since.
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Dexter's Lab and PowerPuff Girls both originated at Hanna-Barbera.
Cartoon Network was formed by Turner Broadcasting, which owned H-B at the time, primarily as a showcase for Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
I used to work for H-B. Whenever we had company parties, Mr. Hanna always insisted on being the one to serve the cake, and he took great pride in how quickly he could scoop up pieces of cake, put them on plates and hand them to people. He did this with a very fast, jerky motion as if he were a cartoon character himself. It was always a very funny sight. The somewhat gross part was that he used his hand to slide the cake onto the spatula, and always mutilated the cake and got frosting all over himself.
Regarding Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast, it should be noted that when that show was made, Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera were no longer involved in decision-making. That was a production of Turner Broadcasting, which owned H-B at the time, and it was produced in Atlanta without any involvement of the H-B studio.
As to whether H-B cartoons sucked, keep in mind that by 1960, animation in the United States had come to a complete halt due to high costs. Up to that time, most cartoons were shorts made to be shown in movie theaters before the feature, and both MGM and WB decided that they had enough cartoons in their archives that they didn't need to make any more. Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera were the visionaries who realized that people would watch a half-hour cartoon on television, and that the only thing that mattered was that it be funny. They used stylized, limited-motion animation rather than the slick style of MGM or WB because not only was it much cheaper, it was funnier too. That vision has guided the TV animation industry ever since.