This message will probably only be of interest to you if your cable company or satellite dish brings you Boomerang, which is the channel on which the Cartoon Network people stick anything that's more than about five years old. The schedule includes lots of vintage Warner Brothers cartoons and early Hanna-Barbera shows…or as they call them on Amazon, "Joseph Barbera Masterpieces." There are also occasionally shows that you wouldn't expect to see turn up there, like they're currently running episodes of Batfink. I'll bet a lot of people who read this site — one of whom was the voice of Batfink — would like to see more Batfink episodes.
Lately, Boomerang has been running one of the "lost treasures" of early Hanna-Barbera…Loopy De Loop cartoons. I put "lost treasures" in quotes for two reasons. One was that they were never really lost. They were just never easy to see in the first place. They were cartoons that the studio made wholly for theatrical exhibition…with the same artists and writers and voice folks (Daws Butler was Loopy) and on production budgets that may have been a dollar or two higher than an equivalent TV cartoon. But they were shown in movie houses so I've rarely seen them. I didn't even see them when I was a kid and avidly devouring everything Hanna-Barbera put out. There were 47 or 49 Loopy De Loop cartoons, depending on which source one believes, and they were produced between 1959 and 1965. I've caught maybe a dozen of them, if that many.
And the other reason I put "lost treasures" in quotes is for the "treasures" part. They aren't wonderful cartoons. I don't even think they're up to the standards of the concurrent H-B shows like Quick Draw McGraw or Yogi Bear. Loopy is just not an interesting or funny character.
Still, it's fun to see something from that period you haven't seen before…and you can now see them occasionally on Boomerang, which may be the only place you'll see them for quite some time. Warner Home Video is still balking at putting out the second DVD volume of Huckleberry Hound and they're dragging their feet (or hooves, I guess) on Quick Draw McGraw. There probably isn't a lot of enthusiasm in the place for The Complete Loopy De Loop. So if you care about such things, catch them on Boomerang while you can. They pop up in shows that consist of early H-B shorts, especially Huckleberry Hound. (One is scheduled for tomorrow's episode of Huckleberry Hound.)
Also, I'm on the lookout for maybe the only other early Hanna-Barbera goodie I'd like to see again and have on a DVD. It's the 1966 prime-time special, Alice in Wonderland (or What's A Nice Kid Like You Doing In A Place Like This?) It was written by Bill Dana (who also appears as Jose Jiminez) and has music by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, who wrote some pretty good scores for musicals like Bye Bye Birdie. The voice cast includes Janet Waldo as Alice, most of the other H-B regulars (Daws, Don, Mel, Alan Reed, Howie Morris, etc.) with Sammy Davis Jr. as the Cheshire Cat and Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Queen of Hearts. This was before Zsa Zsa's husband got Anna Nicole Smith pregnant.
I'm told Boomerang runs it every so often but if so, I've managed to miss it. If anyone hears it's going to be on, let me know so I can let everyone else know. Thanks.