Stu Shostak's got a real good interviewee for today's (Wednesday's) edition of Stu's Show. It's Tony Benedict, who was one of the best writers at Hanna-Barbera in the sixties and he also worked for Disney, U.P.A. and other studios. He worked on a lot of shows but I'm most impressed that he not only wrote The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Top Cat but many of the best episodes of those series — a real smart guy and real funny guy. As a co-host, Stu has Jerry Eisenberg, who worked on all those shows and others, and who was one of H-B's best artists.
This is not a show you should miss if you're interested in the history of that studio and others that did animation in the fifties and sixties. Tony is a vital link and we're hoping he'll soon finish a documentary he's been working on about those days. I'm sure Stu will be asking him about that. He'll probably also be asking about a feature that Tony wrote, directed and produced. I'll tell you a little bit about that and give you a chance to see it in a moment but first, let me tell you how to listen to Stu's Show.
It's as close as the computer you're reading this on right now. If you can hear audio on the videos I embed, you can listen to Stu's Show. In fact, there are two ways you can listen to Stu's Show…
You can listen to it live. This is the best way because it has that feeling of immediacy and you can submit questions during the broadcast…and best of all, it's free. Just go to the Stu's Show website at the appropriate time and click where you're told to click…and the show will stream through your speakers. Simple. It starts at 4 PM Pacific Time, which is 7 PM Eastern Time and other times in other climes. It runs a minimum of two hours and sometimes goes way, way over. I have a feeling today's will run way, way over.
Or for a small fee, you can download the episode and listen to it at your leisure. In fact, there are hundreds of Stu's Shows you can do that with and you save money if you get four at a time. One is 99 cents but buy three and get a fourth one free. Today's episode will available not long after the show concludes. Just go to the same website and visit the Stu's Show Archives.
Now then. In 1970, Tony set out on his own and made this animated feature, Santa and the Three Bears. If some of it looks rather Hanna-Barbera-like, it's because he employed a number of folks he knew from the studio and some were even moonlighting. It's a charming film that never got the attention it deserved. This is not a very good copy of it and it's missing a live-action opening with some of the credits that are in some prints and not others. You may have seen this long ago so here it is to jog your memory. Tony will be talking about it on Stu's Show tomorrow, along with all these other topics. Stu, you've got a lot of history to cover…