Last year was the 50th anniversary of the founding of Hanna-Barbera Studios — a fact which insofar as I can tell went absolutely unnoticed. I mentioned it on a panel at the Comic-Con International last July and a lot of people looked amazed that there had been no articles, no specials, no commemoration of the birth of a company that employed so many people, produced so many shows, meant so much to so many childhoods. This may be the first time it has been noted on the Internet…and even I'm a year late.
But I'm not too late to mention this: Today is the 50th anniversary of the debut of The Huckleberry Hound Show, the second H-B series. (The first was, of course, Ruff 'n' Reddy.) At least, the official date was October 2, 1958, which was a Thursday. The show was syndicated and aired on different days in some cities…but 10/2 was apparently the first day it was broadcast anywhere. It was the day the world "met" Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Mr. Jinks, Pixie and Dixie.
The Huckleberry Hound Show was the first animated series to win an Emmy Award. Of greater significance is that it was what put Hanna-Barbera on the map and established the beachhead for animation on television. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera are often credited with inventing the whole notion of TV cartoons, thereby saving the animation business when the theatrical market fell apart. A more accurate assessment might be that they showed everyone how it could be done, both in terms of production technique and marketing. The endeavor that really demonstrated this was Huckleberry Hound.
And of course, the most important aspect of it all is that this was my favorite show when I was six, which I was in 1958. The local kids' shows in L.A. ran hoary theatrical cartoons, most of which were fine and most of which I had memorized by age five, World War II references and all. Huckleberry Hound was all new and all modern and even though the animation itself wasn't as wonderful as it was in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, that failing didn't matter to a six-year-old kid watching on a black-and-white Zenith with a small screen and fuzzy reception. In many regards, the simpler H-B graphics "read" better on the small screen.
They got away with the spartan animation because the stories were clever and also because Bill and Joe had an awesome secret weapon: The voice talents of a genius named Daws Butler. Daws was Huck, Yogi, Mr. Jinks, Dixie and many of the supporting players. Add in the considerable skills of co-vocalist Don Messick and you had more personality and humor than could be found in a lot of fully-animated productions. Later H-B shows would point up the shortcomings of their limited approach, and of course a lot of later H-B shows were simply not done very well. But I don't think it's just nostalgia for a childhood fave that causes me to still enjoy those cartoons. They really were pretty funny.
A couple of generations grew up on Hanna-Barbera shows, loving whatever was current when they were six the way I loved Huckleberry Hound. I know a lot of people care passionately about this work. What I can't understand is why the big five-oh was a stealth anniversary, unmentioned by darn near anyone.
Here's the opening of the first Huckleberry Hound show, pretty much as it looked on my little TV fifty years ago today. In fact, the screen is just about the same size…