Buzz
I must admit, although I don't watch TV much anymore, I was absolutely enamored with Hanna-Barbera cartoons as a child. Their colorful animation and light-hearted fun always brought joy to my weekends. I fondly recall spending early mornings in front of the TV, eagerly awaiting my favorite shows before heading out to play. These cartoons offered pure, innocent entertainment without the adult themes so common today. This selection represents some of my all-time favorites and truly the best of the bunch. I hope this list brings as much nostalgia and joy to you as it did to me.
10. The Herculoids
The Herculoids fought valiantly to protect their home planet from threats both local and extraterrestrial. Each member of this team displayed intelligence on par with humans, with Zandor and Tarra even mastering complex alien technologies and piloting interstellar spacecraft. Although their companions’ speech was minimal and repetitive, it was clear that Gloop and Gleep, along with the rest, had their own system of communication that went beyond the simple phrases they often expressed. This creative economy of voice work, which reused brief recordings from just a few actors, was part of Hanna-Barbera's cost-effective approach to animation.
9. The Quick Draw McGraw Show
Quick Draw McGraw, the anthropomorphic horse character, was the third animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, following the success of The Ruff & Reddy Show and The Huckleberry Hound Show. It premiered in 1959. In this series, Quick Draw took on the role of a sheriff in the American Old West, with episodes typically running for around six minutes, allowing for four stories to fit into a half-hour time slot, including commercial breaks. Quick Draw was often accompanied by his trusty sidekick, Baba Looey, a Mexican burro who spoke with a Mexican accent. The show humorously parodied the Western genre, which was immensely popular in the United States at the time, with Quick Draw being a kind-hearted but somewhat dim-witted character.
8. The Huckleberry Hound Show
The Huckleberry Hound Show, one of Hanna-Barbera's earliest animated series, debuted in 1958 and ran for 69 episodes. This show played a pivotal role in making Hanna-Barbera a household name and is often credited with helping to establish television animation as a legitimate form of entertainment. It earned an Emmy Award in 1961. The program featured three distinct segments: one starring Huckleberry Hound, another featuring Yogi Bear and his companion Boo Boo, and the third following the antics of Pixie and Dixie, two mischievous mice who repeatedly outwitted the cat Mr. Jinks.
7. Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear first appeared in 1958 as a supporting character on The Huckleberry Hound Show. He became Hanna-Barbera's first breakout star and eventually surpassed Huckleberry Hound in popularity. By 1961, Yogi was given his own show, The Yogi Bear Show, which also featured the characters Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle. Yogi was one of several Hanna-Barbera characters to be designed with a collar, a feature that allowed animators to keep the body static while only redrawing the head for each speaking frame, reducing the number of drawings required for a seven-minute cartoon from 14,000 to about 2,000.
6. Johnny Quest
Jonny Quest follows a young boy who embarks on incredible adventures alongside his father. Unlike earlier Hanna-Barbera cartoons, it featured more intense violence, which helped to create a greater sense of suspense and impact. This was Hanna-Barbera’s first action-packed adventure series, airing on ABC in prime time for one season from 1964 to 1965. The show was inspired by the James Bond film Dr. No, and its visual style was notable for blending realistic human figures and objects with limited animation techniques. The series relied heavily on rich musical scores, sound effects for offscreen actions, reaction shots, cycling animations, dissolves between scenes, and concise dialogue to move the narrative forward, reducing the need for extensive new animation.
5. The Jetsons
The Jetsons
4. Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry revolved around the relentless feud between a housecat, Tom, and a mouse, Jerry. Their constant chases and encounters were filled with slapstick comedy and exaggerated violence. Between 1940 and 1957, Hanna and Barbera wrote and directed 114 Tom and Jerry cartoons at the MGM animation studio in Hollywood, California, until the animation unit was shut down. The original series is particularly renowned for winning the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) a remarkable seven times. Over the years, the name Tom and Jerry became almost synonymous with the concept of a never-ending rivalry, much like the “cat and mouse fight” metaphor it inspired.
3. The Flintstones
The Flintstones follows the life of a working-class man in the Stone Age, his family, and his next-door neighbor and best friend. The show has often been compared to a prehistoric version of The Honeymooners, and its charm lies in its clever blending of modern-day issues with a Stone Age backdrop. As the first prime-time animated series aimed at adults, it aired on ABC from 1960 to 1966. The show is an allegory of mid-20th-century American society, portraying a fantasy past where dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other extinct animals coexist with cavemen. These cavemen use technology resembling that of the 1950s and 1960s, but made from prehistoric materials, often powered by animals.
Notable Omissions: Top Cat, Captain Caveman, Space Ghost, Birdman, and the Snorks
This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from Wikipedia.
2. The Smurfs
The Smurfs, an American animated television series, originally aired on NBC from 1981 to 1990. Created by Hanna-Barbera and inspired by the Belgian comic series The Smurfs by Peyo, the show spanned 256 episodes and featured 421 stories. It was a significant success for NBC, leading to numerous spin-off specials every year. The series earned several Daytime Emmy nominations and won the Outstanding Children’s Entertainment Series award in 1982–1983. The Smurfs continued to captivate audiences until its cancellation in 1990, following a decline in viewership after nearly a decade of popularity.
1. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was the first version of the beloved Hanna-Barbera animated series that became a staple of Saturday morning cartoons. Premiering on September 13, 1969, at 10:30 a.m. EST on CBS, it ran for two seasons, with each episode lasting half an hour. The show quickly became a hit, leading Hanna-Barbera and CBS to introduce additional similar cartoons like Josie and the Pussycats, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, The Funky Phantom, Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. The episodes followed a simple formula: the gang would break down near a spooky building, search for clues, solve the mystery, and move on. Despite its repetitive nature, the show was immensely popular, far surpassing later series, especially the version featuring the irritating Scrappy-Doo, Scooby’s nephew.
