Tuesday, December 19, 2006

You Will Be Missed, Sir!

A very “influential” part of my childhood passed away yesterday. That’s right – I’m talkin’ about Joe Barbera … part of Hanna-Barbera … the man who helped create such cartoon legends as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound. I know, I know, most of today’s kids probably have no idea who these icons of the “Technicolor” screen are … and maybe they have an idea who the Flintstones were/are. But, I watched these cartoons daily as a youngster. So, in your honor, Mr. Barbera, I will do a top-5 list of my favorite Hanna-Barbera Characters:

5. Yogi Bear always made me laugh. He was an interesting character in that he was always outsmarting the ranger, but always seemed to be outsmarted by everyone else. Of course, everyone remembers his famous tag-line, “I’m smarter than the average bear!.” However, he never seemed to be smarter than the average bee, as he always seemed to be getting stung in his “bear” ass.

4. I’ve probably seen just about every incarnation of Tom and Jerry. However, my favorite ones were the ones with the old maid in them … you probably can’t remember these, because in this PC world, they have “creatively” edited her out. I’m sure the idea was that this was good for society … but basically, they ripped that part of my childhood away from me.

3. The Flintstones, as most “older” people probably know, were a blatant rip-off of the Honeymooners. In my mind, that never took away from the cartoon, though. Something I just found out today was that this cartoon was originally run during prime-time hours, much like the Simpsons and Family Guy. My question is, when the Simpsons finally wraps up, will people in 20 or 30 years realize it was a primetime cartoon? Damn, that Kazoo (or however you spell it).

2. The Wacky Racers – This one is probably not well known, but as a child, I couldn’t get enough of this cartoon. Every episode, there was a car (or plane) race with the same characters – and every week a different character won. Some of the better known characters included Penelope Pitstop, Dick Dastardly (who always cheated, but never won), and the Gruesome Twosome. Dastardly’s dog, Mutley, was my favorite.

Without a doubt, my favorite cartoon was Quickdraw McGraw, especially the ones in which he would turn into his alter-ego, “El-Kabong!” Basically, he would go after bad guys and smack them over the head with a guitar. If you tell me that Mr. Barbera never partook in drugs, this would be my biggest “evidence” to prove he did. What a genius!


Please, list any cartoons that you liked. I left off a big one, Scooby Doo, I know. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the cartoon, but that whole Scrappy Doo season killed it for me.

11 comments:

Jeff said...

Today Yogi gets the pic-a-nic basket from the Ranger.

Hong Kong Phooey was awesome.

Karl once watched the Wacky Racers, and now is a Racy W...

(Jeez, you gotta stop setting me up like that.)

Christina_the_wench said...

Paramount Kings Island in Cincy has to be in mourning right now. They had/have Hanna Barbera land. Was way cool.

RIP.

Eric said...

When I was a kid there was something, I forget the actual title, but it was basically all the Hanna-Barbera charecters competing in a cartoon olympics. My favorites were Hong Kong Phooey, Grape Ape, and that talking dune buggy thing.

Fairmaiden327 said...

Mighty Mouse - all time best.

El Padrino said...

scooby doo is king

Superstar said...

I always liked that wiley cat that snickered....HHHHHHHEEEEEEHHHHHEEEEE from the lungs....

Scooby Doo is my #1 Nieces fav...When we need her to act appropriately we threaten her w/ the..."if you want to watch Scooby doo..."

Los said...

Jeff - Hong Kong Phooey was good stuff as well, as was Captain Cavemnan.

CHristina - I may have to make a pilgrimage there someday.

Eric - Laugh-olympics was the title, I believe.

FM - Not sure if Mighty Mouse was a Hanna Barbera production.

ELP - I enjoyed Scooby. There was a remake of sorts called the Scooby Doo kids, and that was hysterical.

Superstar - Mutley did the same kind of laugh - it was great!

mollymcmo said...

i like scooby snacks

we had a hanna barbera land around here too, like christina said ours was way cool too

m

Kristin said...

omg... Scrappy Doo sucked ass! He ruined those meddlin' kids for me forever!

Fairmaiden327 said...

You asked for fave Los, you didn't say fave Hanna Barbera.

-B- said...

The Wacky Racers were great - they need to make more. I think there was a game for the Dreamcast - maybe the PS2??

Oh, and those sound FX in the HB cartoons were genious!!