Joe Barbera Dies

Posted:
Dec 18, 2006

Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.
Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

The partners, who had first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."

Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons." Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.

"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year - without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.

"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.

Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."

The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.

Jerry was borrowed for the mostly live-action musical "Anchors Aweigh," dancing with Gene Kelly in a scene that become a screen classic.

After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves. With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed - and expensive - action featured in theatrical cartoon.

Like "The Simpsons" three decades later, "The Flintstones" found success in prime-time TV by not limiting its reach to children. The program, a parody of "The Honeymooners," was among the 20 most popular shows on television during the 1960-61 season, and Fred's shout of "yabba dabba doo!" entered the language.
The Jetsons, which debuted in 1962, were the futuristic mirror image of the Flintstones.

"It was a family comedy with everyday situations and problems that we window-dressed with gimmicks and inventions," Barbera once said. "Our stories were such a contrast to many of the animated series that are straight destruction and blasting away for a solid half-hour."

The show ran just one season on network TV but was often rerun, and the characters were revived in the 1980s in a syndicated show. Barbera said he liked the freedom syndication gave the producers, with none of the meddling from network executives.

"Today, Charlie Chaplin couldn't get his material by a network," he once said.

Even so, the influence of Hanna-Barbera was felt for decades. In 2002 and again in 2004, characters from the cartoon series "Scooby-Doo" were brought to the big screen in films that combined live actors and animation.

Hanna-Barbera, meanwhile, received eight Emmys, including the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1988.

"Joe Barbara was a passionate storyteller and a creative genius who, along with his late partner Bill Hanna, helped pioneer the world of animation," said friend, colleague and Warner animation President Sander Schwartz. "Joe's contributions to both the animation and television industries are without parallel - he has been personally responsible for entertaining countless millions of viewers across the globe."

Neither Hanna, born in 1910, nor Barbera, born in 1911, set out to be cartoonists. Barbera, who grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, originally went into banking. Soon, however, he turned his doodles into magazine cartoons and then into a job as an animator.

Hanna, who had studied engineering and journalism, originally went into animation because he needed a job.
Although not the hit factory it was in the '50s and '60s, the Hanna-Barbera studio remained active through the years. It eventually became a subsidiary of Great American Communications Co., and in 1991 it was purchased by a partnership including Turner Broadcasting System, which used the studio's library when it launched cable TV's Cartoon Network in 1992. Turner is now part of Time Warner.

(Official Release from WB- Thanks Gary!)

Animation legend Joseph Barbera, co-chairman and co-founder of the world renowned Hanna-Barbera Studios, died today at his Studio City, CA home with wife Sheila at his side. He was 95 years old.

"Joe Barbera truly was an animation and television legend," said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. "From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work."

"Joe Barbara was a passionate storyteller and a creative genius who, along with his late partner Bill Hanna, helped pioneer the world of animation," said Sander Schwartz, President, Warner Bros. Animation. "Bill created a landmark television production model and Joe filled it with funny, original show ideas and memorable characters that will stand for all time as his ultimate legacy. Joe's contributions to the both the animation and television industries are without parallel - he has been personally responsible for entertaining countless millions of viewers across the globe. His influences upon generations of animation professionals have been extraordinary. While the Warner Bros. family and the animation community will mourn his departure, we will also celebrate his life and the many lives to which he brought great entertainment. I was inspired to work alongside Joe and I am proud to have had the blessing of his friendship."

Born in the Little Italy section of New York City, New York, on March 24, 1911, Barbera and his partner William Hanna (who passed away in March of 2001) created hundreds of beloved cartoon characters during their 60-plus-year partnership. They enjoyed one of the most enduring and successful relationships in entertainment history and together created some of the world's most recognizable and beloved characters including Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear among many others.

Barbera worked as a New York banker until the 1930's when Collier's Magazine published some of his hand drawn "comics." After studying art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Barbera honed his animation skills at the Van Beuren animation studios in New York. It wasn't until 1937 when Barbera was hired by MGM as as an animator and writer that he met William Hanna, whom MGM had also just hired as a director and story editor. Hanna's precise comedic timing and ability to manage top creative talent were the ideal complement to Barbera's strong animation skills and storytelling instincts.

The pair's first collaboration at MGM was entitled "Puss Gets the Boot," which led to the creation of the immortal Tom and Jerry. The duo won tremendous acclaim in the 1940s when their cartoon cat and mouse danced alongside Gene Kelly in the motion pictures "Anchors Aweigh" and "Invitation to Dance," and alongside Esther Williams in "Dangerous When Wet." Over the years, Tom and Jerry have been honored with seven Academy Awards.

Concerned by the advent of television, MGM eliminated the studio's animation department and, suddenly unemployed, Hanna and Barbera decided to make cartoons directly for the small screen. In 1957, twenty years after the birth of Tom and Jerry, Hanna-Barbera Studios opened its doors as one of the first independent animation studios to produce series television.

The fledgling studio's first production was "The Ruff and Reddy Show" followed by "The Huckleberry Hound Show" in 1958. The lovable blue canine became an immediate hit and won Hanna-Barbera its first Emmy Award, marking the first time an animated television series had been honored with an Emmy. The studio's next series, "The Quick Draw McGraw Show," premiered in 1959 and showcased the lanky, Stetson-wearing horse on two legs, ol' Quick Draw McGraw himself. The series also introduced America to Jellystone Park's most famous bears, Yogi and Boo Boo, and the mischievous mice, Pixie and Dixie.

Breaking new ground became a tradition at the Hanna-Barbera Studios. In 1960, the team created television's first animated "family sitcom," "The Flintstones," a series marked by a number of other firsts -- the first animated series to air in primetime, the first animated series to go beyond the six or seven-minute cartoon format, and the first animated series to feature human characters. "The Flintstones" ran for six years and went on to become the top-ranking animated program in syndication history, with all original 166 episodes currently seen in more than 80 countries worldwide. Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles Flintstone, along with Betty and Barney Rubble are some of Hanna-Barbera's most celebrated classic characters and have spawned spin-off television series, specials and feature films. Hanna and Barbera served as executive producers of 1994's "The Flintstones" feature film and even made a cameo appearance. "The Flintstones" soon paved the way for other primetime cartoons including "The Jetsons," "Top Cat" and "The Adventures of Jonny Quest."

Another popular offering from Hanna-Barbera featured a cowardly Great Dane named Scooby-Doo, who eventually made his own place in television history. The popular series "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" remained in production for 17 years and maintains the title as television's longest-running animated series. In 2002, the character returned with an all-new series aptly-titled "What's New Scooby-Doo?" The popular snack-eating canine has inspired a pair of live-action feature films, and an ongoing series of direct-to-video movies that now numbers in double-digits. As further testament to the character's everlasting appeal, the new series "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" currently airs on Kids' WB! on The CW as the top-rated Saturday morning children's show.

In addition to their award winning animated series, Hanna-Barbera also produced animated feature films including the award-winning "Charlotte's Web," and "Heidi's Song," a full-length animated musical based on Johanna Spyri's novel "Heidi."

In 1981, Hanna-Barbera developed the phenomenally successful "The Smurfs" which won two Daytime Emmy Awards in 1982 and in 1983 for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series and a Humanitas Award (an award given to shows which best affirm the dignity of the human person) in 1987.

After nearly 50 years of making animation magic, Barbera and his partner William Hanna were elected by their peers to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame in 1994. During his 80s and into his 90s, Barbera continued to report to his office regularly, taking an active role in the creation of new Hanna-Barbera projects. In 1992, he served as a creative consultant for the animated feature film "Tom and Jerry - The Movie" and executive produced "Tom and Jerry Kids," the Hanna-Barbera/Fox Children's Network series which ran from 1990 to 1994. In 2000, he lent his voice for a small part in the Tom and Jerry short "The Mansion Cat." The beloved cat and mouse have enjoyed a lengthy career that continues to thrive today. Tom and Jerry have been featured over recent years in several top-selling direct-to-video films and a new television series, "Tom and Jerry Tales," premiered in Fall 2006 to strong broadcast ratings for Kids' WB on The CW.

In 2000, Cartoon Network launched the Boomerang Network, created specifically as a showcase for the Hanna-Barbera library. The popular cable network airs animated programs 24 hours a day, bringing the delights of the Hanna-Barbera legacy to new generations.

Barbera wrote his autobiography, "My Life In Toons" in 1994. He is survived by his wife Sheila, and his three children by a previous marriage -- Jayne, Neal and Lynn.

Very sad news indeed...

I just learned of it from my mom while visiting the folks for dinner, and heaven knows she doesn't pay attention to any cartoons!

For the next week, all ties and collars will be at half-mast.

Believe me, Wile E., people will remember Joe Barbera loooong after they forget about Sander Schwartz.

What's to be remembered is that you didn't have the "H" without the "B" -- and vice-versa. Fred Astaire may have forsaken Ginger Rogers to make the occasional movie with Cyd Charisse or Eleanor Powell as a dance partner. But Hanna without Barbera? Barbera without Hanna? Perish the thought.

As founders of their own studio, they pretty well invented the animated TV sitcom. Yes, Jay Ward had Crusader Rabbit way back in '49, but The Ruff and Reddy Show (the first H-B series for TV) showed what could be done with limited animation, great story lines and funny voiceovers. And the half-hour TV cartoon might never have existed without Bill and Joe, the pioneers.

Hanna-Barbera series were the yardsticks by which their competitors and successors were measured. It would be impossible to think of The Simpsons without The Flintstones, "the modern Stone Age family," with which to compare it.

It is a tribute to Joe Barbera's love of cartoons that, after partner Bill Hanna died in 2001, he still did some work in the genre.

And, in turn, a nice tribute to them would be the release of a sequel to the 1994 Rhino CD Hanna-Barbera Classics, Vol. 1, which contained theme songs ranging from Ruff and Reddy to Scooby-Doo. Volume 2 was promised, but never materialized.

I see Joe, finally taking that long break he was too busy to take, sipping a mint julep (or whatever) in the sky with Bill, laughing about old times and watching some old Ruff and Reddy episodes.


Joseph Roland Barbera
Born March 24, 1911, New York
Died December 18, 2006, Studio City, Los Angeles

pictures say more than words sometimes... Tom & Jerry