Last Wednesday, when I was writing my blog post about finally getting some ribbons at the Altamont Fair Photography Contest, I linked to a YouTube clip that paid tribute to the old Banana Splits Saturday Morning TV show. And it got me to thinking…
I loved watching Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning cartoons. Loved them like I love air. Okay, yeah, there were the great Filmation cartoons, and a DePatie-Freleng cartoon now and again, but you gotta love the Hoyt Curtin orchestrations and the comedic timings and the action shows…
Yes, there were some fantastic cartoons from the HB studios – family sitcoms like The Flintstones and The Jetsons; mystery shows like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You and Josie & the Pussycats; and adventure shows like Jonny Quest and the Pirates of Dark Water.
Hanna-Barbera made a TON of cartoon shows, and not all of them have achieved the kind of adulation and loyalty as did the ones I mentioned above. With that in mind, I want to share ten HB cartoons that have, for better or for worse, fallen through the cracks of time. Some of them were ahead of the game; others were almost cookie-cutter clones of prior HB efforts. Still, it’s time to give them another viewing here. So go get yourself a bowl of Rice Krispies – and since it’s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, pour me a bowl of Fruity Pebbles – and tune in to some long-forgotten treasures from the HB archives.
RUFF AND REDDY
This was actually the first Hanna-Barbera cartoon to make the airwaves. It definitely has that Hanna-Barbera “limited animation” style to it – the same style that was used in everything from Huckleberry Hound to Yogi Bear to Magilla Gorilla.
WHERE’S HUDDLES?
A gentle family comedy, all centered around two football players, their families, and their acerbic neighbor. If the characters sound a lot like the ones from The Flintstones, well, Hanna-Barbera’s stable of voice actors – like Daws Butler, Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Pyl – did a LOT of work for the company.
THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS
This aired in the early 1970’s, and was another Hanna-Barbera “family” comedy, only this time the emphasis was placed on Roman Empire puns. Had a tendency to give me a headachius maximus.
WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME
This was a syndicated Hanna-Barbera cartoon that was supposed to air in prime time, and was supposed to be a more “relevant” series in the same vein as All in the Family.
THE FUNKY PHANTOM
Another Hanna-Barbera “teens solving mysteries” show, but instead of a goofy-looking Great Dane, we have a 200-year-old ghost. Perfect for solving mysteries around the time of the Bicentennial.
JANA OF THE JUNGLE
This was a 30-minute cartoon that appeared in conjunction with Hanna-Barbera’s animated Godzilla series; the cartoon was later shown as its own standalone program. I’m not even going to ask where Jana found a hairstylist and makeup artist in the deepest part of the jungle. Nah. Wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS
This show came out at about the same time as the Transformers cartoon series, and was just completely blown out of the water. Only 65 episodes were produced, and there were some serious continuity errors from one episode to the next. But what can you do these days with a toy-based cartoon series? Maybe that really was the “challenge” of the GoBots.
THE SNORKS
Hey, you remember that cartoon that was sorta based on the Smurfs, that cartoon in which all the characters lived underwater and had lots of adventures? No, not SpongeBob SquarePants… this one.
THESE ARE THE DAYS
You want proof that Saturday morning cartoons aped whatever was popular in prime-time? In 1974, guess what the most popular TV drama was. That’s right, The Waltons. So why not put together a period cartoon about life in pre-World War I Indiana, and call it “These Are The Days“? Probably thinking they couldn’t have animated The Magnificent Ambersons…
RUBIK, THE AMAZING CUBE
Okay… I just need to say this. At one time in my life, I thought this was the worst animated cartoon to ever appear on Saturday morning broadcast television. The worst. And today, nearly 25 years later… my opinion hasn’t changed one single bit.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this digital trip back in time. Now go put away your cereal bowl, get washed up and go outside and play, you’ll miss out on all the sunshine!
Chuck The Writer 
Only one I rmember form those is the Snorks…maybe Gobots…
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I only remember the snorks and rubik.
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The Gobots! Funky Phantom! I remember when …… thanks for the trip down memory lane!
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I remember all of them except for These are the Days.
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I LOOOOVE the Super Friends!
Also, one time at a church camp retreat with my family, we found a video cassette of Bible Adventures or something like that, about a group of kids (and a robot too I think. HB always threw in a robot or a monkey sidekick) that traveled back in time and witnessed all the major bible stories. Us kids got a kick out of how cheesy it was.
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A long-lost Hanna-Barbera show I used to enjoy was “The Space Kidettes.” Not only did I love the title, but the whole idea of kids in space was just a lot of fun.
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Wait till your father gets-until your father gets-wait till your father gets home!
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I remember Wait Until Your Father Gets Home and Funky Phantom (relegated to the 6:00 AM hour weekday mornings on WPIX in the 70’s and early ’80’s). Just need some New Schmoo.
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How about some older cartoon memories….like;
Clutch Cargo where they had a bizarre moving mouth for each character
Johnny Quest
Crusader & Rags
Dudley DooRight
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Are there any other Boomers who remember these and others??
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I actually have a silver GoBot in a drawer at home, with its box.
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Chuck, I thought I was the middle-aged cartoon king, but you dug up a couple even I hadn’t heard of. Wait till your Father Gets Home I think may have been the last Hanna Barbara prime time cartoon. Seth McFarland (Family Guy) also cites it as one of his influences.
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The Funky Phantom as well as other mystery HB cartoon characters recently were on the new Scooby Doo series on CN, which, BTW, is one of the best cartoons around, if you haven’t watched it yet with your children, try it.
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I don’t remember any of them…..oh I feel so uninformed!
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I’m way late on this, but boy, do I remember “Clutch Cargo.” I believe Jay Leno inherited his jaw from Clutch.
Another cartoon called “Space Angel” used the same moving-mouth technique. (And freaked me out just as much.)
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There was a third one of those “Synchro-Vox” cartoons – In addition to Clutch Cargo and Space Angel, the company also produced episodes of Captain Fathom.
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Wow! These are really old cartoon shows. I don’t even remember most of them. I liked Go bots though.
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What I loved about the Snorks when they first came out on NBC was the awesome opening credits where a yacht owner was at a Caribbean Monastery reading the diary of a Officer of a Spanish Armada who was being attacked by Pirates. As his Galleon was sinking He could seen small creatures with snorkles attached on thier heads. The Officer blacked out and if by a miracle He landed on shore of a island with his diary in his hands! But when they came out with new adventures on the syndicated “The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera” There was a dramatic change in the series which included the elimation of one of my favorite characters Dimmy “Don’t Call Me Demetris” Finster a new opening whicjh stunked and a bunch of others that I couldn’t stand and I stopped watching Snorks after that.
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Wait Till Your Father Gets Home lived a second life. Entire soundtrack for each episode was used for animated cartoon based around a family of lions. This one is very seldom mentioned, IMDB has no listing for it and the show has all but been forgotten. I believe it aired around ’76 – ’78. Anyone remember the name?
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The only animated shows I recall that starred lions were “Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch,” which was another HB cartoon.
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