Teleidoscope

Tue, Dec 19, 2006

Joseph Barbera

Posted at 8:01 pm MST to Media

Joe Barbera, half of Hanna-Barbera, died yesterday. His works were a big part of my childhood, and not just Saturday mornings, though I was a devoted Saturday morning cartoon watcher.

Oddly enough, I don't remember ever watching Scooby-Doo until the past few years, when Cartoon Network seems to go through phases of all Scooby all the time. But there was plenty of other Hanna-Barbera material to watch.

I remember when "The Flintstones" was shown in the evenings. I think there were a couple of other evening cartoon shows before the Saturday morning programming block really developed.

My first exposure to Huckleberry Hound and company was "The Ranger Station" with Ranger Andy, which was an afternoon show for kids on WTIC-TV in Hartford (at Broadcast House at Constitution Plaza where they have the Festival of Lights). Yogi Bear cartoons always seemed to belong on the Ranger Station show.

I think my brother Larry and I were in the studio audience for Ranger Andy once -- or maybe the Ranger Station with Ranger Andy's successor -- when one of the neighborhood kids had a TV trip instead of a birthday party. I think that was when I found out Huckleberry Hound was blue: our TV was black and white, and I hadn't encountered any color pictures of him previously. I seem to remember that the sets looked much more fake in real life than they did on TV.

permanent link || trackback || 0 comments || Add a comment