Cartoon Network: Hanna Barbera - the big guns among Hanna Barbera cartoons

    In my previous blog article, I spoke of smaller filler cartoons of Hanna-Barbera which were broadcasted in between the bigger, more familiar cartoons during the rest of the day outside Power Zone (3 PM - 5 PM). This time, I will focus on the big guns themselves that deserve an honourable mention for how they gave us evergreen memories of childhood days well spent watching them and hence will always remain an indelible part of our childhood. Of course, these cartoons have become part of pop culture with some aspects of the cartoons themselves like the vehicles used by these cartoons being replicated by toy companies like Hotwheels which has made a version of the Flintstones' Flintmobile,  the Jetson's Jetcar or Scooby-Doo's Mystery Machine. 

i) The Flintstones:
                              The story is set in the stone age with the adventures of 2 families and their kids - Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma and their daughter  Pebbles as well as Fred's friend Barny Rubble and his wife Betty Rubble and their son Bam-Bam. Pebbles and Bam-Bam are childhood friends and they always play together since they are babies eventually leading to their marriage at an older age because of their love for each other, however this aspect of the story is not set in this timeline. Fred has a pet pink dinosaur "Dino" who comes running to greet and lick Fred all over his face when he comes back home from work in Flintstones' car "The Flintmobile", the interactions between Dino and Fred and so funny that even Fred's wife Wilma cannot control her laughter on seeing how Dino is all over Fred which kind of takes things over the top with regard to their interactions and also unnaturally funny. The story also includes interactions between the Flintstones and Rubbles like misunderstandings between them and how they get reconciled as well as how they travel to different places and so on. Towards the late 90's, there was a specific spin-off of this show centering on the lives of their kids Pebbles and Bam-Bam on those instances when the Flinstones and Rubbles were not at home called "Cave Kids". Fred's signature catchphrase when he is really happy and excited about something is "Yabba-Dabba-Doo". We see extensive use of prehistoric creatures like Pteradactyls, Dinosaurs and Mammoths in contraptions and mechanical structures everywhere in the Flintstones' world including in household mechanical and appliances which is the quirky aspect of the Flintstones' world.

 ii) The Jetsons: 

                           The Jetsons as their family name implies have their story set in the year 2062 in the 21st century, since it was created in 1962 (roughly 100 years). George Jetson is a bumbling but loving father living with his 2 kids - Elroy and Judy Jetson and his wife Jane Jetson in their unique house that is built on stilts, just as every other house and building in Orbit City. Since the story is set in the future, there are robots and computers including supercomputers everywhere that speak to people and cars lack wheels but are jet propelled and have autopilot function along with computers - something that is seen in every possible means of transportation including buses, taxis and so on. We also get to see moving walkways as George goes to his company "Spacely Sprockets" and works under his boss "Cosmo Spacely" whose competitor is another company called "Cogswell Cogs" run by a certain Mr.Cogswell who taunts and mocks Spacely who ends up being harsh with poor George in the end. George Jetson is shown as a loving father and husband who tries to balance the stress of work while also taking interest in his wife and children's lives. Other noteworthy characters in the cartoon are Rosy the Robotic maid who is very kind and considerate towards everyone in the family, their dog Astro and R.U.D.I - George's supercomputer at work. 

iii) Scooby-Doo:

                            Scooby-Doo is a Great Dane who travels the world with his gang - Fred, Daphne, Wilma, Shaggy and a smaller pugnacious pup Scrappy-Doo on board the Mystery Machine - a Van with floral patterns and funky design in shades of green that kind of reminds us of youngsters in the 70's and their tastes. Much of the series spans the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's and it involves Scooby and the gang visiting really scary places ranging from spooky castles to haunted houses which, despite their spooky appearance, happen to be hideouts for criminals who capitalise on the haunted history of those places and their ghost/monster stories to commit crimes while wearing costumes and outfits with sophisticated or carefully designed backdrops to make everyone believe that those places are truly haunted. Scooby and the gang visit those places and while Scooby Doo and Shaggy as well as some of the others seem intimidated at first. They find out that something is off about those spooky stories and discover the criminals doing bad stuff while having the cover and appearance of ghosts, hence they set traps for them, after the bad guys in ghost/monster costumes get caught. The gang eventually explain the logic behind why no ghost or apparition was truly involved in those crimes but these criminals dressed up as spectres and monsters, finally the ghosts/monsters when caught, are unmasked revealing the true identity of the criminals and handing them over to the police for their crimes. Scooby's signature catchphrases are "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!" and "Ruh-roh!"

iv) Yogi Bear:
                          Yogi bear and his little buddy Boo-boo bear live in Yellowstone national park. Yogi is known for his mischievous antics of stealing picnic baskets from visitors to the park. Since visitors come to the park on a certain season avoiding winters, the probability of stealing picnic baskets increases significantly in summer, spring and autumn. Yogi has a bad relationship with the park ranger Smith who puts up the notice "Do not feed the bears!" everywhere. So much of the story revolves around Yogi's attempts to whisk away picnic baskets without their owners knowing about it and when the baskets go missing, ranger Smith is notified about it who can relate the disappearances with Yogi's appearance in the vicinity and how he tries to get back the stolen picnic basket. Since Yogi is very fond of human food, he ends up eating everything from turkeys to sandwiches, hamburgers, hot-dogs and cakes leaving virtually nothing but an empty picnic basket at which Smith gets annoyed. So Smith does everything in his power to stop Yogi from stealing picnic baskets from human visitors whereas Yogi finds a workaround to his problems which is the crux of the story. Yogi's love interest is Cindy bear who does not approve of Yogi stealing food from humans and she encouraged yogi to eat nuts and berries instead like other bears along with his buddy Boo-boo bear but Yogi does not listen. 

v) Top Cat:

                            Top Cat or TC is the leader of a gang of cats in a New York alley made up of his other cat friends like Benny the Ball, the Brain, Choo-choo, Fancy-fancy and Spook. The story centres around a police officer named Dibble who seeks to evict TC and the gang from the alley using a phone near a pole not far from the trash cans where TC and his buddies live. His reason for wanting to do so is because TC and his friends try to make money through illegal means which officer Dibble tries to stop by warning them and by seeking to evict them from that place if TC and his pals do not listen. This is the main theme around which the story revolves with officer Dibble trying to evict them while TC and his buddies try to start off illegal business in order to get rich while trying to pretend to be innocent before Dibble through concerted means like setting off alarms so that the other cats know that officer Dibble is coming around so they try to get their act in order.

  While there were lots of cartoons broadcast by Hanna Barbera in Cartoon Network back in the mid to late 90's. The above cartoons took the cake for being the most emblematic of them all. Most of the above cartoons are a part of pop-culture, except the last 2. There were other cartoons too that were broadcast that I have not included here because they were made by other studios. I am glad to have accompanied you all on this tour to that epoch by talking about these Hanna-Barbera stars of yesteryears. In my next blog article, I will return to bring out other cartoons not made by Hanna Barbera and yet were broadcast on Cartoon Network and entertained us nonetheless!