Hanna Barbera filler cartoons from the 60's that were broadcast in Cartoon Network India in the 90's which we grew up watching as kids

    If you have not gone through the previous Cartoon Network Power Zone blog articles of mine, I would encourage you to read them before checking this one out. This time, I am going to cover shorter Hanna Barbera cartoons that I and other kids from the 90's grew up watching in the 90's. These cartoons about which I am going to talk are from the 1960's and earlier and had a vintage look to them and are the ones which most may have forgotten because they were of shorter duration compared to the larger more famous ones but still deserve an honourable mention for the roles that these cartoon characters played in making our childhood colourful with memories and humour. If there is anything that these cartoons were known for, it was their unique sense of humour that made us laugh and kept us happy in those days, a few of them were also action cartoons with a bit of humour which were not a part of Power Zone, since Power Zone cartoons were solely about action cartoons involving superheros and other characters who fight for justice in their respective universes.

i) Lippy the lion and Hardy Har-Har:
                                                           Lippy being a lion has a reddish mane and has a side-kick called Hardy who is a hyena. Lippy wears a ragged pink vest and a hat and has a smiling face as opposed to Hardy who wears a collar and black bow-tie with a purple hat and is mostly sad. Lippy resorts to various schemes and plots to get food and money but fails and ends up becoming the laughingstock, while Lippy is optimistic that he would succeed, Hardy the hyena, being inherently pessimistic, goes "Oh me, Oh my!" when things go wrong and they become the victims of Lippy's misadventures. This series teaches children that doing wrong things has consequences thus dissuading them from engaging in acts would be deemed wrong or evil when they are young and it does this with a hint of humour!

ii) Quick Draw Mcgraw:
                                         Quick Draw Mcgraw as the name implies is a cowboy character who is a horse all dressed up like a cowboy and has a cowboy accent and is a sheriff who, along with his side kick Baba Looey who speaks Spanish sometimes and has a Mexican accent. Together they fight crime in their town. Signature phrases of Quick Draw Mcgraw include "Now, hold on there!", "I'll do the "thin-in" around here and don't you forget it!" and "Oh, that smarts!" when he is hurt. Occasionally, Quick Draw becomes "El Kabong" dressed up like Zorro with his guitar which he swings down on bad guys which swinging down with a robe and bashing their heads with the guitar destroying it in the process, an attack called "El Kabonger" which produces a distinctive sound. Also featuring in the series is Quick Draw's dog "Snuffles" who hugs himself, floats up into the air and back down again if he is given a biscuit, else he murmurs if he is offered money by Quick Draw in the absence of a biscuit, either throwing the money back on Quick Draw's face while mumbling either "Uh-oh" or "Darn Cheapskate". His most dangerous enemies include "Horseface harry" who mimics Quickdraw while committing crimes like stealing banks getting QuickDraw into trouble.

iii) Wally-Gator:
                            Wally-Gator is an alligator having grown up in a swamp capable of all kinds of harmless but troublesome mischief when he runs amok who ends up in a zoo under the care of a zookeeper called Mr.Twiddle who is short, sporting a moustache and wears a rose-coloured uniform who shows kindness and consideration towards Wally while also being cautious about him. Wally-Gator finds life in the zoo boring so he tries to escape from it to go see the outside world which stirs up trouble outside requiring Mr.Twiddle to keep his eyes peeled to prevent such instances from happening which could land him in trouble with the zoo authorities. While each episode shows Wally in his escapades to the outside world in a bid to fight off boredom at the zoo, Wally finds that the outside world is far from being hunky-dory when people get scared of Wally as he is an alligator, finally Wally finds himself back in the zoo resting and admitting that there is no place like home. This cartoon teaches children that wherever they hang out for fun in times of boredom, there can be no place like home where they have all safety and provision for their needs hence doing away with the need to go out regularly to other unwanted places. 

iv) Magilla Gorilla:
                                Magilla whose name comes from the Yiddish word "Megilla" meaning "crazy" with Jan 14th as his birthday, is a gorilla who is the main pet on display at Mr. Peebles' pet shop. Despite Mr. Peebles' best attempts to sell him off to visitors in the pet shop even by lowering sales cost, he fails in his endeavours while Magilla is a load on his finances because of his love for bananas. Once, some thieves buy Magilla only to misuse him in a bank heist which fails and Magilla ends up in Mr.Peebles' place. There is however a little girl who shows interest in buying Magilla towards whom Magilla is kind but the girl's parents do not wish to get her Magilla. It becomes clear during the series that the reason why most shy away from buying Magilla is because he is a gorilla who is huge and imposing in his appearance, albeit kind and gentle.

 v) Peter potamus and so-so:

                                                Peter potamus is a purple hippo who travels the world dressed up in a safari outfit with his pet monkey so-so on a magical hot-air balloon. When Peter ends up in a tight situation, he has a powerful blowing technique called a "Hurricane Holler" to blow his opponents away.

                                      

 vi) Huckleberry Hound:

                                        Huckleberry Hound with his Southern US accent tries his hand at pursuing the American dream by doing different jobs, while initially it seems hard and he has his share of failures, he eventually succeeds. The series does come with its share of villains like "Powerful Pierre" or "Dinky Dalton" and Huckleberry has a number of love interests. This is apparently the first show that made Hanna Barbera a household name in the US. The series was broadcast in Cartoon Network India for a brief amount of time in the mid 90's. The takeaway from this series is that success is attainable through hard work even if it appears hard at first.

vii) Snagglepuss:

                             Snagglepuss is a cougar, otherwise known as a mountain lion who does various things but he ends up being worse off than when he started in his endeavours because of his constant fear or dread of failure in which he seeks to make himself comfortable. When things go wrong however, he is shown making a theatrical exit saying "Exit, stage left/right/top/bottom" and his catchphrase is "Heavens to Murgatroy'd". This series teaches children that fear is their greatest obstacle to anything they do in life which is shown in a comical way through Snagglepuss' misadventures and failures.

                          

viii) Touché Turtle and Dum-Dum:

                                                          Touché Turtle and his his sidekick Dum Dum - a dog, fight to save kings, queens, maidens in distress etc. The series may be inspired by the 3 Musketeers of Alexandre Dumas with its settings in 17th century France. Touché is dressed up as if he were a Musketeer wielding a foil with its far end slightly bent to give the character a comical touch. Touché Turtle is so-called because when he is ready to fence bad guys, he sticks his foil outwards yelling "Touché (pronounced "thoushay")" and when he makes his exit from the scene hanging onto a rope from the sky, he goes "Touché away". Overall, the series is funny and was 1 of many of the other Hanna Barbera filler cartoons like the ones described above. For me personally, Touché turtle was one of the most energetic and cutest characters made by Hanna Barbera, maybe because of my love for the charm of classical French literature, sword fencing and the swashbuckling adventures of the 3 Musketeers coupled with the Touché's outfit and characteristic smile (something which he shares with his sidekick Dum-Dum who is not very bright, so when they botch up in a task because of Dum-Dum, Touché calls him "Dumb dumb") for which he deserves an honourable mention.

ix) Atom ant:

                       Atom ant lives in an anthill, wearing a white helmet and a shirt with the letter A on it and is a superhero who is often called upon by the police in the series to fight crime on their behalf because they lack adequate funding and are stupid with only 1 rusty patrol car at their disposal. Atom ant possesses many extraordinary abilities despite being very small like super strength, ability to fly and invulnerability.His catch phrase when he makes an exit to fight crime when called upon by the city police is "Up at 'em, Atom". 

                                       

x) Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole:
                          Secret Squirrel is a super secret spy with his own hi-tech gadgets, martial arts skills and abilities to take on different appearances which he uses in his spy missions and fights crime bringing villains to police custody. He usually hides in his underground lair with his sidekick Morocco mole who wears high-powered glasses because he is short sighted. Even the suit of Secret squirrel, his watch and his hat have gadgets in them like bullet-proof armour and concealed guns - a comical throwback to James Bond. Overall it is like a cartoon spy series with a comical twist.

 

xi) Hong-Kong Phoey:

                                       Hong-Kong Phoey is an anthromorphic dog dressed up in a Kung-Fu martial arts outfit seemingly created by Hanna Barbara in response to the martial arts fad in the US during the late 60's and 70's. Hong-kong Phoey, a Kung-fu expert fights crime with his sidekick a dog named Spot who does most of the work in finding out the culprits of crimes but gets little credit, while Hong-Kong Phoey apprehends villains with a "karate chop" in the end which is strange because it shows the confusion about different martial arts that existed among the masses in the US at the time.

xii) Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-long:

                                                              Another Western series where Ricochet Rabbit, the sheriff of a Western town as his name implies would usually bounce off walls yelling "ping-ping-ping" and fire at villains with tricky bullets that would have funny abilities like waiting and hovering in flight before hitting an opponent in hiding or hammer them with a big hammer, draw a target on them and punch them in the face etc. Ricochet Rabbit is accompanied by his deputy Droop-a-Long- a Coyote who tries to bounce off walls clumsily and ends up hurting himself compared to his more experienced rabbit friend - the sheriff Ricochet Rabbit.

xiii) The Hillbilly bears:

                                         This is about 4 Hillybilly bears who love playing hillbilly music and sometimes are engaged in feuds with neighbours. Paw Rugg (Dad), Maw Rugg (Mom), Floral Rugg (their daughter) and Shag Rugg (their son). The series is mostly comical. 

xiv) It's the wolf!:

                              Mildew Wolf tries to come up with sneaky, sly schemes to bag and devour a young ewe lamb called "Lambsy Divey" but she calls on her bodyguard "Bristle Hound" who then punches Mildew Wolf in the face breaking his teeth or knocking him out. Sometimes Bristle Hound saves Lambsey Divey from Mildew Wolf's mouth by choking him whereby his tongue rolls out or he puts his hand deep inside Mildew's mouth to save Lambsey before punching him in the face.

    While the vast majority of the Hanna Barbera cartoons described above are fillers between larger cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Flintstones, Jetsons or Yogi bear, some of these may be part of larger cartoons of longer duration. The final ones mentioned above are so rare that they exist in my mind as faint memories of those times when Cartoon Network used to be broadcast up to 9:00 PM IST followed by TNT movies which later became TCM movies showcasing Hollywood movies of Harrol Flynn, Frank Sinatra, Basle Rathbone and other famous actors of those black and white times (1930's) which my Dad loved watching, In any case, I hope that you have enjoyed our little excursion back to those times as you read through this article. My next article will deal with the heavyweight cartoons of Hanna Barbera from the 50's all the way up to the 70's.