THE FUNTASTIC WORLD OF HANNA BARBERA
Like so many others, Hanna-Barbera was like a family to me.
My official start date at Hanna Barbera was to have been Tuesday, January 18, 1994. I remember it vividly because it was the day after the Northridge earthquake. On my “official” start date, I called up the studios to confirm my first meeting (plus to see if they were even open). After a number of rings, I got Bobby the guard on the phone telling me, “Yeah, uh, nobody’s here. Call back later.”
I started there at a time when the remnants of the old studio system were alive and well. There was still a model department, a checking department, and an ink and paint department that serviced every show in production. There was even a working xerox and camera department. The studio was producing episodes of Two Stupid Dogs, Swat Kats, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, Droopy: Master Detective, and the made for TV movie Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber Insects.
Legendary animator Ray Patterson still occupied an office in the main building as did Iwao Takamoto, Don Jurwich, and Jerry Eisenberg. Joe Barbera had his office down on the first floor where he was often seen signing limited edition cels. Whenever I had a visitor come by the studio, I made a point to stop by and introduce them to Mr. Barbera. He was always kind enough to give a personal tour of his office (which was always the same, but always enjoyable). It consisted of him pointing out pictures of him and the Pope, a picture with Oprah Winfrey as they received their Hall Of Fame Award from The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and a signed poster from Michael Jackson. Somewhere in there, it included him handing his guests an Emmy and asking them to make a speech. After that tour, I would walk my guests up to the third floor where Mr. Hanna occupied the penthouse. Whereas Mr. Barbera’s office was dark with wood paneling and filled with awards and memorabilia, Mr. Hanna’s office was white and spacious with lots of windows (but still filled with awards and memorabilia). He also had an aerial picture of the now extinct Monkey Island hanging beside the entrance to his door.
Having grown up absorbing every cartoon they produced, it was a dream come true for me to be roaming the hallways and occupying a space in the building.
I came in as the studio was transitioning from the way things were (the studio system) to how they are today (the unit system). I was there when Ted Turner had an all-staff meeting at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and talked to us about his dreams of a paperless workplace and this new thing called “the internet.” Johnny Bravo was the guinea pig for the future of the studio. It actually became the first and only production at Hanna Barbera to be produced in-house using a computer. We actually animated the whole thing by hand, then scanned and colored it using the Cambridge Animation Systems Animo program. But just like any system that is slow to change, we still had to do everything the old way. For example, with the thousands of colors now available through the computer coloring process, we were forced to rely on the limited color pallette of the ink-and-paint department and chose colors using animation cels as our guide.
I was there for four years, right up to the time they held the studio farewell party, and have to say that it was one of the funnest, most creatively invigorating times of my life. Fred Seibert was the president of the company for much of my time there and he created an environment that made you believe that anything was possible.
I included this web page to share my memories of the studio and pay tribute to the legacy of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Enjoy!
-Van