Future Hanna-Barbera DVDs

Re: Future Hanna-Barbera DVDs

I'm waiting for word on the next Tom & Jerry DVD release...which after 3 volumes of theatrical MGM H-B releases, would undoubtedly be the 1975 series! I also wouldn't mind seeing the original 1970 Harlem Globetrotters released, as well.

And don't you mean The Flintstone Comedy Hour, Ben?

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I'm kind of hoping for the Gene Deitch shorts to come out sometime (ducks head).

Another H-B production I'd like to see come out: the live-action Legends of the Super-Heroes specials from 1979.

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Gene and the Chuck Jones T&J cartoons.

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I'm still waiting for WB to release Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. Both shows are complete on DVD (except for the 80s season of the Jetsons), so what are they waiting for on the movie?

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My primary interests are as follows:

Vol. 2 of The Huckleberry Hound Show

Will Quick Draw McGraw EVER be restored? (The master prints were so very badly deteriorated that it was deemed unfit for immediate release at the time.)

Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles

Where's Huddles? (A Tenth Anniversary homage of sorts to The Flintstones as I recall watching in prime time during the summer of 1970.)

Ruff 'N' Ready (the bridge between Tom & Jerry and all which followed after the M-G-M animation dept. shutdown).

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I've said it before but I'll reiterate.

ABBOTT & COSTELLO

When I was a kid in the 80's, I had a VHS tape chock full of A&C cartoons. What was cool about it is the fact that Bud Abbott provided the voice work for his own character. I'd pick this up in a heartbeat if it were to ever become available.

Here's a clip of the opening credits for those who are unfamiliar:

YouTube - Abbott & Costello TV cartoon intro (1966)

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Have any Ruby-Spears shows come out on DVD at all?

I'm still hoping for Thundarr the Barbarian someday.

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Nah, they should do them in the style of the old Columbia home movie editions, maybe with a sticker on the cover that says "DVD" instead of "Super 8!"

In fact, they should have included the home movie "Flintstones" and "Jetsons" cut-downs as bonus features!

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Through some bizarre set of circumstances, it appears (from searching some copyright info online) that WB actually owns these! (At least in the U.S. -- I'm not sure about internationally, so that may be another issue.) Apparently, the copyrights were in the name of RKO, which got bought out by Turner, which got bought out by WB. So who knows...maybe some day. (Unlike the Laurel & Hardy cartoons, Larry Harmon had nothing to do with these.)

Actually, they could have included at least some of them as bonus features on some of the DVD releases of the A&C movies. But they didn't. (WB still controls Rio Rita, Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd, and Jack & The Beanstalk - though the latter is public domain. I'd love to see a set come out, maybe with the also public domain Africa Screams, to round things out.)

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omg I had a massive list of shows and the page refreshed and i lost them all arghhh, spent over an hour or so compiling it I give up I want basically all the shows ever made by Hanna Barbera especially the ones based on movie and live action series, plus any Scooby, Tom & Jerry, Flintstone, Superfriends type show and Captain Planet & the Planeteers

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I would like to see one of the other Yogi Bear shows on DVD. "Yogi's Gang", "Yogi's Treasure Hunt" or "Yo, Yogi!" Since they are not going to release any more Huckleberry Hound or Quick Draw McGraw, then this would be the next best thing.

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TVShowsonDVD reported that this issue also stopped a planned release of Wally Gator (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Qui...w-McGraw/5006), along with the "disappointing sales" of Huck S1 and Yogi. Earl Kress speculated that music-rights issues might also have affected Quick Draw (http://www.mynameisearlkress.com/weblog/?p=162). Magilla Gorilla eventually came out, but with very poor visual quality (at least going by some clips on YouTube at the time of release -- I didn't buy it).

I suppose all we can hope for as far as HB's early output is concerned is either a change of heart or a change of management at WB's family division (which unfortunately still handles these properties). If these shows ever do appear on DVD, Warner should strive to release and market them more effectively -- both Huck and Yogi were excellent releases (if you haven't bought them yet, please do!), but came out at a highly competitive time of year and received virtually no promotion. Packaging them as standard kiddie-fare didn't help, either.

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I wouldn't go by a You Tube posting as an indication of DVD quality! (Sheesh.)

I have the Magilla Gorilla DVD set and there are a few cartoons that were transferred from old 16mm TV prints, but most were from 35mm. All look as good or better than they originally looked on TV. They did mess up in not including any version of the show opening or closing anywhere on the set (apart from the clip included in the "Here Comes A Star" preview special) but compared to the VHS days, when most H-B series were represented by one 50-minute compilation tape, this is great!

All the issues you mention above, though, have contributed to these sets not being nearly as successful as they could have been. A major part of the problem is their being marketed towards children. That's fine for Scooby and the Flintstones, who have continued to air on a regular basis. Contemporary kids know who they are!

Things don't look good for future releases of classic Hanna-Barbera, though. They've been cutting corners all over the place. If something ran more than one season, now it would probably go over the current budgets for these projects. (Notice how these sets have gotten slimmer and slimmer?)

I would love to see the rest of the vintage H-B catalog come out...I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't release "Peter Potamus" along with "Magilla Gorilla." They were syndicated together after their original run (Channel 32 in Chicago aired all the cartoons together under "Magilla Gorilla"). (I know there are people who feel that "Potamus" wasn't as good, but they were pretty much "twin shows" in the same sense that "Huckleberry Hound" and "Yogi Bear" were "twin shows.")

Yeah, I did read music licensing issues were the main factor in "QDM" not coming out. It's a shame.

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I'll add to the list that Chris and Mark came up with on why the H-B box sets have not sold well.

Another major contributing factor is that the cartoons are only shown on the Boomerang cable channel which most homes do not get. About the only way to get Boomerang is by DirecTV or DISH satellite networks. These shows need to be on more mainstream cable outlets that TimeWarner own like: Cartoon Network, HBO Family, TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies. The Hanna-Barbera shows need more exposure on TV than what they are getting. Before Ted Turner bought Hanna-Barbera, some of the shows showed up regularly on The Disney Channel!!!

It is not just Warner Home Video that is killing these characters off with bad management and marketing decisions, but it also being done by segregating these characters to being aired on Boomerang only.

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Hi Mark. I see where you are coming from here, but let me explain: the YouTube video I'm speaking of is the Chugga montage (http://youtube.com/watch?v=cAKJfebdBFo). Watching it you can see the print quality vary from clip to clip, from pale and washed-out to oversaturated and back again, sometimes sharp, sometimes soft; not what we have come to expect from Warner, in spite of the company's other failings. People have posted on other blogs and forums that it's a pretty good indication of the variable quality of the DVD, the limitations of YouTube notwithstanding. Agree wholeheartedly with your other remarks, though.

The problem, as has been stated again and again here, is that the HB material (and the MGM theatrical cartoons) are handled by Warner's family division, which just can't get its collective head round the idea that the primary audience for these works is adults. The efforts of historians such as Earl Kress succeeded in getting some collector-oriented material on past sets, but the overwhelming tendency on the part of Warner is to produce, package and market these shows at kids. But because today's kids haven't heard of these characters, they don't buy them. And because most adults think they are aimed at kids, they don't buy them either.

Warner should take another crack at this, using one of the unreleased shows -- Quick Draw would be perfect: restore it properly, add original intros and bumpers where available, commentaries from animation historians and intelligent, informative documentaries, and market it directly at collectors and other adults looking for a nostalgia kick -- forget about the child audience. If that doesn't sell, *then* pull the plug, but Warner shouldn't claim there isn't a market when it isn't trying to find it.

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I want more Smurfs and Yogi's First Christmas, among other things.

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While these characters are segregated to Boomerang - it's the selling tool of the channel. Who is going to carry Boomerang if a majority of their cartoons are aired on other channels? While it would be nice if the Flintstones were on broadcast channels, the FCC's Child TV laws make such a show worthless to stations since it doesn't carry that E/I tag.

They should do a limited edition series with the DVDs inside replica lunchboxes

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If you ask me, I think it's time - past time - for WHV to step aside and let some more experienced folks to put some time, money, effort and heart into the H-B DVD releases and do them justice.

Warner, you did your best; trouble was, the best just wasn't good enough.

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Thanks, Chris, for the head's up. And I do have both the Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear box sets on DVD!!!! I picked them both up during the Holidays and plan on watching them soon this coming summer once I have the time to relax and properly enjoy them!!!!

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Forgive my ignorance, but what is the "E/I tag?"

Second, a portion of Boomerang used to show up on Cartoon Network as a block of programming. It was a great way to cross-promote Boomerang and the shows that were on it. Cross promotion is wonderful for exposing people to other shows on other networks. The Time/Warner channels cross-promote on each other all the time. Why not Boomerang cartoons as well? As an example, TNT could show the Flintstones and use that air time to promote Boomerang. They could show a Huckleberry Hound cartoon or a Yogi Bear short on TNT or TBS and promote Boomerang at the same time, or advertise the Hanna-Barbera DVD box sets.

Third, I hate the whole segregation mentality that is on TV today. The only place to watch M*A*S*H is on TVLand. The only place to watch classic movies is on TCM. The only place to watch game shows is on GSN. It is too compartmentalized; there needs to be a mixture.

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"educational and informative," children's shows. All stations must run 3 hours of them. It's the stigma given to us by Peggy Charren.

Far as Cartoon Network goes, the channel is now half adult swim. So they had to yank the Boomerang block of programming to squeeze in more showings of My Gym Partner's a Monkey. What does get me is the lack of promotion for these boxsets. When the Flintstones DVDs were coming out, they didn't have any sort of contests or special Flintstones block. They didn't push the Looney Tunes boxsets with a marathon of Bugs. but the folks at TCM do have tie-ins with the big Warner boxsets. Synergy has been lacking.

I prefer a channel providing me with a certain kind of programming. What ticks me off is when these channels stray from their purpose. What's the point of the Independent Film Channel running Austin Powers? Or TVLand running movies? Or CMT showing Hogan Knows Best? While it would be nice to have channels mix it up, they'll all go for the same audience and show the same Adam Sandler films. TNT would never run Flintstones because they know drama.

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Their sould be more H-B shows to be release to DVD even the 1975 Tom and Jerry series only featuring the cat and mouse.

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Also more new animated Tom and Jerry direct-to-video movies and the first and only season of the Tom and Jerry Comedy Show from Filmation.

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I think Warner Bros. sould put more
hanna-barbera television specials and movies on single-disc DVDs and television shows on season and complete series DVD sets for the hanna-barbera classics collection:

The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones

Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats

Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears

Jonny's Golden Quest

The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone

Christmas Comes to Pac-Land

The Good, the Bad and Huckleberry Hound

I Yabba-Dabba Do!

Yogi's Great Escape

Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby

Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber Insects

Tis the Season to Be Smurfy

Heidi's Song

Yogi's Treasure Hunt  (1985 cartoon series, also a segment as part of the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera)

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985 animated series)

Jabberjaw (1976 cartoon series)

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979 half-hour series)

The Herculoids (1967 animated series)

The New Yogi Bear Show (1988 revival of the original 1960s show)

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (1977 cartoon series)

Pac-Man (1982 cartoon series based on the video and arcade games)

SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron (1993 cartoon show)

Yogi's Space Race (1978 animated series)




Edited by happyfa5 - 1/22/10 at 9:26am

Re: Future Hanna-Barbera DVDs

Not sure how it is nationwide, but we have Time Warner cable and we've had Boomerang for several years now.

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you could see more series coming out, but it will depend how 1960s and 1970s cartoon series sell. I purchased those dvds and hope that speed buggy, goomber and ghost chaser, funky phantom and hercuilods are released on dvd. I am serious about buying space ghost and dino boy.