Norman Rockwell Museum Presents – Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning Before the rise of basic cable, Saturday mornings for many children in America were spent watching cartoons on one of three available television channels. From 1958 through the 1980s, a majority of those cartoons bore the imprint of Hanna-Barbera. Creating scores of popular series such as The Yogi Bear Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and Scooby-Doo, Hanna-Barbera was an animation powerhouse and its bountiful creativity is beloved to this day. Norman Rockwell Museum will pay tribute to the art of the award-winning studio with the new exhibition Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning, on view November 12, 2016 through May 29, 2017. “We are thrilled to present the first museum exhibition on the work of Hanna-Barbera,” notes Jesse Kowalski, the Museum’s Curator of Exhibitions. “This show will provide a comprehensive look into the animation team that collaborated for more than 60 years. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with a group of the most gifted animators and writers in the business, created thousands of memorable characters over the years. They brought animation from the movie theater into the home, forever changing the landscape of American television and popular culture.” “This exhibition continues our look at visual storytelling in its many forms,” adds Museum Chief Curator Stephanie Haboush Plunkett. “Illustration and cartoons are the people’s art, and we look forward to further exploring their creatively-rich history.” Jayne Barbera, the daughter of Joseph Barbera and long-time producer at Hanna-Barbera, notes, “I worked for Hanna-Barbera Productions for thirty years alongside these two gentlemen. To be in a room with both of them at the same time was to experience an extraordinary genius. We were able to create happiness, adventure, and joy in the process of entertaining children” Hanna Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning will focus primarily on the golden years of the studio—from the premiere of their first cartoon, The Ruff and Reddy Show, in 1957 and The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958 to the debut of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. Hanna and Barbera’s early work on Tom and Jerry will be explored, in addition to the scores of TV and film animation and live-action projects created by the studio between 1970 and 2001. Included within the exhibition will be original animation art, sketches, model sheets, photographs, and archival materials that detail the process of bringing the studio’s creations to life. Also included in the exhibition, Hanna-Barbera-related toys and other commercial products, and an interactive installation that will draw from the vast library of sound effects created by the studio. An exhibition video, produced by Norman Rockwell Museum, will include commentary from original Hanna-Barbera animators Tony Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg, Willie Ito, and Bob Singer. An exhibition catalogue will include a foreword by Jayne Barbera, daughter of studio founder Joe Barbera, and essays by animation historians Jerry Beck and Michael Mallory. Hanna Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning was developed in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and has been sponsored, in part, by Keator Group, LLC.

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Growing up, I remember watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Super Friends, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Johnny Quest on a regular basis like many people my age, even though the cartoons had been around for awhile. As I grew up I discovered characters like Birdman and Space Ghost on Boomerang, the Cartoon Network station that played the older cartoons after watching programs such as Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Space Ghost Coast to Coast. While it was a shock to go from watching these shows to the original cartoons but it was a nice introduction to the characters. I think that the magic of the H-B characters is that they appeal to both the older and newer generations at the same time.

I even remember begging my parents to buy Fruity Pebbles and being given Flintstone vitamins.

When I heard that there was an exhibit coming to the Norman Rockwell Museum I was very excited and knew I had to check it out.

Since moving to the area the NRM has been one of my favorite places to visit. I went to the opening of the Alex Ross exhibit (4 years ago to the day…Thanks Facebook “On This Day”!) and also made the trip to see the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs exhibit.

Not only are the Hanna-Barbera cartoons a large part of my childhood and why I am in this crazy hobby that is comic books. DC Comics recently relaunched a few of the H-B properties such Scooby-DooDoo Apocolypse (with updates of the original characters by Jim Lee), Wacky Raceland (the 60s cartoon meets Mad Max), The Flintstones, and my favorite Future Quest, written by Jeff Parker (interview about Future Quest below).

Starting this weekend the Norman Rockwell Museum will present the art of visual storytelling, which includes illustration and animation which still more popular than ever in its many various forms.

This will be the third animation exhibition featured by the Museum.

Previous shows have included:

“Ice Age” To the Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios (June 11 through October 31, 2011).

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic (June 8 through October 27, 2013).

Hanna-Barbera Productions was formed in 1957 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, two successful animators from MGM Studios. As a result of their work on the Tom and Jerry animated film shorts, MGM received seven Academy Awards for animation. Hanna and Barbera left MGM when the studio stopped production on animated films. Capitalizing on the changing viewing habits of audiences, the partners achieved immediate success on TV with The Huckleberry Hound Show and Yogi Bear in 1958, followed by the groundbreaking prime-time series, The Flintstones, in 1960. Throughout the next 30 years, Hanna-Barbera produced over 200 individual cartoon series for television. Eventually absorbed by Warner Bros., the studio’s animation legacy remains available in syndication and on DVD, and its impact on popular culture can be seen in everything from Fred Flintstone hawking vitamins and Fruity Pebbles cereal, to comic books and live-action movies featuring such characters as Scooby-Doo.

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Jesse Kowalski, one of the curators at the Norman Rockwell Museum, was kind enough to talk about this exciting exhibit opening this weekend.

This is Kowalski’s first major exhibit since starting at Norman Rockwell Museum early last year. He was involved and had a lot of success a few years ago with an exhibition of the work of comic book artist Alex Ross, so he was interested in doing another exhibit that would combine illustration with popular culture.

Hanna-Barbera has such a wide following – from Tom and Jerry through the Powerpuff Girls – and the feeling of nostalgia for the cartoons is so strong among people 30 years old on up, though Scooby-Doo is still very popular with children, said Kowalski. Hopefully, those adults will bring their children and grandchildren who maybe haven’t been to the Norman Rockwell Museum and can become acquainted with his works.

As part of the exhibit, Kowalski conducted several interviews with people who worked at Hanna-Barbera from the 1950s into the 1990s and met with collectors, archivists, and animation historians. He conducted a lot of research that is involved in the exhibit, which includes many never before seen works, which will please visitors who are fans of illustration and animation history. There will also be an interactive component resembling a Jetsons computer that will allow people to view clips, sound effects, and trivia on nearly 100 characters.

The exhibition itself includes nearly 250 original artworks, from Joseph Barbera’s very first storyboard in 1936 through to the original hand-drawn map of Townsville from Powerpuff Girls.

The exhibition mainly focuses on the years from 1958 when they had their first hit on TV with Huckleberry Hound through 1969 when Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered. There will be concept art for Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons, and more, in addition to production drawings, title cels, presentation boards, storyboards, and around 300 toys and commercial products. though we will have numerous works from the 1970s into the 1990s when Hanna-Barbera became the main producer of Saturday morning cartoons.

They will also have a video of interviews he conducted with veteran Hanna-Barbera animators Tony Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg, Willie Ito, and Bob Singer.

At the top of this post is the illustration by Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Earth X, Battle of the Planets) which he created just for this exhibition. Kowalski said that he had hoped to use it for PR, but Warner Bros. felt it was too Rockwellian and not close enough to the branded look of the characters. The museum will be exclusively selling prints in our store during the run of the exhibit.

While there are no other modern comic book artists,there will be several pieces by Alex Toth in the exhibit – the original Space Ghost model sheet, a Herculoids model sheet, a Challenge of the Superfriends concept painting, etc, and Doug Wildey’s presentation board for Jonny Quest will also be on display.

There will be a talk on Saturday at 4pm with animation historian Jerry Beck, the foremost animation historian in the country and has collaborated with Leonard Maltin on several books. Then the party starts at 5:30 with remarks by Tony Benedict and me around 6:15. On Sunday at 1pm, David Nimitz will give a talk on his collection of Hanna-Barbera toys and products. He has over 4,000 pieces in his collection, of which around 300 will be on view.

The Norman Rockwell Museum is located on 36 park-like acres in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which was Rockwell’s hometown for the last 25 years of his life. The Norman Rockwell Museum holds the largest and most significant collection of art and archival materials relating to the life and work of Norman Rockwell.

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As I menitoned at the top of the post, my favorite H-B comic recently relaunched by DC Comics has been Future Quest.

When the adventurous and inquisitive Jonny Quest and his adoptive brother Hadji make a startling discovery in the swamplands of Florida, they are pulled into an epic struggle between the Space Rangers and a dangerous villain who threatens the galaxy. Now it’s up to the combined forces of Team Quest, Inter-Nation Security, Space Ghost, and a host of Hanna-Barbera’s greatest action heroes to stop him and save their universe!

The book is written by Jeff Parker who has an extensive list of work from both DC Comics, Marvel, and other companies.

When I found out that I would be doing the piece on the NRM I thought that an interview with Parker would be a nice addition since he is using a wide variety of Hanna-Barbera characters in this world building title.

What was your experience with Hanna-Barbera properties growing up? Which was your favorite etc?

Like most kids of the 70s I saw the HB cartoons on Saturday morning, and my favorite was Jonny Quest which was in reruns at that time. I also loved Space Ghost, but those were short and simpler, and the full adventure stories of JQ pulled me in the most.

But I also saw all the other cartoons that we draw upon like Impossibles, Frankenstein Jr., Dino Boy, Herculoids and Birdman. They were all full of fun action and great designs.

What was your first reaction to DC asking you to write Future Quest?

The way they put it to me was by sending a piece Darwyn Cooke drew with all the characters together, and I just stared at that for a while thinking ‘that would be something all right.” And then I talked with Evan Shaner about it (they wanted us to team up on it) and was happy he was into it too. I immediately started thinking of the tone it would have to have to pull all those disparate characters together convincingly.

Of all the new HB titles DC launched, FQ seems to be the one that remains the truest to the original characters, is it hard to write these characters that have been around for so long yet make them relatable to current times?

Not really, all the basic dynamics seem to still work fine. The one thing I was concerned with was that there were so many dads around and no moms with a lot of the kid characters, and I wanted to balance that out. So for instance the Professor Conroy who builds Frankenstein Jr. is Buzz’ mom instead of his dad. And we see more of Jan than Jace, and Tarra comes to Earth with The Herculoids without the rest of her family.

You are pulling some obscure characters out, even if just for the backup stories, are there characters that you would like to use but haven’t been able to work into the story?

No- I can’t imagine cramming in any more HB characters! Though we did sneak in Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole as merch in The Impossibles story.

The first trade of Future Quest will be available Feb. 2017

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I can’t wait to go to the opening party for the exhibit this weekend and will recap the event next week.