Joseph Barbera (1911 - 2006)
artistic half of acclaimed Hanna-Barbera team dies, age 95
Dec 19, 2006
(Source: www.cartoonbrew.com)
Joseph Barbera, the artist who many called "animation's answer to Frank Sinatra" passed away on Monday, age 95.
As one half of the acclaimed Hanna-Barbera Productions, Joseph Barbera helped create thousands of cartoons like The Ruff & Ready Show, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and The Huckleberry Hound Show.
Born March 24, 1911 in Manhattan's Little Italy, Barbera started his career as a tailor's delivery boy. In 1932, he got his first break when he joined the Van Beuren Studio as an artist and scriptwriter. He worked on shows like Cubby Bear, Rainbow Parades and a primordial version of Tom and Jerry. When Van Beuren closed its doors in 1936, Barbera joined MGM Studios' Terrytoons in New York.
Lured by a salary increase, Barbera moved to California in 1937 to join the MGM cartoon studios. There he met William Hanna, Barbera's partner in animation for the next sixty years. Hanna was in charge of the comic timing while Barbera wrote the story and contributed the art. Barbera pitched the ideas while Hanna got the job done on time.
In 1940, the pair unleashed Tom & Jerry on the world in the Oscar-nominated Puss Gets the Boot. Hanna and Barbera found an instant formula: the bullying cat receiving his comeuppance from the free-spirited mouse. That formula was so successful that, nearly fifty years later, The Simpsons neatly spoofed/honoured it with their Itchy and Scratchy toon-within-a-toon. MGM even pulled Jerry to dance a duet with Gene Kelly in the 1945 musical Anchors Aweigh.
Hanna and Barbera parlayed Tom and Jerry into 7 Academy Awards for Best Cartoon (Short Subject) and 14 nominations, the most for any character-based theatrical animated series. MGM rewarded that success by putting Hanna and Barbera in charge of MGM's animation division in 1955. Unfortunately, MGM closed the division in 1957, and the two men were forced to look for work.
However, the two created the Ruff & Ready Show under the moniker H-B Enterprises, which eventually became the more familiar Hanna-Barbera Productions. Forced to cut corners on animation style due to budget constraints, Hanna-Barbera compensated by upping the ante on the slapstick comedy.
Again, it was a formula that worked. By the mid-60's, Hanna-Barbera had a stranglehold on Saturday morning television with countless shows like The Flinstones, The Jetsons (essentially a futuristic Flintstones), Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear (a not-so-subtle hommage to malapropistic baseball great Yogi Berra)
In 1967, Taft Broadcasting bought the studio, giving extra security to its employees. However, to stay in business, Hanna-Barbera resorted to creating more and more productions that were virtual clones of already successful H-B shows.
Cartoonist Paul Dini wrote, "If you asked him a question about Hair Bear or Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, I doubt you'd get more than a blank stare from him. He gave me the impression that a lot of the stuff that latter-day H-B produced was generated to keep the studio doors open and the staff working and little else."
In 1991, Turner Broadcasting bought Hanna-Barbera Productions. Both men stayed on as advisors, working on such shows as What-a-Cartoon!
Bill Hanna died in 2001, and Barbera became an executive producer for Warner Bros., working on What's New, Scooy-Doo and Tom and Jerry Tales. He also wrote, co-storyboarded, co-directed and co-produced the 2005 Tom and Jerry theatrical short, The Karateguard.
