| Hanna-Barbera was an American animated cartoon production company that produced animated television programming and motion pictures for forty-five years between 1957 and 2001. Hanna-Barbera was founded in 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera as H-B Enterprises, through which the pair used to do freelance television commercial production.
After MGM shut down its animation studio in 1957, H-B Enterprises became Hanna
and Barbera's full-time job, and the company became Hanna-Barbera Productions
in 1960. For three decades, Hanna-Barbera produced many successful cartoon
series, including
The Flintstones,
The Jetsons,
The Huckleberry Hound Show,
The Yogi Bear Show,
Jonny Quest,
Scooby-Doo, and
Smurfs, all of which would go on to become icons of Western
pop culture. In 1991, the company was purchased by
Turner Broadcasting, primarily so that Turner could use its library of over
300 cartoon series as the basis of the programming for its new
Cartoon Network
cable television channel. Re-christened H-B Production Company in
1992, and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1993, the studio continued without
active regular input from William Hanna or Joseph Barbera, who both went into
semi-retirement yet continued to serve as ceremonial figureheads for the studio. During the late 1990s, Turner turned Hanna-Barbera towards primarily producing new material for the Cartoon Network. In 1996, Turner was bought out by Time Warner. With William Hanna's death in 2001, Hanna-Barbera was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation, and Cartoon Network Studios assumed production of Cartoon Network output. Joseph Barbera remained with Warner Bros. Animation as a ceremonial figurehead until his death in 2006. The Hanna-Barbera name is today only used to market properties and productions associated with Hanna-Barbera's "classic" works such as The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo.. See also |
 Hanna-Barbera's "swirling star" studio logo from 1979. |
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