The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series (as the package has retroactively been titled)[1] was a syndicated package first offered in 1962. Contrary to popular belief, the package was never referred to as "The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series" when it was originally aired: This name appears to have first been used in The Art of Hanna-Barbera, published in 1989. The package, the first syndicated package from Hanna-Barbera not to be sponsored by another company[2], had three shows with 52 episodes each: Wally Gator, Touché Turtle and Dum Dum, and Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har. While many opted to do so, stations were not required to air all three shows: They were marketed as being able to be shown as their own program, or added to existing children's programs, unlike previous shows that had their own bridging segments.[3] New York's WPIX, for example, featured all three shows on a show titled The Cartoon Zoo, with a live-action host.[4] Like previous series, the package was distributed by Screen Gems.
The various segments were being planned as early as October 1960, and originally planned to be only two series with 104 episodes in total: Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har, and Hairbrain Hare and Dum Dum. Hairbrain later became Touché (and, possibly later, Ricochet Rabbit), and Wally Gator was added to the lineup, bumping the package up to 156 episodes.[2] Because it was syndicated and able to be placed in any show, there is no concrete date the package first aired, but the earliest documented date was on 3 September 1962 on KCOP-TV.[3]
Sources[]
- ↑ The Art of Hanna-Barbera, by William Hanna et al., Viking Studio Books, 1989, pg. 121.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-lion-swingin-gator-and-rabbit-that.html
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2012/04/mr-barbera-whens-my-birthday.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20191231053451/https://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=7977