Hanna Barbera Question

[Frank]

In the late 1960s to early 1970s, William Hanna and Joe Barbera were still credited as animators particularly in the first Scooby Doo series. In 1973 they appear to stop directing and they handed off direction to Charles Nichols. As directors, how much input did Hanna and Barbera have on the early Scooby Doo series?

 

[wiley207]

In the late 1960s to early 1970s, William Hanna and Joe Barbera were still credited as animators particularly in the first Scooby Doo series. In 1973 they appear to stop directing and they handed off direction to Charles Nichols. As directors, how much input did Hanna and Barbera have on the early Scooby Doo series?

In addition to their usual director duties, they also had a hand in developing Scooby-Doo with Joe Ruby, Ken Spears, Iwao Takamoto, and Fred Silverman. It was a fully collaborative effort.
By 1973, I suspect it had something to do with the second season of "The New Scooby-Doo Movies" being animated at Hanna-Barbera Australia (so it was considerably sloppier than the first season). But "The Funky Phantom," the first H-B Australia series, had Hanna and Barbera credited as directors. More likely, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were more than likely busy with executive producer duties along with running the rest of the company, so they began having others direct the cartoons. But Tom Ruegger was able to get Bill Hanna to direct the first episode of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo", albeit uncredited.

 

[harry580]

since this is a hanna barbera question thread, I have to ask you, who owns the library of hanna barbera australia?, I mean, I know banijay owns the library of hanna barbera australia but there's are some exceptions to it

 

[wiley207]

since this is a hanna barbera question thread, I have to ask you, who owns the library of hanna barbera australia?, I mean, I know banijay owns the library of hanna barbera australia but there's are some exceptions to it

It really varies. Many of the shows Hanna-Barbera Australia Pty. Ltd. animated on are part of the rest of the H-B library (including their first co-production, "The Funky Phantom"). But after H-B Australia was co-purchased by James Hardie Industries in 1974, for the most part they remained an overseas animation house. Such shows include "Valley of the Dinosaurs," a few 1976 episodes of "The Scooby-Doo Show," "The All-New Popeye Hour," "The Kwicky Koala Show," "The Smurfs," even doing so well into the mid-to-late 80s on some shows like "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" (though I believe that also had some animation done at H-B's L.A.-based studio).
Early exceptions to this include "Dinky Dog" and "Drac Pack," both fully co-produced with and copyrighted to H-B Australia (and credited on the latter as "Hanna-Barbera Pty. Ltd.", in place of the usual Filmways-esque "A Hanna-Barbera Production" credit). When Southern Star was founded (as they originally used H-B Australia as their overseas animation house), they acquired both shows, and as such I believe they are now the properties of Endemol Shine Australia. I think CBS/Paramount Global also owns the rights to "CBS Storybreak" (I mean, CBS is in the title!). Multicom Entertainment has full rights to the "Teen Wolf" animated series H-B Australia animated on, because Southern Star co-produced it with the Kushner-Locke Company, and their library has since been acquired by Multicom. The 1980s "The Berenstain Bears" animated series Southern Star and H-B Australia co-produced is now co-owned by Berenstain Enterprises, Nelvana and WildBrain. (Nelvana, producer of the 2000s "Berenstain Bears" animated series, got distribution rights in 2013 after Southern Star was folded into Endemol Shine Australia, presumably so they could co-own the complete "Berenstain Bears" animated library with Berenstain Enterprises.)

 

[Mandouga]

In other words, that must have been the “unforeseen legal issue” that caused Shout! Studios (formerly known as Shout! Factory) to cancel its planned DVD release of the animated Teen Wolf series (you’d think MGM would own the rights…). When I saw the show on Pluto TV, I noticed that every episode started with the Multicom logo, so I did wonder.


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[Edward Joseph]

More likely, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were more than likely busy with executive producer duties along with running the rest of the company, so they began having others direct the cartoons.

Yeah, probably. It should be noted that they temporarily held the "Executive Producer" credit in 1968 with The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. It should also be noted that even before they stopped directing their own cartoons full time, they would occasionally let other directors direct some of their cartoons (for instance, Alex Lovy directed Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? and Gene Kelly directed Jack and the Beanstalk (1967))