Joseph Barbera was an animator and cartoonist. He was known as a co-founder of the famous animation studio Hanna-Barbera.
Barbera was born on March 24th, 1911, as an Italian immigrant in New York City. Later, Barbera joined a studio named Van Beuren in 1927 and Terrytoons in 1936. Barbera started to work in animation when he began watching Walt Disney’s animation “The Skeleton Dance” in 1929, becoming a freelance cartoonist. Some of his prints were published in Redbook. Then, he teamed up with William Hanna in making the famous Tom and Jerry, which became very popular with critics and audiences.
But around 1950, Barbera started working with someone named Robert D. Buchanan in production. It was a science fiction series named “Colonel Beep”. It became the first ever animated series with color television. Eventually, Barbera left the partnership and teamed up with William Hanna, founding the Hanna-Barbera production in their studio, and with their theatrical animation in decline, they started to focus on their new market of television animation.
Their new studio made a show called “The Ruff & Reddy Show” which became more popular than “The Huckleberry Hound Show” and “The Yogi Bear Show”. When surveys were taken, it was shown that both of the shows attracted an adult audience and tried to convince Hanna and Barbera to make animation just for adults.
Then their next series, “The Flintstones”, released around 1960, became popular with kids and adults. It was a success and established Hanna-Barbera Productions as the leader in animation television. In 2001, Hanna-Barbera was into Warner Bros animation. He received executive producer credits for Warner Bros, Sequels, and adaptions of his old series: “What’s New, Scooby-Doo?”, and “Tom and Jerry Tales”.
Joseph Barbera died in 2006 at the age of 95 before his new production, “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale”, was even completed. He was known for making over 100 television series and a large number of endearing cartoons.
RELATED STORIES:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0053484/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Barbera
https://www.tvinsider.com/people/joseph-barbera/
TAKE ACTION:
https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/hanna-barbera-building/
