Cartoon Network Studios

Cartoon Network Studios, formerly known as Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. is a cartoon animation studio founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera that has produced television cartoons for over forty years.

Founding

Hanna and Barbera were first teamed together while working at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studio in 1939. Their first directorial project was a cartoon entitled Puss Gets the Boot (1940), which served as the genesis of the popular Tom and Jerry cartoon series. Hanna, Barbera, and MGM live-action director George Sidney formed Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1944 while working for the studio, and used the side company to work on ancillary projects, including early television commercials and the original opening titles to I Love Lucy.

Related Topics:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - 1939 - 1940 - Tom and Jerry - George Sidney - 1944 - Television - Commercials - I Love Lucy

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After an award-winning stint in which they won eight Oscars, MGM closed their animation studio in 1957, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release. Hanna and Barbera hired most of their MGM unit to work for Hanna-Barbera Productions, which became a full-fledged production company starting in 1957. The decision was made to specialize in television animation, and the studio's first series was The Ruff & Reddy Show, which premiered on NBC in December 1957. In order to obtain working capital to produce their cartoons, Hanna-Barbera made a deal with the Screen Gems television division of Columbia Pictures in which the new animation studio received working capital in exchange for distribution rights. The company never had a building of its own until 1963, when the Hanna-Barbera Studio, located at 3400 Cahuenga Blvd. in West Hollywood, California, was opened. The Columbia/Hanna-Barbera partnership lasted until 1967, when Hanna and Barbera sold the studio to Taft Broadcasting while retaining their positions at the studio.

Related Topics:
Oscars - 1957 - The Ruff & Reddy Show - NBC - December - Screen Gems - Columbia Pictures - 1963 - West Hollywood, California - 1967 - Taft Broadcasting

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