December 14, 1957: The Hanna-Barbera Empire Begins

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Joseph Barbera (left) and William Hanna

December 14, 1957: The Ruff and Reddy Show premieres on NBC. It was the 1st animated series made by Hanna-Barbera Productions, beginning a cartoon empire.

The series follows the adventures of Ruff, a smart and steadfast cat; and Reddy, a good-natured, brave, but not overly bright dog. It runs for 3 seasons, and is not nearly as well-remembered as some other Hanna-Barbera creations.

William Denby Hanna (1910-2001) grew up in Los Angeles. Joseph Roland Barbera (1911-2006) grew up in Brooklyn, and moved to Los Angeles as a young man. They met in 1937, while working in the animation department at Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. They worked on the Tom & Jerry cartoons in the 1940s and '50s, and founded their own production company on July 7, 1957, when MGM shut their animation department down. It would eventually show cartoons on all 3 major networks then in operation: NBC, CBS and ABC.

The Ruff and Reddy Show was a blip on the history of animated television. In 1958, Hanna-Barbera premiered The Huckleberry Hound Show. In addition to the titular hillbilly dog, it included segments starring Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, two mice and a cat; and Yogi Bear. In 1959 game The Quick Draw McGraw Show, which also included Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy.

In 1960, they created The Flintstones, a caveman-era ripoff of The Honeymooners. In 1961, they gave Yogi Bear his own show, which also debuted the lion Snagglepuss; and premiered Top Cat. In 1962, they debuted the space-age series The Jetsons. In 1963 came The Magilla Gorilla Show; in 1964, Jonny Quest and The Peter Potamus Show; in 1965, The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show. In 1966, they debuted their 1st superhero, Space Ghost. In 1968, they introduced The Banana Splits, 4 guys in big animal costumes, who ran skits and introduced previously-produced Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

In 1968, The Wacky Races was launched. Three of the 11 cars in the races saw their occupants appear in spinoffs debuting the next year. The Perils of Penelope Pistop featured the titular Southern belle in a parody of silent-film "damsel-in-distress" serials, aided by another group of Wacky Racers, the Ant Hill Mob, dwarves who were parodies of 1920s gangsters. And Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines featured the Races' chief villain and his not-so-faithful dog, apparently set in World War I, fighting for Germany, trying to stop an American messenger -- a bird known as the Yankee Doodle Pigeon.

The Wacky Races and its spinoffs began a new era for Hanna-Barbera, highlighted in 1969, with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The cowardly Great Dane and his 4 crime-fighting teenage cohorts started a trend in cartoons, with talking animals and people working together. In 1970, with The Archies already a cartoon hit, Hanna-Barbera merged that concept with Scooby-Doo, and premiered Josie and the Pussycats: A cartoon teenage rock band, animals, and crime-fighting.

This would be followed by such shows as a series based on the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team (with fanciful stories involving them fighting crime), The Funky Phantom in 1971, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan in 1972 (inspired by the Charlie Chan stories), Speed Buggy in 1973, Hong Kong Phooey in 1974, and Jabberjaw in 1976.

In 1975, they brought back their first project, with The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show. Mumbly was a dog in a trenchcoat who solved crimes, and, except for his coloring, was just like Dick Dastardly's dog Muttley. The problem was, while they had gained the legal rights to Tom & Jerry, they had lost the rights to Dastardly and Muttley. So a new character had to be created.

In 1976, they launched The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour. In addition to new adventures for Scooby and the gang, it introduced a new superhero. As he had for Space Ghost, the great Los Angeles disc jockey Gary Owens (best known as the announcer for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) voiced the Blue Falcon, a Batman ripoff who built his own Robin, a robot dog named Dynomutt, voiced by Frank Welker, who voiced Fred on Scooby-Doo and lots of cartoon dogs, including Astro Jetson -- but not Scooby, at least until original voice Don Messick died.

These last 2 series inspired their biggest project, in 1977: Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. There were 3 teams: The Yogi Yahooeys, captained by Yogi Bear, and consisting of Hanna-Barbera characters of the 1960s, including Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw; the Scooby Doobies, captained by Scoopy and consisting of Hanna-Barbera characters of the 1970s, including Blue Falcon and Dynomutt; and the ever-cheating Really Rottens, captained by Mumbly, who as professional wrestling fans would say, "turned heel" for this show.

Most of the Rottens were new characters, some human, some monster. Among the humans was the Dread Baron, an evil pilot obviously based on Dick Dastardly, another character for whom Hanna-Barbera had lost the legal rights.

A few years later, after they regained the rights to Dick and Muttley, a graphic novel was released, with a time-travel plot (enabling the inclusion of both the Flintstones and the Jetsons) that brought all the Hanna-Barbera characters yet used together for one great climactic adventure, preceding DC Comics' Crisis On Infinite Earths by a few years, and Marvel Comics' Infinity Saga by several years. In that graphic novel, it was revealed that Dick Dastardly and the Dread Baron were identical twins, and that Muttley and Mumbley were also litter brothers.

Like most Hanna-Barbera shows were at this point, the Laff-A-Lympics were on ABC, and ABC's show Battle of the Network Stars was more of an inspiration than the actual Olympic Games.

There would be further Hanna-Barbera shows in the 1980s, including cartoons based on ABC sitcoms Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy; and adapting The Smurfs for American TV. The last show by Hanna-Barbera Productions was The Powerpuff Girls, which ran from 1998 to 2005, and had the animation style and the feel of a 1970s' cartoon.

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December 14, 1957 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. There was 1 game played in the NFL: The Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 31-27 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the St. Louis Hawks, 136-124 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 112-94 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Syracuse Nationals beat the Cincinnati Royals, 104-100 -- at the Rochester Community War Memorial in Rochester, New York, which had been the Royals' home in the 1955-56 and 1956-57 seasons, before moving to Cincinnati. (It is now named the Blue Cross Arena.)

And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 4-4 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens played to a tie, 1-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-1 at Maple Leaf Garden in Toronto.

September 13, 1969: "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" Premieres

September 13, 1969: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premieres on CBS. It becomes one of the most popular "Saturday morning cartoons" of all time.

The voices of the characters:

* Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, a talking Great Dane, which is known as a cowardly breed of dog, and Scooby was a coward. And always hungry.

* Frank Welker as Fred Jones, the preppy blond leader of the gang, known as Mystery, Inc., and driver of their van, the Mystery Machine. Welker voiced several cartoon dogs, including Astro Jetson, and would take over as the voice of Scooby after Messick's death.

* Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers, a hippie who was as cowardly and as hungry as Scooby. Scooby seemed to be closer to Shaggy than to any of the others, though he would often steal Shaggy's food. Kasem was a superstar disc jockey in Los Angeles, and gave Shaggy the frightened exclamation "Zoinks!"

As a boy, I would read anything. And I noticed that Shaggy had the same voice as the Super Friends' version of Batman's crimefighting partner Robin. So I read the closing credits of both cartoons, wrote the names of the voice actors down, and looked to see if any of them matched. Sure enough, Kasem was the voice of both. As Shaggy would say, "Like, wow!" Or, as Robin would say, "Holy coincidence!" (Kasem's version did pretty much copy Burt Ward's from the 1966-68 Batman show.)

* Indira Stefanianna (Season 1, credited as Stefanianna Christopherson) and Heather North (Season 2) as Daphne Blake, the redhead who seemed to be not very bright, and also seemed to be Fred's girlfriend. This would be played up in the 2002 live-action film, in which Fred and Daphne were played by real-life husband and wife Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

* Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley, a bespectacled intellectual who was probably the best detective of the group. When surprised, she would say, "Jinkees!"

As time went by, Velma was rumored to be a lesbian. This was unconsciously deepened by the fact that the character was based on Zelda K. Gilroy of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, played by Sheila Kuehl, who later became the 1st openly gay person elected to California's State Legislature.

As the cartoon debuted mere weeks after the Stonewall Riot, the idea that any of the characters could be gay couldn't have been said on the air. Even as late as the 2002 and 2004 live-action films, Velma was shown as being interested in male characters, including, on occasion, Shaggy. It was finally made canon that Velma was gay in a 2022 cartoon.

CBS aired 17 episodes from September 13, 1969 to January 17, 1970; then a 2nd season of 8 episodes from September 12 to October 31, 1970.

The theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, performed by Larry Marks in Season 1 and George A. Robertson Jr. in Season 2.

What was in the Scooby Snacks? Many people have thought they were laced with marijuana. After all, Scooby and Shaggy always "had the munchies." But pot doesn't make you braver or more active. Quite the opposite: It makes you lazy.

There was an unmasking in every show, where the "ghost" or "monster" was shown to be all too human, usually trying to pull off some sort of fraud. In the public memory, their tagline is, "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"

But that wasn't used very often. The first variation was in Episode 11, "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts," when a master of disguise, who'd impersonated a vampire, a werewolf, a Frankenstein-style monster and a gypsy fortune-teller, called them "these blasted kids and their dog!"

It wasn't until Episode 20, "Scooby's Night with a Frozen Fright," in Season 2, before a professor studying ocean life, seeking to steal his partner's potentially lucrative invention, used the words "meddling kids," but he didn't use the words "And I would have gotten away with it, too." Nor did Mr. Carswell, the bank president who was embezzling from his own bank, and pretending to be the titular monstrous robber in Episode 21, "Jeepers It's the Creeper": He just yelled, "Meddling kids!"

In Episode 22, "Haunted House Hang-Up," the main "ghost" turned out to be the good guy, with an additional "ghost" admitting, "And I'd a-found it, if it wasn't for you snoopers!" Fred preceded this by saying, "Now, let's see who our phony phantom really is!" In the finale, Episode 25, "Don't Fool With a Phantom," Fred said, "Time to find out who you really are!" But Fred never, in the original run, ever said, "Now, let's see who you really are!"

Eventually, ABC bought the rights, and built a whole media franchise around Scooby and the gang, where the tropes became more common. But the 25 episodes of 1969 and '70 are generally considered to be not just the original, but the best episodes.

Don Messick died in 1997, Casey Kasem in 2014, Heather North in 2017. As of September 13, 2022, Nicole Jaffe is 82, Frank Welker is 76 and Indira Stefanianna is 75.

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September 13, 1969 was a Saturday. Actor, director and playwright Tyler Perry was born. This was also the day of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Zoinks! Like, Gary Wagner outpitched Fritz Peterson. Rico Petrocelli hit a home run, Reggie Smith went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Tony Conigliaro went 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2, but did draw 2 walks. And they got away with it, too, because the Yankees didn't have enough meddling kids. Bobby Murcer went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, but rookie Thurman Munson went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Tom Seaver went the distance for the win. Ron Swoboda hit a grand slam. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-5 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-1 with 2 walks and an RBI. Frank Robinson did not play.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-6 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. Al Kaline entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and went 0-for-2.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Phil Niekro pitched 11 shutout innings for the Braves, allowing 6 hits. Larry Dierker pitched 12 shutout innings for the Astros, allowing 4 hits. Jimmy Wynn singled home 2 runs for the Astros in the top of the 13th.

But in the bottom of the 13th, Fred Gladding allowed single, double, walk, single. Jack Billingham got an out, but was immediately replaced by Wade Blasingame, who intentionally walked Hank Aaron, and then unintentionally walked Bob Aspromonte to give the Braves the win.

This game did not make a fellow proud to be an Astro. Maybe manager Harry Walker should have brought in Jim Bouton, whom the Astros had acquired from the Seattle Pilots on August 24. He was in the process of writing his diary of the season, which became the book Ball Four.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. John "Blue Moon" Odom pitched 8 shutout innings for the A's, before being relieved by Fred Talbot, who had been liberated from the expansion Seattle Pilots 16 days earlier. Paul Edmondson pitched 9 innings of 3-hit shutout ball for the ChiSox, but Wilbur Wood gave up 4 runs in the top of the 10th, including a 3-run home run to Dave Duncan. Reggie Jackson did not enter the game for the A's.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Dean Chance went the distance, allowing 4 hits -- and lost for the Twins. The expansion Royals started Roger Nelson, but he only pitched 1 inning before leaving the game with an injury. He didn't pitch again that season, and pitched only 9 major league innings in 1970, and battled injury thereafter, missing all of 1975, and last pitched in 1976, age 32.

Mike Hedlund pitched 6 innings, allowing just 2 hits. Ed Kirkpatrick singled home the only run of the game in the top of the 9th, making a winning pitcher out of Moe Drabowsky, who completed the 2-hit shutout. Shortstop Leo Cárdenas got both Twin hits. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Rod Carew went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 7-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Cubs led 4-3 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Cards scored 4 runs off Fergie Jenkins, Ken Johnson and Phil Regan. Lou Brock went 2-for-4 with a walk. Joe Torre went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

In this 1st season of Divisional play, the Cubs led the National League Eastern Division by as much as 9 games on August 16, but went 17-26 the rest of the way, falling behind the Mets on September 10, a collapse known as the September Swoon.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Pete Rose went 1-for-5. Johnny Bench went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Mays entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and went 0-for-2.

* And a doubleheader was split at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. The Seattle Pilots won the opener, 6-4. Steve Hovley, Danny Walton and Don Mincher each got 2 hits, to make a winning pitcher of Diego Seguí, in relief of Marty Pattin. The California Angels won the nightcap, 4-2. Eddie Fisher (not the singer) outpitched Miguel Fuentes, the Dooley Womack and John Gelnar.

This was also the opening weekend of the college football season. But only 1 team ranked in the Top 20 played that day: Number 17 UCLA beat Oregon State, 37-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal traveled to Lancashire, and beat Burnley, 1-0 at Turf Moor. George Graham, later to manage them to success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, scored the game's only goal.