Flintstones: Hanna Barbera making the Flintstones- LIFE magazine pics from 1960

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/...na-barbera-making-the-flintstones-101743.html

Really cool pics!

 

Fascinating photos! Thanks for posting. The one of a painter working at home while her kids play nearby is particularly interesting to me.

Dan c

 

Thanks for posting the link, great photos!!! Life in black and white photos always makes everything seem so easy, in my opinion. I was a mere child in those Hanna/Barbara days and the simple technology, with real people and real talent, is so fun to actually see at work. I also enjoyed seeing Bill and Joe at their homes, relaxing with family and friends. Nothing too over the top L.A. or Hollywood for them in those days, as their back yards looked like I remember my families back yard looking. Of course, if I want to revisit the home that I grew up in, I only have to walk across the street from where my mother lives now, as we made the big move back in 1972 or 73. I can still see the giant GLOBAL VAN LINES truck sitting on our small quiet street and wondering why they felt the need to bring that giant truck, as they walked around it!

 

I wonder where in LA their houses were? Probably worth millions now.

 

Loved it. Thanks for sharing...

 

That was great. Thank you.

 

Yes, loved it!

 

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the surface! Cool stuff.

 

Sometimes I am totally enamored by the massive tangible output to make what I viewed as a simple afternoon cartoon.
The whole of it is almost unreal yet there is was, touchable and worth the effort.
Almost all of it done by people we never really knew, or would ever recognize even if we met them.

 

When I was a kid that's the job I always dreamt of doing when I grew up. Of course I never became a cartoonist, and never for a time did I imagine that computers would supplant the mechanical job of animators. But to this day I can draw a Fred Flintstone just like the one in the first photograph, I never lost the ability through those thirty years.

 

I am constantly impressed by the versatility of Bea Benedaret.... from Jack Benny to George Burns to Betty Rubble to the Beverly Hillbillies to Petticoat Junction. Her death was a tremendous loss to the entertainment world. I read on Wikipedia that she was the first choice to play Ethel Mertz on "I Love Lucy".... Rest in Peace Bea!

 

Loved those Flintstones cartoons. Lots of memories of watching them in reruns in the 1970's.

 

The Flintstones were the original "upcyclers", although they probably pissed off PETA. Damn, they could make good use of giant tortoise shells, i.e. Fred's hard-hat at the quarry, Bamm-Bamm 's drum, the list goes on and on.

Lot's of really great cartoons from back in the day. From Looney tunes to the Jetson's, how I long for the glory days!

 

I recently watched a documentary on Spanish television it argued that some of the animation work had been outsourced to Spain. Could have been the 1970s but If memory serves me well I recall that some Flintstones episodes were black & white.

 

Why do Hanna Barbera male characters have a line from their nose to their collar? Was this for some kind of animation efficiency? And in some episodes Wilma and Betty have teeth. That never really worked.

 

All Flintstones episodes were in color. All-B&W ABC only started color broadcasting in the third season. The only things not yet seen in color are the old Flintstone commercials, such as the one for Winston cigarettes. They may turn up in color one day.

 

Daws Butler stepped in to do Barney for a while as Mel recovered from his accident. Honestly, I didn't care much for the "new" Barney voice.

 

Do you recall about when in the series that was? I remember Barney being very high pitched voice at first and then it went to more a Norton-type voice closer to Art Carney. Just curious ...

 

I think it was the other way around. Barney started out as the mellow Ed Norton style voice, then after his wreck he started with the whiney-style Barney. Blanc didn't just do voices, he created characters. That's what made him the master of his work.

 

Too bad.

 

I was thinking the border between stubble and non-stubble.

 

It was in the second season, I think the first few episodes. Blanc was starting to transition his Barney voice IIRC, the accident happened, and then Blanc returned with the Barney voice that lasted for the rest of the series and until his death. The first Daws Butler episode was the one where Fred and Barney meet Hoagy Carmichaelstone, or Carmichaelrock, I forget. Or maybe it was Stony or Rocky Carmichael.
ETA: Ah yes, it was Stoney Carmichael.

 

Thanks, I'll check it out and see if I notice a difference or not. Does Mel Blanc still get credit for the voice during that time?