“The Roman Holidays” and “Help!... It’s the Hair Bear Bunch” – Not Loooong DVD Reviews, but Some Initial Observations – Part One “Taking a Holliday”!

In 2013, The Warner Archive Collection released “Complete Series” sets for the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning TV series THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS (1972) and HELP!... IT’S THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH (1971). 
 

 

As stated in the comment thread of THIS POST, despite being a lifelong fan of classic-era (‘50s and ‘60s) Hanna-Barbera cartoons, I’d managed to miss both series, most likely due to a general disenchantment with the “State of SatAM”; post 1970.   

In response to a huge sale at Amazon… “I ordered ROMAN HOLIDAYS to see how much it actually paralleled THE FLINTSTONES,  and HAIR BEAR BUNCH as sort of Daws Butler’s “last hurrah” in voicing wise-guy animal characters.”

 

I went on to say:  “I’ve never seen ROMAN HOLIDAYS, and have only gotten the slightest taste of HAIR BEAR BUNCH from Boomerang. I don’t hold particularly high hopes for either, but this week’s sale prices on both will go a long way toward mitigating that.”

And, so, with my “not particularly high hopes" at the ready, I received my copies of  THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS and HELP!... IT’S THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH this past Saturday (August 09, 2014) and watched the first three episodes of each series – for the FIRST TIME – and I’m sorta surprised to tell you… they’re not really bad at all! 
 



Read all about it!  CLICK to ENLARGE!

I described Daws Butler’s voicing of “Hair Bear” as his “last hurrah in voicing wise-guy animal characters.”  Apparently, the period of 1971-1972 (and not much beyond that, alas) was Hanna-Barbera’s “last hurrah” at creating the type of humor show they had originally become famous for.   

Soon thereafter, they would inundate us with the many “Teen Mystery Solver” clone series that followed in the wake of SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU, simply awful series like RICHIE RICH, repeated miscastings of their own classic characters like Yogi Bear , and the 90 minute to two-hour Mega Shows that smooshed different series together in gigantic, ill-conceived mega-programming blocks.  Oh, and of course, the many incarnations and imitators of SMURFS and SUPER FRIENDS!   …Oh, the pain! 

Oh, the pain!  Oh, the seventies! ...And eighties, even!

 

An aside, those Hanna-Barbera “Teen Mystery Solver” clone series became so plentiful that a magnificent parody episode of the situation (“Mystery Solvers Club State Finals”) was done by the 2010 series SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED, which featured the casts of many of those clone shows and their pets and mascots! 

 

THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS, and its 63 AD setting, was one of several concepts that eventually gave way to pre-history during the development of what would become THE FLINTSTONES.  Instead of a “Mah-dern Stone Age Fam-mil-lee”, we have a “Modern Roman Empire Age Family”.  Although it took twelve years after THE FLINTSTONES to finally surface, THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS eventually came to TV, albeit for Saturday Morning, rather than prime time. 

 

Contemporary conveniences, instead of reflecting Stone Age sensibilities, were of ancient Roman origins.  Chariots for cars, wrist hour-glasses instead of watches, and American football games in the Roman Coliseum between the “Trojans” and the “Vikings”. 

Though, like THE FLINTSTONES, taxis and busses were also “shells powered by the driver’s and passengers’ feet”, and animals were sometimes used as machines.  

Oh, and names of persons and things ended in the Roman suffix “us”, as opposed to “rock” or “stone”. 

In its cast of characters, however, THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS was more like THE JETSONS than THE FLINTSTONES.  A well-meaning, put-upon father “Gus” (short for “Augustus”) voiced by WACKY RACES narrator Dave Willock (who also appeared in the ‘50s sci-fi film “It Came from Outer Space” and the James Cagney classic “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, to name two on my DVD shelf), and his loyal wife “Laurie” (does that sound Roman to you?), and, in a reversal of Judy and Elroy Jetson, a teenaged son and sarcastic-tongued young daughter. 

 

There’s also the expected mean and blustery little man, though it’s not “The Boss” like Mr. Spacely, it’s the landlord “Mr. Evictus” surprisingly well-voiced by comic actor (and, according to family lore, my very distant cousin, whom I’d never met) Dom De Luise.    

 

The cast is rounded out by an “Astro-like” pet lion named “Brutus”, who doesn’t actually “talk” but makes whatever sounds he can in Daws Butler’s “Snagglepuss voice”! 
 

"Not much for looks, but that VOICE will take him a long way!"

 

Two things initially strike me about THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS:

 

ONE:  It does not look like a Hanna-Barbera production, in that it fails to reflect the “traditional” H-B design sense of Ed Benedict and Dick Bickenback, or that of the chief designer of the time Iwao Takamoto.   If anything, THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS comes across as an odd melding of Iwao Takamoto and the Jay Ward Studio – with Ward as the more dominant influence.  

 

Gus Holiday and Jay Ward's Aesop... You decide!

Characters look more as if they stepped out of Ward’s “Fractured Fairy Tales” or “Aesop and Son” than any previous Hanna-Barbera series.   Particularly Brutus the Lion, who looks nothing like any H-B lion (and there were LOTS OF ‘EM) I’d seen before.  Human characters have FIVE FINGERS, instead of the usual four. 

"Say, I DO look like a Jay Ward character... I mean ROAR!"

 

But, classic 1960s H-B underscores from Hoyt Curtin and Ted Nichols are used throughout the series.  I note this only because these scores (that appeared in all series from THE FLINTSTONES thru SPACE KIDETTES) ...

A (cave) Man and his (Hoyt Curtin) Music!

...were not employed for previous contemporary series like WACKY RACES, DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY IN THE FLYING MACHINES, THE PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP, and SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU.    

Yeah, it’s the kind of thing only a real H-B geek would notice!  So what?
 

Adding to the familiar H-B ambiance are incidental character voices by Daws Butler, Don Messick, and John Stephenson. 

"Is he talking about US, Boo-Boo?"

 

TWO: THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS appears to have been written, less as a then-typical SatAM cartoon and more as a prime-time animated sitcom series, as were THE FLINTSTONES and THE JETSONS!  At least that’s what I saw in those first few episodes!  

Credited writers included William Raynor and Myles Wilder of such iconic comedy series as McHALE’S NAVY, GOMER PYLE, and GET SMART, and Barry E. Blitzer, previously of THE FLINTSTONES, THE JETSONS, TOP CAT and its inspiration THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW, as well as the aforementioned McHALE’S NAVY and GOMER PYLE! 
 

 

“I think we’ll have CAESAR SALAD tonight.” 

 

“Might as well be PATRIOTIC!” 

 

It’s little script gems like that, from the third episode, that set THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS apart from the rest of its contemporary fare.  And, what a breath of fresh air that quality of writing must have been to the Saturday Morning animated ghetto of 1972!  (…Not to mention 1975, 1978, 1980, or 1984!) Alas, only 13 episodes were produced.  SatAM series, back then, were particularly short run.  
 

The three episodes of THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS viewed to date were far more enjoyable than I expected.  No, it’s not THE FLINTSTONES at their best, not even close… but, as a series I had low expectations for, it was quite good!  Let’s see where it goes from here! 

I’ll be back with Part Two on HELP!... IT’S THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH soon!   

Getting “In Dutch” with The Flintstones!

Friend of this Blog Adel Khan provided a link to some Dutch FLINTSTONES comic book covers, and many of them are quite good…
 

…Especially as we’ve seen just how utterly bad some FLINTSTONES covers can be!

 

Then again, we’ve had some DARNED GOOD ONES ones in the USA, too! 

 

 

So good, in fact, that the Dutch would reprint them, not without good reason. 

 

 

 

But, the most fascinating thing about this is their tendency to USE COVER IDEAS FROM DIFFERENT HANNA-BARBERA COMICS, and repurpose them for THE FLINTSTONES!  

Here are some with their American originals! 

Okay, that COULD be a coincidence!  But, try on a few more for size! 

 

At least this is an interesting variation.  A rare occurrence where Wilma is on the receiving end of some slapstick.  Note Fred's almost inappropriately amused expression!  Heh-Heh! 

 

 

I don't even know what to make of this one! 

 

Okay, I get wasting Wally and chucking Huck, in favor of Fred and Barney... but why replace Yakky Doodle and Ding-a-ling, with Augie Doggie and Mister Jinks (instead of other Flintstones related characters like Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm), yet LEAVE Touché Turtle, Pixie, and Dixie intact?   

 

And what's with the semi-rapacious expression on Jinks?  The meeces are BEHIND HIM, so what's got him so... like, desirous?  Are they headed toward "Gold-en Fish Island", or something? 

 

"GOLD-EN FISH!  And, they're ALL MINE, like!"

 

Even Augie seems a little too filled with anticipation.  Maybe "Dear Old Dad" is stranded on that island with all those lovely "Gold-en Fish"!   

 

Well, at least Fred tried to make up for Wilma's face-painting by naming the boat after her. 

This odd cover also makes a fine transition to our next category... Even worse than mere swiping, is when Fred and/or Barney is DROPPED INTO another comic's cover illustration!

 

Not merely REDRAWN, mind you, but literally INSERTED into an existing cover illustration, taking the place of another character or element! 

 

Bye-bye, Buddy Boulder.  Hello, Fred!

So, is this Fred's "second childhood", or his third, fourth or fifth? 

 

Below: Maybe the Cave Kids are watching a rerun of "The Swimming Pool"? 

 

 

At least they had the good sense to reprint this next cover without alterations.  I'd hate to see the result, compositionally, if Fred and Barney were inserted here! 

 

 

Adel is thanked for his contribution - and for all the fun we've had with it.  

 

For anyone who cares to see ALL of these covers, take THIS LINK, and enjoy.   

TIAH Turns Twenty!

 

Since I can no longer remember the exact date, we’ll simply pick one somewhere around the midpoint of 2014 and say that, in one form or another, TIAH (or “The Issue At Hand”) has been a part of my life for twenty years! 

“The Issue At Hand” began in 1994 as an APA and Fanzine column and, in 2008, became a Blog.  It ran in four different fan-publications over the years.  Its final paper installment occurred in 2012, and (for better or for worse – you decide) blogs on to this day and beyond. 

Twenty years! 

Step back and think about how many things any of us have done consecutively and unbroken for twenty years!  …Anything that doesn’t involve “watching THE SIMPSONS”, that is. 

 

Just in my own life (SIMPSONS, notwithstanding) it’s difficult to find many things that have been the constant that TIAH has, over that twenty year span.  I lived somewhere else, worked somewhere else, and was even married to someone else.  …So much for “Life’s Big Three”! 

Heck, there was even a period along the way where I didn’t watch THE SIMPSONS, so TIAH may indeed be it!   Okay, there were some runs of comic books that I may have bought faithfully over a twenty year period – assuming they ran consecutively for a “straight twenty years” – but there’s no comic book title over the period of 1994 – 2014 that I can say that about. 

 

Note the "Number of Cents" this comic cost!

And, before the age of “TV on DVD”, I can’t even say that about a TV show – because there would be periods where a particular show simply wasn’t being run. 

 

TIAH has continued and solidified old friendships, and provided me with new ones.  It has influenced others to write, and later to Blog.  I’m tremendously proud of that. 

And, I’m both gratified – and, frankly, grateful – that so many of you continue to stop by and make this endeavor “The Great Fun Thing It Is”, with your input! 

In defiance of the expected cliché, I will not promise “another twenty years”, but I WILL just keep doing what I do, and hope that you all continue to visit!