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Alex Toth (1966)

Space Ghost is a Saturday morning superhero cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It first aired on CBS from September 10, 1966, to September 16, 1967. The series was composed of two unrelated segments, Space Ghost and Dino Boy in the Lost Valley. The series was created by Alex Toth and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

Space Ghost, along with teenaged sidekicks Jan and Jace and their pet monkey Blip, fight villains in outer space. Usually, Space Ghost’s sidekicks would get captured or trapped by the villains, and Space Ghost would have to defeat the villains and save the day. His enemies included Zorak, Brak and his brother Sisto, the Creature King, the Black Widow (a.k.a. the Spider Woman), Lokar, Moltar, and Metallus.

“Saturday-morning cartoon” is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the “Big Three” television networks

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William Hanna & Joseph Barbera (1946)

Solid Serenade is a 1946 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 26th Tom and Jerry short, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on August 31, 1946 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and the musical supervision was by Scott Bradley. Ed Barge, Michael Lah, and Kenneth Muse animated it. Excerpts of this cartoon are seen in three other Tom and Jerry shorts: Jerry’s Diary, Smitten Kitten, and Smarty Cat, the latter instance with altered audio and an added scene of Tom whistling.

Animation historian Michael Barrier wrote that Tom’s appearance stabilized by the time of Solid Serenade, giving him a more streamlined and less inconsistent look. Jerry, whose appearance was already economical, only became cuter, according to Barrier. Describing music director Scott Bradley’s work, academic Daniel Ira Goldmark called Solid Serenade “an excellent overview of Bradley’s techniques”, as it uses both popular songs and an original score.

Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby is a 1944 Louis Jordan song, released as the B-side of a single with “G.I. Jive”. “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” reached #1 on the US folk/country charts. The song appeared in the Tom and Jerry cartoon Solid Serenade and sung by Ira Woods as Tom Cat on the bass.

Louis Thomas Jordan was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as “The King of the Jukebox”, he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “early influence” in 1987.

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Hugh Harman, William Hannah & Paul Fennell (1936)

A Happy Harmonies cartoon.

To Spring is a 1936 animated musical short produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising for the MGM cartoon studio’s Happy Harmonies series. Although the production credit goes to Harman and Ising, this short was actually the first cartoon to be directed by the future cartoon giant William Hanna, along with animator Paul Fennell.

The title is a play on words used to represent the season of spring and action the gnomes must take to wake up and get to work. This cartoon uses the bold and vibrant colors synonymous with springtime, and is an excellent example of the Technicolor process that was very popular at the time.

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Nick Nichols (1973)

Speed Buggy is an American animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera,
which originally aired for one season on CBS from September 8, 1973 to December 22, 1973.

With the voices of Mel Blanc, Michael Bell, Arlene Golonka, and Phil Luther Jr., the show follows an orange anthropomorphic dune buggy who alongside teenagers Debbie, Mark, and Tinker, solves mysteries while participating in racing competitions around the world. The series was produced by Iwao Takamoto, executive produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and directed by Charles A. Nichols.

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Hanna-Barbera (1942)

Fraidy Cat is a 1942 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 4th animated short of Tom and Jerry.
It was released in theaters on January 17, 1942 and reissued for re-release on May 10, 1952.

Fraidy Cat was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby, with music by Scott Bradley. Animated by Jack Zander, George Gordon, Irven Spence, Bill Littlejohn and Cecil Surry. This is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon to have Tom yelp in pain. He also screeches like a cat in this cartoon. It was the first Tom and Jerry wartime cartoon. The original print of this cartoon did not give Fred Quimby credit, crediting only Hanna and Barbera as the “supervisors” of the film. The title card of the original issue remains intact in the reissue.