Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.

By Matt Williams, extra information contributed by Daniel DeCosta and Cameron McCaffrey

In-Credit Logo
(1950s-Late 1980s)

Logo: Not really a logo but more of an in-credit notice. The words “A HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTION” appear on-screen, either at the beginning of a short or at the end of a show. This practice continued well into the 1980s, years after H-B introduced an in-credit logo for its shows. However, while the style of the wording varied from show to show, there were four versions commonly seen.

FX/Cheesy Factor: None, but the 4th variation is a bit harsh on the eyes.

Music: Nothing except whatever theme song was being played over it.

Availability: Still preserved on all H-B shows, as it’s in the credits.

Scare Factor: Obviously, none.

Logo 1A
(1968-1969) (1971-1974)

Note: H-B used two logos using the box design during this period. These logos will be identified as “1A” and “1B”.

Nicknames: "The Box," "The Zooming H-B"

Logo: On a black background, a large, stylized orange “H-B” begins to zoom right up at the viewer. When it nearly engulfs the screen, the background suddenly becomes a shade of orange. On top of the “H-B”, the words “a”, “Hanna-Barbera”, and “Production” all appear.

Byline?: For a short period, Taft’s corporate logo, alongside a byline reading “A division of Taft Broadcasting Company”, appear. This appears to coincide with the logo being used “standalone”, with its own music. Box logos that are appended to the ends of shows and have the show’s music playing do not have the byline.

Reborn: In 2002, starting with the release of "Scooby Doo and the Legend of the Vampire," the Scooby All-Stars logo was phased out and replaced with a recreation of "The Zooming H-B!" The H-B now realistically zooms in before cutting to the finished logo. This can now be seen on any post-2002 direct-to-video Scooby release (which do NOT come from WB Television Animation.)

FX: The “zooming” H-B…

Cheesy Factor: Very choppy animation, and a sudden “jolt” from the black background to the orange background.

Music: A whimsical flute/xylophone jingle, used only when the logo wasn’t attached to the end of the show and had the show’s end credits music playing over it. A little jarring, and a bit scary. You can hear this at the end of the “Penelope Pitstop, Dastardly & Muttley, and Josie and the Pussycats” closing title tracks on the import HB music CD “Tunes from the Toons: The Best of Hanna-Barbera.”

Availability: If it’s been attached to the end of a show, then it’s usually intact, in most cases, except for most 1973 Scooby episodes. If it was stand-alone, then it’s harder to find; some shows have it, some fade away at the in-credit logo, some have it plastered over with a later logo (either a swirling-star with blacked-out Taft byline or the “All-Stars” logo) You can
still see the stand-alone variant on most episodes of "Wacky Races" and "The New Adventures of Gulliver."

Scare Factor: High. The bad animation and sometimes scary music that shows used contributes to this. The regular jingle wasn’t that tame either.

Logo 1B
(1966-1968) (1969-1971)

Nicknames: “The other box logo,” “The early box logo”

Logo: A rare variant of 1A. Small red rectangles on the sides of the screen come up, with the outer two going down, and the one in the center going up, multiply until they create a box with a black stylized “H-B” cutout. The box zooms in and becomes a red background, and the “H-B” then fades in as a blue color, then “A Hanna-Barbera Production” and the Taft byline/logo fade in. The “A” in the H-B text is on top of a red rectangle in the middle of the “H-B” outline.

FX: The “multiplying rectangles”.

Cheesy Factor: Still rough but a bit smoother and less in-your-face than 1A. The blue BG makes the text hard to read, though. Also, the rectangle animation simply cuts crudely to the finished “H-B” as the background zooms in.

Music: Same as 1A.

Note: There was a “prototype” version of sorts, kinda like a combo of this and 1A. It started with the usual Logo 1B animation, but with orange rectangles. Then the black H-B zooms out, and then it cuts to the finished logo, with an orange background and a red H-B, light blue words, byline, and Taft logo. The small “A” box is dark blue with a yellow “A.” It was used from 1966-1968. The music used on this was four chime-like notes and then three brass-band notes mixed with three chimes. It was first seen on the 1966 NBC live action/animated special “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Availability: This logo was available on scattered H-B shows as well as the original “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” Unfortunately, the latter show has suffered from chronic plastering, first with a blacked out 1979-era swirling star logo, then with the 1994 “action” variant of the “All-Stars” logo. (Why action? We don’t know.) The prototype can be seen on any show by H-B from 1966-1968, if it’s left on and not blacked out.

Scare Factor: Median. Better animation but still a little rough. The 1969 logo also looks like it reuses animation from the 1966 logo.

2nd Logo
(1974-1979)

Nickname: "Rainbow H-B"

Logo: We start on a pattern of five columns, each filled with the words “HANNA-BARBERA”. The words are colored so that they form a rainbow pattern. Suddenly, the words start disappearing, from the top starting on column 1, and from he bottom starting with the last column. The words disappear until one last “HANNA-BARBERA” is left. That enlarges and “morphs” into a skewed, stylized H-B, filled with a rolling rainbow pattern with numerous “HANNA-BARBERA”s in it. Below, the words “HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTIONS, INC.” appear.

Byline?: In some cases the logo does not enlarge. In this version, a Taft Broadcasting byline, sans logo this time, appears. Some shows with the “small” version have the Taft byline blacked out.

Still Shot?: A fairly rare variant has been seen on a few TV Movies of the era. It was a still shot with more solid colors and segmented lines running inside the design.

FX: The “Rainbow” effects used in both the columns and actual logo; the words being “wiped” away.

Cheesy Factor: Better, but the “morphing” effect is cheesy and awkward. The “H-B” looks sorta ugly, and the morphing effect… well, freeze-frame the logo and you’ll see how ungainly it looks.

Music: Usually just the end theme of the show. It didn’t have its own music.

Music Note: Sometimes, if this logo is used for chronic plastering, it may turn up with music from another logo. For example, on  “Scooby Doo Goes Hollywood” from 1979, the 3rd logo’s theme can be heard over this logo.

Availability: Still rather plentiful, but some shows fade out before the logo in order to hide it.

Scare Factor: Low, though the design does seem a bit ominous.

3rd Logo
(1979-1986)

Nicknames: "Swirling Star," "Twisting Star," "Shining Star"

Logo: On a black background, a white star swirls down from the top, leaving behind a rainbow trail. It then settles into the center of the screen as it twirls, occasionally shrinking and twisting, forming a circular trail. It then twists into the middle of the circle and comes to a stop. The words “Hanna-Barbera Productions” appear below.

Bylines: There were many. Originally, a small white byline reading “A TAFT BROADCASTING COMPANY” was used from the logo’s inception until the early 1980s. Then, “A DIVISION OF THE TAFT ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY”, in the same white font, was used for a short time after the company reorganized. Finally, starting in 1983, the logo itself was shrunk to make room for a larger, yellow byline, with the same words. Both versions of the logo have been sighted with the Taft byline blacked out. Also, in 1990, a special version of this was used at the end of Jetsons: The Movie. That features the same animation but the name is now “Hanna-Barbera” in the “script” font introduced in the late ‘80s. This variant also features a Great American byline and is the only H-B logo to do so.

Variant: In response to Filmation’s “anklepants” opening logo, Hanna-Barbera responded with their own version. It’s the same as the closing logo but it fades in during the middle of the animation. The text is changed, “Hanna-Barbera” is big and over a small yellow “PRESENTS”. Music for this was a sweeping chime sound, though 1980s Jetsons episodes feature the “Meet George Jetson” chimes.

Anomaly?: Some shows have appeared with the first variant with a blacked-out byline; but with the music from Logo 1A. This was chiefly used to update the logo on “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You” but has spread to other shows as well, with the normal swirling star theme. This variant was sort of common but became rare when Turner updated the prints on “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You” in 1998, and tacked on the all-stars Action logo.

FX: The star and residue trail.

Music: Best described as “futuristic synthesized music”.

Availability: Uncommon in its “unaltered” form; many prints have the logo blacked out.

Scare Factor: Low, though the music may get to some.

4th Logo
(1986-1991), (1998-2002)

Nickname: “CGI Swirling star”

Logo: An updated version of logo 3, but now done in CGI. The trail is now metallic CGI and the star now realistically twists and turns and has a nice shine effect. The text and byline are in a different font and are slightly smaller.

Byline: Originally created with a version of the third byline of logo 3, but immediately blacked out starting in 1988. Some instances even enlarge the logo so the edit isn’t too noticeable.

Reborn: When “The Powerpuff Girls” premiered in 1998, the trend for most H-B shows was to get a simple “character portrait” logo. Bucking the trend, PPG used an updated version of Logo 4! All names and bylines are completely blacked out, and instead the words “HANNA-BARBERA CARTOONS, INC.” and a Time Warner byline are used. In 2001 this was updated to AOL Time Warner but the logo proved short-lived; post-movie episodes of PPG now feature a custom version of the current Cartoon Network Studios logo.

A Close Encounter Of The Weird Kind: A few years ago, on an episode of "Johnny Bravo," this logo was, weirdly enough, sighted. It wasn't the updated "Powerpuff Girls" version, it was the one with the different font for the HB text and the blacked-out byline. It might have been an editing mistake. Speaking of the version of the logo that was mentioned, that version can still be sighted on weekday reruns of "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" on Cartoon Network's "Scooby Universe" block.

FX: Nice CGI, a good achievement for its time, and brighter colors, but…

Cheesy Factor: Doesn’t work as well as its predecessor for some reason. The path has been changed to look “looser” and it simply doesn’t look as visually appealing as its predecessor.

Music: Same as logo 3.

Availability: The chief means of plastering used during the late 80s and 90s. Also added to the ends of some 1960s shows with no logo.

Scare Factor: Low, but the music can get to some people.

Logo 5/Logo 3 in-credit
(1988-1990)

Logo: Basically, a black and white version of Logo 3 next to the cursive “Hanna-Barbera” logo. This is superimposed over the credits, like the earliest H-B logos.

Availability: On late 80s- era “Smurfs” as well as the first two seasons of “Tom and Jerry Kids” (as a dual credit with Turner Broadcasting, who would ironically end up owning them in 1991). The “Tom and Jerry Kids” version is more widely available.

Scare Factor: None, as this is a still logo.

Flintstones Special Logo
(1990)

Logo: Fred Flintstone, in a caveman tuxedo, is tap-dancing outside a box with the words, “THE FIRST 30 YEARS” inside it. Above that in an arc is a sign reading “THE FLINTSTONES”. Below is the Hanna-Barbera script logo.

FX: Fred tap-dancing, which is typical H-B animation of the time.

Music: As far as I know, none, except for the end of the show’s theme.

Availability: If you find this, you are lucky. Plastered over with the 80s CGI swirling star with blacked-out byline.

Scare Factor: None.

6th Logo
(1991-1993)

Logo: In-credit like the last logo. We see the words “H-B Production Co.” This could be in any font; in many examples it appears in the H-B script font, but some shows have it in a more generic font. “The Addams Family’s” first season has a curious hybrid; the script “Hanna-Barbera” logo amid cobwebs, and “H-B PRODUCTION CO.” below it.

Why initial the company name?: This was when Turner first took control of the company, initially buying it with help from Apollo Investment Group. I have no idea why it was initialized like that, though.

Availability: The variants for “Addams Family” and “Tom and Jerry Kids” still have this logo, but “Dark Water” has its plastered over by the 1988 swirling star. Also present on the made-for-TV Flintstones movie, “I Yabba-Dabba-Do!”

Scare Factor: None.

7th Logo
(1993-1994)

Nickname: “All-Star Prototype”

Logo: On a colored background, we see a partial picture of a Hanna-Barbera star inside a geometric shape. Somewhere inside that logo is the “Hanna-Barbera” script logo.

Variations/Availability: This was customized for each show produced by H-B during this era, and is available on only that specified show.

FX: None, as these are all still logos.

Music/Sound Effect: A sound effect from the company’s extensive library of sound effects. It’s different for each logo.

Availability: Usually seen intact on these shows, although “redone” prints of “Two Stupid Dogs” were made and are frequently shown; these have the “Comedy All-Stars” logo in place of their old one. On new prints of these old “Two Stupid Dogs” episodes, you can see this original logo.

Scare Factor: Low, the sound may get to some

8th Logo
(1994-1997)

Nickname: “All-Stars”

Logo: On a blurry white background with several colorful abstract shapes flying about, we see a clear square/oval that provides a “clear” view of the flying shapes; the square/oval has the Hanna-Barbera Script logo embossed in it at the top. Suddenly, we see some of Hanna-Barbera’s most famous stars running through the logo, as the square/oval begins to rotate. At the end, one of the stars ends up coming towards the logo, ending in a very extreme close-up of the star. A very small Turner byline appears in the lower right.

Variations: There were two similar but very distinct versions of this logo produced; one for Hanna-Barbera comedy shows, one for Hanna-Barbera action shows. The stars, “music”, and logo shape differed depending on the logo.

Here are the stars for each version of the logo, in the order that they appear:
COMEDY: Hanna-Barbera’s logo is yellow and in a square.
Fred Flintstone (as if running or slipping or something)
Yogi Bear (grinning)
Huckleberry Hound
Dino
George Jetson (with a very classic “what?” expression)
Elroy Jetson (flying in a pod; the same animation seen in the famous “Jetsons” open)
Barney Rubble (very hidden, you have to look close to find him)
El Kabong (Quick Draw McGraw’s Zorro-esque alter-ego)
Scooby-Doo (with a weird “craning neck” animation)
Fred (zooms towards the logo; extreme close-up)

ACTION: H-B logo is bluish and in an oval.
Bandit (Jonny Quest’s dog)
Atom Ant
Jonny Quest (in his trademark black shirt)
Dr. Benton Quest (Johnny’s dad)
The Thing (yes, of the Fantastic Four, , and H-B did a series of the F-F, even though H-B doesn’t even own the character!)
Some strong guy with an arrow
Space Ghost
Birdman
Zok, the Pteradactyl-like creature from The Herculoids
Jonny Quest with kung-fu like outfit (another zoom; like he’s kicking into the camera)

FX: Nifty combination of 2D animation (the characters) with cool 3D elements (the H-B shape).

Music/Sound Effects: Like the last logo, classic H-B sound effects, but there is more than one used during the logo, and they are arranged to create a neat “tune”. The music differs depending on the logo, but Comedy stars off with the weird horn sound effect from “The Flintstones” and other H-B cartoons ending with the infamous “KABONG” sound effect, and Action has a monkey screeching, a jet plane going by, an elephant making a trumpeting noise, and then a 60s bass guitar sample.

Availability: The chief means of plastering, though not as bad as you might think; typically on “new” prints of the most popular shows, mostly 60s shows that had an in-credit logo and SG logo/text. In MOST cases, they match the right logo with the right show; the exception are the newest prints of Scooby-Doo, which replace the H-B box and swirling star with the action all-stars logo. (Note: On the Scooby Doo episode “Never Ape an Ape Man,” it has the action logo, but with the sound effects from the “comedy” logo!)

Scare Factor: The weird horn effect during the comedy logo might get to you, but it’s neat to see all the characters.

9th Logo
(1997-2001)

Nickname: “Time Warner All-Stars”

Logo: Like Logo 7, a still of an H-B star in a shape, usually an oval. The star is always the one that has been featured in the show that has just ended, so there are quite a number of variations. The background is always white. Below the logo, there is a Time Warner byline.

Variations: As noted above, each Hanna-Barbera produced original series for Cartoon Network (called “Cartoon Cartoons) from 1997 onward had this logo, always with the cartoon’s star, the only exception being Powerpuff Girls, which used a specially created version of the swirling star. This not only included the regular half-hour series but one-shots, previously called “What a Cartoons”, that now fell under the Cartoon Cartoon banner, then were taken off the air. Thus, there is a large number of variations, more than we can list at the moment, but such a list may come in the future.

Some of the very early logos had a different style byline. Appearing in an arc-like fashion below the logo are the words “Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. A Time Warner Company”. This was soon dropped.

Some Cartoon Cartoons from this period had some animation to include Cartoon Network’s logo; the H-B logo would zoom out, and then an ugly “metallic” version of Cartoon Network’s logo would zoom in. Additional sound effects were used for this. Again, quickly dropped, as CN was putting a specially-created network logo after Cartoon Cartoons. In some cases, there would be a quick fade-out before the CN logo would appear!

And finally, the background logo was white except in one case; a special Scooby-Doo logo, used for at least some of the made-for-video movies; in this case, the background was black. There were no sound effects used. This was used from 1998 to 2001.

Music/Sound Effects: There was one standard sound effect montage created for this logo, ending in the H-B weird “laughing” sound effect.

Availability: Still on H-B original series of the time.

Scare Factor: Low

Hanna-Barbera Home Video
(Circa 1987/88-1991/92)

Background: Prior to 1987-88, Hanna-Barbera released its product through Worldvision Home Video. During the shakeup at then-owner Taft—who was transformed into Great American Communications—Worldvision was sold off. Accordingly, Hanna-Barbera got its own home video line. This lasted until late 1991, when Turner bought H-B and subsequently put the video line on moratorium. Thereafter, all H-B product was distributed through Turner Home Entertainment, then Warner Home Video.

Logo: On a purplish background wallpapered with the “Hanna-Barbera” script logo, a picture of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone, and Scooby-Doo, all standing together and looking happy, “flips” up and moves towards the screen. When it is in position, there is a large, cheesy-looking flash, then the “Hanna-Barbera” script logo, in red and treated pretty badly, is “wiped” in from both sides with a cheesy-looking “sparkly trail” effect. Then, after that forms, the swirling star (1979-86 version) animates, as per usual, below the script logo. A long, elongated rounded rectangle with the words “HOME VIDEO” on each side, flips up so that the words flank the swirling star.

FX: A cool logo design, actually, the flipping motions, the spark trail, and the animation of the swirling star.

Cheesy Factor: Oh barf! This screams “shoestring budget”. The flipping is badly done, the wallpaper background looks horrible, the superimposing of the swirling star isn’t that great, and the way the Hanna-Barbera script logo is animated onto the logo is quite simply a disgrace.

Music: A synth-piano rendition of the first few bars of the Flintstones theme. Actually quite addictive and memorable.

Availability: H-B Home Video did release a morass of product—almost 200 titles—but is not in print anymore. Most of the titles are in slipcovers released after 1989; the very first titles to use this logo on the packaging (usually clamshell cases with a Worldvision byline) do NOT have this logo, but rather the 1986 swirling star logo.

Scare Factor: None, but you’ll be laughing at how bad it is. This logo does have a good side and a bad side.

Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia
(1982-1989)
(Originally by Matt Williams, but edited by Daniel DeCosta)

Nickname: "Cheesy Lightning"

Logo: On a blue space background, a spinning blue star twirls out. It plasters itself firmly at the center of the screen, while a gray lightning bolt slides in from the top-left behind the star, landing so that the star is in the middle of the lightning bolt. The screen flashes a few times and two rectangles slide in from the top and bottom of the screen, behind the star and lightning bolt, the top one yellow, the bottom one purple. When they connect with each other, the colors suddenly swap so that the top one is purple and the bottom one is yellow. In the purple rectangle, to the right of the star/bolt contraption, is "A SOUTHERN STAR" in a yellow-colored thin italic font, and in the yellow bottom rectangle is "Hanna Barbera Australia Production" in purple and the font normally used for "Hanna-Barbera Productions" on the swirl logo. "©<YEAR> TAFT-HARDIE GROUP PTY LIMITED" appears below the logo.

FX: The star zooming out, the bolt, the rectangles

Cheesy Factor: This shall go off the scale. The star zooming out is cheesy, the animation for the bolt is bad animation, the flashing is just blinding awful, and need I mention the suddenly swapping colors for the rectangle? Barf...

Music: The ending of the show's theme, but with a noisy thunder sound effect (possibly from Hanna-Barbera?) edited in with the flash.

Availability: Availability: This will probably never be seen again. It was only on "Teen Wolf" and "The Berenstain Bears", (not the new PBS Nelvana series) and to my knowledge, this logo wasn't on recent reruns of the former show. “Teen Wolf” show will probably never be shown again on TV. The logo will show up on old video prints of “Berenstain Bears” videos. The early “Berenstain Bears” series is now owned by DIC with the “Incredible World of DIC” logo now at
the end of this show.

Scare Factor: Median, it may scare some with the thunder sound effect.

In 2001, coinciding with the death of William Hanna, AOL Time Warner finally retired the “Hanna-Barbera” brand name, and moved its Cartoon Network original productions to new studios. All Cartoon Network original series previously produced by H-B now come from “Cartoon Network Studios”.

The Hanna-Barbera name was being marginalized for quite a while by this time; H-B stars now were identified as “Cartoon Network” stars, and video releases of H-B cartoons now came from Warner Home Video and were also accompanied by the Cartoon Network logo. What CN did not take, Warner did, claiming Scooby-Doo as its own; its video releases now come from Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (with no CN logo in sight), and the new crappy Scooby-Doo animated series is produced at Rough Draft Studios under the WB banner, not Cartoon Network Studios. Even Pebbles cereal wasn’t immune; there is still a copyright to Hanna-Barbera Productions, but now a WB shield accompanies this.

Despite all this, the H-B logo is still being preserved, on shows and on logos, even if they are newer logos that are plastered over old ones. The company may have died and closed down, but its name will still live on.

 

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