News

It’s impossible to imagine The Simpsons without its iconic opening sequence, which succinctly establishes who each member of the Simpson family is, gives us the rough layout of the town of Springfield, and, of course, subliminally communicates Matt Groening’s “radical right-wing” beliefs.

The animation also fits well with the famous score by Danny Elfman — like how the strings give way to a chorus of voices singing “The Simpsons” right as the clouds part to reveal the title. Brilliant. And the way the whole orchestra momentarily pauses to allow for Lisa’s disruptive sax solo. Also brilliant.

It’s hands down one of the best openings to a TV show ever. In fact, Disney+ viewers should be fined for hitting the “Skip Intro” button on this work of art.

As indelible to pop-culture as it is today, there was a time when the Simpsons team had to cobble together an opening sequence from scratch.

Hanna-Barbera's sci-fi sitcom "The Jetsons" debuted in 1962, only two years after the studio had a major hit with "The Flintstones". The logic behind "The Jetsons" seemed to be that if one show could work in the distant past, then a very similar show ought to work in the distant future. "The Jetsons" was set in the far-off future year of 2062, where Earth's citizens have access to flying cars, robot maids, and various other bizarro technologies the mind could fathom. Despite civilization's advances, however, George Jetson (George O'Hanlon) was still a hollowed-out salaryman in the unhappy employ of a soulless widget-making corporation. His wife Jane (Penny Singleton) was a housewife. The dull, middle-class values of the 1950s, it seems, would resurge 90 years later.

The series ran only for one 24-episode season and was canceled in 1963. It left a sizable footprint, however, and was revived for two more seasons in 1985.

The catchy...

“Are you not entertained?” asked Larry the Cable Guy when he shocked panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger after being revealed as the creepy-ish but loveable Baby on Wednesday’s episode of “The Masked Singer.” He was the fifth colorful creature to be sent home from Season 6 of the Fox reality TV competition. Baby’s final performance was “Meet the Flintstones” by Hoyt Curtin.

See ‘The Masked Singer’ reveals for all seasons: Celebrities and costumes through the years

“We said his name so many times and now he finally showed up in a Baby costume!” exclaimed host Nick Cannon during Larry’s unmasked interview. “This is probably the first [season] you guys didn’t say Larry the Cable Guy.” Prior to Baby’s unmasking, Jenny put on a large pink wig and appeared confident in her guess. “Jenny played my girlfriend in one of my movies,” Larry said.

Following a listening party on Monday, Deerhoof dropped a surprise new album, Love-Lore, via Joyful Noise Recordings.

Love-Lore was recorded live in the studio over a single afternoon at Rivington Rehearsal Studios in New York City. The album contains a medley of 43 covers, which range from the Velvet Underground to Krzysztof Penderecki.

Muindi Fanuel Muindi wrote an essay to accompany the release, while Benjamin Piekut wrote the liner notes. “Deerhoof is not the future of music and doesn’t want to be — they simply want to embrace you, here and now,...

The Jetsons: The Complete Original Series

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1962/ 1.33:1 / 629 min.

Starring George O’Hanlon, Penny Singleton

Directed by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera

In 1962 Kennedy’s New Frontier was in full effect – the country was still celebrating John Glenn’s heroics and Disney’s Tomorrowland had proved so popular it tacked on a monorail. Flush with the success of The Flintstones, Hanna-Barbara decided it was high time for The Jetsons, a space age sit-com set in a cartoon Utopia. Premiering on a Sunday night in the fall of ‘62 it was the first animated program to be broadcast in color, an eye-popping upgrade that only enhanced the show’s futuristic appeal.

The Flintstones owed its inspiration solely to The Honeymooners but The Jetsons relied on a long line of family-centric fare from The Life of Riley to Make Room for Daddy. The chief cook and bottle-washer was George Jetson, an...

Jonny Quest: The Complete Original Series

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1964/ 1.33:1 / Each Episode 25 min.

Starring Tim Matheson, Don Messick

Music by Hoyt Curtin

Directed by William Hanna, Joe Barbera

Though the heartland was nearing a showdown between the Masters of War and the Age of Aquarius, things were relatively status quo in 1964, Beatles or no Beatles. Dad could still be found daydreaming over the garish macho fantasies of Men’s Action magazine while Junior was in the rec room hypnotized by Jonny Quest – a weekly cartoon show flaunting the same retro thrills found in the old man’s rags but aimed at the sandbox set.

Jonny lasted just one season, from September of 1964 to March of ‘65, but the combination of pulp fiction mayhem with junior league heroics would transfix a generation.

Jonny’s producers, William Hanna and Joesph Barbera, made their move to the small screen in 1957 when MGM shuttered...

On September 18, 1964, a serious animated adventure series, demonstrating cartoons didn’t have to always be comical such as The Flintstones (still airing then on ABC). Instead, Jonny Quest captured the sense of exploration Americans were longing for thanks to the Mercury astronauts and the rising tide of espionage films, headed by James Bond. However, Jonny was a young boy, making him an ideal feature for the Friday at 7:30 p.m. slot.

While the 26 episodes are all that were produced, the show’s overall quality proved influential to subsequent generations of animators, comic book storytellers, and audiences. It has pretty much remained in syndication for the last forty years. Jonny Quest remained the benchmark for dramatic animated fare for decades, enjoying brief runs as a comic book (notably Comico’s 1980s run).

The series has been collected and polished to a brilliant shine on a just-released Jonny Quest: The Complete Series Blu-ray from Warner Archives,...

Lots of people were excited about a sequel to “The Incredibles” (2004), but Michael Giacchino was not one of them. The Oscar, Grammy and Emmy (“Lost”) winner revealed at Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts: Composers panel, moderated by this author (watch the exclusive video above), that he got into a good-natured screaming match with director Brad Bird and producer John Walker over the project.

“My whole thing was that, look, that one worked. I don’t know how it worked, but it worked. Why do you want to risk this? What if this one we do sucks? What if it’s not a worthy follow-up to that. That was my big point,” Giacchino said. “Brad was really adamant. He was like, ‘No, we can do something new with this, man. We can do something new. And if we don’t do it, someone else is going to do it for...

Two of the summer’s most anticipated movies, “Incredibles 2” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” are franchise follow-ups with music by the same composer. Surprisingly, neither score relies much on familiar themes.

It might have been a no-brainer for tunesmith Michael Giacchino to fall back on his well-known theme for “The Incredibles” (written in 2004) or on John Williams’ even more famous fanfare for the original “Jurassic Park” from 1993. Both make fleeting appearances in the new films, but otherwise the scores are entirely new.

“There is a tendency these days to just plug and play when it comes to scores from past years,” says the Oscar-winning composer (“Up”). “Many times, it derails what you’re trying to do narratively. And the last thing I want to do is just rehash what we did before. I like to bring something new and then lean on old themes only when you absolutely need them.

“Tra-la-lalala”A simple tune that quickly transformed into an earwig which burrowed into the brains of a generation (“Generation X” to be more precise). Yes, it’s the rallying song of that big, blue behemoth of kid-friendly franchises, the Smurfs. Those petite (three apples high) magical imps were introduced by Belgian cartoonist Peyo (Aka Pierre Colliford) way, way back in 1958. They were a merchandising phenom in Europe, but didn’t truly achieve worldwide superstar status until they descended on the Us thanks to TV cartoon titans Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara (the creators of The Flintstones and Scooby Doo also co-wrote that too-catchy theme song with Hoyt Curtin) and became the anchor for NBC’s Saturday morning line-up in 1981 through 1989. Tons of toys and imitations (remember the Snorks?) followed, but things were quiet in their hidden spot in the magic forest for the next twenty years or so. And then...

Classic cartoon lovers rejoice! That fantastic feline superstar returns to UK movie screens in just a few weeks. As the Hoyt Curtin TV theme proclaims, “…but above everything, he’s the most tip top…Top Cat!”. Tc, as close friends call him, did indeed debut on American TV screens on the then fledgling ABC network in September of 1961 (talk about your nine lives!). This show, along with “The Jetsons” and “Jonny Quest” was an attempt by animation studio Hanna-Barbera to replicate the prime time success of that “modern stone-age family “The Flintstones” just a year or so before. Unfortunately Tc was not the rating smash that Fred and company were, so only one season (30 half hour episodes) were produced. But the kitty con-artist and his pals endured as a Saturday morning staple,then a syndicated smash. As beloved as the show was in its native Us, “Top Cat” was an even bigger hit overseas,...

While you savored your colorful eggs, Marshmallow Peeps, and chocolate bunnies this past holiday weekend, many ventured out to their local theaters to cheer on the Joes in G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Paramount Pictures’ Easter basket was overflowing as the action-figure fueled movie took in over $132 million across the globe. Here in the U.S. the Jon M. Chu sequel totaled in the $51 million range.

This isn’t the first cartoon franchise to hit the big screen and won’t be the last. When TV was king, Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles, Pirates of Dark Water, Valley of the Dinosaurs teleported us to another place and the animation studio Hanna-Barbera reigned supreme in every kid’s universe.

Filmgoers have seen their beloved Saturday morning shows and comic book heroes transfer from the small screen to wildly, gigantic movie heroes. Whether you grew up with them as a kid planted in front...

Well, technically, it’s not a cartoon, but it is animation– and it’s a great labor of love.

Jonny Quest Opening Titles from Roger D. Evans on Vimeo. Evans writes:

In 1964, Jonny Quest aired to rave reviews as the first, adult action/adventure cartoon in prime time. It had cool jazz music by Hoyt Curtin and terrific, high contrast pen and ink design work by Doug Wildey. As an animator and long time Jq junkie, I had always wanted a set of Jonny Quest action figures but, due to high production costs, the show only lasted one season; not long enough to spawn any kind of serious toys or other merchandising tie-ins. So, almost 50 years later, I made my own. Here is my Valentine to one of the coolest, if not The coolest, cartoons ever to spin up the imagination of a 53 year old man now going on six.

I used to watch Jonny Quest when I was a young kid, I actually appreciate the show more now than I did when I was younger, because it was a more adult oriented cartoon. I think it would make for a pretty cool film today though. Roger D. Evans recently created this awesome recreation of the opening title sequence of the series using custom made toys, stop motion animation and some CGI work. This thing turned out to be pretty awesome, he captured the fantistic pulp art feel that fans loved about the shows.

Here's a note from the creator:

In 1964, Jonny Quest aired to rave reviews as the first, adult action/adventure cartoon in prime time. It had cool jazz music by Hoyt Curtin and terrific, high contrast pen and ink design work by Doug Wildey. As an animator and long time Jq junkie, I had always wanted a...

DC Comics has announced the impending release of what amounts to a DC Comic geek’s soundtrack. The Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection contains some great superhero tunes, ranging from 1941′s Superman March, through the theme for the 2008 animated tv show, Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Check out the cover and full track listing below.

The Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection

1. Superman March – Sammy Timberg (1941)

-Previously unavailable. Digitally remastered. From the Academy Award Nominated cartoon series “Superman” produced by Max Fleischer. This was the first Superman cartoon.

2. Theme From Superman (Album Version) – John Williams (1978)

- From the live-action film “Superman.” Digitally remastered.

3. The New Adventures of Superman – John Gart (1966)

- Previously unavailable. Digitally remastered. From the Filmation cartoon “The New Adventures of Superman.”

4. Lois and Clark / The New Adventures of Superman – Jay Gruska (1993)

- From the live-action TV Series “Lois and Clark”. Digitally remastered.

"The Flintstones" has topped a poll of the most memorable children's TV theme songs. The opening music for the U.S. cartoon, about a stone age family, was named the most recognizable of any kids' program, pushing "Top Cat" into second place.

The survey of 2,000 adults in the U.K., conducted by Prs for Music, featured "Postman Pat" in third, while "Scooby Doo" and "The Wombles" took the fourth and fifth positions respectively. But "The Wombles" composer Mike Batt insists his ditty should have charted higher in the top five.

He jokes, "Life is one big scramble for success and although I've had my ups, I am mortified to see that I made it only to number five compared to 'Postman Pat' at number three. I demand a recount!"

The Flintstones, whose theme was written by Hoyt Curtin, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year.

#235 (Vol. 2 #7): The Chief And The King

When I was a child I enjoyed all sorts of animated cartoon series I saw on television, perhaps more or less equally. But as an adult, watching these cartoons again, I discovered that some, notably Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes grew in my estimation, while others, notably the Hanna-Barbera television cartoons of the late 50s through the 1960s, dropped considerably. I still find the early Hanna-Barbera characters–Yogi Bear, et al.–appealing, thanks to their visual design, primarily by the late animator Ed Benedict, and especially the great voice acting by Daws Butler and his colleagues. But while I can name numerous Warners cartoons whose direction and writing make them great and classic–What’s Opera, Doc?, One Froggy Evening, and on and on–are there individual Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons from the 50s and 60s that are anywhere near that league?

That’s why...