Review Fix Exclusive: Jared Bahir Browsh Talks ‘Hanna Barbera: A History’

Review Fix chats with “Hanna Barbera: A History” author Jared Bahir Browsh, who discusses the book and the creation process behind it.

About Hanna Barbera: A History:

With careers spanning eight decades, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were two of the most prolific animation producers in American history. In 1940, the two met at MGM and created Tom and Jerry, who would earn 14 Academy Award nominations and seven wins. The growth of television led to the founding of Hanna-Barbera’s legendary studio that produced countless hours of cartoons, with beloved characters from Fred Flintstone, George Jetson and Scooby-Doo to the Super Friends and the Smurfs. Prime-time animated sitcoms, Saturday morning cartoons, and Cartoon Network’s cable animation are some of the many areas of television revolutionized by the team. Their productions are critical to our cultural history, reflecting ideologies and trends in both media and society. This book offers a complete company history and examines its productions’ influences, changing technologies, and enduring cultural legacy, with careful attention to Hanna-Barbera’s problematic record of racial and gender representation.

About the Author:

Jared Bahir Browsh is a cultural historian whose research examines U.S. media industries, the history of mass communication, and representation in popular culture, focusing on animation, television, and sports. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication at Thomas Jefferson University. He lives in Longport, New Jersey.

Review Fix: How did this project begin? 

Jared Bahir Browsh: I was looking at writing a cultural history of a media institution for my dissertation project and had produced a few academic papers on animation. I noticed there were a limited amount of histories on Hanna-Barbera, and considering their success, output, and cultural impact I wanted to help fill that gap. 

Review Fix: What made this a captivating subject for you? 

Browsh: Along with the lack of deep engagement with their work, I, like many people, grew up watching series like Yogi Bear and the Flintstones either one tape or through Cartoon Network. Animation is fascinating in general since these characters are immortal, but the recognition that these series were seen for decades beyond their original run, which was often only one season, helped me realize that their repetitive presence inside children’s homes every weekend (and some weekday afternoons) really reinforced the affinity fans had for the characters helping them maintain a presence in the public conscious. 

Review Fix: Why do you think the HB brand has thrived for so long? 

Browsh: Along with the immortality and the repetitive watch of the series, like with many media brands and characters, parents handed down their love of HB to their children. Also, much of the comedy was rooted in slapstick and puns, which helped it avoid becoming dated like some cartoons in other series, like Looney Tunes. The fact that Hanna and Barbera would license their characters to so many companies help strengthen this connection. Lastly the purchase by Turner and later connection to Warner breathed new life into their cartoons first on cable and now through streaming platforms like Boomerang and now HBOMax. For example it is still amazing 50 years later, how our visions of the future continue to be influence by one season of the Jetsons. 

Review Fix: What was the research process like? 

Browsh: I first started with general animation histories like ones written by Leonard Maltin, Michael Barrier, and Hal Erickson. I then examined the biographies and careers of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera before engaging with the content, both watching the cartoons and reading scripts and promotional materials. Then to provide the critical analysis, I examined how scholars like bell hooks produced their work before including critical animation books and articles by scholars like Nicholas Sammond and Kevin Sandler. 

Review Fix: What did you learn that you weren’t expecting? 

Browsh: The fact that most of the series ran one maybe two seasons. The Flintstones, as a primetime series, was an outlier running six seasons. Many of these series ran on Saturday morning which means that many episodes ran multiple times a year, helping to reinforce the characters and storylines. Although I came in having some knowledge of this, I did not realize how much diversity was lacking in their human characters. 

Review Fix: How did the book change during the writing process? 

Browsh: The dissertation was originally only going to be a cultural critique using a few of the more popular series and characters, but when I saw there was no general history I expanded that to include almost all their productions from Tom and Jerry to, well Tom and Jerry (2021) 

Review Fix: Who’s your favorite character and why? 

Browsh: Yogi Bear, not only does he represent the production and character development approach they would take on as their first true TV star after his debut on the Huckleberry Hound Show, but I always loved his Art Carney voice. I also watched with my Mom and she called me Boo Boo since I was her sidekick.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this book? 

Browsh: Hanna-Barbera gets lost due to the disproportionate focus on Disney and Warner Brothers even though they truly dominated children’s and animated television from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Their cultural impact is clear, and I hope others will continue to work to reveal their history and continue to expand critical animation studies. As all the reboots have shown, they remain relevant, but we also cannot overlook the representations of past content that is revitalized by reboots and streaming.  

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this book the most? 

Browsh: I think a mix of fans who enjoyed the series during their childhoods, fans of the new films and series based on their characters, and those who enjoy cultural or animation histories. 

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Browsh: Speaking of reboots, I am examining the role of reboots and streaming in maintaining past content, especially content with problematic representations. My next big project is a similar history of Filmation. 

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add? 

Browsh: I believe we have overlooked or at least underestimated the cultural impact of Saturday Morning particularly on Baby Boomers and Generation X. I hope more scholars will examine this period of children’s television to better understand the long term impact of the many series that appeared on television between the 1950s and the introduction of cable.