Thursday, December 21, 2006

Joe Barbera: Smarter Than The Average Bear

In a meeting the other day someone used the expression, “Smarter than the average bear” and I immediately thought, “Yogi.”

John Canemaker fondly reviews the extraordinary career of Joe Barbera:

I remember that my younger brother and I insisted on eating our Swanson's TV Dinners off trays in front of the Motorola, so we wouldn't miss H-B's Ruff and Reddy, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Pixie and Dixie, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggy and Doggie Daddy, and later the Flintstones and the Jetsons, among other favorite characters. So did millions of other youngsters.

Barbera and his partner soon built an empire that encompassed and exploited all areas of popular entertainment, from television and movies to stage shows and merchandising. They pioneered new markets for animation, leading the way for the current diversity of formats, styles, shows and characters that populate the new media outlets of cable, interactive games, iPods and futuristic gadgets yet unborn.

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