I have fond remembrances of Hanna-Barbera as I recall my 30 some odd years working there interspersed with other projects. Now semi retired and splitting my time between Utah and California, I say, though Joe Barbera was kept busy pitching shows and approving scripts and artwork, he still cut a memorable figure to those who saw him at the studio. I was in the Animation Department and had more business dealings with Bill Hanna. But Joe Barbera was the shining star of Hanna-Barbera Prods. He was the handsome hero who bewitched us all with his magnificent smile, quick wit and gentlemanly charm. He was fun and funny, an actor who brought out the best in everybody. I hope he knew how grateful I was to have had the privilege of working all those years at H-B and how precious those marvelous memories are. We will treasure those days forever and never forget. My association with him was limited, and that is my one regret.

Joanna Romersa

Joe Barbera was a dedicated worker, who went to the office well into his 80s. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation.

When I first came to Hanna-Barbera in 1964 I soon learned that the phrase "Joe said..." were magic words that denoted the highest authority in the studio and were obeyed without question. (Bill and Joe divided up the workings of the studio into the creative and production halves and Joe had a firm grip on the preparation of the shows from script through layout, where Bill Hanna took over, guiding production from animation through camera).

I soon discovered that "Joe said..." carried his authority throughout the studio not out of fear but because of the respect that Joe Barbera had earned with his employees. A summons from Bill Hanna to come to his office might cause some anxious moments but a call to see "Mr. Barbera", as he was refered to by his secretary, was invariably an invitation to go over your work with him, usually a storyboard.

A meeting with Joe was always a pleasant occasion, as he would immediately put you at ease with that smooth manner of his, then begin a look at your work, making suggestions for plussing a gag, even making a little drawing to illustrate his idea. I was always impressed with joe's facile way of drawing just the right pose or add a bit of dialogue to enhance the story. All those years that he had spent writing and storyboarding Tom and Jerry cartoons at MGM had given him a vast store of situations and ideas to draw upon.

It was a pleasure to have a relationship with the owner of a studio whom you could relate to as one artist to another.

Bob Singer

Huckleberry Hound was one of the early hits that put H-B on the map. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation.

I feel I owe my whole career to Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to work with Joe personally but through an art class he started at Hanna-Barbera. Along with Bronnie Barry and other student artists we got our start on a life long path of creativity and adventure. After the Flintstones I worked on projects from little blue Smurfs up to my present drawings for little yellow people in The Simpsons. You never knew, Joe, how you lighted the way for so many of us by following your dream and developing your talent which lives on not only in your contribution to art and animation, but inside so many of us who "grew up" artistically in your colorful shadow. Personally that path has led from your "home" on Cahuenga, Hollywood, to places I never imagined going—various parts of Germany and now as the first American cartoonist at the International Animation Expo in China! Thank you for being the trailblazer in TV animation and our lives. Your spirit of cheer and optimism is our legacy and we're truly fortunate to have inherited even some of it for a world, which needs it more than ever. PS: Do they speak "Yabba Dabba Doo" up there?

Phil Ortiz

Quick Draw McGraw is just another one of those memorable early hits. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation.

I was born in 1951, so I was at Ground Zero for Ruff and Reddy, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Quick Draw McGraw and all the other early Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon shows…the studio's "good" shows. My generation of kids had been existing on a diet of afternoon marathons at local theaters and telecast hand-me-down cartoons. In the late 1950s. Hanna-Barbera (and Jay Ward) arrived like the cavalry to provide cartoons that were ours. (For many years, a lot of people claimed that Hanna-Barbera destroyed animation, but I always believed that they had saved it!) Sure, they didn't move much when they didn't need to, but H-B's animators knew what to leave out to achieve Bill Hanna's concept of "planned animation". The important thing was, they were hip and funny.

The hipness? That was Joe Barbera's specialty. Mr. B was primarily in charge of conceiving the cartoons, writing the cartoons, designing the cartoons, voice-casting the cartoons and selling the cartoons. (Bill Hanna was in charge of making the cartoons, on time and on or under budget.) But it was Joe's hip quotient that was the secret ingredient for H-B's early success. Yogi Bear wasn't the only nonconformist at the studio; he shared that quality with Joe.

Joe Barbera was a real character. He always struck me as being the last of the old-time Hollywood bigshots, with the tanned complexion, the blazers and yachting jackets, the ascots and cravats, the sunglasses, the jet-black hair. I don't think he ever gave thought to the possibility that in Hollywood, animation is waaay down on the list of showbiz greatness. But he was the Sinatra of animation.

At development meetings, he would often ask, to no one in particular, "Am I right? Am I right?" (The original pitch-title of Top Cat was "J. B. And Company". Maybe Joe was waiting for someone to answer him by saying, "Right, J. B.!") He once even called me into his office just to show me his listing in Who's Who Of Italian-Americans. Strangely, I always got the impression that, although they had achieved monumental success with Hanna-Barbera Productions, Joe (and Bill) regarded their studio as merely a necessary step to survival, but that the Tom And Jerrys they made at MGM were their real source of pride.

One thing is for certain -- when Joe Barbera died, we lost the last old-time animation studio boss who actually knew how a cartoon was made. I'll always be grateful that I was able to work with Joe and Bill and their cast of classic cartoon characters.

Scott Shaw!