Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and Cartoon Network's treatment

Personally, I'd like to see continuations of "Shazzan," "The Adventures Of Gulliver," "Jana Of The Jungle," "Wildfire," and "Pirates Of Dark Water" just so these series can have satisfying endings. And what about new episodes of "Birdman" that show Birdboy finding his father? Remember, he was inexplicably written out during the last few episodes.

Honestly, yes, I see the Hanna-Barbera characters and legacy being respected. Not lauded, of course, but respected at least.

Firstly, there is the case of Space Ghost, this cosmic caped hero zooming around Outer Space blasting baddies as he goes. Except for a few tight spots where he came underprepared or overmatched, Space Ghost tended to come across as a too-serious Mary Sue character, much too one-dimensional. The Coast To Coast interview / infighting show took some cues from Pixar's Mister Incredible: he's this indestructible muscular do-gooder, but hilariously ill-suited to a mundane environment. He's the five-block Tetris piece in a four-block world. I saw the SG:C2C show as humorous and humanizing, and made good ol' Space Ghost much more likeable in my eyes.

Birdman also was too serious and too one-dimensional. I suppose in a superhero series where the hero has to respond to a villain, get whomped, recover, counter-whomp the villain, and sign off for the day ... yes, Birdman ran the drill like a pro. Again, though, taking Birdman out of his usual venue and shoehorning Dorothy into Munchkin Land was laughable and likeable.

The Sealab parody? That seems to me to be a memetic derivative, meant to undermine their undersea Utopia. I'm seeing a pattern where H-B shows that might have taken themselves a little too seriously where re-imagined with faults and foibles mixed in. Really, as wonderful as Hanna and Barbera's Tom And Jerry cartoons were for MGM studios, it's a given that Tom Cat would have some choice edits made in those cartoons if he had the wherewithal.

As far as not airing the Hanna-Barbera library as much as they used to: remember, much of that wonderful library has been released on VCR tapes and DVD's. It might undermine their sales to broadcast that same content, especially nowadays, when digital recording can easily circumvent buying the actual releases. Plus, television, eternally hungry for fresh content, compels the artists behind the cartoons to mine fresh lodes of cartoon content. Simply rehashing the same old cartoons, wonderful as they are, will inevitably trigger a growing chorus of "Whaddaya got thazz NEW?" And let's be fair: Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Chowder, and Avatar The ... bender, and other series stepped up to take their place.

For myself, I'm mindful that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera rarely turned down a cartoon premise flat. Some needed tweaking, to be sure. Nonetheless, Hanna-Barbera fielded oodles of new, exploratory material, and rarely milked a premise until it became a zombie. Perhaps that was the Secret of their Success: Bill and Joe could go in any direction, and somehow find the audience hook, be it comedy or drama. Or both.

I remember when CN had Boomerang and Superchunk on the weekends. These were blocks of classic H-B cartoons. In addition, most of the old ones came on every morning, afternoon, evening, and night. The spinoff network Boomerang had blocks of superhero/adventure and mystery cartoons from the H-B library, but those are gone. Thankfully, I have most of these great series on DVD.

Actually, these cartoon ran for less than ten minutes each. Still, I'd have loved to have seen the backstories for Space Ghost, Birdman The Galaxy Trio, The Herculoids, and even Samson And Goliath.