joseph roland barbera (march 24, 1911 – december 18, 2006) was an american animator and cartoonist. he worked briefly in the ink and paint department of fleischer studios, then joined van beuren studios in 1932 as an animator and storyboard artist. when van beuren closed in 1936 he moved to paul terry's terrytoons, and in 1937 he left new york for the new metro-goldwyn-mayer cartoon studio in california.
at mgm his desk faced william hanna's, and by 1939 the two had formed a partnership that lasted over sixty years. in 1940 they jointly directed puss gets the boot, the first short to feature the cat and mouse who became tom and jerry, and it was nominated for an academy award. the pair directed more than 114 tom and jerry shorts for mgm between 1940 and 1958. the series won seven academy awards for best animated short film, more than any other theatrical animated series built on the same characters. barbera drew the storyboards, character designs and layouts, while hanna handled animation timing and supervised the animators.
after mgm closed its cartoon unit in 1957, hanna and barbera founded their own studio, first called h-b enterprises and soon hanna-barbera productions. the company's first series, the ruff and reddy show, premiered in 1957, followed by the huckleberry hound show in 1958, which in 1960 became the first animated program to win an emmy. the quick draw mcgraw show followed in 1959, and the flintstones, the first animated series to air in prime time, premiered on abc on september 30, 1960. the jetsons (1962), jonny quest (1964) and scooby-doo, where are you! (1969) came later.
to meet television budgets the studio developed limited animation, cutting the drawings needed for a short from roughly 14,000 to about 2,000. barbera worked as a gag writer and sketch artist and held the office of president, alternating the title with hanna each year. the studio was sold to taft broadcasting for $12 million in 1967, to turner broadcasting system in 1991, and passed with turner to time warner in 1996, ending with its absorption into warner bros. animation in 2001.
related profiles; Alex Anderson, Bill Melendez, John Kricfalusi
sources; wikipedia: joseph barbera, wikipedia: tom and jerry, wikipedia: hanna-barbera, wikipedia: the huckleberry hound show, wikipedia: the flintstones
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