At least when it came to pop culture and especially Saturday Morning Cartoons. Could Hanna Barbera have been more in tune with the pulse of the country? Any fad that was worth its salt, was made into a cartoon by H-B. The dune buggy craze of the mid 70'ss begat your favorite sputtering friend and mine, Speed Buggy, another Scooby Doo knock-off, but stylistically pleasing. Superheroes where big in the lat 70's, hence, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Captain Caveman (who was doubly fad-alicious with the Teen Angels, an obvious reference to Charlie's Angels) and Even Hong Kong Phooey, whose DVD set recently dropped. Remember that little movie that started a wave of space themed everything, Star Wars? from that came Yogi's Galaxy Goof-ups (above with Huck, Quack-Up and Scare Bear), Yogi's Space Race and an updated version of Space Ghost and the Herculoids who were now joined by two new teams - Teen Force and Astro and the Space Mutts. Of course none of this was new; Hanna-Barbera and even Warner Bros. back in the day, would use popular actors or live action characters to make a mint on television or in theatrical shorts. Does anyone remember the Honeymousers? obviously the Flintstones resembled in a huge way, the actual Honeymooners. Then there were the personalities of the many H-B stars such as Lippy the Lion, Hokey Wolf and Snagglepuss in example. Dare i even bring up the ridiculous toons of the 80's that were a waste of time? Rubik's the Amazing Cube, Pac-Man, Monchichi, Pound Puppies? those were lifless and when H-B really started going down hill.
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