DAILY EXPRESS Monday August 30 1993 Q SATELLITE WARS. Golden world

UNIVERSAL APPEAL: Hanna and Barbera beat all the language barriers

E HAS seven grand• children but that isn't a chore for William Hanna. Before they were born, he had alreadHy established himself as one of the world's busiest and best baby-sitters. On Saturday mornings, rightly or wrongly, nearly every American jarks the children In front of the elevision to watch a cavalcade of cartoons. For more than half a century, Hanna and his partner Joe Barbera have been responsible for 70 per cent of the animated action. And not just ordinary "Toons", but the superstars like Vogi, Huckle• berry Hound and Fred Flintstone. Hanna and Barbera worked as the creators of the madcap Tom and Jerry for two decades before MGM made them redundant. The partners left the company and "That's all folks" in 1957 and "in sheer terror" began their own studio which is now worth around S500 million. Yogi & Co Hanna, still quick and alert at 82, goes to work five days a week at the company's offices which cover branch out CASTING AROUND: Hanna and Barbera's stars are spreading their talents across the globe two-and-a-half acres of prime film• land in Burbank across the hill responsible for Turner rather than from the major studios. Murdoch winning the stellar air• He's the technical wizard and with a new waves war. with his ideas man Barbera has, lie "It really is another world for estimates, produced thousands of me. I still think of this as a small hours of cartoon television as well family business. We all work as 250 TV series and specials which TV network together and eat lunch together. have been dubbed into 20 lan• "I come here every day to work guages. on some story lines and keep in You cm It am They are the biggest cartoon From DOUGLAS touch with what's going on. We've company in the world. just, for some reason, maintained On September 17, their work THOMPSON our popularity with our characters will also dominate the cable for a long long time. I don't see any into the heart of a man by Cartoon Network when it in Hollywood point in stopping work now." begins broadcasting in Britain - EITHER does his audi• and the rest of Europe. When Harry Met Sally and the ence. Tom And Jerry — Atlanta-based Ted Turner, who Tom Cruise/Jack Nicholson/Demi The Movie is a major ooking at his tie. invented Cable News Network Moore success, A Few Good Men. summer box-office suc• (CNN) in 1980, has continued to In this billion-dollar world of cess here. And the live plunder the satellite goldmine in more than 700 TV channels desper• actioNn movie, The Flintstones, is the sky. In a clever marketing ate for viewer-attractive program• greatly anticipated. package, he has combined the Car• Starring John Goodman — Cen• toon Network with his Turner Net• ming. Turner needs to make the films which will feed his interna• tral Casting on form again — as work Television (TNT) which has a Fred, Rick Moranis as Barney, Eli• classic library of movies from tional cable networks and supply, the satellites in the sky witli zabeth Perkins as Wtlma and Bogart to Elvis and Westerns to Madonna's pal Rosie O'Donnell as musicals. options for the future. But that's not just his own eco• Betty, there's also a special appear• OR all those who argue nomics — mogul Rupert Murdoch ance by Elizabeth Taylor. that we live in a Mickey is chasing him in the sky like "That's fiin — she was at MGM Mouse world, it is the per• something from Star Wars. when we were there," says Hanna, fect combination. You can Murdoch owns America's Fox who teamed up with Barbera in watch Yogi Bear, Huckle• Television and with it has created a 1937 when Ted Turner and Rupert berrFy Fin n and Fred Flintstone for "fourth network". He also owns Murdoch weren't even aware of 14 hours a day and then, just when 50 per cent of Britain's BSkyB as cartoons. you're yabbaaabbadone, move on we 1 as becoming a hi-tech TV When he first met Barbera, to 10 hours of the likes of Bogart presence in the Far East. Hahna was immediately and Bacall. It's high noon in the cable TV impressed. Clever? Very. For the bottom business. And interestingly, the "He was and is one of the great• line, as always, is the dollar — product — quality and quantity est cartoon artists I have ever met," billions of them. Turner, who views — is proving as important as says Hanna, himself as a philosopher and the new technology. "I was able to do the timing and player in world events as much as a Joe, with his draughtsmanship, media entrepreneur, is involved in Which crazily makes the car• could make the story-boards. a high-stakes game. toon network a serious aspect of There were things ! could do that He owns that great classic. Gone Turner's international operations.. he couldn't do and vice versa." With The Wind, as well as the The channel will open in Europe Twenty years and seven Oscars MGM film library for which he with about a third of the program• later, their cartoon production paid Sl.4 billion in 1986. This ming dubbed into French and operation at MGM was closed month, he put up $667 million in Scandinavian languages. down. The film company realised cash and stocks for two highly Hanna, very much a Hollywood they could make 90 per cent of the successful independent Hollywood man of the golden days, ponders same money just by re-releasing film production companies respon• his place in 1993 television history. old cartoons. sible for The Ntehtmare On Elm He can only shrug and smile Hanna and Barbera broke out on Street series ana movies such as when you suggest that he might be their own. The budget for their !^ 0 T MGM cartoons- had been $45,000 for five minutes. Suddenly it was S2,700 for five minutes. How to ^Toon' in "It was a shock but it made us HOW can fans of Fred Flintstone and the other learn how to trim and cut — and Tie Racl«. American Express Cardmembers welcomed since 1981. characters pick up the Cartoon Network and TNT, how we trimmed. Instead of 26,000 the other new channel launched by American media drawings, we were able to do it Roy Bishko, Chairman. Cardmember since 1978. tycoon Ted Turner? vriih l.'iOO," says Hanna. Cable subscribers and owners of a satellite dish will "We did it out of desperation but it looked sharp because the action I I I r ' be able to receive both services free from was so explosive." '.' September 17. Today their contribution to the But viewers who want to watch the six new satellite cartoon networfe is a hand grenade That'll do nicely. channels launched this Wednesday must be in the ongoing satellite wars in the subscribers to a BSityB channel. sky.