TV's Thursday Evening Cartoon Legacy: The Huckleberry Hound Show (sponsored by Kellogg's)

Описание: As we continue our summer-long look back at vintage Saturday morning cartoons of the 1960's, we kick-off July with more from Hanna Barbera. The Hanna Barbera team was firing on all cylinders in the 1960s. They had a lock on 'family suburbia' with the Flintstones and the Jetsons, and they had a near lock on the animal kingdom with Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and company.

This video clip is from the Huckleberry Hound Show, which featured Yogi Bear and all their friends from Jellystone Park. What made this cartoon series so successful and ground breaking for the sponsors was the seamless interaction between the cartoon cast of Yogi and Huck, and the cartoon cast of their friends (and our friends from childhood) at Kellogg's: Kornelius the rooster, Snap, Crackle and Pop, Tony the Tiger and Tony Jr. and some additional friends that frankly, we can't recall their names (but we're investigating!)

There was a time when television cartoon characters graced the covers of the very Kellogg's cereal boxes they were helping to sell on their television programs and local supermarket shelves. The interaction between those television cartoon characters and Kellogg's cartoon characters and products was enticingly seamless.

This symbiosis took on another dimension when Kellogg's cereal competitor Post developed their own cartoon creations, and were given their own Saturday morning cartoon shows; these shows (and cartoon characters) were fast becoming every bit as successful as the Hanna Barbera creations. The difference between a children's cartoon character helping to sell a breakfast cereal on Saturday mornings, and a breakfast cereal helping to sell a cartoon character with a Saturday morning television show was becoming increasingly blurred. Adding to this interesting and complex relationship were premiums/toys of the cartoon/cereal characters that one could purchase from the cereal company by mail, and the circle was complete... and very successful.

We'll look back in more detail at this interaction of cartoons, cereal and Saturday mornings later this summer in August, and we'll provide (lament?) more details on how it all started coming apart in the late 1960s as the 1970s were approaching.

In the meantime kids, let's all sit back and open up a box of cereal for breakfast and enjoy the show! It's Saturday morning!!

This video clip is presented here on YouTube for the entertainment and informational value of the viewer, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Coming up later this holiday week, more from Jellystone Park and at week's end, we'll have more from Yogi and some great tasting cereal called 'OKs', that looked and tasted surprisingly like Cherrios from our friends at General Mills. But not to worry, the fine folks at General Mills would soon have their own cartoon characters to help sponsor Saturday mornings! Eat up kids!