Hanna-Barbera Studio Saved
There's a blurb in the news today about how the old Hanna-Barbera animation studio in Los Angeles has been saved from demolition. (I want to say "rubble", but I know that would trigger a stream of Flintstones-related puns. So I'll spare you.) The LA city council approved a development plan that will save the original buildings, which were denied historic landmark status back in 1997.
"'This was really the birthplace of TV animation,' said Ken Bernstein, the Los Angeles Conservancy's director of preservation issues. It was at the studio that Bill Hanna and his partner Joe Barbera perfected 'limited animation,' which is far cheaper than the traditional kind... Hanna and Barbera perfected the cheap technique in the late 1950s, a time when the major studios were closing their labor-intensive animation departments, and thus some have credited them with helping save the cartooning industry.
The studio is definitely a "bedrock" of TV cartooning, so to speak. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)
