Thursday 10 January 2013

See Fred Strike Out

Old storyboard panels are always great fun, but rarely does anyone get to see a full board for any of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons.



But Charles Brubaker has alerted me to one for “Fred Strikes Out” posted on Mike Milo’s web site. Yes, the full storyboard, direct from the Hanna-Barbera archives. You can simply go HERE, click on the first panel and then click on the right arrow to look at all 124 pages, including layout drawings. I’ve posted one of them above because I love the drawings of Fred and Barney on it.

The cartoon is from the Flintstones’ second season. Joanna Lee wrote the episode and while she may have been perfect in Plan 9 From Outer Space, she was no storyboard artist. So someone had to draw the board for her. Who? I’m almost the last person to ask. There are readers who may know if it’s by Alex Lovy or maybe even Warren Foster (I don’t think it’s Dan Gordon). I can’t tell you who the Story Director was on this cartoon as the original credits were removed for syndication in the ‘60s. But you can tell George Nicholas did some of the animation because Fred gets beady eyes and a floppy tongue in some scenes. Here’s how the last drawing in the story panels above turned out on the screen. Moo Team!!


8 comments:

  1. This is the one episode I accidentally overlooked on my boxset and discovered years later. Great find!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm excited to learn that "Tanna the Space Girl" wrote for THE FLINTSTONES! Was this well known Hanna-Barbera triva? Also, this image of Fred and Barney reminds me a little of Mordecai and Rigby from REGULAR SHOW, in one of their trademark "OOOOOOOOH" moments...
    Come to think of it, Mordecai and Rigby are somewhat reminiscent of our two Stone Age pals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chuck, Joanna Lee was a pretty prolific tv writer having written for Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Courtship of Eddie's Father, Brady Bunch, Mod Squad Marcus Welby MD, The Walton's, Dynasty as well as other H-B animated shows such as Top Cat and Jonny Quest. In his Animation Guild interview, former H-B writer, Tony Benedict stated that Joe Barbera hired traditional TV writers to pen Flintstones stories but they couldn't draw so Barbera relied on him turn their teleplays into pictures - maybe it was him.

      Delete
    2. Joanna Lee is IMHO underrated and one of the best writers of 196s-70s TV, especially FLintsotne and Gilligsan.Milo, enjoyed your site!Steve

      Delete
    3. Joanna Lee also scripted some episodes for another Hanna-Barbera series: The Jetsons.
      Another TV series which also has episodes scripted by her was Julia (20th Century Fox, 1968-71 [with Diahann Carroll, Lloyd Nolan and Marc Copage]).

      Delete
  3. Glad you enjoyed it! Interesting little side story on these boards. I was new at HB at the time and was very excited that I could actually borrow a real storyboard. After carefully looking through them I brought them back and planned on getting more. Later that day at home I noticed this piece of cell that I guess had slipped out of the boards. It was an inked drawing of Wilma Flintstone. It was ripped on one side which is probably why it was never used. I couldn't bring myself to bring it back because I knew they'd never let me borrow art again. But then I never got the chance anyway. I still have the cell among my cell collection.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chuck, no offence, but find very little similarities between Fred and Barney and Regular Show. Don't really understand that new program, but it's great that you like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed. Never saw the appeal of that. A lot of modern cartoon fans like to find parralels in old shows though, whether we agree or not.

      Delete