More Fun With Layouts and Model Sheets

A little while ago, you were promised more Hanna-Barbera drawings that were gleaned off auction and art sites on-line. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a notation of the sources. Sorry.

First we have (I think) layout drawings, one from the closing of the original Huckleberry Hound Show and the other from the original Quick Draw McGraw Show. For you newcomers reading, Kellogg’s sponsored both half hour shows and the company was worked into the opening and closing credits. The Huck show was the most Kellogg-friendly. Besides Cornelius the Rooster (who hawk-a-doodle-dood Corn Flakes), the end sequence featured all the spokes-characters popular at the time in 1958—Snap, Crackle and Pop, Tony Tiger and Tony Jr., Super Pops Pete and Smacksie the Seal. My guess is the layout is by Bick Bickenbach. Compare it to how it appeared on TV which, unfortunately, isn’t in colour. I gather only the black-and-white version (which looks like it was recorded on a VHS machine) exists.




Here’s one from the end of Quick Draw McGraw. You can compare it to what it looked like when combined with the background.




Speaking of sponsors, this looks like a colour chart for some kind of promotional art, as H-B kisses up to the sponsors of its various half-hour cartoon shows. Magilla Gorilla began airing in syndication in 1963 when, as a six-year-old, even I rolled my eyes at the obviousness of including his sponsor in the theme song lyrics (the Peter Potamus theme was equally ham-handed about it). Evidently, this drawing was done after The Jetsons was cancelled. Too bad Fred isn’t taking a big drag on a Winston.



Next a couple of storyboard drawings from El Kabong Strikes Again. You’re looking at the handiwork of one Michael Maltese.



Finally, some model sheets from Jonny Quest, which debuted in 1964. Cynthia Lowry of the Associated Press described it as “an adventure series that looked like a realistically drawn animated cartoon strip. It is designed to identify with young viewers...The kids will adore it.” Well, I loved the show and I was sad when it wasn’t renewed for the following season. That’s more than I can say for Magilla and Peter Potamus. Apparently Jonny Quest was reworked a couple of decades later and included a bunch of back stories for people who don’t want to use their own imagination.

If you’ve seen the JQ documentary on some on-line video sites, you’ll know the show went through a pile of changes while in development. That’s certainly reflected in the model sheets. You have to wonder how long it took to make each half hour before it got on TV. The Dr. Quest-Jonny-Race size chart is dated July 9, 1964, less than three months before the pilot aired on ABC. The Bandit sheet is signed by Bick, the rest are by Doug Wildey.







There were only two questions about Jonny Quest I had as a child. The former I can answer now, but the latter still puzzles me. I could never figure out why Dr Quest sounded like John Stephenson one week and Don Messick the next. And I wondered why Dr. Zin couldn’t make us all happy and get rid of stupid Bandit once and for all.