Exit, Stage Left

For many years I have had a bit of shtick about how our little finger is the only thing that separates us from Fred Flintsone. That goes along with a certain morbid fascination with the film adaptation of everyone's favorite stone-age family. Were you aware that Steven Spielberg was doing pre-production on the first live-action Flinstone film while he was up to his armpits in the making of "Schindler's List"? Make of this what you will. I already have.
And now, with the passing of Joseph Barbera, one half of the evil genius that was Hanna-Barbera, we can set this whole matter to rest. The Flinstones were to the Honeymooners what the Simpsons were to the Flinstones. Prime time comedies with big fat patriarchs - that list begins to swell like Fred's leopard spotted tunic after you add such luminaries as Kevin James, Jim Belushi, and Roseanne Barr. It would be more accurate to blame Jackie Gleason for this spate of family funnies, but Fred and Wilma kept the beast alive for a new generation.
Instead of laying blame on Hanna-Barbera for cheapening character animation and bringing Scooby-Doo to an unsuspecting planet, we should instead be celebrating their triumphs. Specifically, their creation of Tom and Jerry. And where do we find echoes today of our beloved cat and mouse throughout pop culture, but nowhere more plainly than on Bart Simpson's favorite cartoon: Itchy and Scratchy.
Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, Magilla Gorilla, Touche Turtle, Top Cat, The Jetsons, Josie and The Pussycats, Johnny Quest, Huckleberry Hound, The Herculoids, and Space Ghost - if you don't get a mental image of one of these characters, you've lived in a cave for the past fifty years. That would be a legacy - especially that Space Ghost thing. If you've never witnessed the power of "Space Ghost - Coast to Coast", you have not seen one of the triumphs of post-modernism. Today we come not to bury Joseph Barbera, but to praise him: Yabba dabba doo.