Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. (/ˌhænə bɑːrˈbɛərə, - ˈbɑːrbərə/ HAN-ə bar-BAIR-ə, - BAR-bər-ə),[1] also variously known as H-B Enterprises, H-B Production Co., and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., was an American animation studio and production company founded in 1957 by Tom and Jerry creators and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera[2] and dominated television with a variety of animated series, including The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and The Smurfs.[3]
With eight Emmy Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,[4][5] it was a prominent presence in American television animation for five decades. Taft bought the company in 1966 and retained ownership until 1987.[6] By the 1980s, as the profitability of Saturday-morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication, Hanna-Barbera's fortunes had declined. In 1991, Turner purchased it from Taft (renamed Great American Broadcasting in 1988) and used its back catalog as programming for Cartoon Network[7][8] and Boomerang.
Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as creative consultants and mentors of their studio, which would become a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation after Turner's merger with Time Warner in 1996, before being absorbed into that studio and former division Cartoon Network Studios following Hanna's death in 2001.
After Barbera died in 2006, Time Warner (renamed to WarnerMedia) was in turn acquired by AT&T in 2018. Since the company's closure, Warner Bros. has continued to produce new programming and material based on its classic legacy properties.
