My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century [Hardcover]

Joseph Barbera (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1994

This autobiography of the co-creator of some of the world's best-loved animated cartoons characters, including Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and the Jetsons, paints a warm, candid, and hilarious portrait of a 50-year career of astounding creative output. 16 pages of photos.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dubbed by 60 Minutes "the sultan of Saturday morning," Barbera, along with his partner Bill Hanna, pioneered the concept of television animation, delighting generations of kids with such shows as The Jetsons , Scooby Doo , The Smurfs and The Flintstones . In their heyday, the Hanna-Barbera team was responsible for up to 70% of the cartoon programming on American airwaves, and their vast corpus continues to be widely circulated in syndication today. Here Barbera, writing with Axelrod ( The War Between the Spies ), provides a chatty and lucidly detailed inside look at the 'toon biz, chronicling his rise through the ranks from inker to studio head and recounting the history of his legendary partnership with Hanna, which began at MGM in 1940 with the creation of the immensely popular "Tom and Jerry" movie shorts and lasted for more than 50 years. Particularly interesting are Barbera's accounts of the various technical innovations and marketing strategies that were necessary to launch cartoons on the small screen. The Flintstones , for example, almost died before the show was born for want of corporate sponsorship. Clearly a shrewd and hard-working businessman as well as a talented artist, Barbera emerges here as a quintessential American success story, a Brooklyn boy whose persistent faith in his creative vision led him to the top ranks of the entertainment industry. His memoirs are almost as much fun as his 'toons. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Had Barbera and partner William Hanna stopped after their first success in animation-the creation of Tom and Jerry-their place in movie history would still be secure. After all, that warring cat and mouse team won seven OscarsR-more, Barbera is proud to claim, than his more esteemed colleagues at Disney or Warner Brothers earned for any of their individual creations. But Barbera really hit the jackpot with television, beginning in 1960 when he got the green light for a prime-time show called The Flintstones. (It's no coincidence that this book and the live-action film based on the series are enjoying simultaneous release.) Hanna-Barbera went on to become the General Motors of animation, churning out dozens of shows of varying quality. Barbera is an unassuming man, and this memoir is like most of his creations: amusing but hardly memorable. For popular collections.
Thomas Wiener, formerly with "American Film"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Turner Pub; 1st edition (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570360421
• ISBN-13: 978-1570360428
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MY LIFE IN TOONS, July 6, 2000

By 

Kym sansovini - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century (Hardcover)

An inspiring book for any student of animation, as the author details his life building a huge cartoon empire. Hanna/Barbera went from producing 40 mins a year to 2 and a half hours per week in the matter of afew years..an amazing achievement in any mans language. The book does falter however and reminds me of teh cover picture of Joe barbera ( resplendant in what looks like dyed hair,. a face lift and capped teeth. ) I think a more "warts and all " approach would have been far more interesting..

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YABBA DABBA DOO!...A BEHIND THE SCENES TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH ONE OF THE PIED PIPERS OF BABY-BOOMERDOM, June 24, 2006

By 

Lawrence Lomenzo "llomenzo" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century (Hardcover)

I recently read this book and loved it! It brought back many happy childhood memories of hours spent watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

This is an honest, straight-forward book by a very talented man. If you've ever seen and loved (who hasn't) a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and wondered what it took to get them on TV, (it took several tries to make Fred Flintstone a star) then you owe it to yourself to read this book...Enjoy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Autobiography and a Career Textbook in One, March 19, 1998

By 

Ken (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century (Hardcover)

Anyone who could possibly find this book "boring" has never worked in the visual arts, where one can encounter real-life characters wilder than any cartoons Hanna or Barbera could dream up. Barbera captures perfectly the utter frustration of being a creative person (artist, playwright and lightning-quick idea man) and working for and pitching concepts to uncreative incompetents like Fred Quimby (his boss at MGM during the Tom and Jerry years), who knew nothing about creating animated cartoons, spent most of his workday eating or sleeping, but always showed up to collect the Oscars© that Hanna and Barbera rightfully should have received. His reminiscences about Gene Kelly and TV boss Fred Silverman should elicit a knowing smile from anyone who has worked for an S.O.B. who can turn the charm on and off faster than a light switch. I would recommend this book highly to those who want to go into animation, advertising or commercial art. These professions are no place for the shy, the gentle or the antisocial, and Barbera makes it abundantly clear. If only his partner Bill Hanna's autobiography, "A Cast of Friends", had been written with such a clear voice. 10 Stars.