The Rise of William Hanna and the Birth of Tom and Jerry
Ever heard a squeak followed by a smack and instantly pictured a cat and mouse in madcap chase? Thank William Hanna for that. Born in the small town of Melrose, New Mexico, in 1910, Hanna wasn’t just any animator. He jumped into the growing world of cartoons in 1930, signing on with Harman and Ising Productions. There, he worked on classics like Captain and the Kids, getting his feet wet in a field that was about to explode.
By 1937, Hollywood was hunting for new ways to entertain, and MGM hired Hanna. Here’s the game changer: he crossed paths with Joseph Barbera, a sharp magazine cartoonist from Brooklyn. Their teamwork was electric, eventually giving birth to Tom and Jerry in 1940. These cat-and-mouse rivals became household names—even if nobody ever really cheered for Tom, the cat. The series ran until 1958 and gave audiences 114 shorts, some of which snagged seven Academy Awards (tying them with Disney’s Silly Symphonies for Oscar wins). Hanna and Barbera’s mix of slapstick humor, timing, and animation precision made Tom and Jerry a crowd favorite everywhere from American living rooms to European cinemas.
Hanna didn’t stop there. He brought technical wizardry to the slapstick—timed crashes, seamless chases, and unforgettable sight gags. Fans still talk about his ability to craft a punchline without a single line of dialogue between the bickering pair. Every short was a carefully orchestrated dance of chaos, with Hanna’s knack for direction and Barbera’s knack for story bouncing off each other like, well, a cat and mouse.
How Hanna-Barbera Changed TV Animation
Leaving the silver screen wasn’t a step back for Hanna—it was another leap forward. By 1957, as TV sets glowed and flickered across America, the cartoon budget shrank. Hanna and Barbera saw the writing on the wall and founded Hanna-Barbera Productions. They rolled out shows using techniques dubbed 'limited animation', perfect for television’s tight deadlines and even tighter wallets. Suddenly, animation was everywhere, and you didn’t have to leave home, or pay for a movie ticket, to watch it.
Ever heard of The Flintstones? That was them—and it was the first prime-time animated TV series for adults and kids alike. Then came The Jetsons (hello, futuristic flying cars), and Scooby-Doo (mystery-solving teens and a dog with a snack obsession). By the time The Smurfs hit in the ‘80s, Hanna-Barbera shows had become staples worldwide, drawing an estimated 300 million viewers. You probably remember at least one of their theme songs; that’s the kind of cultural impact we’re talking about.
The hits kept coming until 1991, when Turner Broadcasting bought the studio, and eventually everything folded into Time Warner. But even through the business changes and changing tastes, Hanna kept racking up awards—including eight Emmys—and the studio’s legacy never faded. Hanna’s fingerprint is still on cartoons everywhere, from after-school reruns to streaming queues across the globe.
Thinking about how much one animator shaped your favorite childhood shows, it’s wild, isn’t it? William Hanna’s work didn’t just entertain. It set the bar for what cartoons could do, pushing animation from the movie theaters right into the heart of living rooms around the world.