From One Hanna-Barbera Fan to Another

 I love Bluesky as well as the folks I interact with over there. It's pretty calm and not as chaotic as other social media platforms. Having better tools like muting of words and individuals as well as de-tagging your username and removing your posts from those who want to attack you really enhances the experience. Is it a perfect place? 

No.

There's no such space known as "the perfect place." That's a lesson I learned from Yogi's Ark Lark when I was a little kid. 

I've been a huge Hanna-Barbera fan since I watched the lion's share of their works in syndication and on the USA Cartoon Express back in the early 1980s, and I still am to this day. Those shorts and shows not only entertained me for decades but, much like their corporate cousins Looney Tunes, they are a core part of my creative DNA. 

I think that's a reason I've been enjoying MeTV Toons lately. 

One of the many, many reasons. Folks, I'm still lucky I could watch it locally via cable after COX picked up WSKY 4.6 and placed it on COX Channel 110 in my market.

I also know that the library hasn't historically been highlighted as much as the Looney Tunes have been, which is why this person, who I've chosen not to highlight out of respect for their privacy, went out of their way on Bluesky to air out their grievances about MeTV Toons and how they treat Looney Tunes compared to Hanna-Barbera:

 "I hope you're aware that I currently have a personal grudge against MeTV Toons because of their overreliance on the Looney Tunes franchise in regards to cartoon marathons, hence why I stopped watching the channel, but I have nothing against people who like LT.

"I am not trying to harass you or anything like that, but I don't like to have to participate in or watch things that I personally consider to be taboo. I think you know by now that I am a huge Hanna-Barbera fan, and I believe that the brand is highly underappreciated and needs more love

"I even did a message for Warner Bros asking for them to prioritize Hanna-Barbera more often. I do understand why people like Looney Tunes, and I'm glad that they're starting to prioritize it more, but I think that it should be the same for Hanna-Barbera. 

"I also understand if you don't want me tagging you in this, but I just wanted to make you aware that even though I understand the appeal of the Looney Tunes franchise, I just don't like that MeTV Toons is constantly showing marathons for it. 

"Bugs Bunny's Birthday Marathon, Rabbits, Ducks, And No Turkeys, and now the Bugs Bunny Bowl? I'd like for there to be at least some variety with other cartoons regarding marathons (aside from Halloween and Christmas), and not just Looney Tunes.

"I don't expect you to respond to this, but I do hope you can understand my concerns. And if you don't want me to tag you in this post, you can go ahead and untag it if you want. I don't mind. Thank you for your time, and you have a good rest of your evening."

I felt like I needed to respond personally.

Howdy, hello, and salutations,

Thank you for taking the time to write me. Admittedly, I was curious why I was initially tagged in your posts since I am not an employee of nor affiliated with Warner Bros Discovery (the name of the company at the time I'm writing this response in February 2026), Warner Bros Animation, MeTV Toons, or Weigel Broadcasting (MeTV Toons' owner).

I'm just a fan, much like yourself.

I'm also a HUGE fan of the Hanna-Barbera library and have been since I was a kid and they were still making products independently. 

Ah, memories.

I'm also more than aware of how the Hanna-Barbera library, save Scooby-Doo and, my creative extension, Tom & Jerry, hasn't been treated well by Warner Bros since they acquired the library's owner, Turner Entertainment, and absorbed it into Warner Bros Animation almost 30 years ago. 

All that said, I think putting ire on MeTV Toons, a network that has been an incredible showcase for the Hanna-Barbera library, is the wrong way to go. 

I get it. I understand your frustration with the Looney Tunes-centric marathons. Granted, MeTV Toons doesn't do many marathons, and the few they've done outside of traditional holidays have prominently featured Looney Tunes, but that's not a slight against Hanna-Barbera at all.

Here's the thing. 

The number of Looney Tunes shorts are far more voluminous than the Hanna-Barbera shorts. Plus, Warner Bros has been preserving the Looney Tunes library longer, and MeTV Toons is a major showcase for it as is its sibling broadcasting channel MeTV, Tubi online, and Boomerang and now Turner Classic Movies on linear cable television. 

If you told me that Looney Tunes would have a major presence on cable, streaming, and broadcast television a decade ago, let alone air an over-the-air broadcast network that airs nothing but animation, I wouldn't believe you. 

And I really wouldn't believe you if you told me that Hanna-Barbera shows and shorts would be a major part of an all-animation broadcast network, let alone be ON television or online or even have physical media a decade ago.

Believe it or not, Hanna-Barbera is in a much, MUCH better place than it has been in decades, and a huge part of that renewed focus is because of MeTV Toons.

Currently, of the 168 hours MeTV Toons airs every week, 56 and a half hours consist of Hanna-Barbera programming. Mind you this includes the seven hours of the stand-alone Tom & Jerry block. 

That said, by comparison, Looney Tunes programming only consists of 21 hours, including Baby Looney Tunes, Duck Dodgers, and Taz Mania but not the nine hours of Cartoon All-Stars, which is mostly a mesh of everything.

Technically speaking, there are far more Hanna-Barbera shows and shorts than Looney Tunes on MeTV Toons.  That's not by accident. These characters were made for television but haven't had a proper showcase in decades. 

MeTV Toons literally gave them a home.

The House of Hanna-Barbera has been around for about a year now, and it has been a near-daily block of shorts, many that haven't been on television in decades with many of them in pristine digitally-remastered editions. It airs for two hours Sundays through Fridays, and it has been a "funtastic" showcase of these iconic characters. 

Why don't these characters get big marathons compared to Looney Tunes? Three reasons:

• They're still remastering shorts. A bulk of the Hanna-Barbera library is still in terrible shape. The broadcast masters have aged poorly and haven't really been updated since Turner got them from Hanna-Barbera over 30 years ago. Warner Bros is currently remastering as many of the broadcast negatives as they can get to a high-definition quality. This isn't a quick process, but it's one the studio has been working on for several years now. MeTV Toons has been the place where many of the remastered Hanna-Barbera shorts have made their world debut. 
• Most of the shorts don't have a big draw or as many shorts as their Looney Tunes counterparts. Sure, you could do a Yogi Bear or Huckleberry Hound marathon solely focused on those two characters, but you can't do a day-long marathon of their shorts alone. Similarly, most of the classic Hanna-Barbera characters didn't have long runs. You'll likely see a Flintstones or Jetsons marathon one day, maybe Jonny Quest, but a majority of the HB library wouldn't have a good audience draw compared to Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. Right now, the House of Hanna-Barbera block is probably the best use of the HB library right now.
• Music issues are keeping one of the biggest Hanna-Barbera properties off the air. By now, you've seen me talk about some of the top Hanna-Barbera shorts showcases, but one of them, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, hasn't been in regular rotation anywhere since the early 2000s largely because of two factors. One of them were the damaged broadcast masters and the other, perhaps the most significant reason, is the music licensing rights. Unlike most of Hanna-Barbera's library, the three shorts of The Quick Draw McGraw Show (Quick Draw McGraw, Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse, and Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy) largely used licensed commercial music for its soundtrack except for their theme songs. The series has not aired anywhere in decades and hasn't been put on home media, and unless the music rights are cleared, they likely won't be on anywhere any time soon. Music rights are tricky, and they keep many things not only off the air but unavailable for home media release. Music rights issues are a factor why you can't see or watch the original Banana Splits Show anywhere either. It's not spite by any stretch. 

I'm not saying that you're wrong for hating Looney Tunes because Warner Bros put a lot more focus on them, though it is nice that after years of neglect recently, it is nice to see the studio showing love for that library again. I'm just saying that maybe a lot of that hate, especially towards MeTV Toons, seems misguided. 

Hanna-Barbera may not get major marathons on MeTV Toons, but the shows and shorts from the iconic studio are a vital part of the network's library and identity. More shows and shorts from Hanna-Barbera are coming to the channel in the coming months and years. Many of them will be the best versions of these shows and shorts that you have ever seen in your lifetime. 

I think in time, MeTV Toons will dedicate a marathon to a Hanna-Barbera series that's not Scooby-Doo, but as I've mentioned earlier, marathons are pretty rare on the channel. And I hope when it does happen, you'll check it out and give the rest of the network a chance. 

It may not be a marathon, but it's a pretty dang good home for Yogi, Huck, and the rest of the old Hanna-Barbera gang.