The final Rankin/Bass Animagic special arrived in a 1985 adaptation of an L. Frank Baum book: "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus."
For Christmas 1981, Rankin/Bass mixed Christmas and St. Patricks Day to create a new leprechaun-flavored holiday special.
The very first Rankin/Bass creation was a series based on "Pinocchio," so naturally their 20th-anniversary Christmas special saw Pinocchio's return.
The "Jack Frost" stop-motion movie by Rankin/Bass in 1979 closed out their "silver age," exploring the popular mythical figure of winter.
"Felix the Cat" and his Magic Bag of Tricks returned to the spotlight in 1959, thanks to television.
Take a look back at how animation began, all the way to the first traditionally animated cartoon.
Hanna-Barbera's character of Scooby-Do became beloved to generations of children, but where did it all start?
Out of a partnership with a cereal company, Hanna-Barbera produced two separate series which became permanently joined together.
"The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show" by Hanna-Barbera was the last of the package series during their time Screen Gems distribution.
Hanna-Barbera's first live-action series, "The Banana Splits" show. broke new ground with its costumed characters.
"The Flintstones" was the most popular Hanna-Barbera series of the 1960s, so of course it was adapted to the big screen in 1966.
In 1964, Hanna-Barbera made the leap back to the silver screen with its first animated feature, based on the "Yogi Bear" TV series
With the '70s drawing to a close, Rankin/Bass put all their cards on the table with a feature-length crossover between Rudolph and Frosty set in July.
In 1964, Hanna-Barbera produced two shows—"Magilla Gorilla" and "Peter Potamus"—that became the first toyetic cartoons.
It can be argued that Marvel's "Spider-Man" really took off after his first cartoon in 1967—although not without difficulties.
Hanna-Barbera teamed up with Marvel Comics to create the first "Fantastic Four" cartoon, Marvel's first family of superheroes.
CBS commissioned Hanna-Barbera to create three new series for 1967, including "Herculoids."
First Filmation had done "Superman," then "Aquaman"; they followed those up with the first animated adaptation of "Batman."
After the success of "Superman," Filmation and CBS decided to pair it up with a hero never seen on screens before: Aquaman.
1967 was a busy time for Hanna-Barbera in regards to creating superheroes; among them was "Birdman and the Galaxy Trio" for NBC.
In 1966, Hanna-Barbera created their first Saturday morning series, starring a hero named Space Ghost.
"The New Adventures of Superman" cartoon put Filmation on the map and gave birth to the Saturday morning animation boom.
While Hanna-Barbera was the king of TV cartoons during the 60's, a studio known as Filmation would eventually rise to stand toe-to-toe with them. This is the story of their formative years, their first TV series, and how the studio very nearly went bankrupt right out the gate.
Nearly 50 years before the Avengers appeared on the silver screen, Marvel's superheroes made their first appearances on the small screen.
Rankin/Bass's "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" was an Easter special that shone a spotlight on all the other holidays as well.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is easily the best-known of the entire Rankin/Bass pantheon. But do you know about its sequel, "Rudolph's Shiny New Year"?
For their 1978 Christmas offering, Rankin/Bass brought new life to NBC's "The Stingiest Man in Town," a 1956 adaptation of "A Christmas Carol."
During the mid '70's, Rankin/Bass put a brief focus on the traditional Christmas story, with "The Little Drummer Boy II" and "Nestor."
For Rankin/Bass, 1976 was the year of sequels, beginning with a celebration of its most popular animated character, Frosty the Snowman.
Find out about "The First Christmas" (1975), an often forgotten installment in the Rankin/Bass pantheon.
In 1958, Disney created a Christmas special for ABC; it later became a well-beloved Christmas tradition in Nordic countries.
"The Year Without a Santa Claus," featuring a bit of Animagic and the two Miser Brothers, ushered in Rankin/Bass' silver age.
Between when Santa came to town and that year without him, Rankin/Bass produced two lesser-known, but still memorable, Christmas classics.
Five lesser-known Christmas specials, overshadowed by the Rankin/Bass productions, slipped in under the radar in the '70s.
While Mickey Rooney was putting one foot in front of the other, the rest of television was treated to two nativity scenes, an encounter with Santa, and a classic Christmas Carol.
"Frosty" and "Rudolph" both showed that Rankin/Bass could turn popular Christmas tunes into beloved specials. But what about Santa himself?
Still in the infancy of television animation, experimental series emerged, including television's first color cartoon and TerryToons first foray off the silver screen.
With the start of a new year, we venture back to the dawn of television to take a look at some little-known cartoons from the era of the Baby Boomer.
Five years after "Rudolph," Rankin/Bass would recapture the Christmas spirit with a new special based on another popular song, "Frosty the Snowman."
In 1966, MGM brought the world of Dr. Seuss to the screen for the first time with an animated adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
In 1967 and 1968, Rankin/Bass adapted a Charles Dickens classic and another popular contemporary Christmas song, making two more Christmas classics to add to their repertoire.
Mr. Magoo! Popeye! Gumby! Rocky and Bullwinkle! Beetle Bailey! Check out some of the earliest animated Christmas specials and episodes from the early 60's!
Back in 1965, "Peanuts" finally made its way to TV with "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Here's a look back at it and its creator.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" has become perhaps the most popular Rankin/Bass special of all. But how did the story itself start?
From Calvin and the Colonel, to Davey & Goliath, to Underdog, take a look at the animated Thanksgiving specials of the 1960's.
Though Rankin/Bass made many holiday films, 1968's "The Mouse on the Mayflower" is the only Rankin/Bass Thanksgiving special.
Rankin/Bass produced Mad Monster Party (starring Boris Karloff) in 1967, coinciding with a resurgence in the popularity of movie monsters.
In the late 1960's, two pop culture icons (King Kong and Smokey the Bear), as well as the works of Hans Christian Anderson and other fairy tales got the Rankin/Bass treatment.
You may know Rudolph and Frosty, but do you recall Willy McBean and his Magic Machine? Take a look into the early works of Rankin/Bass before they became synonymous with the Christmas season.
In 1966, Charles Shultz's Peanuts aired its third animated special, and so the legend of the Great Pumpkin was born.
CartoonHistorian returns with a trip into the future to take a look at the continuing adventures of Doc Brown and Marty McFly
The Syncro-Vox technique, developed by Cambria Productions, cut down on the animation costs by inserting real lips onto animated faces.
Hanna-Barbera's 1962 hit "The Jetsons" was accompanied by another launch that same year: "Wally Gator."
After the financial flop of their only feature film, United Productions of America (UPA) set their sights on television, bringing both Mr. Magoo and Dick Tracy to the small screen for the first time.
Hanna-Barbera gave Yogi Bear his own show in 1961; at the same time, they also produced a new series for prime-time called "Top Cat."
Alvin and the Chipmunks were a popular act during the late 1950s. Looking to expand the characters beyond novelty records, creator Ross Bagdasarian created an animated TV series. "The Alvin Show" only ran for 26 episodes between 1961–62, but the Chipmunks went on to establish a cultural legacy.
In 1960, Hanna-Barbera was offered the chance to create a series for prime-time television. What they came up with was "The Flintstones," one of the most iconic cartoons to ever air on TV. Here's the history behind the show.
Saturday morning cartoons were a major staple of US television, but which cartoon started this trend? In 1960, General Mills opened the gate with the first Saturday morning cartoon: "King Leonardo."
Stop-motion animation using clay had been experimented with almost as long as film itself, but it was thanks to Art Clokey's Gumby in 1955 that clay became a mainstream form of animation.
Hanna-Barbera was already on a roll in 1959 when they added "Quick Draw McGraw" and "Loopy de Loop" to their lineup.
Rocky & Bullwinkle were not alone, being joined by characters such as Mr. Peabody, Sherman, and Dudley Do-Right.
Jay Ward, following his success with "Crusader Rabbit," began planning his next hit series. It would be a long ten years, but it eventually bore two iconic characters, the moose and squirrel cartoon known as "Rocky and Bullwinkle."
Hanna-Barbera took a risk in 1958 making television's "The Huckleberry Hound Show," "Yogi Bear," and more, but it opened the doors wide for countless animated series to come.
Here's how the 1957 animated series "The Ruff and Reddy Show" came into existence.
Crusader Rabbit, created by Alex Anderson and Jay Ward, was television's first original cartoon and an important milestone, shaping the groundwork for how we view TV animation today.