Preserving Studio of Hanna-Barbera

Re “Animated Debate,” Dec. 2:

I respectfully suggest that there is nothing about the Hanna-Barbera studio that deserves consideration by the L.A. Cultural Heritage Commission. Not only are the buildings architecturally undistinguished (to say the least), they represent a terrible decline in the quality of animation itself.

The so-called “limited animation” that the Hanna-Barbera studio cranked out in monumental quantities was the barest minimum, consisting largely of characters standing in place with only their mouths moving. The emphasis was on dialogue and laugh track, not motion. A great artist summed up the result: “No gags, no animation.”

The reward for producing a popular commodity profitably is financial, not recognition by the Heritage Commission. The proper monuments for William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are the great cartoons they produced at MGM.

BILL TAYLOR

Sherman Oaks

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Like it or not, American popular culture has a growing significance to a generation raised on mass media and sugar cereal. The Flintstones and the Jetsons are forever woven into our cultural fabric, symbols of optimistic hopes for the future and a mythical nuclear family. Future scholars will examine the role of Hanna-Barbera in 1960s culture, as F. Scott Fitzgerald is studied in the context of the 1920s. Destroying the buildings where these works were created not only limits the possibilities for future study, but also takes away another significant portion of Los Angeles culture, something this city cannot afford to lose.

LAURA TAYLOR LAMBROS

West Hills