The first successful, designed-for-television cartoon was not created for a TV network, but rather was released directly into syndication. Crusader Rabbit, created by Jay Ward (of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame) and Alexander Anderson, was first distributed in 1949. Network television cartooning came along eight years later. The networks' first cartoon series was The Ruff and Reddy Show, which was developed by the most successful producers of television cartoons, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. The Ruff and Ready Show was also the first made-for-TV cartoon show to be broadcast nationally on Saturday mornings; its popularity helped established the feasibility of Saturday morning network programming. Hanna-Barbera was also responsible for bringing cartoons to the prime-time network schedule--though its success in prime-time did not result in a trend. Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones (1960) was prime-time's first successful cartoon series. It was also prime-time's last successful series until the premiere of The Simpsons in 1989. With Crusader Rabbit, The Ruff and Ready Show, and The Flintstones, the characteristics of the made-for-TV cartoon were established. UPA-style aesthetics (especially limited animation) were blended with narrative structures that developed in 1950s television. In particular, The Flintstones closely resembled live-action situation comedies and was often compared to Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners. One final characteristic of the made-for-TV cartoon that distinguishes it from the theatrical cartoon is an emphasis on dialogue. Often dialogue in The Flintstones re-states that which is happening visually. Fred will cry out, "Pebbles is headed to the zoo" over an image of Pebbles' baby carriage rolling past a sign that reads, "Zoo, this way." In this way, television reveals its roots in radio. There is an reliance on sound that is missing from, say, Roadrunner cartoons in which there is no dialogue at all. Made-for-TV cartoons are often less visually oriented than theatrical cartoons from the "golden era." -
Museum of Broadcast Information--------
Below from the various entries on the Internet Movie Database unless otherwise noted -
"The Magic Cottage" - Released 18 July 1949
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Magic Cottage, The
Genre: Live Action
Classic fables and modern tales came to life through splendid drawings on The Magic Cottage. Hostess/artist Pat Meikle already had a large fan base of youngsters thanks to her earlier work on Dumont Kindergarten (a.k.a. The TV Babysitter), and the kids were more than happy to join her on this new program.
Produced by Meikle?s husband Hal Cooper (later the executive producer of Maude and Gimme a Break!), The Magic Cottage was filmed on a stage designed to look like a tiny stone cottage. In reality, the show was filmed at Wanamaker Department Store in Manhattan (also home to Captain Video?s production), where a group of children watched in a live audience as Pat drew her magical pictures on a large easel. -
Toonarific.com--------
"Crusader Rabbit" - Released 1 September 1949
This was producer Jay Ward's first animated series and the first made-for-television cartoon series, but since it was sold city by city, and not directly to a network it isn't always recognized as the first animated TV-series, despite being broadcast in 1949, earlier than any other animated TV-series.
This was created by Jay Alexander, who later created Rocky and Bullwinkle.
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A milestone in TV history, Crusader Rabbit was the first made-for-television animated series. Skeptics thought a weekly animated series would be too costly to turn a profit, but Ward came up with a way to buck the system: limited animation. Most classically animated theatrical cartoons had 40 cels (individual drawings) per foot of film, but Ward's new style would utilize only 4 cels per foot. As a result, the 19.5-minute shows came in at approximately $2,500 per episode. -
RetrolandMost animation sources list Hanna-Barbera as the originators of limited animation for television, and Ruff and Reddy as the first made-for-TV cartoon. This is not true. In 1948, Jay Ward (of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame) teamed with animator Alex Anderson and sold NBC-TV a series of cartoons featuring Crusader, a crusading rabbit, and Ragland T. Tiger, his sidekick. -
ToonTracker.com --------
"The Ruff & Reddy Show" - Released 14 December 1957
This was the first television show produced by Hanna-Barbera.
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Ruff and Reddy first appeared December 14, 1957 on NBC-TV and was produced by the newly formed H-B Enterprises (later renamed Hanna-Barbera Productions) for Screen Gems, the TV arm of Columbia Pictures. The serialized episodes, in the style of Crusader Rabbit (which preceded Ruff and Reddy by nearly ten years), were originally sponsored by General Foods' Post Cereals and programmed along with the old Columbia cartoons including the Color Rhapsodies, Fox and the Crow, and Li'l Abner. -
ToonTracker.com--------
A belated congrats to BlueEagle, who got the right answer. "The Magic Cottage" was more of watching someonw illustrate a story rathetr than a cartoon. I think it is obvious that "Crusader Rabbit" weas the first cartoon created specifically for television.
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