Claim: William Hanna met at least one person.

Hanna-Barbera Productions , Inc. -LRB- simply known as Hanna-Barbera and also referred to as H-B Enterprises , H-B Production Company and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons , Inc. -RRB- was an American animation studio that dominated American television animation for over three decades in the mid 20th century .   It was founded in 1957 by former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera -LRB- creators of Tom and Jerry -RRB- and live-action director George Sidney in partnership with Screen Gems , a TV unit of Columbia Pictures . In late 1966 , it was sold to Taft Broadcasting and spent two decades as its subsidiary . It is officially considered the very first major animation studio to successfully produce cartoons exclusively for television .   Hanna-Barbera is known for creating a wide variety of popular animated characters and for 30 years , the studio produced a succession of hit cartoon shows , including The Flintstones , Yogi Bear , The Jetsons , Wacky Races , Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs . For their achievements , Hanna and Barbera together won seven Academy Awards , eight Emmy Awards , a Governors Award , a Golden Globe Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . The pair was also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993 .   Both the two men and their company had yielded more than over 3,500 half-hours of animated programming and a slew of television movies , specials , theatrical films , public service announcements , shorts , direct-to-video features and commercials were also produced by the studio . Many of Hanna-Barbera 's cartoons were distributed and seen internationally worldwide in over 175 countries in 45 languages around the world .   Hanna-Barbera 's fortunes declined in the mid-1980s when the profitability of Saturday morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication . In late 1991 , the studio was purchased from Taft -LRB- by then named Great American Broadcasting -RRB- by Turner Broadcasting System , who used much of its back catalog to program its new channel , Cartoon Network . After Turner purchased the company , Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as creative consultants and mentors .   Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996 and the studio became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. . Animation , in which Hanna-Barbera would absorb into before Hanna died in 2001 . Cartoon Network Studios continued the projects for the channel 's output . Barbera went on to work for Warner Bros. . Animation until his death in 2006 .   As of 2017 , the studio exists as an in-name-only unit used to market properties and productions associated with the Hanna-Barbera library , specifically its `` classic '' works . In 2005 , the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored Hanna and Barbera with a wall sculpture of themselves and their characters at the Television Academy 's Hall of Fame Plaza .