Writer of Pop Culture

Cool and refreshing news about pop culture and entertainment.

This Day in Pop Culture for December 14

On this day in pop culture history, “Star Wars” stars picked up where they left off, Hanna-Barbera aired their first TV show and Alabama became a state.

December 14, 2020

2–3 minutes

2015: ‘Star Wars’ Goes Back Where It Left Off

This is a little complicated. The first Star Wars movie came out in 1977 which was followed by The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Those three films are also known as Episodes 4-6. All three starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. Many years later, fans were excited to learn that George Lucas was to produce three new Star Wars movies, but they would be prequel movies (episodes 1-3). Finally, on this day in 2015, fans finally got a chance to see what the three heroes have been up when Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened in theaters.

The new Lucasfilm (now owned by Disney) was the first where Lucas only served as a creative consultant. Instead, J.J. Abrams co-produced, co-wrote the screenplay and directed the movie.

The movie takes place 30 since the events that happened in Return of the Jedi. It introduced new characters Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o) while also bringing back Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia (now General Leia Organa), Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2. Unfortunately, the former characters took a backseat to the new characters, but it was still great to see them on the screen once again. (Image: LucasFilm)

1957: Hanna-Barbera’s First TV Series

From the many, many different cartoon characters that Hanna-Barbera produced over the years, many people are not aware of two of their earliest creations: Ruff and Reddy.

After 18 years of creating numerous Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were let go from the studio, who found it to be more profitable to just reuse older cartoons during theater showings. The pair went on to create H-B Enterprises and Ruff and Reddy were their first new characters.

Created for NBC, The Ruff and Reddy Show featured the small but smart Ruff the cat and the big, lovable dog, Reddy who were based friends. The show was not only one of the first Saturday morning cartoon shows, but it was also Hanna-Barbera’s first TV series which used a new limited animation technique to keep the costs down.

Now almost completely forgotten, The Ruff and Ready Show ran for three seasons featuring 156 episodes.