The Roman Holidays

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The Roman Holidays
Romanholidays.jpg
Title card
GenreAnimated sitcom
Voices ofDom DeLuise
Daws Butler
Pamelyn Ferdin
Stanley Livingston
Shirley Mitchell
Hal Smith
Dave Willock
ComposerHoyt Curtin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producersWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Production companyHanna-Barbera Productions
DistributorWarner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseSeptember 9 (1972-09-09) –
December 2, 1972 (1972-12-02)

The Roman Holidays is a half-hour Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 9 to December 2, 1972.[1] It ran for 13 episodes before being cancelled, and reruns were later shown on the USA Cartoon Express during the 1980s, Cartoon Network during the 1990s, and Boomerang during the 2000s.[2]

The show was a failed attempt by Hanna-Barbera to replicate the success of their 1960-1966 show The Flintstones, with another modern family living in heavily fictionalized Roman times.[3]

Plot[]

Very similar in theme to both The Flintstones and The Jetsons, The Roman Holidays brought a look at "modern-day" life in Ancient Rome, as seen through the eyes of Augustus "Gus" Holiday and his family.[4] The opening showed a chariot traffic jam and a TV showing football on Channel "IV". An Ancient Roman setting was one of the ideas that Hanna-Barbera considered when creating The Flintstones.[5]

The Holidays, a Roman family living at the Venus DeMilo Arms Apartments in A.D. 63, dealt with a variety of modern-day problems. Gus Holiday worked at the Forum Construction Company for his demanding boss Mr. Tycoonius who is constantly threatening to fire Gus if an assignment he is given goes awry. He lived with his wife Laurie, children Precocia and Happius, and pet lion Brutus. Their neighbors are good friends Herman, Henrietta, and their daughter: Happy's girlfriend Groovia. Their lives are embittered by their exasperated landlord Mr. Evictus who tries to find proof of Brutus living with the Holidays, has a daughter named Snobbia, and excites Gus's tagline "Evictus will evict us!"[6]

Episodes[]

Episode number Episode name Production number Air date Synopsis
RH-1 Double Date 58-1 September 9, 1972 Mr. Evictus threatens to evict the Holiday family if they fail to fix up his daughter Snobbia with a date for the big high school dance.
RH-2 The Lion's Share 58-2 September 16, 1972 After Mr. Evictus threatens to evict the family for violating the "no pets" policy, Brutus runs away to find his long-lost father.
RH-3 Star For A Day 58-3 September 23, 1972 Hap Holiday turns out to be a look-alike for rock star Davey Cassius, so the two trade places for the day.
RH-4 Hero-Sandwiched 58-4 September 30, 1972 Gus struggles with his conscience when he's mistakenly honored as the hero who foiled a robbery.
RH-5 The Big Split-Up 58-5 October 7, 1972 When Groovia overhears Precocia setting up Brutus on a date, she thinks it's for Hap and breaks up with him.
RH-6 Hectic Holiday 58-6 October 14, 1972 The family finds an offer to trade houses with another family in Venice for a free vacation.
RH-7 Switch Is Which? 58-7 October 21, 1972 After Gus stays up all night working on architectural plans for a big client under the orders of Mr. Tycoonius, Laurie dons a fake mustache to fool the client into believing she's Gus.
RH-8 That's Show Biz 58-8 October 28, 1972 When the circus comes to town, Gus gets tickets from his old school chum Hammus Terrificus.
RH-9 Double Dilemma 58-9 November 4, 1972 When Precocia's drum performance conflicts with his bowling team's big match, Gus must find a way to be in two places at once.

Note: This episode is a re-working of The Flintstones episode "Fred Strikes Out", which originally aired on March 2, 1962.

RH-10 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Chariot Wash 58-10 November 11, 1972 Mr. Tycoonius orders Gus to get his prized racing chariot washed, but the chariot is destroyed before Gus can return it.
RH-11 Buried Treasure 58-11 November 18, 1972 Gus believes a treasure map he's found at the bottom of some junk leads to a fortune buried under the apartment building.
RH-12 Cyrano De Happius 58-12 November 25, 1972 Hap tries to fix up his friend with a beautiful cheerleader, but the cheerleader falls for Hap and Groovia starts dating Hap's friend.
RH-13 Father Of The Year 58-13 December 2, 1972 Gus and Mr. Evictus compete in Rome's most prestigious competition, the Father of the Year awards.

Cast[]

The Roman Holidays in other languages[]

In the UK, it had the same title, despite "roman holiday" being an American English noun. In the UK they say "busman's holiday."

Comics[]

Gold Key produced a comic book based on the series from November 1972 to August 1973. Only four issues were published. Pete Alvarado drew the first three; Jack Manning drew the final issue.[7]

Home media[]

The first episode, "Double Date", is available on the DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s Volume 1. On April 23, 2013, Warner Archive released The Roman Holidays: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.[8]

References[]

  1. ^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 243–244. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 687–688. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  3. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 517–518. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  4. ^ Sennett, Ted (1989). The Art of Hanna-Barbera: Fifty Years of Creativity. Studio. p. 178. ISBN 978-0670829781. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  5. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 336. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  6. ^ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. pp. 363–364. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  7. ^ The Roman Holidays at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015.
  8. ^ "The Roman Holidays".

External links[]

See also[]

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