Be It Ever So Humble,
There's No Place Like... Rome...
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Holidays... Meet the Holidays
They're the groovy Iron-Age family/
Near the Roman Empire
A footnote in HB history/
Let's lounge with the folks at DeMilo
and eat half of Brutus' high load/
When you're with the Holidays
Have a toga-rockin' good time,
a Forum show time
Do like the Romans do!
BRUTUS!
Hi, everyone and welcome back to the show.
If you've heard of both The Flintstones and The Jetsons, then if you're a fan of Hanna-Barbera cartoons that take our modern-day society and all the bells, whistles, and trinkets that come with it and transport them to another time period to skewer them in that time's own ways and means, this next series is for you (or not; it wasn't for the people who watched it when it was new).
They are - and it's - The Roman Holidays.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way:
The Roman Holidays follows The Flintstones and The Jetsons as Hanna-Barbera’s latest creation of it’s formula of cartoons centering around the characters' treatment and utilization of (then-)modern-day sensibilities and advancements under a thick, strong veneer of an appearance in another time period. Unlike the former’s Stone-Age (the fictional Bedrock) and the latter’s futuristic Space Age (Earth in the year 2062 including Skylab Apartments and Spacely’s Sprockets among its locations), this series takes place in the Iron Age of Rome, where instead of animal-appropriate appliances and apparatuses, large machinery are powered by dinosaurs, cars powered by the driver’s two feet and clothes styled by the dead animals they came from (but way before jetpacks, flying cars, moving sidewalks, two-hour work days and cosmic clothes crossed with circles), there’s togas, hand-powered machines, horse-handled carriages, togas, Roman-designed architecture, sandals, togas, rock-lined streets, big cars abound-- Did I mention togas? The Rome Colosseum is a major location. The family themselves lives at the Venus DeMilo Arms (Geddit? Because many multi-housing companies put “arms' in their apartment building names? And Venus DeMilo is a famous sculpture that doesn’t have arms? yougeddit.)
Each episode follows the same formula: The title characters are living it up in Rome, doing the time period’s version of things we do in real life (specifically things in 1972). Then, after some jokes and such, the focused character does whatever they want to do or goes wherever they want to go to get what they want or who want to see; then gets into a conflict and they must do whatever they can to fix everything or make things right -- but not before some wacky hijinks along the way. They end up either failing and learn from their mistakes or or succeeding and still learn from their mistakes, and last seconds of wacky hijinks. You know like every other HB series based in goofy slapstick comedy.
Characters:
Let’s begin with the titular family themselves:
Augustus Holiday aka Gus (voiced by Dave Wilock): The patriarch and ostensibly the main of the main characters, Gus is a hard-pressed working man and highly-loving family man (and hard-hearted detractor of the gluttony of Brutus). While he’s not working in construction at the Forum Construction Company, he’s at home dealing with the shenanigans of his family (or sometimes his own), or the antics of Brutus. Although he can slip every once in a while (such as turning the neighborhood upside down to find a treasure chest or take credit for stopping a robbery even though it was a coincidence from his being there), he does everything he can to make it right.
Laurel Holiday aka Laurie (voiced by Shirley Michell): the beautiful, sensible, compassionate wife/mother of Gus/Happy and Precocia. She usually takes care of the home but will leap into action whenever a character (usually Gus) is in major trouble.
Precocia Holiday (voiced by Pamelyn Ferdin [the hardest-working child actress since Shirley Temple AFAIK]): As if her name doesn’t imply she’s wise beyond her years. Precocia is the bright and studious daughter of Gus and Laurie and younger sister of Happy. She's sweet, polite and sensible, but also has a bit of a snark in her.
Happius Holiday aka Hap or Happy [that’s right… Happy… Holiday] (voiced by Stanley Livingston): The sharp and musically-gifted son of Gus and Laurie and older brother of Precocia, and also the steady boyfriend of Groovia. Hap is a charming little chap with a cool, calm and collected demeanor and amazing musical talent on the drums and guitar.
Obviously, this family isn’t as memorable as the other two, but there’s a certain quality about them that cannot be forgotten -- They genuinely feel like a family because they’re well acted like a family. They go through family convos, family issues and family solutions the way tv families do and it feels genuine.
-- Gus isn’t as memorable or well-written as Fred or George, but he has some qualities about him. I do like his more chill and demure demeanor -- meaning he’s not a rageaholic like Fred (only can be as aggravated like George), and his antics aren’t as wild or overblown like the former. Plus, I like that his voice is in a lower register compared to the guys before him.
-- In terms of the moms of H-B’s “modern-day past” cartoons, Laurie’s certainly not as memorable as either Wilma or Jane (my bio of her isn't as long as those of the other main wife characters). But in terms of likability, she’s right up there with them (maybe more Jane than Wilma. In terms of writing, she’s alright, but very vanilla compared to both moms (even if I hated Wilma's character as a shrill, controlling, abusive bitch to Fred in (early) season one). She also has a sweet, warm comforting voice that brings calm and delight to me.
-- Precocia is a charming young girl with high intelligence and quite the wit and snark (heck, she won't be the last we’ll meet this season).
-- Happy has that confidence and charm to get through the day with a smile and some fun, and his musical talents are groovy (as expected).
- Brutus the Lion (onomatopoeia’d by Daws Butler in his Snagglepuss voice): the “family cat”, Brutus is the Holidays’ giant bipedal pet known less for traipsing about the house, sharpening his paws across the carpet and relieving himself in his litter box and more for lounging on the couch, watching TV and cleaning out the family’s fridge (not that they mind -- except Gus, who minds a lot). He's also humanoid enough to help whatever scheme or predicament any or all members of the family are in
-- Honestly, if it weren’t for their love for him, Gus would’ve gleefully thrown his furry ass out of the house the moment he so much as swallowed a grape. Other than that, Brutus is a hilarious character. His antics are ridiculous, his words (pretty much one that represents a noise a human or his kind makes) are vocally arousing
- Groovia (voiced by Judy Strangis): Happy’s steady girlfriend. She’s sweet, sensible and truly adores Hap, and as her name implies, she can dance like nobody’s business (oh yeah, and she's groovy too). There are times when she isn’t pleased by what she thought were Hap’s actions and breaks up with him. You know, typical teenage crap.
-- Now that I mentioned Groovia, I must mention that about half of the show is about the continuing story of Happy x Groovi, and I wasn’t entirely supportive of it (The Jetsons didn’t have half its run about Judy going through boy trouble, and half of The Flintstones wasn't about Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm roughing it out... you know, because they’re babies), I was still entertained by it.
Evictus (voiced by Dom DeLuise): the landlord of the Venus DeMilo Arms and the thorn on the side of the Holiday family (especially Gus) and pretty much all the other tenants. He loves money and making money (and almost nothing else), and his methods as landlord (or rather slumlord) reflect this; he even has parking meters for visitors to enter both his home and front yard! Evictus tries his hardest to evict the Holidays for the smallest, irrational reasons -- one of which is Brutus (which actually isn’t a bad reason. Ever since he snuck-- I mean found his way into the Holiday family, he's been in minefield territory ever since.)
Writing:
Is this really a Saturday morning cartoon? Because like the aforementioned Flintstones and Jetsons, it’s just as well that The Roman Holidays had a look and feel of an HB creation that would’ve fit as a primetime cartoon. Seriously, NBC should’ve rolled the dice and given it a slot on the nightly schedule like ABC did the other two HB series and it would’ve made the history books of primetime cartoons… not that it would be successful there either, but still. The writing set the tone for the series as another of these modern interpretations of times in the distant past, and both were sharp and near-perfect. The characters were written well, the jokes were hilarious and clever, and the style was well-emulated in that of the shows before it.
Some of its writers include Barry E. Blitzer, Miles Wilder, William Raynor, and Jack Mendelsohn. They’ve written for Get Smart, The Brady Bunch, The Carol Burnett Show and The Doris Day Show -- alongside HB’s fellow toons The Funky Phantom. So I love when primetime comedy writers take their talents to Saturday morning cartoons, and bring their creative magic to the kids without sacrificing much of their mature talents and integrity.
Voice Acting:
I must be honest here: I love the acting on this. Willock, Mitchell, Livingston and Ferdin can genuinely portray a family incredibly well (and their singing together in the theme song as their characters is why I love it so much). Plus, this is the only one of these types of Hanna-Barberra cartoon to actually cast actors to voice characters that are around their own ages, instead of just casting adults to voice either adults or children (or in some cases like Jean Vander Pyl on The Flintstones, both Wilma and Pebbles). Strangis is groovy (pun intended) as Groovia, lending a sweet, chaming style with a touch of go-getter to her voice.
As mentioned earlier, Butler voices Brutus in his Snagglepuss voice uttering nothing but onomatopeias. Each time he utters them is hilarious. DeLuise killed it as Evictus; his deep yet high-pitched voice screeching out threats of evictions (what else?) is hysterical.
Theme Song:
Speaking of the theme song, it’s about the titular family (re)introducing themselves and opening their home to the viewers and us bearing witness to their (mis)adventures and catastrophes. The production is well-done, blending both the musical trend of the Roman era and the musical trends of the early 70s. It’s sung by their voice actors, who do a great job. SO great that each time it comes on, I sing not only along, but also in the same voices and infliction the actors used (especially Willock's like as Gus about Brutus) -- and if that doesn’t tell you how catchy I think it is, nothing will.
Animation:
From what they gathered from (I presume) pictures of (pre-Ancient) Rome, the animators did a great job. Although it clearly doesn’t look like the actual capital of Italy, this series’ version -- with its bright skies, wonderful mesh of cheerful colors and shades looks divine. Everyone wears togas just like the famous duo, the animators do the most to be as accurate to the time period as possible while mining as many aspects as possible for the (then-)modern-day comedy. Stuff like electronic devices powered by hourglass, animal-powered appliances, horse-drawn carriages and foot-petaled transportation (no wonder many characters are skinny or muscle-bound), and sundial or hourglass watches are all featured in full force and it’s hilarious.
Laugh Track:
I believe it has one. Why I say that is because, from the first time I’ve seen the series online, it had no laugh track (it was digitally removed). You guys know my feelings about it, so I personally like it that way. No, I love it that way.
Conclusion:
You may forget about this series by the time you finish this review. So I'm begging you to give it a watch. It may not be as wacky or goofy or zany as it contemporaries or predecessors (trust me, it's there, but not as much; it's still Hanna-Barbera), but the nuanced writing, charming and lovable characters and mature, charismatic performances more than make up for it in my book. I highly recommend it, and I hope you'll welcome The Roman Holidays into your homes - like I opened them to mine - as they welcome you (and I) into theirs.
That’s it for this episode. Check back real soon when I pretty much continue through NBC’s Terrific 10 lineup with no shuffling as we remember that - be it ever so humble - there’s no place like home, as we meet (and endure) The Barkleys.
I'm Andrew... please have a Funshiny day.
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