Biblical Stories Available on Home Video

After failing to persuade television executives 17 years ago to accept an animated series based on biblical stories, Joseph Barbera, president of Hanna-Barbera Productions, says he now has a market for his “dynamic but not preachy” cartoons.

Scheduled for national release next week are six Old Testament stories on videocassettes, including “Moses,” “David and Goliath,” “Noah’s Ark” and “Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.”

The company made famous by animated television characters such as Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone and the Jetsons budgeted $300,000 for each half-hour cassette. Hanna-Barbera claims that it is the biggest original programming venture in the history of home video.

The voices of biblical characters are provided by the likes of actors Ed Asner, Herschel Bernardi, Lorne Greene and James Earl Jones.

Barbera said the project finally became commercially viable with the increasing number of households having videocassette recorders.

“We’re preparing 20 more, and hope to have New Testament stories on the Nativity and the (parable of the) Prodigal Son ready for Easter, 1987,” Barbera said.

The Hanna-Barbera series, called “The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible,” will not be sold through conventional home video outlets. Instead, spokesmen said, Hanna-Barbera will sell the cassettes through Worldvision Home Video at religious and secular bookstores and through direct marketing. Hanna-Barbera has planned a large display at next week’s National Catholic Education Assn. convention, which is expected to draw 16,000 educators to the Anaheim Convention Center.

Three clergy acted as consultants on the project: Jesuit Father Terrance Sweeney of Beverly Hills, Presbyterian minister Fulton Lytle of Glendora and Rabbi Jerry Cutler of the Sholom Aleichem Temple of the Creative Arts in Los Angeles.

The Hanna-Barbera cassettes are not the only biblical videos on the market. An animated cassette series with New Testament stories was released by the Christian Broadcasting Network and Victor King Video. And the “Greatest Heroes of the Bible,” 15 filmed stories that once appeared in television syndication, is now available at Christian bookstores.

Barbera, a product of Roman Catholic schooling in Brooklyn, said he wanted entertaining stories that bring out a moral. “In the tale of Moses, for example, the Hebrews eventually realize that it isn’t the Pharaoh who hinders the Hebrews but their own lack of faith,” he said.

The violence depicted in the animated stories was unavoidable, Barbera said. “We didn’t want to show Goliath being hit, but that’s part of the story,” he said.

Barbera said he has another Bible-related project that he has offered to two networks, so far without success. His idea, he said, is a live action story that would depict Jesus at age 16 as “a typical teen-ager of his time.” Little is said in the New Testament about Jesus’ youth, but Barbera indicated he felt that should not hinder his proposed venture.

“The idea was received with excitement at two networks, but when they called in the experts the wrangling started,” Barbera said.

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