Friendly & Barry (formerly Paramount's Toon-a-rama!) is an animated anthology television series that aired on UPN from 1995 to 1998 as part of their UPN Kids lineup. The series featured cartoons from Paramount's library of Noveltoons shorts and post-March 1962 Famous Studios shorts.
History and Format[]
Paramount's Toon-a-rama! premiered on September 11, 1995 as part of UPN Kids' inaugural season, on their weekday lineup alongside classic episodes of The Adventures in Medieval, Kiana's Little Helpers, ToonMania, Life of the Noveltoons and The Tales of Indiana Jones. 65 episodes were created featuring three cartoons in each, with a "Famous Clip" placed in between the second and third shorts to fill up any remaining time.
The following season, Paramount's Toon-a-rama! was renamed Friendly & Barry, which brought forth several changes to the format. Each show now began with a new title sequence set to an original theme song by ToonMania composer Mark Watters. In addition, the cartoons' staff credits were cut, leaving only a shot of their titles with a sting based on the theme song playing underneath them. Other than these changes, the contents of the original 65 episodes remained mostly the same.
Friendly & Barry was cancelled at the end of the 1997–1998 season, with its last airing on September 4, 1998. With this, the Noveltoons shorts were later moved to Nickelodeon, after the Noveltoons libraries became the exclusive property of the Viacom family of cable TV networks in the United States.