'The Gloomers' Draws Hanna Barbera Style To Web

Imagine if Eeyore, Oscar the Grouch, Scrooge McDuck, and Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were related. Throw in a dash of the Addam’s Family and you’d be at a good place to start understanding the concept behind The Gloomers. With the tagline “No matter how bad your day has been, The Gloomers day is always worse.”, the family greets you with slick flash-animation, a catchy theme song, and the promise that this won’t be all gloom and doom…there is a lot of laughs to be had as well.

Behind The Gloomers are some veteran broadcast TV vets trying to make the show the first series at the center of their new animation studio focusing on the “Hanna Barbera style” of animation. Charles Mechem, the former CEO of Taft Broadcasting, which owned animation studio Hanna Barbera from 1967 until 1990 serves as the outfit’s ‘Chairman.’ His son Dan serves as CEO and penning the series is senior writer Neal Barbera, son of the late Joe Barbera. Neal often wrote or co-wrote episodes for Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo.

The Gloomers also boasts a fantastically designed website that is ripe with interactivity possibilities. Upon signing up, you are immediately prompted to build your own “Gloom Room”, where you are encouraged to celebrate everything that makes you feel down, off-kilter, or just plain bummed out. It’s a place “where Gloom meets laughter”. The series is also trying to build up its community presence on Facebook.

“The Gloomers debuted at Comic Con this past year,” said Rachel Rhee, head of marketing for The Gloomers. “We’ve had a lot of the tech/geek crowd show a lot of interest in our series. We will have special announcements during the holiday season to cater to this part of our fan base.” This includes their most recent episode, a Halloween special (above) featuring Evil Dead II writer and horror director extraordinaire Scott Spiegel. Web star Veronica Belmont (TekZilla), will also be a guest star in an upcoming episode.