The Roman Holidays


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. 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.
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.

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. 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.
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!"

Episodes

Cast

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.

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 release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.