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. 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 an 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. Thirteen episodes were produced. An Ancient Roman setting was one of the ideas that Hanna-Barbera considered when creating The Flintstones.
Very similar in theme to both The Flintstones and The Jetsons, The Roman Holidays brought a look at the "marble age" life in Ancient Rome, as seen through the eyes of Augustus "Gus" Holiday and his family. The opening shows a chariot traffic jam and a TV, showing football on Channel "IV".
Plot
The Holidays, a Roman family living at the Venus DeMilo Arms Apartments in A.D. 63, deal with a variety of modern-day problems. Gus Holiday works 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 lives with his wife, Laurie, the children Precocia and Happius, and pet lion, Brutus. Their neighbors are good friends: Herman, Henrietta and their daughter, Groovia, Happy's girlfriend. 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 !".Cast
- Dave Willock as Gus Holiday, the father of the Holiday family, who is an architect at Forum Construction Company.
- Shirley Mitchell as Laurie Holiday, the mother.
- Dom DeLuise as Mr. Evictus, the landlord.
- Daws Butler as Brutus the Lion, the family pet.
- Pamelyn Ferdin as Precocia Holiday, the young daughter.
- Stanley Livingston as Happius "Hap" Holiday, the teenaged son.
- Harold Peary as Herman, the father of the neighboring family.
- Janet Waldo as Henrietta, the mother of the neighboring family.
- Judy Strangis as Groovia, the daughter of the neighboring family and Hap's girlfriend.
- Hal Smith as Mr. Tycoonius, Gus Holiday's boss.
- John Stephenson as additional voices.