Byron and Sunny history, vol 5

One of the lesser known cartoons from the golden age of animation, Byron and Sunny was the eternal struggle between a cranky bear cub trying to sleep through the winter and a young raccoon hoping to escape the cold by sneaking into his cave.

The series of shorts proved to be a moderate success for RKO Studios, until massive financial losses incurred by a protracted battle with The Hearst Corporation forced the company to tighten its belt and move its animation studio to Soviet Russia.

The difference between classic Byron and Sunny shorts and the cartoons produced overseas was profound, and most assuredly not an improvement. The artwork in the new shorts was abstract, the animation stiff, and the sight gags so bizarre that they seemed to have come from another planet.

What had once kept RKO treading water had become an albatross around its neck... and with so many anchors already tied to its ankles, it didn't need the extra weight. During a reorganization effort in 1959, RKO sold the rights to Byron and Sunny for an undisclosed amount to the newly christened Hanna-Barbera Productions.

[Absolutely none of this is true.]