The Roman Holidays

The Roman Holidays
Title card
Genre	Animation Comedy Sitcom
Voices of	Dave Willock Shirley Mitchell Stanley Livingston Pamelyn Ferdin Daws Butler Dom DeLuise Hal Smith
Composer(s)	Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 9 – December 2, 1972

The Roman Holidays is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 9, 1972 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.

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, around 63 AD (with a 1970s touch), 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" (NBC was seen on TV Channel 4 in cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Antonio and Boston). An Ancient Roman setting was actually one of the ideas that Hanna-Barbera considered as they were working to create The Flintstones.

Gus, his wife Laurie, their daughter Precocia (who, despite being the youngest of the family, is very intellectual) and their teen-aged son Happius (nicknamed "Hap") reside in the Venus de Milo Arms, run by their landlord Mr. Evictus, who excites Gus's tagline "Evictus will evict us!". Gus works for a bossy supervisor named Mr. Tycoonius at the Forum Construction Company, and after a hard day's marble lifting, he was greeted by the Holidays' pet, a lion named Brutus (who sounded a bit like Snagglepuss). Rounding out the cast is Hap's girlfriend, Groovia. Like many Hanna-Barbera series produced in the 1970s, the show was given a laugh track.

Episodes

Episode number	Episode name	Production number	Air date	Synopsis
RH-1	Double Date	58-1	September 9, 1972	Evictus threatens to evict the Holiday family if they fail to fix up his daughter with a date for the big high school dance.
RH-2	The Lion's Share	58-2	September 16, 1972	After Evictus threatens to evict the family for violating the 'no pets' policy, Brutus runs away to find his long-lost father.
RH-3	Star For A Day	58-3	September 23, 1972	Hap Holiday turns out to be a lookalike for rock star Davey Cassius, so the two trade places for the day.
RH-4	Hero-Sandwiched	58-4	September 30, 1972	Gus struggles with his conscience when he's mistakenly honored as the hero who foiled a robbery.
RH-5	The Big Split-Up	58-5	October 7, 1972	When Groovia overhears Precocia setting up Brutus on a date, she thinks it's for Hap and breaks up with him.
RH-6	Hectic Holiday	58-6	October 14, 1972	The family finds an offer to trade houses with another family in Venice for a free vacation.
RH-7	Switch Is Which?	58-7	October 21, 1972	After Gus stays up all night working on architectural plans for a big client, Laurie dons a fake mustache to fool the client into believing she's Gus.
RH-8	That's Show Biz	58-8	October 28, 1972	When the circus comes to town, Gus gets tickets from his old school chum Hammus Terrificus.
RH-9	Double Dilemma	58-9	November 4, 1972	When Precocia's drum performance conflicts with his bowling team's big match, Gus must find a way to be in two places at once. This episode is a re-working of The Flintstones episode "Fred Strikes Out", which originally aired on March 2, 1962.
RH-10	A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Chariot Wash	58-10	November 11, 1972	Gus' boss orders him to get his prized racing chariot washed, but the chariot is destroyed before Gus can return it.
RH-11	Buried Treasure	58-11	November 18, 1972	Gus believes a treasure map he's found at the bottom of some junk leads to a fortune buried under the apartment building.
RH-12	Cyrano De Happius	58-12	November 25, 1972	Hap tries to fix up his friend with a beautiful cheerleader, but the cheerleader falls for Hap and Groovia starts dating Hap's friend.
RH-13	Father Of The Year	58-13	December 2, 1972	Gus and Evictus compete in Rome's most prestigious competition, the Father of the Year awards.

Cast

Daws Butler - Brutus the Lion
Dom DeLuise - Mr. Evictus
Pamelyn Ferdin - Precocia Holiday
Stanley Livingston - Happius Holiday
Shirley Mitchell - Laurie Holiday
Harold Peary - Herman (Groovia's father)
Hal Smith - Mr. Tycoonius
John Stephenson -
Judy Strangis - Groovia (Happius' girlfriend)
Janet Waldo - Henrietta (Groovia's mother)
Dave Willock - Gus Holiday

The Roman Holidays in other languages

Brazilian Portuguese: Os Mussarelas ("The Mozzarellas")
Galician: Festas de Roma ("Roma´s Parties")
German: Die verrückten Holidays ("The Crazy Holidays")
Spanish: Roma me da risa ("Rome makes me laugh")
Italian: S.P.Q.R. - Sembrano Proprio Quasi Romani ("They really seem almost Roman")

Comics

Gold Key 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.^[1]

Home Media releases

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 (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.^[2]

References

↑ The Roman Holidays at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015.
↑ "The Roman Holidays".

External links

The Roman Holidays at the Internet Movie Database
The Roman Holidays at TV.com
Episode Guide

Children's programming on NBC in the 1970s

First-run animated series	Here Comes the Grump The Pink Panther Show (1969–78) The Underdog Show The Further Adventures of Dr. Dolittle The Houndcats The Roman Holidays The Barkleys Sealab 2020 Around the World in 80 Days Inch High, Private Eye The Addams Family Emergency +4 Butch Cassidy Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–75) Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975–76) CB Bears The Young Sentinels The New Archie and Sabrina Hour (1977) I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali Baggy Pants and the Nitwits Yogi's Space Race Galaxy Goof-Ups The Godzilla Power Hour Fantastic Four Fabulous Funnies The New Fred and Barney Show Buford and the Galloping Ghost Casper and the Angels (1979–80) Fred and Barney Meet The Thing (1979-80) The Super Globetrotters The New Shmoo (1979–80) The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979–80)

First-run live-action series	H.R. Pufnstuf The Banana Splits Adventure Hour Barrier Reef The Bugaloos (1970–72) Mr. Wizard Runaround Sigmund and the Sea Monsters Go Run, Joe, Run Land of the Lost (1974–77) Westwind McDuff, the Talking Dog Monster Squad Big John, Little John (1976–77) The Kids From C.A.P.E.R. Muggsy Thunder Search and Rescue The Red Hand Gang The Krofft Superstar Hour

Rebroadcasts	The Heckle and Jeckle Show The Flintstones The Woody Woodpecker Show Deputy Dawg The Jetsons Josie and the Pussycats Speed Buggy Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr. Hong Kong Phooey The Go-Go Globetrotters The Alvin Show The Daffy Duck Show Jonny Quest

Schedules	1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80

Related programming and topics	Animation in the United States in the television era

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