The Roman Holidays facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Roman Holidays |
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Title card
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| Genre | Animated sitcom |
| Voices of | Dom DeLuise Daws Butler Pamelyn Ferdin Stanley Livingston Shirley Mitchell Hal Smith Dave Willock |
| 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 |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 9 – December 2, 1972 |
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
| Episode number | Episode name | Production number | Air date | Synopsis |
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| RH-1 | Double Date | 58-1 | September 9, 1972 | Mr. Evictus threatens to evict the Holiday family if they fail to fix up his daughter Snobbia with a date for the big high school dance. |
| RH-2 | The Lion's Share | 58-2 | September 16, 1972 | After Mr. 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 look-alike 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 under the orders of Mr. Tycoonius, 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.
Note: 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 | Mr. Tycoonius orders Gus 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 Mr. Evictus compete in Rome's most prestigious competition, the Father of the Year awards. |
Cast
- Dom DeLuise - Mr. Evictus
- Daws Butler - Brutus the Lion
- Pamelyn Ferdin - Precocia Holiday
- Stanley Livingston - Happius Holiday
- Shirley Mitchell - Laurie Holiday
- Harold Peary - Herman
- Hal Smith - Mr. Tycoonius
- John Stephenson -
- Judy Strangis - Groovia
- Janet Waldo - Henrietta
- 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"), a play on the Latin initialism
In the UK, it had the same title, despite "roman holiday" being an American English noun. In the UK they say "busman's holiday."
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.
See also
In Spanish: Roma me da risa para niños
