Blondie (radio) to the strip, like the appearance of Dagwood's famous sandwiches - and the running gag of Dagwood colliding with the mailman amid a flurry of letters, (which preceded the title sequence in almost every film). The films were typical of family-fare situational comedies of the period, and are endearingly funny in a low-key way. As the series progressed, the Bumstead children grew from toddlers to young adults onscreen. Larry Simms as Baby Dumpling (later known as Alexander) reprised his role in all the films. Daughter Cookie was played by three different child actresses, beginning in 1942 with her first appearance
What a Cartoon! Burbank, as the rightful Hanna-Barbera successor to produce original programming for the network and future projects. Two "What a Cartoon!" shorts, "Wind-Up Wolf" and "Hard Luck Duck", were the last cartoon shorts directed and produced by co-founder and co-chairman William Hanna. In addition, "What a Cartoon!" and spin-offs were the final original productions released by Hanna-Barbera. Creator of "The What a Cartoon! Show", Fred Seibert, left Hanna-Barbera in late 1996 to open up his own studio, Frederator Studios, and has persistently continued in the tradition of surfacing new talent, characters, and series with similar shorts "incubators", including (as of 2015)