Hanna-Barbera: Back to Future : Entertainment: Like Disney, the studio will diversify into theme parks and retail. The foundation of its revival will be classic cartoons.

Studio President David Kirschner wants to build a new family entertainment empire based on bedrock--Fred Flintstone’s Bedrock to be exact.

The new head of Hanna-Barbera Productions on Wednesday mapped out ambitious plans to rejuvenate the Hollywood animation studio by exploiting classic cartoon characters such as Fred Flintstone and Yogi Bear and expanding into new television and movie production.

“Our goal is to show the industry that we are a player,” said Kirschner, 34, creator of the animated film “An American Tail.” “It’s time to get in there and show what we can do.”

A long list of projects, many already under way when Kirschner joined the firm last month, will take Hanna-Barbera far from the Saturday morning cartoons for which it is best known. The strategy calls to mind the diversification that transformed the once-stagnant Walt Disney Co. into an industry powerhouse.

“Disney has done it, and we are following in their footsteps,” Kirschner said.

The projects include Hanna-Barbera retail shops, theme park attractions, home video programs sold in Hallmark shops as well as mainstream films and television programs produced under the new Bedrock Productions banner. The firm has even purchased franchise rights to Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts, a chain of camp grounds.

Of course, Hanna-Barbera, which is owned by Cincinnati-based Great American Broadcasting Co., does not plan to abandon children’s programs.

The company just sold an animated cartoon series to NBC, “Gravedale High,” and has created a syndicated program--”Wake, Rattle & Roll”--that melds live action, animation and special effects. The company is also working on an animated series based on “An American Tail.”

Kirschner wants to position the company to capture the increasing international demand for entertainment. In Europe, Hanna-Barbera has teamed with Italian and British production companies to produce animated television programs.

The new programs are aimed at reviving Hanna-Barbera--founded in 1957 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who remain co-chairmen--after it peaked in the 1970s. Industry observers say the company failed to adapt to major changes in the children’s entertainment business.

The company was late in meeting the increased demand for new syndicated programs that are sold to independent television stations. Meanwhile, the major networks, big Hanna-Barbera customers, curbed their appetite for new animated cartoon programs.

Hanna-Barbera also stood on the sidelines while other entertainment concerns like Walt Disney Co. and Muppet creator Jim Henson raked in profits by licensing their well-known characters for various products and services.

For all of that, Martyn S. Weinberg, chief operating officer, says Hanna-Barbera has never failed to turn a profit in the 11 years that he has worked there. No specific figures are available because Great American Broadcasting does not release results of its subsidiaries.

Still, for a company that grew up on such cartoons as the “The Yogi Bear Show,” “The Jetsons” and “Scooby Doo,” Hanna-Barbera had come up embarrassingly short in creating new, highly popular animated shows.

“The last successful show they did was the ‘Smurfs’ seven or eight years ago,” said one industry executive. “There has not been a breakthrough show since.”

Kirschner and the company’s owner want to change that.

“What they wanted was somebody to bring the company into the new century,” said Kirschner, who previously headed his own production company.

New Hanna-Barbera programs aim at attracting children as well as their parents. A $5-million musical fantasy television special will include animated characters and popular music from the 1960s and 1970s. A prime-time television pilot for NBC will feature a Chicago police officer who is reincarnated as an animated dog.

Kirschner also wants to tap the nostalgia value such characters as Fred Flintstone and George Jetson hold for Baby Boomers. Already, “Jetsons: The Movie!” is set to be released next summer, and the company has granted 50 Jetson product licenses. A Flintstones movie is planned.