The Roman Holidays

The Roman Holidays
	Title card
Genre	Animation; Comedy; 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 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. 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	Mr. 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 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, 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	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 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 (Groovia's father)
Hal Smith - Mr. Tycoonius
John Stephenson -
Judy Strangis - Groovia
Janet Waldo - Henrietta (Groovia's mother)
Dave Willock - Gus Holiday