I remember "The Barkleys" very well. It, along with "The Roman Holidays" and the live-action kids' game show "Runaround," was one of my favorite shows on NBC's Saturday morning schedule of 1972-73 (I was then 10 years old).
Two episodes I especially enjoyed were "The Great Disc Jockey," in which Arnie becomes a DJ at a local radio station playing old-timey music after he got fed up hearing the music the kids liked, and became spurned by said kids even more (son Roger was a DJ at the opening of that episode as well), and "For the Love of Money," in which Arnie sets Roger up with a haughty, high-society girl named Elsie Schnauzer.
And if Arnie Barkley's voice sounded familiar, it was because Henry Corden - who voiced Arnie - went on to become the full-time voice of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed, who originally voiced Flintstone, died in 1973. And Joan Gerber, who voiced wife Agnes, was also heard in a concurrent animated "All in the Family" derivative, "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home," as matron Irma Boyle (both Agnes and Irma sounded very much alike).
I understand Disney/ABC (!) now owns all the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (aka DFE Films) shows (with the exception of "The Pink Panther," which is owned by MGM). Although select episodes of "The Barkleys" were on VHS tape in the late 80's and are now unavailable - long before Disney acquired DFE's backlog - the show has yet to make a DVD appearance. If Disney did renew the copyrights on "The Barkleys," then I can only hope someone like Shout! Factory or some other "video nostalgia" label will get the rights to all 13 episodes and put them on DVD; it would especially be nice to see the "Great Disc Jockey" episode again. It would be awful if "The Barkleys" was in the public domain because small-time video companies would snap it up, and they would very likely use poor-quality, unrestored film elements. (DFE Films, by the way, went out of business in 1981 and was ultimately absorbed into Marvel Comics Animation - which is now a division of Disney/ABC - thus explaining Disney's current ownership of "The Barkleys.")
As I've stated in other comments, all I can suggest is: (1) contact Disney, Shout! Factory, etc. And tell them you'd like to see all 13 episodes of "The Barkleys" on DVD; and (2) be sure to vote for it at TV Shows on DVD.com. If "The Barkleys" gets over 100 votes at that website, it might get Disney, etc.'s attention and they'll get it out of the vaults, renew the copyrights on the show if they haven't done so already, and get it on DVD (as of this posting, "The Barkleys" received only 38 paltry votes at TV Shows on DVD.com).
So for anybody else who remembers "The Barkleys" and would like to see the show again, don't delay - *take action now!*
(Postscript, May 9, 2020: "The Barkleys," in the same set with "The Houndcats," *was* finally released in 2015 on DVD by a small company, Film Chest Media Group. Apparently, Disney/ABC *didn't* renew the copyrights on either show since they are now in the public domain; two possible reasons why are because: (1) the picture "wavers" slightly back and forth on the second episode of "The Barkleys," and (2) the remastering quality on both series in the set was somewhat below par, both visually and aurally. (And, since NBC Universal blithely took the rights away from them for the Filmation shows around 2015, Retro TV has been repeating both series over and over again because of their public domain status, and they're about the only two "genuine" Saturday morning cartoons left that air on Saturday mornings on a broadcast network. Still, even though I saw both "The Barkleys" and "The Houndcats" on Retro TV for about four rerun increments each - and I now sleep in on Saturday mornings - I'm glad I now have the DVDs of each show since I now have the freedom to watch them again *whenever* I want, even if and when Retro TV decides to stop running them and despite the somewhat less-than-optimal quality (it's better than nothing at this point). Another plus: The DVD of "The Barkleys" has the series' final episode, "The Great Talent Scout Caper," *intact,* despite the slight sub-par mastering. For some strange reason, Retro TV decided *not* to air that episode, but only the 12 that came before it.)
Two episodes I especially enjoyed were "The Great Disc Jockey," in which Arnie becomes a DJ at a local radio station playing old-timey music after he got fed up hearing the music the kids liked, and became spurned by said kids even more (son Roger was a DJ at the opening of that episode as well), and "For the Love of Money," in which Arnie sets Roger up with a haughty, high-society girl named Elsie Schnauzer.
And if Arnie Barkley's voice sounded familiar, it was because Henry Corden - who voiced Arnie - went on to become the full-time voice of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed, who originally voiced Flintstone, died in 1973. And Joan Gerber, who voiced wife Agnes, was also heard in a concurrent animated "All in the Family" derivative, "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home," as matron Irma Boyle (both Agnes and Irma sounded very much alike).
I understand Disney/ABC (!) now owns all the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (aka DFE Films) shows (with the exception of "The Pink Panther," which is owned by MGM). Although select episodes of "The Barkleys" were on VHS tape in the late 80's and are now unavailable - long before Disney acquired DFE's backlog - the show has yet to make a DVD appearance. If Disney did renew the copyrights on "The Barkleys," then I can only hope someone like Shout! Factory or some other "video nostalgia" label will get the rights to all 13 episodes and put them on DVD; it would especially be nice to see the "Great Disc Jockey" episode again. It would be awful if "The Barkleys" was in the public domain because small-time video companies would snap it up, and they would very likely use poor-quality, unrestored film elements. (DFE Films, by the way, went out of business in 1981 and was ultimately absorbed into Marvel Comics Animation - which is now a division of Disney/ABC - thus explaining Disney's current ownership of "The Barkleys.")
As I've stated in other comments, all I can suggest is: (1) contact Disney, Shout! Factory, etc. And tell them you'd like to see all 13 episodes of "The Barkleys" on DVD; and (2) be sure to vote for it at TV Shows on DVD.com. If "The Barkleys" gets over 100 votes at that website, it might get Disney, etc.'s attention and they'll get it out of the vaults, renew the copyrights on the show if they haven't done so already, and get it on DVD (as of this posting, "The Barkleys" received only 38 paltry votes at TV Shows on DVD.com).
So for anybody else who remembers "The Barkleys" and would like to see the show again, don't delay - *take action now!*
(Postscript, May 9, 2020: "The Barkleys," in the same set with "The Houndcats," *was* finally released in 2015 on DVD by a small company, Film Chest Media Group. Apparently, Disney/ABC *didn't* renew the copyrights on either show since they are now in the public domain; two possible reasons why are because: (1) the picture "wavers" slightly back and forth on the second episode of "The Barkleys," and (2) the remastering quality on both series in the set was somewhat below par, both visually and aurally. (And, since NBC Universal blithely took the rights away from them for the Filmation shows around 2015, Retro TV has been repeating both series over and over again because of their public domain status, and they're about the only two "genuine" Saturday morning cartoons left that air on Saturday mornings on a broadcast network. Still, even though I saw both "The Barkleys" and "The Houndcats" on Retro TV for about four rerun increments each - and I now sleep in on Saturday mornings - I'm glad I now have the DVDs of each show since I now have the freedom to watch them again *whenever* I want, even if and when Retro TV decides to stop running them and despite the somewhat less-than-optimal quality (it's better than nothing at this point). Another plus: The DVD of "The Barkleys" has the series' final episode, "The Great Talent Scout Caper," *intact,* despite the slight sub-par mastering. For some strange reason, Retro TV decided *not* to air that episode, but only the 12 that came before it.)