This thesis examines the historical connecting threads between legacy and contemporary forms of television animation. I argue that Bob’s Burgers has been neglected by animation studies due to its incomparability to the established fulcrum of television animation: The Simpsons (1989-). However, by analyzing Bob's Burgers through a historical lens that reaches beyond The Simpsons, we can begin to see what the field of animation studies has overlooked when it has dismissed animated texts that were not comparable to The Simpsons. This thesis will utilize Bob's Burgers as a primary case study and draws connecting threads between the series and Hanna-Barbera cartoons to make this argument.