Business Notes Entertainment

Even his detractors will now be forced to admit it: Ted Turner is smarter than the average bear. The Atlanta-based media mogul already owns the intrepid cable news network CNN, TNT, a planet-wide TV empire and the MGM film library, with its 2,200 movies, including such crowd-pleasing classics as Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Gone With the Wind. Last week his Turner Broadcasting System announced the acquisition of a new mother lode of small-screen gems: Hanna- Barbera Productions, creators of the animated adventures of the prehistoric Flintstones, the futuristic Jetsons and the Great American Mammal, Yogi Bear.

TBS and partner Apollo Investment Fund shelled out $320 million for the studio -- and perhaps more important, its 3,000 half-hours of cartoon programming. Going back to the 1950s, the treasure trove could form the basis of a long-standing Turner dream: a worldwide all-cartoon channel.