Channel Frederator Blog

I recently found the website of Joe Murray. Joe Murray is the creator of “Rocko’s Modern Life”, which aired on Nickelodeon, and the Emmy Award Winning (and then CANCELED?!?) “Camp Lazlo”, which is running out it’s time on Cartoon Network.

One of the more interesting parts of Joe’s site is his journal. There are several entries in it, chronicling everything from show production to Joe shooting soy sauce on an executive from Cartoon Network. One of the more interesting entries in the journal comes from September:

September 6, 2007

Just had the weirdest meeting today with all of the creators and some people from Atlanta. I won’t go into detail, but it will go down in the history books as a turning point in television animation.

Hmmm? What could that mean? Joe mentions a few times in his journal that he is working on an independent film as well as a new series idea. He [Read more…]

I wish I had a story or two about Zac Moncrief to share with you all, but I didn’t really attend his classes while he taught at Calarts. But what I can share with you was how I felt about him, his teaching methods, when I did crash a class or two of his.

Zac is a very funny person, and was a very sharing and encouraging teacher. It’s to bad he’s not teaching at Calarts still, because the kids there need people like Zac.

Zac, himself, attended Calarts and obtained an internship on the animated film, The Pagemaster. Soon after he moved into the role of assistant animator on Cats Don’t Dance. During his time on Cats Don’t Dance, Fred Seibert (who’s that guy?) had bought a pilot from Zac entitled, Godfrey and Zeek, for the Hanna-Barbera What-A-Cartoon Series.

Zac then found himself doing work on another HB series, Johnny Bravo in the story department.
Some time passed, [Read more…]

I’ve posted about Frederator Veteran John Fountain, before. Well, here’s an even better Posting!!!
John Fountain took some time to answer some Channel Frederator Qs early November 2006. Thanks for the Interview John!!!
[Read more…]

Epsiode 74

A young superhero gets the “bad guys” to back down by throwing an ungodly, painful tantrum…works every time! This short was part of the “Oh Yeah! Cartoons” series.

Blogger/Interviewer extrordinaire, Jeaux Janovsky did a terrific feature on John Fountain a while back, and in addition to that, I asked John some specific questions on the making of The Tantrum in hopes of harnessing more of his creative brilliance into this blog.

MELISSA: What inspired “The Tantrum”?

JOHN: I desperately wanted to do a story with a comedic superhero… I used to love shows like ‘Underdog’ and ‘The Greatest American Hero.’ I always thought it was cool that THE HULK’s powers were triggered by his frustrations, and there’s nothing more frustrating than being a kid, so it just seemed like a natural formula for a comedic-kid-superhero.

MELISSA: Do you usually write a script out for your film, or do you work mostly from storyboards?

JOHN: Both. Like all art, [Read more…]

Episode 70

Peter Patrick and Persian Puss battle the evil Dr. No who is attempting the unthinkable: Stealing Peter Patrick’s LUNCH!! This short was featured as part of Frederator’s “Oh Yeah! Cartoons” shorts program, and like many creators, Vince Waller has gone on to do some pretty neat things since then.

[Read more…]

Upper left illustrated by Lou Brooks

I don’t know, I’m asking.

One of my favorite projects back in the day was one few people have ever seen. It started out as a TV network branding assignment, our agency’s specialty, for HA!: The TV Comedy Network. And it led to one of our favorite cartoons that not enough people have seen. Cartoon creator Bill Burnett was at the center of it all.
Viacom’s HA! was their answer to HBO’s Comedy Channel. They both lost the competition and merged into Comedy Central. Some of Fred/Alan’s best work for the network, the naming of Comedy Central, and the conception and writing of the cartoon were all done by Bill (also the co-creator of ChalkZone).

Once our agency helped name HA! we went to work on its branding, figuring out the belief system of the channel. Our creative director, Noel Frankel, designed the distinct shouting logo, with various illustrators and models depicting the shout. [Read more…]

Miles Thompson is a Frederator Alum who made a successful jump from the Animation Industry into the world of Art. In between freelancing and painting like a madman, he took the time to give us a few A’s to a few CH.FRED Q’s.
Click here to view Pt.1 & Pt.2!

CH.F: What are some of your hobbies outside the world of animation?
MT: I love hiking and surfing - cooking is pretty cool too - we have 4 dogs we love - I collect records and have more music than Napster ever will…
[Read more…]

Miles Thompson is a Frederator Alum who made a successful jump from the Animation Industry into the world of Art.
In between freelancing and painting like a madman, he took the time to give us a few A’s to a few CH.FRED Q’s.

CH.F: Where were you born?
MT: 1971, on a naval base in Pennsicola, Fl - being that my folks were Ca natives, I was legally born as such - my dad was stationed there for only 4 months after my birthday - then we moved back to Sherman Oaks, Ca and then on into the ugly Republican community of the OC.
[Read more…]

As promised, I wanted to start sharing some of Marv Newland’s unique vision as an artist.

In the mid-80’s we did a lot of work together for MTV and Nickelodeon, while my company was creating and developing those brands. Marv’s company, International Rocketship, was one of our favorite creative collaborators (along with one of my closest friends, our producer, blues musician Tom Pomposello).

Marv would draw up the craziest storyboards for us to do. Many we did, many we didn’t (I’ll start posting the actual animation as soon as I can transfer it). 20 years on I can’t remember why this one didn’t happen, but rather than blame my lack of vision, I’ll say our client didn’t like it.

I’ve been getting emails wondering about Seth MacFarlane’s Zoomates coming on Channel Frederator.

Yes, it’s true. Tuesday’s Episode 19 will feature Seth’s Oh Yeah! Cartoons short from 1998, directed and designed by Butch Hartman, and featuring the voice of Jennifer Love Hewitt. It was his last project before starting Family Guy for Fox. We’ll post some more of the background after the short airs.

Pass it on.