Fred Seibert's Blog

Blog History of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Part 1. Part 2.
Part 3. Part 4.

It was hard hearing from Nickelodeon that they didn’t like everything about our cartoon ideas.

So, as was usual in the 80s, Nickelodeon loved our idea of how to get into original cartoons in a thoroughly original way, but they felt the need to adapt it their way, as was their right. And, also usual for the 80s, we were both thrilled to have sparked their actions, but simultaneously incredibly frustrated that they needed to change our approach.

“Change it?” you say. “How?” They listened to us carefully about how Looney Tunes did it. They loved the idea of getting fresh creative people not generally involved in the mainstream animation biz of the 80s (no Hanna-Barbera, no Ruby-Spears, no Filmation). They loved the idea of short pilots to test the ideas for a reasonable price…

Wait a minute! That’s where they veered off course. At least as far as my idea went.

What I loved about the Looney Tunes model was that the shorts they made in the 30s & 40s had nothing to do with the concept of “pilots.” The WB powers-that-be greenlit an original character picture by one of Termite Terrace teams, they made the picture, they put it in the theatres. They listened for laughter directly from the audience, and if they laughed enough they made more shorts. If not, that the was the end of the line for our hapless original character. They did not play the cartoon for a few people in a room (like a focus group), decided they liked the thing, and then start ‘developing’ it before they would make another.

Nickelodeon decided because they were in the TV business, you couldn’t really take that approach. Pilots were the way to go. Make a short film, whatever the length as long as it was short, focus group it, ‘develop’ it, and go. Now, like I said in the last post, this approach worked, and Nick changed the animation world with Ren&Stimpy, Rugrats, and Doug, so God bless them.

But, in my opinion, our approach was essentially different. In no real order:

* A filmmaker making a short that will actually be seen by an audience conceives it unlike a picture made for a group of executives. I don’t really have to explain thia thought further, right?

* A cartoon made to be played on television will be, by it’s nature, a more disciplined affair. At the very least, the network will usually set a format, a length, for the picture. Working to a parameter almost always has the filmmaker paying closer attention to the details.

* Modeling your projects on the best films ever made will invariably allow you to score better.

From my humble vantage point, the best cartoons ever made were the Looney Tunes, the Disney shorts, the Fleischers. I figure, if you’re going into a new area of creative exploration (as was Nickelodeon by going into animation), start by looking at the best. Don’t look at the Snorks and feel that’s the baseline you need to beat.

To be perfectly honest, there was probably no reason for me to be disheartened. I was really annoyed the Nickelodeon team did not follow my plan exactly. I know they were successful, but I wanted them to do it my way. And for all my whining, complaining, and rationales, for no other reason than I liked my way.

(More next time.)

Blog History of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Part 1. Part 2.
Part 3. Part 4.