We like Ryan Sias’ comics. And so we were happy when he came in again to pitch us a new short called Fergison for the new season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
Thanks to Ryan for his kind permission to post some of his storyboard pitch.
Katrina 2005 will likely be Katrina 2006, and chances are Katrina 2010. Whatever donations we have already given will need to be refreshed constantly. Our natures probably need us to push these types of disasters to the backs of our minds, but we really cannot.
Many of us at Frederator lived through the devastation of Southern California’s 1994 Earthquake, and some of our families have suffered through homefront warfare. We’ve seen firsthand the physical and emotional damage lasts more than days or months, but often for years.
We love being in the cartoon business, and we’re working everyday to make you laugh. But, every once in a while we’ll post a reminder. Please donate.
Direct Relief Red Cross Hurricane Fund
Save the Children The Salvation Army’s Hurricane Relief Fund
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.
One of the great things about having your birthday in a cartoon studio is the amazing birthday cards.
A particular shout-out goes to the always wonderful Aliki Theofilopoulos.
I’ve been rockin’ in Burbank the last few days. The folks from Polygon Pictures in Tokyo (producer Rita Street, Director Hiroshi Chida, President Shuzo John Shiota, Creative Producer Kenji Ishimaru) were in re-pitching Boneheads.
The Oh Yeah! Cartoons creators often have another cartoon or two they’d like to produce with us. Kyle Carrozza’s got Weird Eddie.
Diane Kredensor & Dana Galin were in from New York, working with their art department, and with Director Yvette Kaplan (directing their incredible voice cast).
Oh Yeah! creator Adam Henry pitched another short called Pesky the Squirrel.
And the crew from Bob Boyle’s Wow!Wow!Wubbzy! welcomed me in with a great get together, violating every Film Roman alcohol-on-premises rule.
And then there was the next day.
Our friend, the extraordinary producer/director David Levin is premiering his new series on TV Land tonight, Wednesday, at 10pm. TV Land Confidential shows the stories behind your favorite shows. David’s the man responsible for the fantastic MTV Uncensored series of specials.
Watch. You’ll have a great time.
Please donate to hurricane relief.
You all know about Adam Henry; we’re very lucky to have his cartoon Krunch & The Kid as one of the first shorts productions in the latest installment of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
We have a history of making new cartoons with creators already in the house, so I was thrilled to get a pitch on a new idea of Adam’s called Pesky the Squirrel.
Thanks to Adam for his kind permission to post a sketch from his latest cartoon.
Bernie Petterson has been one of the stellar artists on various Frederator cartoons (among others) for longer than anyone would like to admit. Brought into the Oh Yeah! Cartoons by Dave Wasson, he became a key part of the teams on ChalkZone and My Life as a Teenage Robot. Here are two typically wonderful illustrations Bernie’s done of ChalkZone creators Bill Burnett & Larry Huber.
I’ve qvelled about Larry Huber before on this blog.
But writer/producer Bill Burnett (or Billllll, as he sometimes goes by) is probably someone new to most of you. Our long and wonderful relationship began when Bill was a writer at my advertising agency in New York in 1988. He eventually became our Creative Director, creating some groundbreaking campaigns for Nick-at-Nite, Sassy Magazine, and Nickelodeon; he even named a network called Comedy Central. The two of us bonded over our mutual belief in popular music as a supreme cultural force, and I found out that after songwriting, his next passion was for cartoons.
Against all logic, I was named president of the venerable Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992, and, no surprise, one of my first creative hires was…Bill Burnett. Officially, he moved to Hollywood to run our marketing department, but he and I both knew that he would make his way into production. He became story editor on Dave Feiss’ legendary Cow & Chicken, and went on to create a record eight shorts for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Including, of course, ChalkZone. And I’m happy to announce that along with co-creator Jaime Diaz, Bill will join the Oh Yeah! team again to produce Dr Froyd’s Funny Farm.
Katrina 2005 will likely be Katrina 2006, and chances are Katrina 2010. Whatever donations we have already given will need to be refreshed constantly. Our natures probably need us to push these types of disasters to the backs of our minds, but we really cannot.
Many of us at Frederator lived through the devastation of Southern California’s 1994 Earthquake, and some of our families have suffered through homefront warfare. We’ve seen firsthand the physical and emotional damage lasts more than days or months, but often for years.
We love being in the cartoon business, and we’re working everyday to make you laugh. But, every once in a while we’ll post a reminder. Please donate.
Direct Relief Red Cross Hurricane Fund
Save the Children The Salvation Army’s Hurricane Relief Fund
The Wubblog, one of the godfathers of world class production blogs, is changing hands.
Well, not really. One of Frederator’s productions (via our joint venture, Bolder Media for Boys & Girls), Wow!Wow!Wubbzy, is a creation of the inestimable Bob Boyle (the producer/art director of The Fairly Oddparents and Danny Phantom, and an Oh Yeah! Cartoons creator twice over) started a pre-production blog for his show in Februrary. It has since garnered thousands of readers, even when Bob’s workload had him turn over day to day operations to intern Ariella Kaplan.
Now that Ari’s moving on to better things (that is, college), Bob’s slacker ways have given way to new Wubbmasters (that is, great artists) Sandra Equihua and Kyle Neswald. Welcome them in, and join the crowd enjoying one of the best cartoon blogs in the world.
