WRITE ENOUGH!: Video 2009

Showing posts with label Video 2009. Show all posts

Thursday, January 14, 2010

1994

More memories from the boxes. Here's my life at Warner Bros. that year.

Cleaned up my office after the Northridge earthquake rearranged everything. (And damaged the parking structure for about a year.)

Wrote a detective noir Animaniacs episode called The Big Nap which died quietly in script. (Alas.)

Went to New York with Jean, Tom, Paul, Nick Hollander, Peter Hastings, Randy Rogel, and Tom Minton for the Peabody Awards. We were introduced to the head of Time Warner, Jerry Levin, whose office temperature was around 106 degrees leading us to question his humanity.

Wrote songs for Animaniacs including Attila the Hun, U.N. Me, I'll Take an Island, and—with Paul Rugg—The Ballad of Magellan. Later, translated three of them into scripts. (My last episodes for Yakko, Wakko and Dot.)

Attended my first Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Tom and Richard Stone won for the Animaniacs theme song. (That was the year the wrong show was submitted by mistake.)

Developed an animated show with Alan Burnett called True Romance. I think artist Bob Doucette came up with the idea. I don't remember who did the artwork, but it was hilarious. An adult, soap opera parody, it officially perished after around five months. (Paul Rugg and Eric Radomski were also involved.)

Worked with artist Alfred Gimeno on a wild idea of his called The Diver. (If Alfred still has any of the artwork, I'll see if he'll let me post it here.)

Developed a live-action show with Alan Burnett, Paul Rugg, and Randy Rogel called Information Station. The idea was to blend surreal comedy with educational content. My notes aren't that clear, but there was one character named Danny the Front-Yard Dinosaur. An indolent beast, he lived in a lawn chair and ordered kids to get him cold drinks. (This show also took the dirt nap.)

Took a pass rewriting one of the first Sylvester and Tweety scripts.

Tom, Paul and I went to the theater in the Sherman Oaks Galleria and saw Ed Wood. ("Pull the string!" would show up in "Dance of Doom.")

Worked with Paul, Tom and Paul Dini on revamping Freakzoid. Wrote my first script with a character called Baron Magneto who was down with magnetism and threatening to attract every kitchen magnet in a four county area. (I can't find the script, and maybe that's not bad.)

We knew the WB was in the works and they needed content. Busy darn year.