On the Freakazoid! series, The Huntsman was noted for his inability to engage with crime due to a downturn in mayhem. As a change of pace, I wrote an episode where The Huntsman found a foe at last, but the studio had other plans.
Monday, December 23, 2024
The Huntsman in "Attack of the Vortex"
Wednesday, May 08, 2024
Sea Dentist v.3
( From around 14 years ago, a brief example of things I wrote when I wasn't being paid to write—TV animation, that is. I was writing a whopping great amount of marketing copy.)
(Part one of a Write Enough series on TV animated shows that never quite made it to air.)
With the growing success of "SpongeBob"
in 2000, the TV animation industry sought out a nautical-themed show
that hopefully would absorb success vapors from the popular Nickelodeon
series. The race was on and Cartoon Network appeared to be leading after
staff artist Cleve Metapontum pitched a series idea revolving around a
rude veterinary dentist who lived aboard ship and serviced various sea
creatures—willing and unwilling.
Metapontum had been working as a background artist on I Am Weasel and conceived the idea after an unstable Burbank dentist flung salt water in his face. (There was a law suit, later settled.)
Cartoon Network executive Laudi Krate quickly spotted the potential of
"Dentist" and wasted no time calling Atlanta for instructions. A pilot
was ordered and Krate told to 'hustle this one along.'
Under pressure, Krate promoted character designer Higgins Benzine to
produce. Benzine was controversial. Despite many years in animation, he
could not draw an oval head. Worse, he despised Metapontum whom he
considered a 'cubicle ape,' lacking the skill to 'draw a game of Hang
Man.'
Often great art emerges from a clash of personalities but not this time.
After a series of loud arguments and flung pencils, an angry Metapontum
produced a dark 22-minute script in which Sea Dentist extracts the
teeth of a tiger shark and cements them into the mouth of a harbor seal
who then proceeds to kill and eat a wind surfer. Sea Dentist, employed
by "The United Nations Sea Counsel," denies having anything to do with
the incident and sails to Panama.
Krate was horrified. The script lacked several key elements considered
necessary in children's animation. Among them were likable characters,
humor, and no wind surfers slashed to pieces. Metapontum defended his
script, claiming, "Dentists are really like that. Seriously." More
drafts were ordered and eventually the story acquired a child character
while deaths were changed to prat falls, and Sea Dentist became 'crusty
but lovable.'
Nevertheless, the caustic chemistry between Benzine and Metapontum
poisoned the production. Factions formed and artists would lunch with
either producer or show creator. So intense was the hatred that artists
in the Benzine camp began losing the ability to draw oval heads.
Meanwhile, Metapontum supporters voiced a hatred for dentists and oral
hygiene in general.
After
several contentious months, an episode was completed in which an
acerbic but kindly Sea Dentist aids a killer whale by installing a fixed
partial denture (or bridge). Later, in a battle with anti-aquatic
dental forces, Sea Dentist falls overboard and is saved by the very
whale whom he earlier helped. The story and artwork were a compromise
enforced by Krate. Metapontum hated having a dentist portrayed in a
positive light while Benzine loathed the art work, claiming the oval
heads "looked all wrong."
By now, Atlanta was demanding the pilot. In a frenzy, layouts, model
sheets, etc. were shipped to a Korean animation house. But no one
figured on Benzine. At his own expense, he flew into Seoul and tinkered
with the models. As a result, the human characters lacked oval heads.
Sea Dentist had a head that was pumpkin-round with what appeared to be a
ramp extending out above his right ear.
Krate and Metapontum went ballistic when they saw the footage, but there
was no time or budget for retakes. Krate shipped the program to her
Cartoon Network bosses with a cover note praising the 'quirky animation
that is also iconic in an unspecified way.'
Despite a compelling all-lute music track, the project was mercifully put down. Like The Day the Clown Cried, grainy copies of Sea Dentist circulated quietly throughout the animation world and became the stuff of dystopian legend.
Not surprisingly, Cleve Metapontum, Higgins Benzine and Laudi Crate
resurfaced at different studios. And while they would never work
together again, this trio was involved with other animated TV shows that
managed to miss the airwaves.
Images: fossilsforkids.com and istockphoto
Friday, May 03, 2024
Disney's Prehistoric Business Model
From a few weeks ago, we learn that poor old Walt Disney thought you needed to appeal to parents. Today Disney hires ironwitted wokies and crafts films that appeal to them. A fascinating peek at what no longer exists.
Monday, February 05, 2024
'Male and Pale is Stale' Leads to 'Flop Busters'
Dream Factory Now a Nightmare for Some
The letter speaks of a climate of fear smothering Hollywood as the top-down push for DEI is resulting in discrimination against white males and the hiring of writers for no other reason than the color of their skin or sexual preferences. This leads to the production of expensive 'flop busters' such as The Marvels or the latest Indiana Jones.
Sadly, animation—South Park excepted—was gobbled up by DEI years ago.
There's more in the open letter. Also, if you must watch video, check out YouTube Channel Film Threat's take on the subject.
The clash between enforced DEI and productivity is being waged across many industries. Now Hollywood must choose between the illusion of fairness and product quality, in addition to appeasing the Chinese.
South Park best summed up the effects of DEI on creativity:
Monday, January 15, 2024
Central Florida ComicCon Invites Old Friends
RUEGGER, RUGG TO CFCC
The Ultimate Animaniacs and Freakazoid Panel
Monday, December 25, 2023
A Warner Bros. Merry Christmas v.2
Ten years ago, posted the below remarks. All the best today to you and your family.
Inspired by a Facebook post from friend Josh, and plucked from the blog of Tom Ruegger, here are the Warners Brothers (and sister) as shepherds from "The Little Drummer Warners." Back
in the day, we showed the episode to Steven Spielberg who joked that we
now owed him a Warner Bros. tribute to a Jewish holiday. Hanukkah and
Thanksgiving at the same time would have been perfect, but that kind of
calender gold doesn't roll around too often. Plus Animaniacs would've needed to be airing for twenty years like Gunsmoke. So we still owe him.
Monday, November 13, 2023
Cracked Magazine Article on the Rise and Fall of Freakazoid
Friday, September 29, 2023
Top Ten Disney Sassy Animal Companions
ChatGPT compiled the list and added the voice artists. I'm growing fond of that crazy AI.
1. Mushu - from "Mulan" (voiced by Eddie Murphy)
2. Timon - from "The Lion King" (voiced by Nathan Lane)
3. Puss in Boots - from "Shrek" (voiced by Antonio Banderas)
4. Donkey - from "Shrek" (voiced by Eddie Murphy)
5. Iago - from "Aladdin" (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried)
6. Sebastian - from "The Little Mermaid" (voiced by Samuel E. Wright)
7. Abu - from "Aladdin" (various vocalizations)
8. Heihei - from "Moana" (vocalizations by Alan Tudyk)
9. Pascal - from "Tangled" (vocalizations by Frank Welker)
10. Meeko - from "Pocahontas" (vocalizations by John Kassir)
Friday, September 15, 2023
Animaniacs Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Yes, I recall it well. The 10th or 13th of September, 1993. A big party on the Warner Bros. lot. Free food.
In honor of the event, here's a festive tune from the olden days.
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Wondercon '23 Vid
Cast and crew from O.G. Animaniacs as well as Freakazoid! mingling, greeting, and, in general, being pleasant to the fans at a fine convention.
Monday, March 27, 2023
Wondercon '23 Notes
Great fun. Good seeing old friends and meeting fans of the shows. Here is the original Animaniacs panel:
(l. to r.) Julie and Steve Bernstein, Paul Rugg, myself, and Tom Ruegger |
With more onstage the next day for Freakazoid!
Saturday, March 25, 2023
I Arrive at Wondercon 2023!
Here's how much the Hilton thinks of me. I'm given TWO bottles of Evian Water FREE. Everyone else, the slugs, the dregs, the nobodies, pay $5 a BOTTLE. Just livin' large in Anaheim, CA.
Monday, March 20, 2023
How Freakazoid Episodes were Made
So THAT'S how they did it.
There was a formula back then. Follow it and you'd have something to watch . . . something strange and mystical.
Friday, March 17, 2023
Wondercon '23 Paul Rugg Promo
Coming March 26!!
In Sunny Anaheim, California!
A Freakazoid Panel for the Ages!
It's a Con, but Go Anyway!
Friday, December 16, 2022
Paul Rugg and I are Hired at Warner Bros. v.6
And I Have the Memories to Prove It
A little hyperbole last year. I have plenty of life events and more on the way. Now then, Paul's episode was about a pet shop, I believe. In 1991 I wrote on a Mac Classic. (They look so quaint now, like a fancy radio from 1938.) Jeffrey Dahmer, Silence of the Lambs, Thelma and Louise, the unraveling of the Soviet Union and the number of computers on the newly commercialized Web reached one million.
Not mine, but similar. |
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Wedding Bells Have Rung for Paul Rugg's Daughter
L. me and father-of-the-bride. |
And that's how fast time flies. Away into a new life goes a young lady who once edited a short story of mine. I was quite happy for her and the family.
Here is a picture of Paul and I at the reception. It appears a large alien craft is landing behind us and we're the last to know.
Ah, well, in the midst of life, interstersteller visitors.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Lobo on the WB 3
The Nest |
Muppet Wiki |
The Aeneid |
I welcome the new and cherish the old.
And remember the Lobo that almost was.
Lobo and the WB 1
Lobo and the WB 2
Thursday, April 09, 2015
Lobo on the WB 2
Change was definitely in the air. Nickelodeon focus tested shows. Warner TV Animation flew by the seat of their pants ... or used to. I had zero faith in focus groups and felt at that point that neither show would ever see daylight.
Back into editing with Al and Boyd. Using some Steven E. Gordon art and Boyd's characters, we put together a Lobo focus group reel for whoever did focus groups. Al and I did likewise for Daffy. (I seem to recall Jeff Bennett providing the voice overs.) By now, it's late October, early November. If the network wanted a series in Sept. '99, we needed to start production soon.
On focus group day, I stayed in my office.
Gonway |
Jean gave me the results: boys and girls really liked Duck Dodgers. But boys had gone stratospheric over Lobo. (Lobo broke things and didn't take any lip. What's not to love?) Pre-production began for twelve half-hour Lobo episodes. (Once a production number is assigned, you know it's serious. ) Jean told me to start writing the first script. With marketing in our pocket, the Main Main looked solid. But Duck Dodgers was still in the hunt.
Mike packed up our pitch materials and we took the Duck Dodgers show on the road. Specifically from Sherman Oaks to Burbank and the executive building on the Warner lot. We'd be pitching to studio head Bob Daley. This was more of Jean playing three-dimensional chess. If she couldn't green light a show, she could still ensure that powerful players liked what she liked.
Bob Daley didn't laugh, or really smile at all. But he paid attention. You could see his mind working, following along with the story and characters. At the end, he pointed to one character model and said, "That guy doesn't look like any of the other characters. But other than that, it's Okay."
People started asking me which show I'd pick to run. But Lobo had the hot hand.
As I wrote the first script, there were pre-production meetings. Composer Richard Stone was fired up to do music. (We aimed at creating some kind of cool outer space theme blended with Metallica and Nine Inch Nails.) Andrea Romano would be voice directing. But Boyd Kirkland was suddenly being tugged in another direction. It looked like we'd need a new producer.
Keane Eyes Gallery |
By early January, I'd finished the script. Basically, Lobo was a bounty hunter, hung out in Al's Diner with Al and Darlene, and had been summoned by Vril Dox. Dox hires Lobo to retrieve a witness who has information harmful to interplanetary super creep Ernest Mann. Mann wanted to help everyone by conquering all life and placing it under his loving care. He had created a force of eerie minions: children with big Margaret Keane eyes who morphed into horrid velociraptor-like monsters. Mann was defended aboard his huge space craft by massive robots, each with more firepower than a drug cartel.
He also carried the largest bounty in the universe.
Lobo disobeys orders and decides to dangle his witness as bait to draw out Mann. Traveling to a seedy dive on a depressed planet, Lobo and his nervous witness wait for someone to rat them out to Mann. It doesn't take long. Lobo ends up in a shoot-out with one of Mann's iron-packing robots and loses his witness, who is captured and transported to Mann's vessel. Lobo follows, sneaks aboard, rescues the guy, battles Keane children, more robots, and confronts Mann, but fails to capture him, barely escaping in a running fight that eats up most of Act III.
Finally, having delivered the witness, he relaxes back at Al's. But Lobo vows to eventually collect the bounty on Mann.
And that would be our season arc: first, middle, and last episode involving Lobo and Mann. I figured I'd write those and hired Mitch Watson and Ken Segall to tackle several of the other scripts. They would include villains like Sunny Jim and Cosmic Bob. Bob's character description billed him as "one of the deadliest men in the universe because he can shoot rays from his nose."
Basil's Films |
By now, it was early January 1999. Boyd Kirkland was gone, returned to Batman for, I think, a Mr. Freeze direct-to-video. Scott Jeralds replaced him as co-producer. As Jean had approved the script, Scott's crew jumped in and did a fantastic job boarding. Scott put his own spin on the character design, reducing Lobo's bulkiness even more while keeping the muscles and menace. Darlene became more wholesome, less jaded. Another crew was hired and artists started reporting in.
Meanwhile, Andrea Romano assembled a great cast. She'd once again lined up Brad Garrett as Lobo, and cast William H. Macy and Linda Hamilton for voice roles. (Macy would've been the witness, while I don't recall who Linda Hamilton would've played.) Paul Rugg had a part as Vril Dox assistant.
Duck Dodgers was backburnered. Lobo barreled on toward it's production start date.
Tomorrow: A meeting with Jean. Phone calls and reality. What came next.
Lobo on the WB1
Lobo on the WB 3
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Lobo on the WB
In early 1998, Jean MacCurdy asked me to write up a short premise for a possible Lobo animated TV series. Created by the late Roger Silfer and Keith Giffen, Lobo was a tricky character for the Kids' WB. Designed as an over-the-top biker-intergalactic bounty hunter, Lobo's legend included murdering everyone on his own planet as well as regenerative powers that made him pretty much impossible to kill. My suggestions were to keep the contempt for authority, make him more vulnerable to counter-violence, and direct his mayhem toward appropriate targets such as space villains and lawyers.
Lobo from Superman episodes |
That fall, the studio was gripped with pitch fever. By then, Jean had lost the authority to green light afternoon and Saturday shows to Jamie Kellner and his growing phalanx of WB execs. For the TV animation division to get something on the air, we had to pitch the WB in addition to Warner Bros. marketing. Artists and writers were in a frenzy pulling material together—a show meant job security. My hands were full preparing pitches for three different projects: 21C, Duck Dodgers and Lobo. 21C was the dark horse, an idea of mine—an homage to anime—about a Buffy-like high school girl in the twenty-first century battling lobster men and strangely pathetic robots while shopping for cute tops. Rhoydon Shishido drew some hilarious artwork, but the pitch dance card was full and the show eventually dropped from consideration.
Duck Dodgers makes an interesting point. |
With Lobo, the late Boyd Kirkland and I began with my premise, the one-minute video, plus artwork, I believe, from Steven E. Gordon. Boyd standardized the characters, making Lobo less massive, while I worked on a quick, snappy presentation based on showing the video first, then introducing two-dimensional models of characters from the comics like Al and Darlene. (Plus one Steven E. Gordon creation—a human villain with a round, yellow, have-a-nice-day happy face. We called him "Sunny Jim," and made him exceptionally nasty.)
Buzzfeed |
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Tom Ruegger Explains 7D Writing Process
The Big Board at 7D. |
"Step One To create stories for "The 7D," assemble a team of top-notch animation writers. Since your budget is limited, offer these writers relatively low salaries but throw in attractive perqs like free bowls of breakfast cereal and unlimited elevator rides to and from the workplace lobby."
More at Cartoonatics.
(Image: people.clarkson.edu)
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