January 2009
41 posts
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Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson.
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Doesn’t his name say it all?
Willis Jackson single handedly pulled me away from the avant garde and towards the soulful, bluesy expression of jazz that was popular in the African-American neighborhoods of mid-century America. He didn’t try to, he didn’t mean to, he didn’t want to, it was just that he was so damn good.
...
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On the road with Carla Bley (and a big band of...
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T-shirt sketches & designs by Frank Olinsky, 1978
I got a call in 1977 from trumpeter, composer, Carla Bley major domo Mike Mantler, asking whether I’d be interested in going on the road for the first tour of The Carla Bley Band as sound man and back-up tour manager. Mike single handedly ran the whole shebang, but one man...
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My discography.
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When I thought I might make a living as a record producer I kept obsessive track of my sessions, hoping they’d add up to a career. When I morphed into a television producer, I forgot just about everything. I’ve tried to recreate my record life here, but I’ll update it as I remember more. (Just click the linkable...
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The Hanna-Barbera Essays
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When I was made President of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992 the wolves came out of the woodwork. Insults started hurling in my direction immediately:
“The animation is so crummy.” “They ruined the business.” “How come the same tree keeps showing up in the backgrounds?”
What a crock!
Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones were two of my favorite...
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"Limited Animation...Unlimited Imagination"
Click here for all 15 Hanna-Barbera essays. Or, click here for my full Hanna-Barbera index.
Over the years, I’ve occasionally heard Hanna-Barbera criticized for “cheapening” the art of cartoons by inventing a technique for television called “limited animation”. Here’s the true story: When theatrical cartoons were on death’s door, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera single-handedly (or, rather,...
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"Is There A Style In The House?"
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Among the many amazing accomplishments of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera is the fact that, in their late forties, after years of doing Tom & Jerry cartoons at MGM, they created a new studio with a distinct house style. The vivid Hanna-Barbera color palette, character designs, layout, background...
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"Entering The Culture"
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The true test of popularity is when the catch phrase of a cartoon becomes part of the language. “Yabba-dabba-doo” is one good example, but others like Astro’s “Rats rall right Reorge,” and of course, Yogi’s “smarter than the average bear” have become...
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"Name Three Composers Who Defined Cartoon Music"
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A trick question: NAME THREE COMPOSERS WHO DEFINED CARTOON MUSIC? (Hint: You can’t. There are only two.) Ask any reasonably well-informed movie buff who the major film composers are and you’re likely to get a pretty long list of names. You’ll hear Mancini, Williams, Barry, Goldsmith, Bernstein,...
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"The Revisionist History of Screen Comedy"
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Think of great movie comedians. Charlie Chaplin. Bob Hope. Bugs Bunny ? Or how about TV stars? Lucille Ball. Jackie Gleason. Fred Flintstone? From years of indoctrination into Hollywood history, the cartoon comedians seem out of place in these lists. And yet aren’t these animated...
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"Actors With A Pencil"
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We’re accustomed to think of a TV character being played by an actor. But an animated TV character is really played by two actors. The person who provides the voice is the obvious one; the other is the animator. Animators are much more than pencil pushers. Sure, they have to be able to draw...
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"The House That Huck Built"
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Before The Simpsons , before Ren and Stimpy, before Beavis and Butt-Head, there was Huckleberry Hound. A true blue canine with a flair for fantasy, Huck was the star of the first show to smash the barriers against television animation and emerge as a giant hit. And who smashed those barriers for the...
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"What Makes A Team?"
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Photograph by Jeff Sedlik, 1995
Laurel and Hardy. Lennon and McCartney. Hanna and Barbera. What makes these teams great? Is it that both partners were talented? Yeah, but that’s not enough. Putting two talented people together can just as often be a disaster. (Who remembers the comedy team...
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"Great Characters From Great Characters"
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Do some of the classic Hanna-Barbera characters seem familiar. (Well, they should, since they’ve been around for 30 years or more, but that’s not my point.) Many of Hanna-Barbera’s most endearing characters were already endeared to the American public when they burst on the screen. A...
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"Hidden Talents"
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Fred Flinstone, designed & drawn by Ed Benedict
The whole world knows the names of Hanna and Barbera. But what about the names Takamoto, Hazelton, Singer and Benedict? Stumped? Don’t feel bad. Hardly anyone recognizes the names of these inspired animators who toiled beside Hanna and...
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"The Brilliant Invention of the Five O'Clock...
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It’s been a well documented how Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera saved the dying art of animation by finding ways to make it possible on a television budget. But here’s one aspect you probably never noticed or at least never understood. The real genius behind limited animation is the need for a...
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"Who's The Rarest Of Them All?"
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In a world of one-hit wonders, how do we judge an artist? Armies of them seem to burst on to the scene for a brief magic moment, then vamoose into the void. Only a few — a depressingly few, don’t you think?— manage to hang on for a lifetime of sustained excellence. Then there’s...
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"Seven Oscars and Counting"
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They say that greatness is its own reward, but it doesn’t hurt to have seven Oscars, too. On my desk are five pages (count ‘em, five) listing all the awards that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera have won over the years, from their first Oscar in 1943 right through their two Emmies in 1994. ...
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"Laughing at the Future" by Joseph Barbera
When The Flintstones turned out to be a major success, Bill and I looked around for another idea that we could use to follow America’s favorite Stone Age family. The obvious solution was to create America’s first Space Age family. (One of my mottoes is “Why avoid the obvious?” It’s a question I encourage all aspiring young cartoonists to ask themselves every day.)
And so, we...
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"In Cartoons, Music Makes the Laughs Grow Louder"...
Years ago, I got my start working for a cartoon production company run by Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising. They were the creators and producers of the early Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. It was no coincidence that those early cartoons (along with Disney’s Silly Symphonies) were named after forms of music. Why, the very name of the company—Harman-Ising—had a harmonious musical...
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Everything old is new again. The revived classic...
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This Flintstones style guide was one of the last projects I oversaw as the last president of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. But it was probably one of the first things I wanted to accomplish.
Shortly after I joined the company I had an enlightening dinner with John Kricfalusi where we got to know each other. In addition to discussing some first principles...
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The World Of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, 1995
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The World of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons
Publish at Scribd or explore others: General Art Culture cartoons HannaBarbera
….. This book is really cool. At least it is to me. It was created as a catalog in conjunction with a gallery exhibit at The Museum of Television & Radio in New York City, June 23-September 24, 1995. Produced by...
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Nickelodeon.
Nickelodeon Logo Logic
Publish at Scribd or explore others: Marketing Business branding logo
Fred/Alan was my agency in partnership with Alan Goodman and we worked with Nickelodeon from 1984 through 1992 as brand, marketing, and programming consults, as their advertising agency, and with Albie Hecht through it’s Chauncey Street Productions subsidiary, as television producers.
Alan...
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The Hanna-Barbera building
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As Hanna-Barbera was exploding with the success of hits like The Flintstones and Huckleberry Hound, renting studio space was on longer an option. In 1963, architect Arthur Froelich designed them a building that, in retrospect, seems to prophecize The Jetsons (1964). With its beige exterior the building languished under the frugal nature of Bill Hanna...
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The Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Library, 1995 (3)
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From the box set booklet, 1995:
My career began as a sound engineer and producer, and the Hanna-Barbera sound effects library was the first I ever used. That was a lucky break because it was also the best. The effects were fun to listen to and work with. They were the first of their kind. Now, flash forward 20 years and I’m the boss at...
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Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Roundtable 1995 (2)
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This sound effects box was one of my favorite projects from my time at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. From the original booklet, 1995: Sound Effects Round Table The Hanna-Barbera sound effects are legendary and so are the men behind them. We put together this imaginary roundtable discussion by combining separate interviews with four of the driving forces...
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"Hanna-Barbera's Greatest Hits...And Greatest...
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One of my favorite projects from my time at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, a full, CD quality release of the studios famous sound effects. From the original booklet, 1995:
In the long history of the Hanna-Barbera Sound Effect Library, there have been many terrific sound used to great comic effect. But there are a few that stand out as having a familiar...
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1997 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Calendar
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1997 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Calendar
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Credits from the back cover:
Concept/Art Direction/Design: Patrick Raske / Barbis & Raske Creative Directors: Julie Prendiville Roux /Jeff Gelberg Contributing Art Directors: Mardel Castetter, Jim Scott / Night Network, Inc. Production Manager: Ken Weisbrod Production Coordinator: Karin...
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What A Cartoon! / World Premiere Toons Posters
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At Hanna-Barbera in the mid-1990s I looked for any way the studio could make cool posters. The company had been struggling with a hack image for decades because the management didn’t thing it made any difference. They were making hits and money, right? But by the time Ted Turner arrived in 1992 they hadn’t had a hit in 10 years, and they...
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What A Cartoon! / World Premiere Toons Video Frame...
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In 1995, I launched Hanna-Barbera Cartoons into the animation industry’s largest cartoon shorts program since the 1950s. Our sister company, Cartoon Network, would play each of the 48 shorts before their Sunday night movie. These shorts represented maybe the largest commitment to new talent the company had ever launched, and was certainly the largest...
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Hanna-Barbera Collector Cards Box Set 1997
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This box set of limited edition collector’s cards was conceived and produced by the in-house creative group at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. They were distributed to licensees and our sister company Cartoon Network partner affiliates to show them the breadth of acceptable execution of the studio’s classic cartoon library characters. Under the creative...
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Hanna-Barbera Collector Cards 1993-1996
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From Hanna-Barbera’s founding in 1956 until 1992 (the studio was effectively closed by it’s latest owner Warner Bros. in 1997) the studio had no sense of its place in popular culture. When Ted Turner bought the company in 1991 he and Scott Sassa installed me as the president and we started to blow the roof off the sucker. There were many of us working...
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Fred R. Seibert, The Soul Winner
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Illustrator Dave Shelton was on my Frederator Studios postcard mailing list, found this postcard on eBay, and correctly assumed I would enjoy it.
It turns out that this Fred Seibert was a famous American evangelist in the 1920s with a number of self published prayer books to his name, and a bunch of sweet looking postcards in his sale pouch.
Given my interest...
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Fred W. Seibert
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I’m the namesake of my grandfather Frederick William Seibert, of Jeffersonville, Sullivan County, New York. By all accounts, including my own experience, he was as flinty a man of German descent as he looks in this picture (an ink blotter/political advertisement for an election he ultimately didn’t win). He was never nice to me, and it doesn’t...
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My Hanna-Barbera Index 1992-1996
Animation Art
Character Style Guides
Collector Cards
Essays
Hanna-Barbera Building
HB Studio Sound Effects Library
Hoyt Curtin’s HB music
Posters
Random Stuff
Studio Calendars
Video Frame Grabs
…..
It doesn’t really seem possible to me, but I was the last president of the world famous Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. I’d been a record producer, a radio station and...
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Fred illustrations.
Illustration by Craig Kellman, 1994
One of the great things about being in the cartoon business —well, it’s almost always great— is that the artists are constantly drawing your picture at the drop of a hat. My birthdays, the day my family moved from Los Angeles to New York, or just a simple thank you or get well card, they were all great excuses to use their skills and talents on...
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Friends on the web.
MIchael Altshuler
Bill Burnett
Kathleen Conklin
Michael Cuscuna
Alan Goodman
Fred Graver
Albie Hecht
Eric Homan
Gilbert Hsiao
Bruce Kapler
David Karp
Mark Larson
Carrie Miller
Frank Olinsky
Tom Pomposello
Travis Pomposello
Fred Pustay
David Ramage
Emil Rensing
Herb Scannell
Elena Seibert
Tim Shey
Jed Simmons
Robin Sloane
Jessica Wolf
(To all my other friends: Email...
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1994 Hanna-Barbera Calendar
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1994 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Calendar
1994 was our year to revive The Flintstones. Steven Spielberg was producing a live action movie, Cartoon Network had just launched and was featuring the series, and we had produced a laser disc set of the original episodes with John Kricfalusi and Earl Kress. We asked Drew Hodges and his Spot Design in New York...
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1996 Hanna-Barbera Calendar
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1996 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Calendar
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From the credits page: Calendar Production Staff Creative Director: Bill Burnett Art Director: Jesse Stagg Designer: Tom Allain: Stimuli Project Coordinators: Amy Mattingly, Ken Weisbrod Executive assistant: Gina Lamar Production: Lawrence Wilcox Artwork: Alex Nino, Jennifer Yuh, Francisco Mora,...
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1995 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Calendar
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1995 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Calendar
Call me crazy, but I’ve always loved calendars (heaven knows, I never actually use one). And when I got to Hanna-Barbera it seemed they would be a great way to communicate the studio was heralding a new future. Every year we focused on our most important creative and strategic initiatives, and brought a high...
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The beginning.
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The real start of a work life in media (my original plan had been to be a chemist) was falling in love when The Beatles hit America in February 1964.
Like almost everyone else (at least in Huntington, Long Island, our home town) I taught myself guitar and started a band with my best friend, singer extraordinaire (and percussionist)...
This is only an archive.
I save way too much stuff from work, for reasons that only a shrink could fathom. After discovering scanning several years ago it occurred to me that the best way to get the paraphernalia out of boxes, off the shelves, and out of storage, would be to put some of it on a tumblr.
So that’s what you’ve got here. Generally, this online library focuses on my work life until I started...