Animation


The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

Tabs

About

The first successful, designed-for-television cartoon was not created for a TV network, but rather was released directly into syndication. Crusader Rabbit, created by Jay Ward (of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame) and Alexander Anderson, was first distributed in 1949. Network television cartooning came along eight years later. The networks' first cartoon series was The Ruff and Reddy Show, which was developed by the most successful producers of television cartoons, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. The Ruff and Ready Show was also the first made-for-TV cartoon show to be broadcast nationally on Saturday mornings; its popularity helped established the feasibility of Saturday morning network programming. Hanna-Barbera was also responsible for bringing cartoons to the prime-time network schedule--though its success in prime-time did not result in a trend. Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones (1960) was prime-time's first successful cartoon series. It was also prime-time's last successful series until the premiere of The Simpsons in 1989.

TV cartoons in the 1990s were dominated by the phenomenal success of Matt Groening's The Simpsons, which thrived after its series premiere in 1989 (first appearing in 1988, in short form, on The Tracey Ullman Show). Its ratings triumph was largely responsible for establishing a new television network (FOX) and launching one of the biggest merchandising campaigns of the decade. In 1990, Bart Simpson was on T-shirts across the U.S. declaring, "Don't have a cow, man!" And yet, despite the trappings of success, The Simpsons was often a sly parody of popular culture, in general, and television cartoons, in particular--as was to be expected from Groening, who established himself as the artist of the "Life in Hell" comic strip. The recurrent feature of "The Itchy and Scratchy Show," a cartoon within The Simpsons, allowed the program to critique violence in cartoons at the same time it reveled in it. And in one episode, The Simpsons retold the entire history of cartooning as if "Itchy and Scratchy" had been early Disney creations.

Highlights
Chuck Jones on "Bugs Bunny's" catch phrase "What's up, doc?"
00:51
Fred Silverman on developing the long-running Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and on solving initial network resistance to the "scary" concept of kids in a haunted house by centering on a goofy dog
03:43
June Foray on the longevity of The Bullwinkle Show
01:49
Alex Anderson on bringing Crusader Rabbit to television 
03:03
Yeardley Smith on Michael Jackson guest starring on The Simpsons
02:13
Who talked about this genre

Alex Anderson

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Alex Anderson on animating Crusader Rabbit (Part 1)
03:02
Alex Anderson on Crusader Rabbit (Part 2)
17:30
Alex Anderson on animating Crusader Rabbit (Part 3)
22:02
Alex Anderson on The Bullwinkle Show (Part 1)
06:26
Alex Anderson on The Bullwinkle Show (Part 2)
08:36

Hank Azaria

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Hank Azaria on playing various characters on The Simpsons
46:37
Hank Azaria on playing various characters on The Simpsons (Part 2)
07:20

Rick Baker

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Rick Baker on his first job, working at Clokey Studios who produced Gumby and Davey and Goliath
07:09

Joseph Barbera

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Joseph Barbera on creating The Ruff & Reddy Show
06:00
Joseph Barbera on The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Yogi Bear Show
13:46
Joseph Barbera on producing limited animation, and on the then-current state of animation on television
03:29
Joseph Barbera on the creation and sale of The Flintstones, and on basing the show on The Honeymooners
08:51
Joseph Barbera on the creation of Top Cat, and on the workload at Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s
02:53
Joseph Barbera on the longevity of his partnership with William Hanna, and on the creation of "Pebbles Flintstone" on The Flintstones
04:56
Joseph Barbera on how the film studios reacted to television animators, on the differences between film and television animation, and on casting voices for shows like Hong Kong Phooey
05:02
Joseph Barbera on casting voices for Top Cat
01:23
Joseph Barbera on the creation of The Jetsons
03:41
Joseph Barbera on the creation of Jonny Quest
02:46
Joseph Barbera on the creation of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
03:36
Joseph Barbera on the then-current state of animation on television, and on the changing technology of animation
04:48
Joseph Barbera on the then-future of animation on television, and how animators are trained
04:20
Joseph Barbera on producing the ABC Afterschool Special "Cyrano"
00:48
Joseph Barbera on producing The Smurfs
02:31

Barbara Billingsley

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Barbara Billingsley on voicing "Nanny" on Jim Henson's Muppet Babies
03:23

Lucille Bliss

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Lucille Bliss on the creation of the animated show Crusader Rabbit by Jay Ward and Alex Anderson
15:56
Lucille Bliss on production on and the characters of the animated show Crusader Rabbit
04:10
Lucille Bliss on the popularity, recording, and legacy of the animated show Crusader Rabbit
06:50
Lucille Bliss on getting the role of "Smurfette" on The Smurfs
05:04
Lucille Bliss on the premise and plot of The Smurfs and on the show's theme song and popularity
07:27
Lucille Bliss on her character "Smurfette" on The Smurfs; on her favorite episodes, a typical production week, and the popularity of the show
08:17
Lucille Bliss on voice actors on The Smurfs; on the end of the series
05:31
Lucille Bliss on voicing a character on Invader ZIM
03:06

Allan Burns

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Allan Burns on interviewing at animation companies
02:08
Allan Burns on working on The Bullwinkle Show and promotions for the show and other Jay Ward Productions
18:26

Nancy Cartwright

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Nancy Cartwright on coming in to audition for "Lisa Simpson" of The Simpsons, then part of The Tracey Ullman Show, and leaving with the role of "Bart Simpson"
09:31
Nancy Cartwright on The Simpsons
53:27
Nancy Cartwright on winning Emmys for, castmates of, and the legacy of The Simpsons
12:58

Alf Clausen

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Alf Clausen on composing music and recording for The Simpsons (Part 1)
28:11
Alf Clausen on composing and recording for The Simpsons (Part 2)
31:45
Alf Clausen on composing and recording music for The Simpsons (Part 3)
08:00

Art Clokey

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Art Clokey on animated TV advertising campaigns he did for Coca-Cola
05:32
Art Clokey on creating and producing Gumby
28:08
Art Clokey on creating and producing Gumby
22:46
Art Clokey on creating and producing Davey and Goliath
05:27
Art Clokey on creating and producing Davey and Goliath
04:04
Art Clokey on the cultural impact of Gumby and its various returns
20:22
Art Clokey on later incarnations of Gumby and its legacy
13:31

Greg Daniels

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Greg Daniels on writing for The Simpsons
29:50
Greg Daniels on writing and being showrunner on King of the Hill
20:51

John Debney

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John Debney on composing for animation, including The Flintstones and Scooby Doo
06:59

Roy E. Disney

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Roy E. Disney on the formative years of the Disney company
11:59
Roy Disney on realizing the power of animation when seeing a rough scene from Snow White
01:42
Roy Disney on becoming the head of Walt Disney Animation and some of the projects and technologies produced during his tenure
14:29
Roy Disney on his preference for feature animation as opposed to animation for television
03:53

Dorothy Fontana

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Dorothy Fontana on being associate producer of Star Trek: The Animated Series
09:38
Dorothy Fontana on Star Trek: The Animated Series storylines
02:07
Dorothy Fontana on writing for various animated series, and on how the technology has changed
02:07

June Foray

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June Foray on meeting Jay Ward and voicing "Rocky" and "Natasha" on The Bullwinkle Show
03:07
June Foray on getting hired on Bugs Bunny to voice "Witch Hazel," and working with director Chuck Jones (and demonstrates voice)
03:10
June Foray on voicing "Rocky" and "Natasha" on The Bullwinkle Show
21:18
June Foray on voicing "Jokey" on The Smurfs
03:19
June Foray on being a favorite of Chuck Jones who cast her as "Cindy Lou Who" in How the Grinch Stole Christmas
01:34

Ron Friedman

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Ron Friedman on creating and writing G.I. Joe and The Transformers
21:24
Ron Friedman on writing for Marvel Action Universe and on creating Bionic Six
08:49
Ron Friedman on the legacy of his animation work, specifically G.I. Joe and The Transformers
02:51

Chuck Fries

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Chuck Fries on Screen Gems producing The Flintstones  created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
05:18

Jonathan Harris

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Jonathan Harris on doing various cartoon voice-overs, including for the series Freakazoid!
04:49

David Isaacs

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Ken Levine and David Isaacs on writing for The Simpsons
05:34

Al Jean

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Al Jean on writing for and becoming a showrunner on The Simpsons
01:56
Al Jean on writing and being showrunner on The Simpsons
58:59
Al Jean on writing and being showrunner on The Simpsons
13:10
Al Jean on creating and writing The Critic
10:40

Chuck Jones

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Chuck Jones on the creation of "Daffy Duck" and how "Bugs Bunny" got his name
02:44
Chuck Jones on the difference between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
02:15
Chuck Jones on the creation of Daffy Duck
02:38
Chuck Jones on How the Grinch Stole Christmas
09:05
Chuck Jones on 1971's Bugs Bunny show
01:13

Buz Kohan

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Buz Kohan on his early work writing for animation
00:59

Stan Lee

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Stan Lee on his involvement with the animated series Spider-Man and other cartoons
01:37
Stan Lee on creating an animated television series
11:43

Ken Levine

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Ken Levine and David Isaacs on writing for The Simpsons
05:34

Margaret Loesch

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Margaret Loesch on projects she wishes would have worked out and didn't during her time at Hanna Barbera
02:10
Margaret Loesch on what she learned about animation from Friz Freleng
02:12
Margaret Loesch on developing and selling The Smurfs
09:18
Margaret Loesch on working on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, and developing other shows at Hanna-Barbera
03:33
Margaret Loesch on developing The Gary Coleman Show
01:57
Margaret Loesch on developing the animated version of Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson
04:32
Margaret Loesch on developing G.I. Joe and The Transformers
05:05
Margaret Loesch on developing Jem and My Little Pony with girls in mind
02:54
Margaret Loesch on the legacy of the X-Men series
02:34

Chuck Lorre

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Chuck Lorre on what he learned from working in animation
16:24

Bill Melendez

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Bill Melendez on drawing the Warner Bros. characters (for theatrical short subjects and later re-purposed for The Bugs Bunny Show)
02:01
Bill Melendez on animating the Charlie Brown Specials
21:28
Bill Melendez on animating the Charlie Brown Specials
26:00
Bill Melendez on animating the Charlie Brown Specials
28:50
Bill Melendez on animating The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
02:19
Bill Melendez on producing two Garfield Specials
01:12
Bill Melendez on producing The Cathy Specials
00:53
Bill Melendez on producing Frosty Returns
01:17

Lee Mendelson

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Lee Mendelson on producing A Charlie Brown Christmas
06:46
Lee Mendelson on producing the Charlie Brown Specials
28:11
Lee Mendelson on The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
01:58
Lee Mendelson on This is America, Charlie Brown
02:30
Lee Mendelson on producing Garfield
06:45
Lee Mendelson on producing The Cathy Specials, based on the comic strip by Cathy Guisewite
01:24
Lee Mendelson on then-current projects, including producing new Charlie Brown Specials, and on working with the Charles M. Schulz estate
01:09

Howard Morris

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Howard Morris on doing voiceover work for Hanna-Barbera for shows like The Jetsons and The Flintstones
05:01

Carroll Pratt

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Carroll Pratt on the challenge of providing laugh tracks for animated series
01:20

Phil Roman

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Phil Roman on the animation style at Walt Disney Studios
08:43
Phil Roman on animating Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas
10:59
Phil Roman on animating Horton Hears a Who!
00:52
Phil Roman on animating Mister Magoo at UTA
03:11
Phil Roman on animating Jay Ward's George of the Jungle
08:08
Phil Roman on joining producer Bill Melendez to animate Charlie Brown Specials
05:49
Phil Roman on animating and producing the Charlie Brown Specials with Bill Melendez
12:19
Phil Roman on producing Garfield Specials
14:00
Phil Roman on how Film Roman producing The Simpsons
17:51
Phil Roman on producing Howie Mandel's Bobby's World cartoon series
02:52
Phil Roman on producing the PBS series Cro
03:02
Phil Roman on producing and animating The Critic starring Jon Lovitz
01:37
Phil Roman on producing Mortal Kombat and The Mask
01:39
Phil Roman on producing The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
02:37
Phil Roman on producing C-Bear and Jamal
02:12
Phil Roman on producing Bruno the Kid
01:44
Phil Roman on producing Mike Judge's King of the Hill
02:47

Thomas W. Sarnoff

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Thomas W. Sarnoff on being "Gumby's godfather" and negotiating deals to bring Gumby to TV  
03:53

Sam Simon

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Sam Simon on producing and writing The Simpsons
41:59

Yeardley Smith

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Yeardley Smith on her voice, auditioning for "Lisa Simpson," and why she doesn't do other characters on The Simpsons
03:07
Yeardley Smith on The Simpsons
01:02:50
Yeardley Smith on The Simpsons
38:10
Yeardley Smith on production on The Simpsons during the COVID-19 pandemic, on politicians pulling "Lisa Simpson" into politics and The Simpsons staying relevant, and on how long she thinks The Simpsons will run for
23:05

Fred Steiner

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Fred Steiner on composing for various animated series
01:19

Ted Turner

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Ted Turner on purchasing Hanna-Barbera's library and creating the Cartoon Network
01:59

Dean Valentine

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Dean Valentine on reinventing ABC's Saturday morning lineup in the 1990s
08:56

Alan Young

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Alan Young on voicing characters in the animated series The Smurfs
00:21