Let's have a western animation thread

[flamepanther]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... entalBonus

That's one way to entertain an older audience, but it's not actually what I had in mind. JMS in particular has said that whenever possible, he wrote his entire scripts to be something he would personally want to watch, not just throw the parents a bonus here and there. He wrote shows for geeky adults, but made sure they were appropriate for the censors of a children's program. "Getting crap past the censors" is sorta the reverse of that.

[AppleQueso]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... entalBonus

That's one way to entertain an older audience, but it's not actually what I had in mind. JMS in particular has said that whenever possible, he wrote his entire scripts to be something he would personally want to watch, not just throw the parents a bonus here and there. He wrote shows for geeky adults, but made sure they were appropriate for the censors of a children's program. "Getting crap past the censors" is sorta the reverse of that.

Just about everyone who worked on The Powerpuff Girls pretty much did the same thing. They were all cartoon and comic book geeks and pretty much just made stuff that they'd want to watch. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a LOT of shows were made this way.

[BoringSupreez]

All this reminds me of the Freakazoid situation. From Wikipedia: "Rugg said the series' demise was the result of a combination of people not understanding the series, timeslot changes, appealing to the wrong demographics, and that "(...) there aren't a lot of Neilsen boxes in federal prisons. Had there been, I'm telling you, we'd still be on the air today".[2]"

And then there's Pinky and the Brain. At times, it seemed like it cared more about it's adult audience than the kids. That show has so many political jokes.

[indecks]

Freakazoid was awesome. I never knew Bruce Timm had something to do with it until just a couple years ago.

[BoringSupreez]

Freakazoid was awesome. I never knew Bruce Timm had something to do with it until just a couple years ago.

What made Freakazoid awesome was that it had almost no respect for the established cliches and tropes of children's cartoons. It's silly enough that young kids will laugh, while it has so many parodies and pop culture references that teens and adults will find it just as hilarious as the kids do, if not more. And not even one of the characters are annoying, a feat few cartoons ever pull off. Couple all that with the great animation quality of the 90's WB cartoons, and you have one awesome show.

And it's all on DVD!

[indecks]

Freakazoid was awesome. I never knew Bruce Timm had something to do with it until just a couple years ago.

What made Freakazoid awesome was that it had almost no respect for the established cliches and tropes of children's cartoons. It's silly enough that young kids will laugh, while it has so many parodies and pop culture references that teens and adults will find it just as hilarious as the kids do, if not more. And not even one of the characters are annoying, a feat few cartoons ever pull off. Couple all that with the great animation quality of the 90's WB cartoons, and you have one awesome show.

And it's all on DVD!

lol yeah, the wife made me buy them both the day the sets came out. Definitely worthy of buying on DVD.

[pakopako]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... entalBonus

That's one way to entertain an older audience, but it's not actually what I had in mind. JMS in particular has said that whenever possible, he wrote his entire scripts to be something he would personally want to watch, not just throw the parents a bonus here and there. He wrote shows for geeky adults, but made sure they were appropriate for the censors of a children's program. "Getting crap past the censors" is sorta the reverse of that.

Right.
This is more like Animation-Age Ghetto or Parent Service... but it's very close to Periphery Demographic.

Dammit.

Freakazoid was awesome. I never knew Bruce Timm had something to do with it until just a couple years ago.

Wait. What? That is... very uncharacteristic of the man. But then, what the hell do I know about BT anymore?

[indecks]

Freakazoid was awesome. I never knew Bruce Timm had something to do with it until just a couple years ago.

Wait. What? That is... very uncharacteristic of the man. But then, what the hell do I know about BT anymore?

Yeah, I think Timm was looking to make a Superhero show and it was supposed to be more serious like the Timm-verse DC cartoons. But something happened and he left the project. You can still see some of his influence in the art for sure though, like the V shape of the heroes, little detail in the legs/feet, and lines in some of the characters.

Here's a clip from Wikipedia:

Freakazoid! was created by animator Bruce Timm, who had previously produced Batman: The Animated Series, and Paul Dini, who was a story editor for Tiny Toon Adventures.[2] Timm was called upon by Steven Spielberg, who Timm said "liked" Timm's Batman series, to help create a new superhero show.[5] After a meeting with Spielberg, Timm said that Spielberg had "really liked" the idea for Freakazoid!,[5] after which Timm and Dini created the character Freakazoid, an edgy superhero with a manic personality. Timm came up with the name 'Freakazoid' for the character naturally, as he recalled: "The name 'Freakazoid' just kind of jumped out of me, I don't even know where from. I said "Oh, yeah, 'Freakazoid', that might be an interesting name."[2]

Timm originally created Freakazoid! to be a serious "adventure show" with some comedic undertones.[2] However, Timm’s initial idea for the series did not come to be, as Timm stated:
“ I don't mind that it's [Freakazoid] not on my résumé. [Laughs] I bailed on it really early. It started out as an adventure show, but it ended up turning into more & more of a comedy show; every time we'd have a meeting with Steven, the concept would kinda [sic] change, and it kept leaning more & more towards zany comedy. It really started out almost like Spider-Man, on that level of, like, a teenage superhero. And it reached a point where it became a comedy with the Tiny Toons/Animaniacs kind of humor. (...) I don't have anything against that; I just don't have a flair for it, so I bailed—I just hung out here while my staff had to do the show. [Laughs][5] ”

Timm said that he later left the show because he felt he could not deliver the kind of series that Spielberg was looking to make.[2]

After Timm left the series, Tom Ruegger, who developed other Spielberg series Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, was brought in to redevelop the series Timm had created "from the ground up".[2] Ruegger's version of the series used some of Timm's designs and concepts, but Timm said that the series was "radically altered" to become the comedy series that was more to Spielberg's liking.[2]

Ruegger then began writing stories for the series, and came up with a pile of very short segments. Spielberg liked what Ruegger had written, but wanted longer stories for the series as well. Ruegger then asked writers John McCann and Paul Rugg to come onto the series to write longer, more elaborate stories for the series and, according to Rugg, "(...) figure out what this [Freakazoid!] was going to be, and the answer was, 'We didn't know', and still don't".[2]

[o.pwuaioc]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44880176/ ... rtainment/

"Keeping MacFarlane engaged will be the greatest challenge for Fox executives. Over lunch at Bouchon on Sept. 13, a single MacFarlane, fresh off of his R-rated Sheen skewering, utters the words they fear most. "Part of me thinks that 'Family Guy' should have already ended. I think seven seasons is about the right lifespan for a TV series," he says of a show that launched its 10th season last month."

There ya go, folks.

[Sideroller]

I'm pretty sure I've felt that way since the seventh season.

I feel like that show has been so over-saturated that's it's lost all of its humor for me. I haven't watched an episode of it in a long long time.