July 25th, 2020 
Jackson Murphy 
These are some of the Saturday animation highlights for SDCC@Home:
Appropriately, the first virtual panel of the day was Warner Archive’s “Secret Origins of Saturday Morning Cartoons”. Animation Historian Jerry Beck talked about Saturday Morning’s early days. “First of all, when they made cartoons like Ruff and Reddy in the 1950s, they were actually thinking ahead. Color TV existed [but] most people had black-and-white televisions, and TV was broadcast in black-and-white. So most of the original cartoons into the mid-‘60s were seen in black-and-white. But most of them were actually made in color in the first place. So when color came in, it was easy for them to be able to rerun The Flintstones because it was made in color in the first place.”
Beck added: “Saturday Morning… even though it existed in the ‘50s and early ‘60s with mostly reruns or western shows or puppet shows… slowly the cartoons were being made for TV. And ’65/’66 was the beginning, in mass, of animation on TV. ’66 was the year of the Batman TV show and tons of superhero shows. CBS in particular went out and got Superman and Aquaman. Meanwhile NBC was left with… little superhero shows they would invent. But that brought us originals like Space Ghost, my favorite. Saturday Morning is a graveyard of forgotten superhero characters that no one remembers anymore.”
George Feltenstein, Senior VP of Theatrical Catalog Marketing for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, had some good news for Beck and other Warner Archive fans. “We are completing re-mastering and restoration of the original Space Ghost and Dino Boy series as originally seen on network television from the 35mm elements in high definition for the first time. And we’ll be putting these out on Blu-ray.”
Feltenstein also made this announcement: “One of the things we’re in the midst of doing, and we started it in the beginning of the year, we released our first volume of Tex Avery’s Screwball Classics on Blu-ray [in February]. Volume 2 will be coming and will look wonderful.” And from WB Home Ent.: “The original six seasons of The Flintstones that aired on ABC and then went to Saturday Mornings and syndication have all been re-mastered in high definition for the first time and will be coming out later this year. It’s a big honking gift set with all sorts of extras.”
The Simpsons at home panel was moderated by Yeardley Smith, the legendary voice of Lisa Simpson. She and several longtime crew members, including executive producer and writer Al Jean, shared stories from the three decades of the FOX animated series. They also went through their homes and pulled out some of their favorite Simpsons merchandise items. However, Smith admitted, “I don’t have a lot of Simpson-abilia around.”
The Simpsons” image from this Fall’s “Treehouse of Horror”
Jean announced that in addition to the previously revealed Olivia Colman and David Harbour, other guest stars this season will be Hannibal Buress and Ben Platt. Fellow EP and writer Matt Selman added one more name: Sir Michael Palin. When asked by a fan about all-time favorite guest stars, writer Carolyn Omine said that “Cate Blanchett was great.” Blanchett appeared in this past season’s finale episode, “The Way of the Dog.”
As for what to expect in Season 32, the team didn’t reveal much except a 15-second clip from the latest “Treehouse of Horror”. It features Homer at his nuclear power plant desk with A TON of Halloween candy wrappers. The Simpsons returns Sunday September 27th.
Right after The Simpsons on Sundays this Fall will be Season 2 of Bless The Harts. Cast and crew members, including Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Oscar winning producers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, decided to chat about the series while participating in a Paint & Sip. Near the end of the virtual panel, they each presented their creations of characters from the show.
And to wrap things up, a five-and-a-half-minute clip (without complete animation) from an upcoming episode was shown. Kristen Schaal and Ken Jeong (who recently co-starred in the Amazon movie My Spy) will be guest-starring this season, along with Natasha Lyonne. And there’s going to be a Halloween episode where the gang goes to an abandoned mall.
“Bless The Harts” animatic
One of the most anticipated movies of the rest of the summer is Phineas and Ferb: Candace Against the Universe. Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, the creators of the Disney Channel animated series that ran from 2007-2015, are back as executive producers. The new movie sees P&F and their pals teaming-up with Dr. Doofenshmirtz to rescue Candace and Vanessa from a mysterious threat. It debuts on Disney+ August 28th.
I’ve had the chance to screen the movie and talk with Povenmire and Marsh. Look for that interview right here on Animation Scoop on August 24th! In the meantime, the duo participated in an SDCC@HOME panel for the film. Also part of it: Ashley Tisdale, who returns as the voice of Candace. “When I read the script, I was like, ‘FINALLY!’ She gets her moment.”
Tisdale expanded more of her thoughts on Candace: “Candace is one of my favorite characters that I get to play because obviously with animation you have so much energy doing it, and you get to just really create. I think she’s one of the craziest characters that I’ve ever played, so I think it’s my crazy that comes out in her. I really have so much fun doing it. She does take up my energy though. I literally can only do two-hour sessions because by the end, I’m exhausted. She talks so fast, and she’s constantly yelling.”
American Dad! executive producer Mike Chandler introduced himself at the beginning of the TBS animated series’ presentation with fellow EP Nic Wegener. Chandler started-off by saying, “We write the show. We’ve created some of your favorite episodes… and some of your least favorite episodes.” And there are many to choose from, as AD will be airing its 300th Episode this Fall.
The main attraction of this panel was seeing Supervising Director Brent Woods draw the character of Roger. The fellow panelists (cast & crew from the show) followed along for more than a half hour. Then clips of upcoming episodes were shown. “Weird Al” Yankovic will be guest-starring with an original “parody”.
And the 350th Episode of Family Guy kicks-off that show’s 19th Season Sept. 27 on FOX. To mark the occasion, Seth MacFarlane and fellow cast members Mila Kunis, Alex Bornstein and Seth Green read the first act of Season 4 episode “Model Misbehavior”.
When looking back at the origins of FG, here’s what MacFarlane has to say: “I sort of liken it to when All in the Family came out and just kind of changed the face of what sitcoms looked like. It was kind of a rule book that you had to play by – but kind of do your own thing. The Simpsons did the same thing. When it first came on, it looked unlike any other show. They were almost doodles. For me, the trick was I recognized that they had now changed the playing field. And it was really about creating a stylebook that it was its own thing but that still acknowledged that this now the look.”
MacFarlane continued: “The animated shows that succeed in primetime are strangely overly simplistic. And I know there are a lot of animators who actually really have a big problem with that, particularly now. But there’s something that kind of tells the brain, ‘Okay, this is an adult show’ as opposed to the shows for kids, which kind of look graphically more refined from an artistic standpoint. It’s an odd thing, and I’m not sure if it’ll be the case forever. But it’s definitely something I noticed when The Simpsons emerged, and I did try to kind of acknowledge that they had changed the rule book.”
One more day to go for Comic-Con @Home coverage. Check back here for the Sunday spotlight!
- INTERVIEW: Jeff Fowler On “Knuckles” And “Sonic 3” - April 22, 2024
- INTERVIEW: “Inside Out 2” Director And Producer On Pixar Sequel - April 16, 2024
- INTERVIEW: “Puffin Rock And The New Friends” And 25 Years Of Cartoon Saloon - April 10, 2024
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