More grown-ups are carrying a toon
Everybody wants to make a show like it.
Nobody knows how.
"No one would deny the overwhelming success of "The Simpsons," and there was a flurry to get on board to do another one," says Academy Award-winning animator Fred Wolf.
"There were two or three shows that did not make it. Lightning struck. I don't know if it will strike again."
Wolf knows why. "It's not the animation that made "The Simpsons" such a success," he explains. "It happens to be the best-written comedy show on television."
Still, it's no secret that since "The Simpsons" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit, " adults have demonstrated they have every bit as great an appetite for cartoon characters as children do.
Betty Cohen, executive vice president of the newly launched Cartoon Network, says that before Turner Broadcasting began the project they looked at the demographics to see how cartoons performed on cable in general.
"It seemed obvious from the Nielsen numbers that on average, 44 percent of the audience was adults 18-plus," Cohen says. "Kids from (ages) 2 to 11 made up 46 percent, and the other 10 percent were teen-agers. That was very striking to us, the degree to which adults watch cartoons."
In the case of the Cartoon Network, it's not very surprising given that much of the channel's product dates from the time when today's parents were children.
It was that sense of nostalgia that encouraged Hanna-Barbera to make a brand new Flintstones TV movie, "I Yabba Dabba Do!" to air on ABC in prime time on Feb. 7.
"With the resurgence of prime-time animation with 'The Simpsons,' it was a logical thing," says Fred Seibert, of Hanna-Barbera, "to go back to the family that really started prime-time animation and see what they're up to."
What the Flintstones are up to is attending the weddings of all-grown-up Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Producer Iawo Takamoto says the show was an attempt to differentiate the characters from the way they were as prime time stars of the ' 60s.
"We wanted to do what we could to make it look fresh and new," says Takamoto, "and at the same time protect the integrity of the property."
Part of the fun of the old Flintstones was seeing stone-age versions of modern gadgets. "We used contemporary stuff, too," says Takamoto, "such as FAX machines, all the things we use today."
Fans will also see a difference in the town of Bedrock, which was very rural in the old days. "We assumed Bedrock had grown like any U.S. city has grown, with taller buildings and more development," Takamoto says. "The original had a bucolic look. We made it more of a present-day city."
MTV was another channel very quick to see that the popularity of animation was not restricted to young children.
"When you look back to the very beginnings of MTV, we had the 10-second animated I.D.s," says network vice president Abby Terkuhle. "Over the years, we built up hundreds of them and they are a very popular part of the channel. About four years ago we decided to take their irreverence and humor and go one step further."
The result was "Liquid Television," produced by Colossal Pictures. "We thought it was a perfect showcase for a bunch of short-form ideas and the work of different animators," Terkuhle says.
"Beavis and Butthead are two misfits, every parent's nightmare," Terkuhle says. "They have a trademark laugh; they're pretty edgy characters who love music, love TV and find themselves in fantastic situations. They're not your typi-cal role models."
Neither are "Ren & Stimpy" and "Rugrats," the cult figures that have drawn grown-up animation fans to Nickelodeon. The channel has a broad demographic, from age 3 to 45.
"We wanted to be sure we were layering the programming so it would be interesting for adults, as well as kids," says vice president and executive producer Vanessa Coffey. "We were being self-indulgent because we wanted to watch too."
John Kricfalusi, whose cutting edge animation and borderline sick and twisted creations made "Ren & Stimpy" such a cult smash, has left the show after three seasons. Bob Camp, his collaborator, with Nickelodeon's own animation company, Games Animation, have taken over.
Jean McCurdy, head of Warner Bros. animation, says the studio has found a large adult following for its "Batman: The Animated Series" and "Steve Spielberg's Tiny Toons."
McCurdy, who is executive producer of the "Batman" show, says that besides the Tim Burton movies, a lot of the visual inspiration was taken from Max Fleischer's old "Superman" cartoons.
"We wanted the show to have a very distinct style and feel to it," McCurdy says. "We wanted it to be an animated drama, with suspense, with the music laid-in as it's done with live-action."
McCurdy believes that more prime-time cartoons will follow from "The Simpsons."
"That show has great writing, fabulous characters, and the animated style fits it perfectly," she says.
Klasky Csupo Inc., which did the first three seasons of "The Simpsons," has a new candidate in "Duckman," based on the underground comic book of artist Everett Peck. A pilot has been produced that's been well-received at festivals in Seattle and Chicago.
Producer Gabor Csupo says "Duckman" is aimed at a prime-time audience. "It's a lot more daring than the kids shows," says Csupo. "The humor and subject matter are definitely adult oriented."
His company is also producing two half-hour specials for ABC featuring comic actor Lily Tomlin's "Edith Ann" character. Written by Tomlin's longtime partner, Jane Wagner, and featuring Tomlin's voice, the specials will air in prime time next fall.
"Animation is popular all over the world, not just for children but adults too," Csupo says. "It was a presumption a few years ago that it was only for children. But it has to be very well produced. Some of those who failed didn't get the chance to do their best work."
