FA MIM atiogn Yogi Has A New Boss Fred Seibert Joins Hanna-Barbera STEAM: Peter Gabriel's CGI Masterpiece _. Who's Who “In Computer Animation SPEED RACER Is Back! — Bonus Collector Supplement Gahan Wilson’s DINER sul yx ole SS 3 a‘At Hanna-Barbera we have the opportunity to tap into the best ofthe young talent and to guide them with the eminence and wisdom that comes with a gredt institution — to got the best of both worlds,” notes Fred Seibert, President of Hanna-Barbera, a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, Ine. (TS) ‘As President, Seibert oversees the creative develop ment, production and marketing of all programs and vision as well as the day-to-day specials for administration ofthe studio, Prior to commencing his curent poston in April 1992, Seibert was president of Fred/Alan Inc, a company he created with Alan Goodman in 1982. Fred/Alan was a fullservce ad agency, with over $30 millon in bilable animation magazine - winter 1999, a new reality to Hanna-Barbera accounts, as well as a creative resource for developing ew cable networks and orignal programming. One of their most successful marketing campaigns was the re launch of Nickelodeon and the creation of Nick-at-Nite, the results of which brought Nickelodeon is fist profit Joining MTV in 1980 as is fist Creative Director and Senior Manager, and its first employee, Selbert was responsible for getting the MTV logo designed and for producing animated station 1Ds and commercials. He spearheaded the development of the burgeoning music network and its sister network — VH-1 venture, Seibert formed Chauncey Stet Productions, a production house that produced many ACE award-win Asa separate ning programs for HBO and Nickelodeon, ad Recently, ANIMATION Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Terry Thoren, con: ducted the folowing interview with Seibert over lunch, ‘Animation Magazine — Coming from the East Coast to a Hollywood Institution, what changes in manage- ‘ment philosophy are you bringing to Hanna-Barbera? Fred Seibert — | think the most important thing 've looked at since | {got here is what a great institution Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna built over the years, anything in particular, try to look at the company that they built in 1957, after 20 years at MGM. What was it that made it great? What were the point-of-view they brought to their Rather than changing 19EHC Pee MF work? And, what were the ways they brought ‘excitement to their employees enabling them to do ‘great work and create those classic television hhetoes ke THE FLINTSTONES or HUCKLEBERRY HOUND or YOGI BEAR? Ive tied to come in and take the best ofthat along withthe best that David Kirschner brought fo the studio and then put it together into a set of operating principles to ‘move forward for another 35 yeas. thnk that one ofthe great things about Joe and Bi is that wile They were arimators. They brought a passion fr thelr work to everything they did and, they brought amazing talent in with them ‘imation Magzzine — Sof the passon of Joe and il, whichis rooted. in. their artistic background attracted all of these great talents to Hanne- Barbera forthe past 35 yeas, what sit about your background and your career-to-date that wil they ran a business, they were artists ‘enable you to take Hanna-Barbera into the new Golden Age of animation? Fred Selbert —'m not an animator faceof-al-trades, master of none. | am, though, a ‘great apprecator of talent, Having started as a ‘musican and then becoming a record produce, | am also somebody who has always found a really reat way of working with alent I've always been one ofthe biggest fans in the word When | was a record producer, I was fan of the musicians who made records. When | was a tel sion producer, | was a fan of the actors and writers and producers who made television been a huge fan of Barbera had to offer, and now I'm at Hanna-Barbera Huckleberry Hound was one of my fist cartoon | was at the night age when THE FLINT Wve always las animation that Hanna heroes, STONES exploded. It made me look at things in a ‘completely different way; the same way THE SIMP- SONS s making a whole new generation of kids look attheirtelevisons ina completely diferent vay Coincidentally, when I was asked to do the job at ...IN THE BACK OF OUR MINDS WERE THE GREAT CARTOONS OF OUR YOUTH. Hanna-Barbera, | was wearing a Hanna-Barbera watch that'd had for two years. It seemed ike fate. | think thatthe passion forthe kind of work the studio has done, coupled with some of the things in my background, like Nickelodeon and MTV, many together a bunch of sensblties that ‘could be rally right forthe future of this cormpay, ‘Animation: Magazine = What was your lavolve ment with MTV? Lets tlk about that fr a second because it relates to the young animators who are cout there. How long have you been involved in the animation business? ‘red Seibert — | guess if you go back through my Involvement with MTV and a couple of things before, 12 or 13 yeats. employees at MTV. ‘Te responsibites that | had Were basically all of the orginal ‘things’ that MTV made. | put the word things’ in quotes because it involved everthing fom finding designers to create 'M’ logo that became so famous, to coming up with @ philosophy for how we were going to put "Mon the seen, to coming up with a poet cof-view for how we were going to communicate wiat MTV was to the publ. Along with my part- rer, Aan Goodman, and my staf, we were respon- was one of the fist sible forall of those original ‘hing. Basically what we did, once the ‘MY had been esigned and developed, was come up with a way toput ton the screen. Growing up inthe "6, Ive always been a huge fan of album covers. I've always wanted to contribute some ofthe greatness that abum covers brought to my generation. So, when | started getting involved in television, | always had this in the back of my ‘mind, Wouldn't it be great to do an album cover-ike approach to television instead of that very boring look that television had, which was metalic and cold and outer-space like? ‘Wouldnt it be great to have some of that emotion and energy and craziness that album covers have?” ‘Then MTV came up and it was this perfect mar siege. What we can do is be the «lum covers, the moving, singing album covers of the nevr generation when we started at MTV was to find graphic artists And animators who could ful that kind of vison. So, immediatly, we started out with a completely ferent approach fom the res of television. ‘One of the most interesting things is that my part ‘er and | knew nothing about animation. The fist thing we did was go to MILLIMETER and 2 couple of other trades and look for every ad about ania tors, We called them all up and asked them to send their eels. We got hundreds, as you can imagine ‘This was 1980 and 83, Well tll you, was one ofthe most depressing experiences of my ie. One was worse than the next. They were so boring Maybe if| went and looked at all those rels today they wouldn't be so bad. They weren't fufilment (ofthis vision that we had of moving album covers. We weat through reel afte reel, and after weeks and weeks we sald, ‘Maybe tis isa vison that cant I said, "Great What we all set out to do be fullled, Maybe its something that's justin our heads and it can't work We came tothe last spot onthe last rel, (Colossal) on smaiedaine jwPictures in San Francisco, then a small, struggling production company, and we said, ‘Oh my God, this is it. They're it? ‘They were the fist people we caled star helping us ffl our vision, What this taught us was that we had to start g0ing outside the minstream in terms of finding the talent we needed. The main- stream, which was very much involved in the commercial business, with rare ‘exceptions, did't have oo much to oer us. There were rte exceptions. There was Buz Potamkin at Buz. ‘Animation Magazing — Buzz is at Hanna-Barbera now. ‘red Sebert — Yes, he is. How ccind- dental, (He laughs! Other companies were Siver Cloud Productions in Los Angeles and Broadcast Arts, In Washington, D.C. at that time. There were afew mainstream animators who made some sense to us, but in general we went outside the main commercial animation centers of New York and Los Angeles. We went to Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Vancouver, Boston — anywhere outside ofthe mix. We found al ofthese eager independent, visionary, talented people to help us fll what, atthe time, was @ ludicrous vision of how television could be. You know, | have o tell you someting, we had no intentions of doing anything but what would be ‘ight for our audience. ut, itooks, in retrospect, s if we helped sort of change the word — atleast the way the word presented isl on television. | think inthe aftermath of that, we've given opportunity to hundreds upon hundreds of talented people who didn't have a voice before. if there's anything tm rou inthe work that we did, nt ony at MTY but jon magaz: ter 1983 then when we went on to Nickelodeon, ts that we sed young, talented, often unknown people who used techniques that were not part of the main stream. 1 ook back on tat type of stuff, it's probs ably the core of how | ty to operate everywhere that | go and everywhere that | work, whether its at ‘my own company ot now at Hanna-Barbera ‘imation Magazine — So your search for visonar Jes and young, strong-inded animators has fol- fowed you from MTV to Nickelodeon to Hanna- Barbera. How will you marty your caling-edge approach to animation with the dass cartoon tra Aion of Hanna-Barbera? How will you attract hip, young animators to this new way of thinking? Fred Seibert — Most ofthe time when we were cre ating that so-aled hip, cutting-edge Kind of stuf in the back of our mins were the great catoons of ‘ur youth. We always used those as the analogs, the metaphors, forthe kinds of things we wanted to create, The diference between the things that we ‘would do at MTV of Nickelodeon or other places that we worked is that we werent stryteling. We were basically doing graphic poster display that | think that the talent that made that graphic poster display, if you ask them to start toling stories for a young audience, would figure ‘ut a way to take that same talent and apply itn a different way — character design to storyteling. ‘And yes, they might takea sight different kind of moved. (babu FRED SEIBERT 1 cns 600K i ast conrorce approach, but any studio that is worth anything és constantly evolving its approach to teling stores. Every generation of people needs stores tld to them ina diferent way. | think f you were to talk with Matt Groening 0° anybody else, all they are doing & trying to tell a story that they think people wil ke and wil get something out of. | think that at Hanna-Barbera the only thing we have to look ats, are we recep: tive tothe stores that people want to te? tell you, at least since | ave been there, | have found us tobe receptive to all sorts of stories Il gve you an example. There are two brothers from Montea, Yvon and Christian Tremblay, who are artists who had a vison fora show called SWAT ATS: THE RADICAL SQUADRON. Itwas an action- adventure show about two cats who are vglante crime-fighters in a mega-cat city. The Tremblays crew these inreble presentation drawings and cre- ated a whole hos of vilains, not une the BATMAN array of villains, and a whole aray of gadgets. So here are these two young guys who are passon- ate about ther project and completely realized in what they want to accomplish — we couldn't say ‘oto something ike that. Infact, nt only are we producing the show now, but they ae the creative drectors and are involved in seeing the show al the ‘way through its inception. But, while they havesome animation training, they aren't animators. ‘What we've been able to do is put them together vith some incredibly experienced production talent 0 that their vision can be realized, yet done in a way Itcan be produced on time and on budget with an exciting thatthe exigencies of a business require. Jook and sound and all that type of stuf ‘Animation Magazine — Did they move to LA? Fed Seibert — Yes, they have moved to LA ‘Animation Magazine — How did they come to Hanna-Barbera?” How does one go through that proces? Did they mite or senda storyboard? Fred Seibert — Basically, their project came in through our development group. They did cal They did write. They got an appointment. They ‘came to L.A and presented their work ‘Animation Magazine — Do you only look at shows that might be possiblities for the upcoming season? Fred Seibert — What we look at isa combination of things. We look at talented people who have a wonderful project. Sometimes the marketplace might not be right for that particular project that day. But if through it, you discover the great talent that created it, you can work with them to create another thing that might be right fr the word that day, Then put the other one in reserve. What | dois encourage not only the seeing of a project but the seeing ofthe peaple who created it ‘Animation Magazine — Is there any example of a show currently on the air that was created and brought to Hanna-Barbera by an outside arist who then convinced the studio to produce it? ted Select — SWAT KATS, is one of the fist two projects under my tides where that happened. They ‘Were put into production based on people presenting projects from the outside. We liked not only the projects but the people. The other show vas presented to me on my first day at the studio, It's called TWO STUPID DOGS, Not only were the tite and character designs appeal ing to me, but the storyboard told me there was Something els going on that was a ite bit diferent than things often are Usually when we get a projec, it's accompanied by Scripts and a couple of character designs. This one THEY DID CALL. THEY DID WRITE. THEY GOT AN APPOINTMENT. ° < of the rare projects that was accompanied by a storyboard. | realized there was a real strong animation talent involved with this whe knew how totellstories The guy was a young animator He was a 23 year- ole CalArts student rramed Donovan Cook, They asked, ‘Are you interested in this project?” and | said "Well, I'm Interested in meeting Donovan former and if, when we meet Donovan and find he's Someone weld lke to have at the studi, then we can be intrested in bringing the project in” He came in and impressed us tremen- ously with his energy, his vision of his project, his Interest in teling stones that people would under stand, He wanted to make classic cartoons but with a sensbity that only a.23 year-old could have, He ddn't want to remake od cartoons. He just wanted to-use the classic forum of the car toon to tell con temporary stories We were very eacited, we signed up right away and now we'e in production Animation Magazine — Will these appear as 30 minute episodes or five-minute bumpers? How wil you introduce them to the marketplace? Fred Seibert — As | mentioned, Hanna-Barbera has had a variety of ways that it classically brought things to market, One of them, that wee all familar with, isthe network route where we produce things In 1998, Saturday rmoming network television's more excting than i's for Saturday moming televsion been in 30 years | know theres a vsion of Saturday ‘moming being product driven, pre-sold properties, boring, staid... whatever words you would keto fil in. Quite honesty, {might have had that vision of Saturday moming a couple years ago. But, | think if you look at the breadth of product that is on net- Work Saturday moming now, there are some really ‘wonderful things going on. | don't care if you want to point to BATMAN or to AN AMERICAN TALE or THE LITTLE MERMAID or TOM AND JERRY'S KIDS lor THE ADDAMS FAMILY or GARFIELD. really wide range of animation styles, techniques, You have a storytelling, characters, audiences that people are aimed at. I's an amazingly rich palette to workin. entiation widipechre = xine 180s.However, its not the ony palette. Its rot the only place. Hanna-Barbera ‘made its bones in the syizaion mar ketplace. HUCKLEBERRY HOUND, QUICK DRAW MCGRAW, YOGI BEAR, [MAGILLA GORILLA, al of these were launched into independent television stations rather than through any net work system. In the case of TWO STUPID DOGS and SWAT KATS, we are Producing these projects ouseNes. We gave ourselves the go, as it were, We gave ourselves the green light to pro- ve them and bring them to indepen: dent tevson tations for syndication, ‘Animation Magazine — So you pre sald them to syndication? red Seibert — We're going to make them and go sl ther ‘Acimation Magazine — That's gutsy. That seems rity. Fed Sobert —Itis. But you know, no tisk, no reward. The marketplace in 1988 is as fragmented as ever. There ate more diferent active outlets forthe animation that we produce than ever before, There's cable, there's broadcast syndication, there's network television, there's international syndication and there's international cable networks. ‘Animation Magazine — Let's talk about your relationship with the ‘Tumer empire. Wil you be abl to use the Cartoon Network, TRS and TNT as testing grounds for new ideas? For example, LIQUID TY, in many ways, was born from ealy IDs of MTV, and THE SIMPSONS was born from bumpers on THE TRACEY ULLMAN SHOW. Do you have the power to test out bits, character driven ideas, without having to spend all the pro- duction money to create 30-minute episodes, on the Turner outets? Fed Seibert — There's a possibilty of Going those kinds of tings with the var lous Tumer companies. Being efiated wt the Tumer companies gives us lot of leverage inthe marketplace that we right not have otherwise, | think that the isue of experimentation is driven ore by the interest of the wonderul staff at Hanna-Barbera and the interest that | have in making sue that new ideas are constantly coming forward ‘The increasing intrest of al the outets, be they network or cable, will allow ‘experimentation to go on. | think that what we'e seing out therein the mar ketplace more and more is everyone's interest in tying out ew things. I just did a deal, in fat, with one of the networks, where one of our pieces ‘ofthe conversation was, ‘How can we take a segment of ths shaw to ty out new characters and new ideas?” That was their request to me at the stu. “The world has really changed. What you have at the networks, that you haven't really had in a long time, Is. people who are realy, realy familar VINTAGE. INKS PAINT ‘The leading authority inanima shotches from Sleeping EBcaut art restoration is proud fer original ‘Vintage Ink & Paint + 823 Main Street + Burbank * CA + 91506 70 with our business who have as great an interest in trying out new ideas as anyone else does, They don't want to be left behind by cable. They don't want cable to usurp ther postion, ‘Animation Magazine — But has there been any conscious talk within the board meetings of this empire for Hanna-Barbera to try out some new ideas on TNT and TBS, ors that not economical feasible? Fred Seibert — I dont think it's ony a matter of economies. think the only specific conversation that has gone on is that they have asked me, as the head of the studio, to keep the studio vital and to try out, and be succesful in, as many different places as | can. Ture isa very maverick company. They don't give directives to the people who work for them, They give people latitude to try anything they can to make ther businesses sucess: ful, Thats the latitude that they have given me, and that is the latitude that 1m going to give the creative people who work with the studio Animation Magazine — Back to encouraging new talent to come knacking on your door. What the proces? Is there a chance that in the early development stages they can bring that next short film to you to pitch? fs there a chance that instead of spending all that energy in making @ short fim, they can channel that pas ‘Son and energy into the potential for Fred Seibert — Absolutely. Anyone who believes that they have great to ries to tell with great characters and orignal cartoon ideas — and | really do separate cartoons from animation In the sense that what we are ia sto- ‘yteling company — we're intrested We tel great stores with great ‘actors’ — our characters. And, | don't mean ‘ur characters being just the Hanna- Barbera cartoon characters, but any characters that we can develop. ‘Animation Magazine — How will you take this unique philosophy of yours and blen itn to Hanna-Barbera? Fred Seibert — 1 tend to look ata lot of things in our business as metaphors to Beatles’ records. Jove the Beals They changed my life. One of the things tat always struck me as really interesting is that you had these four brash, incredibly talented, incredibly energetic young kids who were quietly and firmly produced by a man in his rmidfortes, George Martin. That mat- riage of wisdom with energy created some ofthe greatest stuff of our pop- Ularcultue. think that at Han Barbera we have the opportuity to o the same Quality conservation and restoration of vintage animation cels. ~ Janet Scagnelli