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Submit ReviewOn today’s show we discuss Primetime Animation! You may recognize some of these adult targeted cartoons but did you know that one hold a Guinness book of world’s record title? Our own, sketch comedians Imran and Phil are back live on the drawing boards.
The Flintstones was the first, and the longest running, animated situation comedy shown in prime-time television. Premiering on ABC on 30 September 1960, it gained high ratings in its first season, establishing animation as a viable prime time format. Produced by Hanna-Barbera (Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera), The Flintstones was patterned after Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners. Originally designed as a program for the entire family.
In case you were too young to have known about “The Jetsons”, it was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series from the early-’60s which took place in the future when everybody thought we would live in buildings high above the sky and would drive flying cars — AKA what everyone considered 2001 was going to be. (We have computers in our hands now that we can make phones calls with, so maybe they got something right.) The Jetsons are also a family, with father George, mother Jane, daughter Judy, and son Elroy. Warner Bros. has decided to bring back “The Jetsons” for the new generation that Hanna-Barbera thought would be living in this future, in the form of an animated feature film. If this sounds oddly familiar to you, it would be because Warner Bros. had spoke about transforming this film into a live-action feature way back in the far off past of 2012. Somewhere along the lines, WB decided that live-action wasn’t the right market and decided to bring The Jetsons back to their animated roots. The switch could be because WB has realized that cartoons are where it’s at. I mean, I won’t lie, I marathon “Adventure Time” and everything I can find for free on the YouTube channel Cartoon Hangover, like “Bravest Warriors” and “Bee and Puppycat” (trust me, just check them out). Even Seth Rogen is taking his stab at a cartoon feature film with the adult-oriented film Sausage Party, due out in June 2016.
WB has commissioned screenwriter Matt Lieberman to write it, while he is also writing the Short Circuit reboot, he sounds like the man for the job.
From Bedrock to Springfield
As anyone who has ever animated will tell you: cartoons are not merely kid’s stuff. The process of animating is tedious beyond tedium. We take it for granted now that animated features frequently play in major theaters, but Disney was the laughing stock of Hollywood during the three years that his production company spent developing Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. After the film came out, and it was Disney who enjoyed the last laugh.
But when it came to animating for television, production companies couldn’t take three years to get a project going. Television demanded a different production model, one that favored expedience, and placed more emphasis on the writing and repartee between characters than it did on the sleekness of the animation itself.
One of the true pioneers of limited animation television programming was producer Jay Ward. Ward, and animator Alex Anderson, pioneered methods of “limited animation.” To briefly explain what this means: traditional animation (such as the classic Disney shorts) would be animated at 24 frames a second. In some instances, this would mean that a second of footage was comprised of 24 unique images. With limited animation, there are about half as many drawings, and there are several other technical shortcuts employed. For example, letting the dialogue drives the narrative. One of the first limited animation programs that Jay Ward sold was called Crusader Rabbit, and it aired on various NBC affiliates from 1948 to 1951. The show was crucial in establishing the foundation of TV animation
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