Jeffrey Scott's book...

[erniebert1234ss]

I just wanted to put this out there, but this past summer, I was at the B&N in Georgetown (Washington DC district) and what did I find? A book by Jeffrey Scott of Muppet Babies fame! I wasn't really looking for it, but Jeffrey Scott's book is called How to Write for Animation. He talks with a lot of gusto, just like his famous grandfather and his brothers, Moe, Curly, and Shemp of the Three Stooges. He also mentions Muppet Babies regularly within the book. I hope this is not old news, but if it is, I sincerely apologize. Just wanted to put this out there for you MB fans who have not picked up this incredible book already.

BJ

[erniebert1234ss]

Aww, did someone get turned off by my flaming? :(

BJ

[Klonoa]

Heh, I have a love/hate thing with Jeffrey Scott. One the one hand, he helped write great cartoons like Muppet Babies and TaleSpin (he did DuckTales, too, but I credit Carl Barks old comic stories more than him). But on the other hand, he wrote a lot of crap cartoons like SuperFriends, Pac-Man, Gilligan's Planet (or was that Lou Schiemer?), and tons of others.

--Klonoa

[GonzoLeaper]

Hey! Superfriends rules! :mad: I also very much like the Pac-Man cartoon. I haven't seen Gilligan's Planet, but I would like to. By the way, the whole 1st. season of Superfriends is now available on DVD. :attitude:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00023E88U/qid=1095098260/sr=8-1/ref=pd_cps_1/104-0385242-4338335?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846

:)

[McFraggle]

Heh, I have a love/hate thing with Jeffrey Scott. One the one hand, he helped write great cartoons like Muppet Babies and TaleSpin (he did DuckTales, too, but I credit Carl Barks old comic stories more than him). But on the other hand, he wrote a lot of crap cartoons like SuperFriends, Pac-Man, Gilligan's Planet (or was that Lou Schiemer?), and tons of others.

--Klonoa

I didn't even know "Gilligan's Planet" existed. :)

[Klonoa]

Someone told me the SuperFriends DVD has audio commentary by Jeffrey Scott.

It's the logic in SuperFriends that gets me.

I LOVE the Pac-Man cartoon, too. I'm a huge Pac-Man fan and I even have a Pac-Man arcade machine in my garage. But man, that cartoon had some really dopey writing on it. But I guess that considering what they had to work with, they could have done much worse. It's not the 'clever' writing that drew me into the Pac-Man cartoon, it just had to have Pac-Man in it (surprisingly, I'm pretty easy to please that way).

In Gilligan's Planet, a cartoon from the late 70's, the Professor builds a rocket ship (instead of say, a raft), and they finally get off the island and get stranded on a strange planet. And it just goes downhill from there.

--Klonoa
Drinking game: take a swig every time someone works the word 'chomp' into the Pac-Man cartoon script.

[erniebert1234ss]

please do not bash the Superfriends. I liked the writing! :mad: Anyhoo, I am going to buy that my next trip to Wally World! Is it inexpensive?

BJ

[GonzoLeaper]

Looks like the Superfriends DVD is about $25.
Go for it! :)

[McFraggle]

In Gilligan's Planet, a cartoon from the late 70's, the Professor builds a rocket ship (instead of say, a raft), and they finally get off the island and get stranded on a strange planet. And it just goes downhill from there.

Sounds like it. ;)

[MJTaylor]

Pacman was rather silly but hey! when I was a kid I loved that show. I loved Superfriends too. What was so silly about that?
Getting back to Pacman, it was a bit like the Smurfs, by that I mean, every other word would be substertuted for by "Pac" just like "Smurf" would replace every other word on The Smurfs. Not surprising since Pacman and The Smurfs were made by the same production company.

[Xerus]

Cartoons like Pac Man or Saturday Supercade weren't really meant to be edgy or off the wall. They were just created to promote video games.

Back in the 80s, the networks didn't want original cartoons. They wanted cartoons based on toys, movies, TV sitcoms, or new toned-down versions of old cartoon characters.

However, Muppet Babies seemed to have a different style of humorous writing rarely seen in the 80s.

[Drtooth]

Actually, I just read something recently (browsing at a book for free in Virgin Megastore) in a book about Pac Man....

When they made it into a cartoon, they had to make drastic changes to things, because (at the time it began) it was technically illegal to make it any sort of advertisement, so they used the characters ONLY and none of the real effects of the game otherwise.

But I guess after that, the limitations relaxed, and we got more toy related cartoon shows.

[McFraggle]

There are still rules against it somewhat. For instance, technically Nickelodeon is not able to advertise "Spongebob" toys during an episode of the show. This is because it would be seen as the whole half-hour was one big commercial.