#3 First Things First Part 2

As I said, in this blog I’m writing about the Golden Age of television animation. So I’m going to leave epic animated films like Fantasia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs out of it, except that I’ll say I‘ve always found the concept of a princess shacked up with seven little people to be a bit disconcerting.

Putting aside animated feature films, many fans contend that The Golden Age of Television Animation began in 1949 with Crusader Rabbit and ran to the 1960s or 1970s Roger Ramjet and Atom Ant.

There’s no question that a slew of iconic cartoon characters who got their start in "shorts" on the big screen successfully made t

he transition to television. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Pepé le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn and countless others had a big impact on television.

However, the ‘Golden Age of Television Animation’ was driven by stories and art that began in the early 1980s and extended into the 1990s. Prior to the 1980s almost all television animation was ‘limited animation’ – i.e., backgrounds used over and over. To see what I mean, view at any episode of The Road Runner Show, featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, and you’ll see the same boulders, buttes and mountains in the background used over and over and over.

That changed in the 1980s when animated television moved to "full" animation. For writers, there was another change: animation studios began demanding "real scripts" for their series. That happened largely because of one man.

As they used to say on television, “Stay tuned.”

#2 First Things First

By way of introduction, I’m Jack Olesker, President & CEO for 24/7 Productions. I’m a writer, producer and director who has written, produced and directed over 1,200 episodes of television and eighteen films, most in animation. I also served a stint as president of a motion picture and television studio in Chennai, India.

As legendary University of Alabama Coach Bear Bryant famously said, “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.” In my case, it’s true; it’s all true. I’m the real deal. I was there, on the ground, during The Golden Age of Television Animation.

First and foremost, thanks to all of you for being here. I do a lot of conventions and public appearances. When I’m signing mini-posters of shows I’ve been involved with, many fans thank me for the impact I had on their childhoods. I always say “Writers, producers, directors and actors are nothing without fans, so I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

With that said, I want to briefly visit the title of this blog: A Writer's Life…During The Golden Age of Television Animation. I know that begs the question: “Why is he ignoring the fact that The Golden Age of Animation began with the release of the Disney short film Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928?”

Well, I wasn’t around in the 1920s. But I was around during The Golden Age of Television Animation during the 1980s and 1990s. Not only was I “around”, I was a big part of it.

I’d like to take you on a tour of that particular Golden Age. So let’s go…

#1 In the Beginning...

It’s a brutal February day in 1959. A teacher teaches arithmetic in Myra Bradwell School’s fourth grade classroom on Chicago’s South Side as a snowstorm rages outside. The boy in the fifth desk in the third row is looking at the windows, listening to the wind and snow outside, imagining another ‘part of the story’ in his mind. For the boy, dinosaurs are alive and well in 1959 Chicago. They roam the streets, wreaking havoc, Jeeps with soldiers racing to contain the beasts.

It will be a decade before he knows the ‘part’ he’s envisioning is called a scene.

He turns and sees classmates passing a folded sheet of paper toward him. At last it’s in his hands. He opens it to see a Crayon drawing of a roaring T-Rex surrounded by soldiers firing at it. He smiles and murmurs, “Perfect.”

The boy puts the sheet of paper that is a ‘storyboard’ into his notebook. Then he passes a piece of paper with the next scene description back to the classmate who drew the storyboard.

Suddenly, he hears his teacher say, “Jack Olesker, you’re never going to amount to anything.”

* * *

Sixty-three years from that day, in the home office where I’ve written many of my more than 1,200 episodes of television, eighteen movies and six novels, I smile with remembrance and whisper a heartfelt, “Thank you.” My lips purse and I offer a kiss to that teacher, wherever she may be. I’m grateful for her having been there, her criticism goading me on…in the beginning.