How a business operates directly reflects on the quality of its product. Great animated series are created by talented executives, writers, producers, directors, artists, voiceover artists and administrative staff, all of whom contribute to the final product.

Some people who love an animated series think, “I’ll bet I could produce that.” Really? Tell me, without Googling for the answer, how many 2D cels it takes to create a twenty-two minute episode. What’s the difference between pen and ink and inbetweening?

What’d the difference between ADR and looping and how to you accomplish them in television?

You don’t know? It’s okay. You will. That’s a big part of the fun in my blog!

In addition to the creative process, what you saw on television during the 1980s and 1990s was also the result of what can, at times, be a brutal business. In Swimming with Sharks, a spot-on film about the entertainment industry, Benicio del Toro cautions Frank Whaley, who is replacing del Toro as assistant to take-no-prisoners movie producer Buddy Ackerman, “This is not a business; this is show business. Punching below the belt is not only all right, it’s rewarded.”

While I never believed in ‘punching below the belt’, I did believe in keeping my guard up. I believed you were judged by the quality of your work, the people you associated with, and, if you were working with them, the quality of their work.

So after Sandy Fries completed his ‘instructive’ dissertation about the principles of story editing, I asked, “Where are we at delivery schedule-wise?”

Sandy deflated. He managed to say, “We’re a week behind schedule.”