Channel Frederator Blog

May Day Channel Frederator Confessional: “When my sister was around five, she had a bear that would start singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star if you squeezed its paw. One day, I snuck into her room, squeezed the bear’s paw when her back was turned, and dove under her bed to hide. I did this three times. Scared, she called my mom into the room to explain that her bear was magically singing without her touching it, and my mom accused her of lying.”

— Hey Look!, submitted by Vincent Waller. An Oh Yeah! Cartoon adaptation of one of Harvey Kurtzman’s comic strips.

— Bad Dad, submitted by Tasha Hollywood. Why is it that little British kids always sound so cute with their accents? They could be telling us to go to hell, and we’d just want to pinch their cheeks.

Watch Channel Frederator by downloading the episode at our Website or by subscribing to the whole series through [Read more…]

Our friends at Pulp Secret have given their viewers a preview of today’s Channel Frederator episode featuring the Harvey Kurtzman cartoon ‘Hey Look!’ I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (we also posted the entire introduction to the only ‘Hey Look!’ reprint ever). And PS conducted a rare interview with animation director Vincent Waller talking about we came to produce the film.
Vincent Waller, director and sex symbol

Oh yeah, PS is also kicking off Spider-Man week in New York.

And here’s the CF episode with the entire Harvey cartoon:

–Fred

Episode 70

Peter Patrick and Persian Puss battle the evil Dr. No who is attempting the unthinkable: Stealing Peter Patrick’s LUNCH!! This short was featured as part of Frederator’s “Oh Yeah! Cartoons” shorts program, and like many creators, Vince Waller has gone on to do some pretty neat things since then.

[Read more…]

Upper left illustrated by Lou Brooks

I don’t know, I’m asking.

One of my favorite projects back in the day was one few people have ever seen. It started out as a TV network branding assignment, our agency’s specialty, for HA!: The TV Comedy Network. And it led to one of our favorite cartoons that not enough people have seen. Cartoon creator Bill Burnett was at the center of it all.
Viacom’s HA! was their answer to HBO’s Comedy Channel. They both lost the competition and merged into Comedy Central. Some of Fred/Alan’s best work for the network, the naming of Comedy Central, and the conception and writing of the cartoon were all done by Bill (also the co-creator of ChalkZone).

Once our agency helped name HA! we went to work on its branding, figuring out the belief system of the channel. Our creative director, Noel Frankel, designed the distinct shouting logo, with various illustrators and models depicting the shout. [Read more…]