Fred Seibert's Blog

Become a part of cartoon history, and win a buck in the process.

As many of you know, we’re in production on 39 brand new short cartoons for our partners at Nickelodeon (their blogs are over in the right hand column). We’ve already done 99 shorts over the last 10 years; the first bunch for Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network were named What A Cartoon!, and the ones for Nick were called Oh Yeah! Cartoons. We’ve launched our effort for this new crop under the Oh Yeah! name (Season 4), but, the time has come to break it to our fans that we’re looking for a new name for our shorts series.

And you (that’s right–you!) get to name the show.

Here’s how it works:

You send us as many ideas as you like (only to hey@frederator.kz). We’re going to post them all, with your name attached (unless you’d like to remain anonymous, which we’re happy to respect). You absolutely must include your email address and phone number, which will not be posted. If you do not, do not expect to see your entry posted ever.

A winner(s) will be picked by October 31, 2005.

The winner will receive $500, a credit on every episode, and of course, a chance for animation infamy. Remember, this is an ‘open source’ contest, and all the entries will be publicly posted; it’s possible the winning name will be a combination or morphing of another, earlier name. If the judges arbitrarily decide this to be true, said same judges will just as arbitrarily decide how to split the winnings between the affected entrants. Same thing for multiple entries of the same name; if it wins, we’ll decide how to split the winnings amongst you.

The judges will be the current Frederator Studios staff, and our Nickelodeon partners.

The winner(s) will be chosen on a completely whimsical basis, that is, the winning submission will be what we say it is. It’s not a drawing, not a judgement on the “best” name, we’re not throwing darts at our favorites. The name will be the name we pick for whatever reason we pick it, and that’s the story.

The winning entry will become the 100% property of our partners at Nickelodeon. The winner will not “own” anything, they will not receive anything but our gratitude, the prize money, and any notoriety that come his or her or their way. Anything Nickelodeon choses to do with it is completely their business. (And we have nothing to say about it either, in case you’re wondering.)

OK, that’s it, you’re off to the races. Entries will begin posting tomorrow.

Send your naming ideas to hey@frederator.kz and win $500.

Zee Risek runs Flying Iguanna Productions out of Montreal (where he also keeps his blog). Like me, instead of being in Ottawa this week, he was down in New York. He was considerate enough to come by our office and show us a number of ideas he’s been developing, including Toilet Puck. Zee had an entry in the Nextoons film festival, and I’m hoping we get to know each better and he bring us an Oh Yeah! cartoon.

Thanks to Zee for his kind permission to post artwork from his storyboard.

Joe Strike is a journalist and author, and JP Morgan is a comic artist. Together, they created Lamb & Lion, which they were kind enough to come and pitch to Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

(Yes, Joe is the AWN contributor who interviewed yours truly in 2003.)

Thanks to Joe and JP for the kind permission to post some of their storyboard.

We like Ryan Sias’ comics. And so we were happy when he came in again to pitch us a new short called Fergison for the new season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Thanks to Ryan for his kind permission to post some of his storyboard pitch.

I’ve been rockin’ in Burbank the last few days. The folks from Polygon Pictures in Tokyo (producer Rita Street, Director Hiroshi Chida, President Shuzo John Shiota, Creative Producer Kenji Ishimaru) were in re-pitching Boneheads.

The Oh Yeah! Cartoons creators often have another cartoon or two they’d like to produce with us. Kyle Carrozza’s got Weird Eddie.

Diane Kredensor & Dana Galin were in from New York, working with their art department, and with Director Yvette Kaplan (directing their incredible voice cast).

Oh Yeah! creator Adam Henry pitched another short called Pesky the Squirrel.

And the crew from Bob Boyle’s Wow!Wow!Wubbzy! welcomed me in with a great get together, violating every Film Roman alcohol-on-premises rule.

And then there was the next day.

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You all know about Adam Henry; we’re very lucky to have his cartoon Krunch & The Kid as one of the first shorts productions in the latest installment of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

We have a history of making new cartoons with creators already in the house, so I was thrilled to get a pitch on a new idea of Adam’s called Pesky the Squirrel.

Thanks to Adam for his kind permission to post a sketch from his latest cartoon.

Bernie Petterson has been one of the stellar artists on various Frederator cartoons (among others) for longer than anyone would like to admit. Brought into the Oh Yeah! Cartoons by Dave Wasson, he became a key part of the teams on ChalkZone and My Life as a Teenage Robot. Here are two typically wonderful illustrations Bernie’s done of ChalkZone creators Bill Burnett & Larry Huber.

I’ve qvelled about Larry Huber before on this blog.

But writer/producer Bill Burnett (or Billllll, as he sometimes goes by) is probably someone new to most of you. Our long and wonderful relationship began when Bill was a writer at my advertising agency in New York in 1988. He eventually became our Creative Director, creating some groundbreaking campaigns for Nick-at-Nite, Sassy Magazine, and Nickelodeon; he even named a network called Comedy Central. The two of us bonded over our mutual belief in popular music as a supreme cultural force, and I found out that after songwriting, his next passion was for cartoons.

Against all logic, I was named president of the venerable Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992, and, no surprise, one of my first creative hires was…Bill Burnett. Officially, he moved to Hollywood to run our marketing department, but he and I both knew that he would make his way into production. He became story editor on Dave Feiss’ legendary Cow & Chicken, and went on to create a record eight shorts for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Including, of course, ChalkZone. And I’m happy to announce that along with co-creator Jaime Diaz, Bill will join the Oh Yeah! team again to produce Dr Froyd’s Funny Farm.

Please donate to hurricane relief.

You all know Eric Fogel from his great hit show on MTV called Celebrity Deathmatch. A few of you might be buying his Barbie movie for your daughters. We’ve admired his work for a long time and we’re thrilled that he pitched us a short for Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Thank you Eric, for the kind permission to post a drawing from your cartoon pitch.

Please donate to hurricane relief.

Brian Russell is a recent animation graduate of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He’s currently working with our friend Dave Levy at Cartoon Pizza as an assistant animator. He came in the other day to make a pitch for Oh Yeah! Cartoons; it’s an adventure/comedy called Jet & Skyy.

Thanks to Brian for his kind permission to post a storyboard panel from his cartoon.

The best part of my day is finding something exciting. It’s even more fun when my colleagues are on the phone saying how thrilled they are about a project.

That happened today when Eric Homan called me today to tell me about an Oh Yeah! pitch from Doug TenNapel, the creator of Nickelodeon’s CatScratch and Earthworm Jim.