Below is an excerpt from an ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE article about the new Cartoon Network series CLASS OF 3000. In it, the show’s executive producer/co-creator, Tom Lynch, proudly talks about how ignorant he is of the animation process:

Lynch confesses to “making every mistake anybody could make, and adding some new ones” on his road to creating a 2D series. “I think my worst one was when the cut came back [from overseas animation]. I looked at it and said, ‘Okay, I have some rewrites.’ They said, ‘Uhhh, you get some retakes…’ I had thought retakes meant whole scenes, but it was only moments or close-ups. That was an education right there, because in live-action I rewrite all the way through post-production, I change everything all the time.”

Now, obviously, one would assume that a guy like Lynch, who is clueless about animation and art, couldn’t just walk into Cartoon Network and demand his own animated series, right? CN must surely have higher standards than that. Well, here’s how Lynch describes his pitch to Cartoon Network’s Mike Lazzo:

“Mike asked me what I wanted to do next. I told him I really wanted to do an animated show, and I want to have some music in it. He said, ‘great, you have a pilot with us – do what you want to do.’”

Nothing about this industry surprises me anymore, but I’d be lying if I said that reading things like this didn’t piss me off. How is that CN won’t greenlight a surefire quality cartoon series from Aaron Springer, one of the industry’s most talented creators, but they’ll offer a no-questions-asked pilot deal to an ’80s kiddie show producer who doesn’t understand the first thing about animation? Somehow, in its own twisted way, it makes sense though. In an industry where you don’t actually need any knowledge of the art form to become an executive, it would be hypocritical to require that show creators know anything about animation either.

UPDATE: A Brew reader who prefers to remain anonymous, but who I can assure you is an excellent artist, writes in with the following. I had to edit most of the email to preserve their anonymity though you’ll get the gist of the message, which is that non-artists have the freedom to create any piece of junk they want at CN while visual artists have to jump through an interminable amount of hoops to get anything on the air:

I just read your post about Class of 3000 and I would like to give you some additional info. Tommy Lynch was actually never required to produce a pilot before the show was greenlit. The show went straight to series without ever being tested! They poured buckets of money into the show before it was ever launched; Craig Kellman, Stef Choi and many others all took passes at designing the characters. As you can imagine, this has created a bit of a double standard at CN. People like Dan Krall and Derik Bachman, Thurop Van Orman, as well as myself, have projects that have languished through countless executive notes while crap like Class of the 3000 gets the red carpet treatment.

The new book I AM PLASTIC: THE DESIGNER TOY EXPLOSION, by Kidrobot founder Paul Budnitz, is a handsomely designed and fun-to-flip-through visual history of “designer toys.” For those who aren’t aware, designer toys are essentially Beanie Babies for urban hipsters. They’re like regular toys except they’re garishly-colored, a lot more expensive and they don’t have any functionality besides sitting pretty on shelves. One of the justifications for the high prices of these “toys” is because they’re produced in limited editions, but as this book makes clear, there’s thousands of “limited edition” toys on the market, and despite their superficial differences, most of them appear to be cut from the same cloth. If anything, seeing the toys collected in a book like this only emphasizes how visually unimaginative and inbred the whole movement is. It’s sure to make a fine Christmas present for your friends who just don’t know any better.

If you are interested in purchasing Leonard Maltin’s essential animation history, Of Mice And Magic, make sure you order the one pictured above left. I’ve gotten several letters recently from readers who have made the mistake, when ordering through Amazon, of ordering the book on the right. I suppose it was bound to happen. While both books have in common several distinct talking mice, clearly David Farland’s fantasy novel, published in 2005, should not be confused with Maltin’s award winning non fiction history of Hollywood cartoons.While I’m at it, neither book should be confused with the Herman & Katnip cartoon of the same name.

When was the last time a live action network primetime drama series featured an original animation segment as part of its plot? Van Partible (creator of Johnny Bravo) has just produced and directed three and a half minutes of cartoon madness for the two-hour season premiere of Medium on NBC. And it may just be a first.With characters designed by Dan Haskett (in a loose Jim Tyer style), the four brief Monkeyhead dream sequences were animated in flash by Six Point Harness Studios under Partible’s direction. The script was written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Supervising Producer from “Lost”) and Glenn Gordon Caron (the creator).So, is this the first time an adult theme – like murder – has been explored through animation in prime time? I know Fred has tried to kill Barney over a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles, but that’s not what I mean. Animation segments have been used on live action prime-time network series before, primarily on comedy shows like Caroline In The City, My Wife and Kids, The Drew Carey Show, and Mad About You, The Duck Factory, My World and Welcome To It. There was an outstanding episode of George Burns Comedy Week (1985) called “The Honeybunnies” with a dark comedy animation segment created by Nelvana. Anything else?In the meantime, I’ll be watching the November 15th episode of Medium. It sounds great – and it might just be an historic occasion!

UPDATE: Animator Mark Mayerson writes: “Glen Gordon Caron previously used Will Vinton to do an animated segment on Moonlighting. I remember that they turned Bruce Willis into a clay frog for that.”IMDB’s Jon Reeves mentions that “a stop-motion segment for an episode of My Name Is Earl will air some time this month”.And finally, Bob Miller wants to remind us that Hanna Barbera’s New Adventures Of Huck Finn was a dramatic prime time series that combined live action and animation on a weekly basis.(Image from model sheet above Property of CBS Paramount Network Television / Picturemaker Productions / Grammnet Productions)

Sketchtravel is an exciting new project initiated by Dice Tsutsumi (of Blue Sky fame) and French animation artist Gérald Guerlais. The idea is to take one sketchbook, deliver it all over the world to more than fifty different artists, and end up with one amazing book of original artwork. It’s not a contest and the artists aren’t participating for profit – it’s about bringing together talented artists from around the globe and inspiring an exchange of visual ideas. The completed sketchbook will be exhibited in the Arludik Gallery in Paris and auctioned off for charity. So far, participating artists include Pierre Alary, Rebecca Dautremer, Andrea Blasich, Alexandra Boiger, Vincent Nguyen, Peter de Sève and Mike Knapp. There’s a nice website with many more details about the project at Sketchtravel.com.

At the Copro Nason Gallery, A Curious Show: The Collective Works Of Pressure Printing has an opening reception tomorrow night (Nov. 4th). I’m not sure how many of the artists in the show will be in attendance, but the talent on display includes Glenn Barr (above), Gary Baseman, Coop, Jim Woodring, Tony Millionaire, Kim Deitch, Tim Biskup, Mark Mothersbaugh, and a dozen others.Reception: November 4th, 8pm-11:30pm, Copro Nason Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, CA

Animation background painter Bill Wray decided to go legit a while back and become the fine artist William Wray, but thankfully for us, he still dabbles in cartoons as well. In fact, he has a new blog – Mad About Cartoons – where he’s sharing some of his recent animation and comic work. Be sure to check out the loads of really appealing superhero babies that he’s posted on there.

Man, I’d forgotten about this.Thanks to YouTube, somebody has posted a video of the old FUNTASTIC WORLD OF HANNA BARBERA ride at Universal Studios Florida. As I recall, this was produced at Sullivan Bluth Studios in 1990, and directed by David Steinberg.

This ride ended its run at Universal in 2002, but it lives again and is being re-installed this year at Paramount’s Great America theme parks.