[Groop]Cartoon show....

[Mark Evanier]

On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 10:11:26 -0500, "Ugly Person"
<msudol0928 at rogers.com> wrote:

>I will, of course, take your word for this.  However, with that concept in
>mind, the longstanding concept of no adults in Peanuts seemed great and why
>it changed is beyond me.  I had queried others about this and that is what I
>was told. I acknowledge that I had no idea where they got their sources.

ME: Well, for what it's worth, my sources were Charles Schulz and his
producer, Lee Mendelson.

Mr. Schulz always retained a creator's right to change his mind and
act on hunches.  He sometimes made a certain decision and then, a few
years or months later, would decide to do the opposite.

Here's one example.  Snoopy never had a voice apart from Bill Melendez
making little squealing sounds.  At one point, Schulz saw one of those
Teddy Ruxpin dolls where a stuffed toy tells stories to kids.  He
decided he liked the idea of Snoopy telling stories to children, so he
decided that Snoopy could have a voice.  Actors were auditioned for
the role and one (no one you ever heard of) was selected.  Then Schulz
changed his mind and decided Snoopy shouldn't talk.

A year or three later, Schulz was discussing a TV project (a proposed
Snoopy animated Saturday morning series) and he decided it wouldn't
work unless Snoopy had a voice the way Garfield does in his animated
appearances.  He decided that Snoopy could have a voice that read his
thought balloons for us.  A few scripts were written...then Schulz
changed his mind again.  No voice.  The cartoon was abandoned.

Creator-control does not mean a creator makes up his mind and never
deviates.  It means the creator makes the decisions and, as things
evolve and projects change, the decisions can change.


------------------------------
www.POVonline.com - a website about comic books, cartoons, TV,
movies, Groo the Wanderer, Broadway, Las Vegas, Hollywood,
Stan Freberg, Laurel & Hardy, Jack Kirby and possums in my backyard.