Dorothea Gillim | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Education | |
Occupation | Television producer |
Years active | 2003–present |
Known for | Producing animated series |
Television | |
Awards |
Dorothea Gillim (born July 18, 1964) is an American television producer. She is the creator of the animated series WordGirl and Hey Monie! and co-creator of Molly of Denali . Under GBH, Gillim has produced multiple animated series including Curious George, Pinkalicious & Peterrific , and Time Warp Trio . [1]
In 2006, Gillim created WordGirl to respond to "the idea that children's television wasn't intelligent enough," feeling that most shows "underestimated their sense of humor and their intellect." [2] In 2022, Collider praised the show for its "non-white, little girl superhero" protagonist, claiming it started a female superhero trend and the generation who grew up watching WordGirl later demanded new and diverse Marvel heroes such as Captain Marvel. [2]
Gillim's co-created animation series Molly of Denali has been celebrated as "the nation's first widely distributed children's program featuring an Alaska Native as the lead character." [3] [4]
After graduating from Swarthmore College, Gillim was a fifth grade teacher in Philadelphia for three years before leaving to attend graduate school. [5] [6] She took interest in television writing following a media education course[ when? ] at Harvard Graduate School of Education. [5]
Her 2003 adult animation series Hey Monie! was praised for its improvised comedic dialogue [7] [8] and for featuring Angela V. Shelton as Monie, the show's Black female protagonist. [9]
In 2019, Tuca & Bertie creator Lisa Hanawalt mentioned Gillim's show Hey Monie! while compiling a list of adult animated shows created by women. [10] [11]
In 2022, regarding her co-creation of Molly of Denali, Gillim described the show as "long overdue" and stated, "We knew that this story was not ours to tell, and so our intention was to partner with Alaska Natives in the development of the characters in the world." [12] NPR commended the show for debunking stereotypes, addressing discrimination, [13] and presenting an educational representation of Alaskan Native culture. [13]
The Gwichʼin language belongs to the Athabaskan language family and is spoken by the Gwich'in First Nation (Canada) / Alaska Native People. It is also known in older or dialect-specific publications as Kutchin, Takudh, Tukudh, or Loucheux. Gwich'in is spoken primarily in the towns of Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, and Tsiigehtchic, all in the Northwest Territories and Old Crow in Yukon of Canada. In Alaska of the United States, Gwichʼin is spoken in Beaver, Circle, Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Birch Creek, Arctic Village, Eagle, and Venetie.
An animated sitcom is a subgenre of the sitcom that is animated instead of live action and is generally made or created for adult audiences in most cases. The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy are three of the longest-running animated sitcoms.
Steven Edward Loter is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and producer. His work includes Kim Possible and developing Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Hey Monie! is an American animated sitcom produced by Soup2Nuts. It features heavily improvised dialogue by the Second City cast, similarly to Soup2Nuts animated sitcom Home Movies.
WordGirl is an American children's Flash animated superhero television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled The Amazing Colossal Adventures of WordGirl that premiered on PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go! on November 10, 2006, usually shown at the end of Maya & Miguel; the segment was then spun off into a new thirty-minute episodic series that premiered on September 3, 2007 on most PBS member stations. The series of shorts consisted of thirty episodes, with 130 episodes in the full half-hour series.
Events in 1983 in animation.
Aaron Long is a Canadian animator and filmmaker. He is best known for his independent cartoons Sublo and Tangy Mustard and Fester Fish and for his work on the television series BoJack Horseman and Tuca & Bertie.
Raphael Matthew Bob-Waksberg is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and voice actor. He is known as the creator and showrunner of the Netflix animated comedy series BoJack Horseman and the Amazon Prime Video animated series Undone. He is also an executive producer on the Netflix/Adult Swim animated series Tuca & Bertie, created by BoJack Horseman production designer Lisa Hanawalt.
Lisa Hanawalt is an American illustrator, writer, and cartoonist. She has published comic series, as well as three books of illustrations. She worked as the production designer and a producer of the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020), and co-hosts the podcast Baby Geniuses (2012–present) with comedian Emily Heller. She created and executive produced the Adult Swim animated series, Tuca & Bertie (2019–2022).
Tim McKeon is an American writer, director and producer. He is the co-creator and head writer for the American-Canadian series Odd Squad. He has also worked as a writer on Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, as well as Disney Channel's Gravity Falls, Fish Hooks and Wander Over Yonder. McKeon is currently the creator and showrunner of the Apple TV+ series Helpsters.
Tuca & Bertie is an American animated sitcom created by cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt for Netflix. It began streaming on May 3, 2019. It stars Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong, with a supporting cast including Steven Yeun, John Early, Richard E. Grant, and Reggie Watts. The first season received positive reviews, and was cited as one of the best shows of 2019 by several publications. The show's central characters are two anthropomorphic female birds: Tuca the toucan and Bertie the song thrush. Episodes mainly focus on the two's relationships with each other and with their peers.
Molly of Denali is an animated children's television series produced by Atomic Cartoons in association with WGBH Kids, created by Dorothea Gillim and Kathy Waugh for PBS Kids and CBC Kids. It premiered on July 15, 2019, and is the first American nationally distributed children's show to feature an Alaska Native as the lead character. 38 half-hours were produced for season 1, which has a 50-minute special as its season finale. A special live-action segment filmed in Alaska airs between the two 11-minute story segments.
In the 2020s, LGBTQ representation in animated series and animated films became more pronounced than it had in the 2010s, or 2000s when it came to Western animation. This included series like The Owl House, Harley Quinn, Adventure Time: Distant Lands, RWBY, and Dead End: Paranormal Park. Series like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Steven Universe Future, The Hollow, and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, which had various LGBTQ characters, came to an end in 2020, and Gen:Lock came to an end in 2021. An upcoming season of Hazbin Hotel was hinted at, while an animated adaption of Lumberjanes was in development.
Alma's Way is an animated children's television series from Fred Rogers Productions created and executive produced by former Sesame Street actress Sonia Manzano and animated by Canadian animation studio Pipeline Studios. It premiered on PBS Kids on October 4, 2021.
Cartoon Network, an American TV channel which launched in 1992, and Adult Swim, its adult-oriented nighttime programming block which launched in 2001, has regularly featured lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) characters in its programming.
Vera Starbard is an Alaska Native editor and playwright. She is a Tlingit/Denaʼaina woman born in Craig, Alaska, graduating from East Anchorage High School in Anchorage, Alaska. In 2016, she was named Playwright-in-Residence at Perseverance Theatre in Douglas, Alaska. Her residency was renewed for Cohort 3: 2019–2022. She has written several episodes of the Molly of Denali animated children’s program airing on PBS KIDS. She is the editor of the “First Alaskans” magazine. Vera is currently a staff writer for Alaska Daily.
"The Jelly Lakes" is the 9th episode of the first season of the American animated sitcom series Tuca & Bertie. It was written by Shauna McGarry, and features guest appearances by Jane Lynch and Isabella Rossellini. The episode features Tuca and Bertie reconciling while on a visit to the Jelly Lakes, with Bertie coming to terms following a traumatic sexual assault she had faced when she was 12.