Animation in the United States in the television era was a period in the history of American animation that slowly set in with the decline of theatrical animated shorts and the popularization of television animation that started in the late 1950s, reached its peak during the 1970s, and ended around the mid-1980s. This era is characterized by low budgets, limited animation, an emphasis on television over the theater, and the general perception of cartoons being primarily for children. Due to the perceived cheap production values, poor animation, and mixed critical and commercial reception, the era is generally looked back upon negatively by critics and animation historians. The television animation of this period is often referred to as the dark age of American animation, while the theatrical animation from the time is sometimes referred as the bronze age.
Klasky-Csupo, Inc., is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and her husband, Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó in a spare room of their apartment and grew to 550 artists, creative workers and staff in an animation facility in Hollywood.
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez was an American animator, director, producer, and voice actor. Melendez is known for working on the Peanuts animated specials, as well as providing the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock. Before Peanuts, he previously worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, and UPA.
Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American animation production studio based in Glendale, California, with a second studio in Glendale and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in Seoul, South Korea. The studio was founded in Van Nuys, Los Angeles by Gregg Vanzo in 1991.
Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian animator, writer, director, producer and graphic designer. He is co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which has produced shows like Rugrats, Duckman, Stressed Eric, Rocket Power, As Told by Ginger, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.
Snoopy, Come Home! is a 1972 American animated musical comedy-drama film directed by Bill Melendez and written by Charles M. Schulz based on the Peanuts comic strip. The film marks the on-screen debut of Woodstock, who had first appeared in the strip in 1967. It was the only Peanuts film during composer Vince Guaraldi’s lifetime that did not have a score composed by him. Its music was composed by the Sherman Brothers, who composed the music for various Disney films like Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967), and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). The film was released on August 9, 1972 by National General Corporation, produced by Lee Mendelson Films, Bill Melendez Productions and Cinema Center Films. Despite receiving largely positive reviews, the film was a box-office flop, grossing only $245,073 against a production budget of over $1 million.
Sunwoo & Company, Co., Ltd. (㈜선우앤컴퍼니) is an animation studio located in Seoul, South Korea. It was established as Sunwoo Production Inc. in 1974. It began by producing animation mainly for Disney Afternoon TV series, such as Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Bonkers and Darkwing Duck, and soon expanded by providing animation services for Nickelodeon shows like Rocko's Modern Life and Invader Zim, and other series like Duckman on USA Network and Fatherhood on Nick at Nite.
Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese-American animation studios since 1978. The company, based in Xindian, Taipei and Los Angeles, California, has done traditional hand-drawn 2D animation/ink and paint for various TV shows and films for studios across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Philip Roman is an American animator and the director of the Peanuts and Garfield animated specials. He is the founder of the animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment.
Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown is a prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on January 5, 1979.
This Is America, Charlie Brown is an eight-part animated television miniseries that depicts a series of events in American history featuring characters from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired from 1988 to 1989 on CBS. The first four episodes aired as a weekly series in October and November 1988; the final four episodes aired monthly from February to May 1989.
Melendez Films is a film animation studio. It was founded in 1962 by Steven C. Melendez, the son of Peanuts animator Bill Melendez.
The fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 24, 1992, and May 13, 1993, beginning with "Kamp Krusty". The showrunners for the fourth production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, with the season being produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season three, which Jean and Reiss also ran. Following the end of the production of the season, Jean, Reiss and most of the original writing staff left the show. The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and Dan Castellaneta would win one for his performance as Homer in "Mr. Plow". The fourth season was released on DVD in Region 1 on June 15, 2004, Region 2 on August 2, 2004, and in Region 4 on August 25, 2004.
Starz Distribution, formerly IDT Entertainment and Starz Media is the distribution arm of Starz Inc., a subsidiary of Lionsgate, established in 2003. It develops, produces and acquires original programming content branded as Starz Originals, feature films and other audiovisual programming for distribution across television, home video and streaming media.
Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown is an animated TV documentary that celebrates 25 years of the Peanuts comic strip. The special first aired January 9, 1976 on CBS. The special includes clips from the previous 14 Peanuts specials and interview segments with creator Charles M. Schulz, with narration by Carl Reiner. The cast in this special reprised their roles in a Peanuts movie in 1977.
S4 Studios, LLC is a multidisciplinary broadcast design, animation and visual effects studio, founded in 1999 by Geoffrey Kater and Dale Hendrickson, augmented two years later by Larry Le Francis. The company is named after a highly sensitive and purportedly extraterrestrial alien research complex located within the super-secret U.S. government base Area 51. Kater, a futurist designer, came from Saban Entertainment. Le Francis was an animation series producer at Klasky Csupo, Inc. and Nickelodeon. Hendrickson designed some 2,000 characters for Fox TV’s The Simpsons during his seven years as the series’ Character Design Supervisor. He left S4 Studios in 2006. Originally located in Van Nuys, California, the company relocated to Hollywood, California in 2004.
Phil Ortiz an American animator. He has worked for more than 30 years as a professional artist, ranging from daily newspaper comic strips to animated cartoons.
Boulder Media Limited is an Irish animation studio founded by filmmaker Robert Cullen in 2000. It is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian media company Princess Pictures, who purchased the company in 2022 from its previous owner, Hasbro.
Events in 1937 in animation.
Igor Adolfovich Kovalyov born 17 January 1954) is a Ukrainian animator, director and educator, co-founder of Pilot — the first private animation studio in the Soviet Union Ukraine. From 1991 to 2005 he worked at Klasky Csupo where he co-created Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and co-directed The Rugrats Movie. He currently serves as a creative producer at Soyuzmultfilm. Kovalyov is also known for his auteur films for which received multiple international awards, including three Grand Prizes at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
