Mitchell Kriegman | |
---|---|
Born | Richmond, Virginia, U.S. | June 4, 1952
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Bennington College |
Occupation(s) | Television writer, director, producer, consultant, story editor, author |
Known for |
|
Mitchell Kriegman (born June 4, 1952) is an American television writer, director, producer, consultant, story editor, and author.
He is the creator of Clarissa Explains It All (1991) for Nickelodeon, Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) and The Book of Pooh (2001) for Disney Channel and It's a Big Big World (2006) for PBS. [1] Kriegman holds patents for a method of hybrid animation, known as Shadowmation, which combines high-definition virtual-environments with puppets and animatronics, composited and rendered in real time. The production technique was implemented in The Book of Pooh and It's a Big Big World. [2]
Kriegman's first novel was Being Audrey Hepburn (2014). A second novel, Things I Can't Explain, is a reimagining of the protagonist in the Clarissa Explains It All television series, in her twenties, published in November 2015.
Kriegman attended Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, earning a BA in literature in 1974. [3]
He began his career as a writer, video-artist and performance-artist, under the pseudonym Marshall Klugman. An Evening of Stories and Tricks You Won’t See Anywhere, was performed at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City and surrounding venues. His video work of this period includes, The Marshall Klugman Show (1975) which aired on WNET television. [4] As a short story writer, his work has been published in The New Yorker , Between C & D , the National Lampoon, Glamour, George Meyer's Army Man magazine and Harper’s Bazaar . [5] [1] [6]
The Telephone Stories (1979) is Kriegman's series of audio-plays for the telephone, one of the first installations of dial-in art. [7] In addition to being available on a special phone-line, The Telephone Stories toured museums and galleries around the country, including the High Museum and The Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, after premiering at the Whitney Museum, as the department's first audio-only offering. [8] [9] [10] [11] [7] Kriegman wrote and acted in Operation X segments for the PBS Series Alive from Off Center , which have been featured in the Walker Art Center and The Paley Center exhibits. [12] During this period Kriegman collaborated with Bart Friedman and Nancy Cain of Videofreex on several pieces including "Turkey Dinner" (1982), [13] a precursor to his full length My Neighborhood, funded by the American Film Institute, [14] which aired on WNET/13, and featured a sad sack Kriegman gleefully greeting everyone in his neighborhood, who all ignore him. [15]
Kriegman joined Saturday Night Live in 1980 (season 6), as a performer, writer and filmmaker. During his time there, he made three films:The Dancing Man, Heart to Heart, and Someone is Hiding in My Apartment. [10] [16] [17] He appeared in the sketches "Blame The Kids" and "Virgin Search". [18] He was also a contributor to Michael O'Donoghue's Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979), which included Kriegman's shorts, "Cleavage" and "This is a Man in a Dog Suit". [18] A third piece, "The Dancing Belly Button", was not televised but was included in the Anthology Film Archives collection. [19] After leaving Saturday Night Live his work turned markedly toward children's and young adult television programming.
Mouseterpiece Theater (1983), hosted by George Plimpton, was directed by Kriegman and co-written with Robert Cunniff for The Disney Channel; the show was a spoof on Masterpiece Theatre, but instead of presenting serious works in film, Plimpton would introduce Disney cartoons. [20] Further immersion into writing for children's television programming came from HBO's Encyclopedia (1988), [21] and ALF Tales in 1988. [22]
Kriegman produced The Sweet Life (1989), [23] and a sketch-comedy program called Higgins Boys and Gruber (1989) for The Comedy Channel. [24]
Moving to Nickelodeon, Kriegman became involved in the writing and development of Nicktoons in 1991, including Doug , Rugrats , and The Ren & Stimpy Show . Kriegman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for The Ren & Stimpy Show in 1992. [25] Rocko's Modern Life was added to the animated programming in 1993. [24]
Kriegman was the creator and executive producer of Clarissa Explains It All starring Melissa Joan Hart. The series ran for four seasons and Kriegman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1994, for Outstanding Children's Program. [25] CBS commissioned a pilot for a Clarissa sequel, continuing her story as a young working age adult, but the pilot was not picked up. [26]
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (1995), narrated by Kermit the Frog, [27] and Twisted Puppet Theater (1996), had Kriegman writing for puppet characters. [28] Kriegman created the Emmy Award-winning television series, Bear in the Big Blue House (1997), and created and directed, The Book of Pooh (2001), based on the Milne books, both in association with the Disney Channel. [29] Cast with bunraku puppets, both series employed Kriegman's shadowmation technique. [30] Kriegman also wrote for Sesame Street characters in the feature film, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999), co-written with Joey Mazzarino, and produced by The Jim Henson Company. [28]
Kriegman is the creator, executive producer and co-director of It's a Big Big World which aired on PBS Kids from 2006- 2010.
As of 2015, Kriegman is a novelist, instructor, and guest-lecturer, living in the Southern California area, [14] [31] and an adjunct professor at the University College Dublin. [5] Kriegman has taught webseries development and production and sitcom writing at Stony Brook Southampton, [14] lectures at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). [32] [31] Kriegman's second novel, Things I Can't Explain, based on the central character in Clarissa Explains it All, was published in 2015. [33]
Kriegman, formerly a member of Writers Guild of America, East, left and maintained financial core status. [34]
Kriegman’s video-art works are in the Castelli-Sonnebend collection, [35] as well as the Paley Center, [36] [37] [38] [39] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), [40] [41] The Kitchen Center, [10] and the London Institute of Contemporary Arts among others. [35]
Year | Title | Role | Network | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1975 | The Marshall Klugman Show | Writer, director, producer, actor | [4] | |
1980 | Saturday Night Live | Writer, filmmaker, actor | [17] [16] [18] | |
1984 | Mouseterpiece Theater | Director, writer, producer | [22] | |
1987 | Operation X | Writer, actor | [12] [36] [42] | |
1988 | Encyclopedia | Writer | [29] | |
1988 | ALF Tales | Writer | [22] | |
1989 | The Sweet Life | Producer | [23] | |
1989 | Higgins Boys and Gruber | Writer, producer | [24] | |
1991 | Doug | Story editor | [29] | |
1991 | Rugrats | Story editor | [29] | |
1991 | The Ren & Stimpy Show | Story editor | [29] | |
1991-1994 | Clarissa Explains It All | Executive producer, creator, story editor | [29] | |
1996 | Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree | Writer (adapted from Robert Barry book) | [27] | |
1996 | Twisted Puppet Theater | Co-creator, producer | [29] | |
1997 | Student Bodies | Executive consultant | [29] | |
1997-2006 | Bear in the Big Blue House | Creator, writer, director, producer | [29] | |
2001-2004 | The Book of Pooh | Creator, director, writer (based on A. A. Milne’s book of tales) | [29] | |
2005 | Life with Derek | Creative consultant | [29] | |
2006-2010 | It's a Big Big World | Creator, writer, producer, co-director | [43] [44] |
Year | Title | Role | Genre | Director |
---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema Of Edwin S. Porter | Voice | Documentary - Biography | Charles Musser [29] [45] |
1999 | The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland | Story, Screenplay | Children's - Muppets | Gary Halvorson [28] [29] [46] |
2001 | The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart | Writer, co-director | Children's DVD | Dean Gordon Mitchell Kriegman [47] |
Kriegman has won three Daytime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, [25] he is the winner of the Directors Guild of America Award (1999), [48] and has been nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award. [49] Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) garnered him two Emmys for Best Direction (in 2000 and 2002), as well as the Directors Guild Award in 1999, and an additional nomination in 2000. [48] His work on The Book of Pooh (2001) was recognized with a Best Direction Emmy in 2002. Other awards include three Parents Choice awards for Clarissa Explains It All (1991), [50] "Clarissa and Peter and the Wolf", and the UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence for Bear in the Big Blue House, and for The Book of Pooh. [51] It's a Big Big World (2006) received a Webby award, [52] two Emmy Nominations and two Environmental Media Award nominations. [53]
Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1992 | Rugrats (1991) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program [54] |
1992 | The Ren & Stimpy Show | Primetime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Animated Program [25] [54] |
1993 | Doug (1991) | CableACE Award | Nominated | Animated Programming Special or Series [54] |
1993 | The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991) | CableACE Award | Nominated | Animated Programming Special or Series [54] |
1994 | Clarissa Explains It All | Primetime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Children's Program [25] [54] |
1998 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Pre-School Series [54] |
1999 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Directors Guild of America | Won | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs, for "Love is All You Need" [48] |
2000 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Won | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series [54] |
2000 | Mary Cassatt: An American Impressionist (1999) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special [54] |
2000 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series [54] |
2000 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Directors Guild of America | Nominated | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs, for "A Berry Bear Christmas" [48] |
2001 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Writers Guild of America | Nominated | Children's Script, for "A Berry Bear Christmas" |
2002 | The Book of Pooh (2001) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Won | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series [54] |
2003 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Won | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series [54] |
2003 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series [54] |
2004 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series [54] |
2004 | Bear in the Big Blue House (1997) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series [54] |
2005 | The Book of Pooh (2001) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series [54] |
2006 | It's a Big Big World (2006) | Environmental Media Association Award | Nominated | Children's Live Action Television [53] |
2007 | It's a Big Big World (2006) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series [53] |
2007 | It's a Big Big World (2006) | Daytime Emmy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series [53] |
2007 | It's a Big Big World (2006) | Environmental Media Association Award | Nominated | Children's Live Action [53] |
Notes:
|
Kriegman has contributed works to The New Yorker , [55] the National Lampoon, Glamour magazine, and Harper's Bazaar . [1] [56] [57] At the community level, Kriegman serves as the executive editor for the Montecito Morning Mojo, [58] he has written for the Santa Barbara Independent [59] and the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB). [57] As a screenwriter, Kriegman has written for Universal, Disney and Columbia Pictures. [58] Kriegman created, produced and wrote screenplays for the television series, Clarissa Explains It All , [60] [1] He wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999) with Joey Mazzarino for The Jim Henson Company. [61] Kriegman is a staff writer at the Montecito Journal, [62] and creator of the Montecito Journal Morning Mojo. [58]
Kriegman is credited on Peter and the Wolf (1994), a Clarissa narrated version of the Sergei Prokofiev classic, featuring Clarissa & The Straightjackets. His additional songwriting credits are included in the collections: Songs from the Book of Pooh (2002) with Disney, including the closing theme with Brian Woodbury. For the Bear in the Big Blue House series, Kriegman's music credits include: Songs from Jim Henson's Bear in the Big Blue House (2000), More Songs from Bear in the Big Blue House (2002), Bear's Holiday Celebration (2002) and Greatest Hits (2005). [69]
Kriegman is credited with the patented design of the hybrid special-effects technique called Shadowmation, that combines live action puppets, animatronics, and computer animation utilizing video game engines and virtual environments. [2] [43] [44] [70] He holds a variety of patents for hybrid animation technologies. [71]
The Tigger Movie is a 2000 animated musical comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation with animation production by Walt Disney Animation (Japan), Inc., written and directed by Jun Falkenstein from a story by Eddie Guzelian, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on February 11, 2000. It is the second theatrical Winnie the Pooh film after The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and features Pooh's sidekick Tigger as the main protagonist searching for his family tree and other Tiggers like himself. The film was the first feature-length theatrical Pooh film that was not a collection of previously released shorts.
Melissa Joan Hart is an American actress, producer, and director. She had starring roles as the title characters in the sitcoms Clarissa Explains It All (1991–1994), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996–2003), and Melissa & Joey (2010–2015). She appeared as Liz in No Good Nick (2019). She has also appeared in the films Drive Me Crazy (1999), Nine Dead (2009), and God's Not Dead 2 (2016). On October 17, 2021, she became the first celebrity to win the $1 million top prize for her charity, Youth Villages, on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and the fourth overall million dollar winner on Wheel of Fortune.
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by authors A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, The New Adventures was the first time a major Disney character headlined an animated, made-for-television series as well as the first Disney television series based on a major animated film. The cartoon premiered with a limited run on The Disney Channel on January 17, 1988. Nine months later, the show moved to ABC as part of their Saturday morning lineup. New episodes continued until October 26, 1991. Proving popular with children and older fans, it remained on television in the United States for nearly two decades.
Clarissa Explains It All is an American teen sitcom created by Mitchell Kriegman for Nickelodeon. In the series, Clarissa Darling is a teenager who addresses the audience directly to explain the things that are happening in her life, dealing with typical adolescent concerns such as school, boys, pimples, wearing her first training bra, and an annoying younger brother.
David Henry Chase is an American writer, producer and director. He is best known for being the creator, head writer and executive producer of the HBO drama The Sopranos, which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007. Chase has also produced and written for shows such as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He created the original series Almost Grown which aired for 10 episodes in 1988 and 1989. He has won seven Emmy Awards. Chase's film debut came in 2012 with Not Fade Away, followed by The Many Saints of Newark (2021), a prequel film to the TV series The Sopranos.
The Book of Pooh is an American children's television series that aired on the Playhouse Disney block on Disney Channel. It is the third television series to feature the characters from the Disney franchise based on A. A. Milne's works; the other two were the live action Welcome to Pooh Corner and the animated The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which ran from 1988 to 1991. It premiered on January 22, 2001 and completed its run on July 8, 2003. It was repeated on Playhouse Disney until June 2, 2006. The show is produced by Shadow Projects. Walt Disney Pictures released the first of two films, a direct-to-video spin-off film based on the puppetry television series titled The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart in 2001.
The 27th Daytime Emmy Awards were held in 2000 to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from the previous year (1999).
Eric Jacobson is an American puppeteer. He is best known for his involvement with the Muppets, performing Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle for The Muppets Studio, as well as Sesame Street characters Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Guy Smiley—all roles that he inherited from the characters' original performers, Frank Oz, Caroll Spinney, and Jim Henson.
Stephanie Ann D'Abruzzo is an American actress, puppeteer and singer. She has performed various Muppets in the TV program Sesame Street. She held starring roles on Oobi and The Book of Pooh. She was one of the original cast members of the stage musical Avenue Q, receiving a nomination for the 2004 Best Actress in a Musical.
It's a Big Big World is an American children's television series that aired on PBS Kids from January 2, 2006, to January 8, 2010. The series was created by Mitchell Kriegman, the creator of the Muppet television series, Bear in the Big Blue House. After the series ended, reruns continued to air until April 30, 2010. The show revolves around a group of animals living in "The World Tree" in the rainforest along the Amazon River with the brazilian highest mountain Pico da Neblina as the mountain background. The main character and host is Snook the sloth.
Jim Martin is an American puppeteer and director, best known for his roles on Sesame Street. As part of the cast, he has won an Emmy Award. He has been nominated multiple times, and won for "Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design/Styling" at the Emmys, also for Sesame Street.
Shadowmation is a patented animation process created by Mitchell Kriegman. It uses realtime virtual sets and bunraku style team puppetry, thus combining live action animatronic characters with computer generated animation in real time, high definition virtual environments powered by video game engines. The resulting effect combines all the advantages of animatronics, the expressiveness of live performance, and the limitless freedom of computer animation. The end result is a distinctive and compelling immersive visual experience.
Michael Silversher and Patricia (Patty) Silversher, sometimes billed as Silversher & Silversher, are an American songwriting team known for writing themes and songs for Disney and Jim Henson television series, shows and specials, as well as direct-to-video animated films for Disney, Henson, Sony Wonder, MGM and Warner Bros. They participated on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album for the Sony-CTW film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. They have also been nominated for three prime-time Emmy Awards for outstanding music and lyrics.
Shannon Woodward is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Sabrina Collins on the FOX sitcom Raising Hope (2010–2014), Elsie Hughes on the HBO science-fiction thriller series Westworld (2016–2018), and the voice and motion capture of Dina in the video game The Last of Us Part II, for which she received a BAFTA Award for Performer in a Supporting Role nomination at the 17th British Academy Games Awards.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story commissioned by London's Evening News for Christmas Eve 1925. The character is based on a bear a service man brought to England, or a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods department store.
Bear in the Big Blue House is an American children's television series created by Mitchell Kriegman and produced by Jim Henson Television for Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney preschool television block. Debuting on October 20, 1997, it aired its last episode on April 28, 2006. Reruns of the program continued to air on Playhouse Disney until May 6, 2007.
Modern Family is an American sitcom television series, created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for ABC. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The show follows the lives of three diverse family set-ups living in suburban Los Angeles, who are interrelated through their patriarch, Jay Pritchett.
Mickey Mouse is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. Featuring Disney cartoon characters Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto in contemporary settings such as Paris, Venice, Tokyo and New York, the series has the slapstick feel of the earliest Mickey Mouse shorts while providing a modern update, and "presents Mickey in a broad range of humorous situations that showcase his pluck and rascality, along with his long-beloved charm and good heartedness". The animation is provided by Mercury Filmworks.
Joseph Mazzarino is an American puppeteer, writer, director and actor. He is best known for his roles on Sesame Street as Murray Monster, Stinky the Stinkweed and other Muppets, and being Head Writer and Director on Sesame Street, winning 22 Emmy Awards for his work.
Shadow Projects was a television company best known for making preschool television series with puppetry. Founded by Mitchell Kriegman in 1986, the company created and produced Bear in the Big Blue House, Breakfast with Bear and The Book of Pooh for Playhouse Disney.
Afterimage, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY (1983)
produced by Media Bus ; produced by Nancy Cain, Bart Friedman, and Tobe Carey. Additional Credits edited by Nancy Cain
In 2011 and 2012 we offered courses in DIY digital filmmaking, led by Emmy Award winning writer director Mitchell Kriegman.
Things only got better from there, because not only did Kriegman create Clarissa, and therefore create a pre-teen show with a female protagonist who both girls and guys could enjoy (a rarity at the time), he also worked on Rugrats, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Rocko's Modern Life.
Kriegman, a former video artist, is a writer and producer of varied experience. He has written short stories for The New Yorker and material for Saturday Night Live, the animated series Alf Tales and the Disney Channel series Mouseterpiece Theater.
To sum it all up, it's going to be a four-part event at I.V. Theater: a screening, talk, book signing and Q&A session — a recipe for an awesome night. Whether you're a young college student who dreams of making it big in Hollywood, but doesn't know where to start or just somebody curious about the dazzling and mysterious world of showbusiness, you will definitely be in for an intriguing night with the jack-of-all-trades, Mitchell Kriegman.
After showing offbeat, nostalgia-invoking clips from his extensive career, he gave valuable advice for young people interested in breaking into the industry and shared his important eight rules to live by.
(Series title varies; as above, 1985-1991; as "Alive TV," 1991 onward.)
This event has passed. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, July 1, 2014 – February 7, 2015
Kriegman, a parent and a veteran of children's television (he produced Bear in the Big Blue House), said he takes his responsibility to children and parents seriously. Each show, he said, is something he hopes will encourage families to watch together and then talk about afterward.
Alternate title: Elmo in Grouchland
This is Kriegman's second DGA Award nomination. He won the Award in this category last year for his direction of the "Love is All You Need" episode of Bear in the Big Blue House.
A Novel by Mitchell Kriegman
Reading the book, it's easy to hear it spoken in Melissa Hart's voice. [Kriegman] Well, that's the voice I write; I probably hear it too.
US 10/215,622. Publication date, Mar 22, 2005.
US 09/782,329. Publication date, Apr 24, 2007.