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Chapter 14: The Terry-fying Challenge
Terrytoons. Here was my locale that most interests the animation historians. So now I finally have the chance to tell it like it really was. I name names -- all the names, and print the pix. And all the production details about Tom Terrific. I tell you what I did and what I tried to do - a "renaissance" - a total make over... and I tell you why it failed.
Paul Terry, in 1955, had suddenly sold his Terrytoons studio and vast library of schlock cartoons to CBS-TV, who began looking for a new creative chief to "revitalize" the studio. In the spring of 1956 they came to me. Why, I didn't know, and I certainly didn't ask. It was the dream challenge of every red-blooded 100% American boy animator; a chance to remake the world's worst animation studio into the best. It turned out to be my greatest failure. Yet it was at Terrytoons that I created my most famous cartoon character, Tom Terrific.
I was so dazzled by the CBS offer that I completely overlooked two totally depressing facts. Fact One: What CBS really wanted was that vast library of 650 schlock cartoons. Mighty Mouse! Heckle & Jeckle! Gandy Goose! Farmer Alfalfa! Dinky Duck! Kiko the Kangaroo! The Terry Bears! Puddy the Pup! Little Roquefort! Names that reverberated like punctured tin drums in the annals of animation! Fact two: The studio manager, one William Weiss, had a tenure contract as his only pay-off for a life of toadying to Paul Terry. And he, Bill Weiss, would have the job of juggling those ancient cartoons into weekly kiddie shows on CBS-TV.
Whereas I was given the golden job of turning a loser cartoon studio into a winner; complete freedom to reinvent Terrytoons, to make a creative "renaissance!" A sure winner, right? Wrong! I never had a chance. I couldn't fly, but like the bumblebee, I didn't know it, and I flapped my wings anyway.
There were 18 blank CinemaScope screens to fill each year for 20th Century-Fox. (This was still the mid-20th century, you understand.) And there was the parent company, CBS, which would be using us as their source of animation programming. We had it made.
Except for a few negative factors: When I was first recruited by CBS, they delayed as long as possible taking me out to the Terrytoons studio, until they felt sure I would accept the job. It was clear to them that I would be dismayed, and turned off when I finally was introduced to Bill Weiss. They were right. The moment I met him, I sized him up as a crude and cultureless dead-hand. He regaled me with tales of how he was screwed by Terry. Bitterness! I reluctantly opted out. This was not a man I wished to work with.
Schwin had downplayed Weiss's position, describing him as a "business manager" of minor importance, and that I would have CBS support continuously in weekly staff meetings, which Schwin would always attend. I tried to protect myself by declaring that I would only take the position if I had a secure written contract. I was told that "nobody at CBS had a contract." I was carefully soothed into acceptance of the risk. I later found out that Weiss did have a five year contract! It had been a condition of sale insisted on by Terry, who used that device to get out of his earlier promise to cut in Weiss on a portion of his sale payment from CBS, so from their point of view it somehow "didn't count." I considered Weiss a hateful and reactionary element, but in my enthusiasm for creating something great at Terrytoons, I dropped my guard.
While I was necessarily investing the company's money in projects I believed would in time raise the Terrytoons image, Weiss was simply and cheaply packaging the old schlock library into the Mighty Mouse Show, and the Heckle & Jeckle Show. Easy money - and quick.
ICXbEx
gtHxTsM
Though your tenure at Terrytoons was not commercially successful, I think you did succeed in making some ground-breaking films. I remember seeing some of your Terrytoons with Clint Clobber, John Doormat, Sidney and others on cable well over a decade ago and I wish I could see them again. ("Another Day Another Doormat" I remember being particularly good.)It's a shame old treasures like these are not preserved on video or DVD. Maybe someday we'll all be pleasantly surprised.
Wow, I can thank you at last.
I grew up in Victoria BC, the usual Saturday morning cartoon fan.
I watched a LOT of cartoons, like most of my generation. There is none that comes close for me to John Doormat. I remember seeing two of them and howling through them. I've never seen them since and would buy them if I could.
You're a flipping genius mate.
Cheers
John deBoer
I GREW UP WITH ALL THE GREAT CARTOONS FROM THE LATE 50'S AND UP. I STILL LOOK FOR ANY OF YOUR WORK TERRY TO SHOW MY KIDS. BELIEVE IT OR NOT THE WATCH IT MORE THAN THE JUNK THEY MAKE TO DAY. IT'S HAD TO FIND ALOT OF THE OLD CARTOONS UP HERE IN BOOKS OR VIDEOS, SO WHEN I FIND THEM I GET THEM TO SAVE FOR THE FUTURE. I DO ALOT OF VOL. WORK AT 3 SCHOOLS AND I TRY TO REINTRODUCE THE OLDIES TO THE CHILDREN. DON'T EVER STOP MAKING THE CLASSICS,AND IN MY EYES YOU NEVER FAILED IN YOUR WORK. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE.
When I was 4 years old, I believed that *I* was Tom Terrific and could change into any shape and be anything I wanted to be. Your Tom Terrific cartoon was a wonderful gift to the world, and sparked the budding imaginations of countless children. I would love to see it again, how??
Just another Tom Terrific lover, chiming in. He's one of my fondest memories of childhood.
Jim
TOM TERRIFIC WAS APTLY NAMED, SINCE IT'S ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL, MOST ORIGINAL, MOST CLEVER CARTOONS EVER PRODUCED. THE OPAQUE CHARACTERS, THE VERBAL PUNS, THE MINIMALIST MUSICAL SCORE, AND THE "SERIAL" PACKAGE ALL ADDED UP TO ANIMATED NIRVANA. THE MIGHTY MANFRED WAS A WONDERFUL, LOVABLE SIDEKICK (AND CUNNING COMIC RELIEF), AND DO-BADDIE CRABBY APPLETON EVEN INSPIRED A SUCCESSFUL ROCK BAND OF THE SAME NAME. THANK HEAVENS NOBODY'S EVER MESSED WITH "TOM TERRIFIC"!! HE'S ONE OF THE ALARMINGLY FEW CARTOON STARS WHO HASN'T BEEN DEGRADED IN THE HANDS OF A NEW STUDIO OR A NEW CAMPAIGN. YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MESS WITH PERFECTION!!!
My first animating stint was on TOM TERRIFIC, Gene, and what a pleasure it was working with you and Connie Rasinski, Bob Kuwahara, and Jim Tyer directing. I pass the old Terrytoons building nearly every day here in New Rochelle...(it's now a huge fresh fruit and veggie outlet)...and I swear that on some beautiful terrific days I can hear Tom saying..."You're TERRIFIC, Manfred !!!" And Manfred of course responds, "No...YOU'RE TERRIFIC, TOM".
45 years later, I'm still animating, and I can't think of another character that I enjoyed working on quite as much as TOM.
Thanks for letting the world know about Bill Weiss. When I'd been working at TERRYTOONS for eight years, out of a clear blue sky (I had finished my animation apprenticeship and was due to be classified a "master animator" with a $30 dollar a week raise to $176...) he fired me on an overcast Thanksgiving Eve. What a thoughtful, considerate, wonderful guy !!!
It was a pleasure and an inspiraton working with you, Gene....and altho Eli, and Connie and Bob and Jim and Lars and Artie Bartsch are gone, I'm so glad to see that YOU are -- not only still around, but still full of the fire and enthusiasm of old.
Thanks, Gene !
"So it was just another failure..." TOM TERRIFIC? Never. That sentence cannot stand. Not in ANY context. Granted, in a just world, the character would be referred to as "Gene Deitch's TOM TERRIFIC," and Mr. Deitch would be receiving royalties from Viacom's extensive but tasteful exploitation and licensing of the character in new cartoons, vidcassettes, dvds, t-shirts, graphic novels and off-broadway musical. Believe me, though the world seems to be run by the descendents of Bill Weiss and Crabby Appleton, TOM TERRIFIC was no failure. Not possible. No way. I mean no disrespect, but please delete the sentence; it is misleading, offensive and disturbing in its inaccuracy.
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