Letters to the Editor

Prime Time Television Animation
I'm an animation director from London. I recently read Ralph Bakshi's bit on "adult animation" entitled "Draw What You Want To Draw" (Bakshi, 4.4). The whole issue of prime time animation is interesting because of the Japanese experience, often cited as a model for others. I remember being in Japan in 1985 and it was a revelation because animation is treated no differently than other types of programming, and merely becomes part of the "texture" of television there. I suppose it is because Manga and comics are such a pervasive medium amongst old and young alike. It's certainly lucrative. In the U.K. the issue of comics has always been a touchy one. I'm in my early 40s, and I have friends who were not even allowed comics as children, since they, especially those imported from the U.S., were considered a corrupting influence. In general comics have been sidelined as an inferior medium not worth serious consideration. No wonder today's commissioning editors avoid anything that smacks of comic style animation or narrative, despite an atmosphere where this very type of animation is becoming popular again via U.S. imports, such as South Park or The Simpsons. The latter even has its origin in print. As for the U.S., is it really bold programming? I remember Hanna-Barbera's Wait `Til Your Father Gets Home, which was a breath of fresh air in the `70s. Is this a case of the usual TV practice of scouring the archives to see if something has been done before and just re-packaging it? There's no doubt that good TV depends on good writing rather than visuals, so perhaps those 40 somethings are only looking back because they, like me, remember a good show. I despair that anyone in the U.K. or even the U.S. will back a really meaty animated series, which doesn't pay lip service to kids, but presents a good story -- and I don't mean animated versions of classics, which has been done. There are tons of stories out there and in spite of this, commissioners still expect first-timers to be classic authors as well as animators before they are taken seriously. It would be great to see animation wedded to the type of story dramatized in the early days of TV -- short, Serling-esque, crisp drama -- shows which, interestingly enough, had their origins in radio drama.

Regards,
Ravi N. Swami