Blood, Sweat and Clay - The Celebrity Deathmatch Way

Question: What are some of the positive responses from celebrities who got skewered on the Celebrity Deathmatch?

“Has a celebrity ever come after you for making fun of them?” Over the years this has been one of the most frequently asked questions put to me, regarding Celebrity Deathmatch.

Building a stop-motion animation studio can be a challenging endeavor. Especially when that studio is located on the 31st floor of a corporate office building right smack in Midtown Manhattan.

Growing up, I was a latch key kid, often coming home to an empty house after school. My babysitters’ names were Popeye, Tom, Jerry, Bugs and Daffy. I was literally raised on those old school cartoons with their over the top slapstick violence and impeccable timing.They would leave an indelible mark on me.

In the case of Celebrity Deathmatch, I knew I had a solid concept – two celebrities with a score to settle face off in a clay animated wrestling ring…and fight to the death! The pitch could not have been any simpler and yet it had all of the components of great entertainment – pop culture, biting satire, cartoony violence and an animation style that was beloved but seldom seen. And yet it would take MTV over a year to greenlight a pilot!

The beautiful thing about inspiration is that you never know when it’s going to hit. Case in point – it’s 1989 and I’m working in the equipment checkout room at NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts. The room is where student filmmakers go to borrow the cameras, lights and all the grip stands they’ll need to make their films.