It seems like new primetime animated series are popping out of the woodwork. HBO bowed The Life and Times of Tim late last year, FOX has begun airing Sit Down, Shut Up and The Cleveland Show is on its way, Nick at Nite will premiere Glenn Martin DDS this summer, and ABC premieres The Goode Family on May 27th.
Back in 1990, The Simpsons had recently begun airing and FOX knew it was gonna be a hit – and the rest of the TV industry took notice. The result was a slew of prime-time animated pilots and episode orders, most of which seem tame enough to play on today’s daytime kids networks. Let’s look at a few…
Long before Seth MacFarlane and FOX started planning the Family Guy spin-off series The Cleveland Show, another animated Cleveland project was in development. It was Arsenio Hall’s Cleveland City Limits, brought to life by Overton Loyd and Jerry Brice in 1990. The lead was Chunky-A, Arsenio’s alter-ego. Here’s an 8-minute pilot presentation, introduced and VO’d by Arsenio himself:
Family Dog seems to be the only quality product in the bunch. Bowing in 1993, the series was created (at CalArts) and written by Brad Bird with music from Danny Elfman. Adding to the above-the-line fire power were producers Spielberg and Tim Burton. The first TV airing was in 1987, set in an episode of Amazing Stories, so it’s actually not a reaction to The Simpsons’ success. Here’s the first few minutes of an episode, titled Show Dog:
Fish Police, a Hanna-Barbera production, aired briefly on CBS in 1992. Here’s the title sequence:
Capitol Critters was a 1992 series for ABC that was produced by Steven Bochco (fresh off of Cop Rock) and Hanna-Barbera that followed a bunch of rodents who lived in the White House. Here’s the title sequence:
Interesting note: Fish Police, Capitol Critters, Family Dog we’re all listed on Tombstones in The Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror III.
Thanks Aaron for linking my Arsenio project to this article.It is so appropriate,and kind of funny.
I should mention it was commissioned by ABC…Bob Iger personally attended our pitch presentation,and he was pretty cool.
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