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Working on TaleSpin
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I was working at Hanna Barbera when I met Bob
Hathcock and Liza Ann Warren who were working on the
Smurfs.
Bob & Liza moved to Disney and after a layoff at Hanna
Barbera they invited me to be a Production Assistant on
DuckTales.
The following year I became an Assistant Producer on the
series TaleSpin. |
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Working for Disney was a dream, although I was
much more excited about my silver pass to Disneyland than my
job!
I often brought my camera to take pictures at work and in one
episode of TaleSpin, a layout artist created "Scott's
Camera Shop" for me.
I'd like to share with you some of my photos from my TV
Animation days. |
Each year, Disney had a party at Disneyland.
There were highly discounted food and drinks, free photo
locations, and employees from the studio and Imagineering were
allowed to work for a few hours in the park.
Here's Liza Ann and I during my first Disney Christmas party.
We got to work on the "Haunted Mansion" (1988)and that was the
first time I got to walk around the attraction and see all the
behind the scenes workings.
The following year I volunteered on the newly opened "Splash
Mountain" which I was just enamored with. The people who worked
on it sensed my excitement and gave me a complete walk thru tour
after the park closed. |
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Here's Bob Hathcock who was the Producer of
DuckTales when I started as a Production Assistant.
To the right is his father Jerry Hathcock, a veteran animator
who worked on many classic Hanna Barbera television shows and
classic Disney films including some Mickey Mouse shorts in the
1940s! |
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Here's Tom Ruzicka who was the Director
of Disney TV Animation, looking
at me and thinking, "Oh look,
Scott's at it with his camera again." |
Here's Jymn Magon, one of the creators of
TaleSpin. We often had themed days in an
effort to boost morale. This was a western day.
That's writer Julia Lewald behind him. |
Here's Ed Wexler who did layout design and Rob
LaDuca who did storyboards on TaleSpin. |
To give you an idea of Ed's personality, before
doing this caricature of me he asked me what part of my body I'm
most sensitive about. I said my nose... so glad I didn't say my
stomach!
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In an effort to speed up the animation process
there were actually four teams that did TaleSpin. Four
Producers, four Assistant Producers... four of everything.
Producer Ed Ghertner and I were on the same team. Here he is
clowning around with an Emmy Award.
Ed is a phenomenal artist who has been involved in many of
Disney's theatrical films such as Beauty and the Beast
and Lion King and it was really a privilege to have the
chance to work with him. |
Larry Eikleberry did storyboards on TaleSpin!
What a talent and a generous, generous man!
Look at those caricatures he did of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells,
animator Woolie Reitherman, and Roy E. Disney. Near the bottom
is a self-caricature.
Spending time with people like Larry was one thing I really
loved about my job! |
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This is Libby Hinson who was one of the many
writers on TaleSpin. One thing that Ed and I loved about
Libby's stories is that they always had a lot of heart. |
This is John Kimball, one of the Timing Directors
on TaleSpin... a zany guy who could always make me smile.
Looks like he cleaned his plate at another one of our morale
boosting events. We didn't go hungry at TV Animation.
John's father is Disney Legend Ward Kimball, one of Disney's
greatest animators who Walt Disney called a genius. |
This is Kenny Thompkins who did character design
on the show.
Any time one of us had a birthday, Kenny would do our caricature
and the whole department would sign the matte. |
Here's a caricature Kenny did of me...he was much
kinder to my nose. |
1989 was an exciting time for Disney animation.
It was the start of a new era of feature animation when The
Little Mermaid was released and a joy to be working at the
company during that period.
Here's TaleSpin Layout Artist Derek Carter during a
celebration at the studio for the release of The Little
Mermaid. |
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Tim Walker was one of the Timing Directors of
TaleSpin. He'd bring me to some of the hangouts where great
former Disney animators would hang out.
Man, did I love going to the Blarney Stone pub in Burbank with
Tim! I didn't drink but ate plenty of the cheese bread!
Tim was fun and zany and so very kind and extremely generous to
me.
When Ed Ghertner went to Feature Animation, Tim took over for Ed
as Producer of TaleSpin. |
Rick West was my Production Assistant, and it's
an interesting story how he was hired.
During a Christmas party when I worked on "Haunted Mansion" I
met Rick. He was working on that attraction and showed me
around. For me, one of the
joys of working for Disney was meeting people from all over the
company and learning about every part of
the company, and I found Rick fascinating.
Rick, however, wanted to work at the studio. So when my
assistant left, I got him the job. |
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Bruce Cranston was the head of the writers. You
know, I don't know what his official title was.
I really liked Bruce and think he really enjoyed being a part of
Disney.
Here he is working the Matterhorn during one of the Christmas
parties! |
The President of Disney TV Animation was Gary
Krisel.
As only an Assistant Producer it sure was fun to go up to the
President of our department at the Space Place at Disneyland and
buy a hot dog from him!
See the "TaleSpin Flight Crew" patch on my jacket? |
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In the episode "My Fair Baloo," Rebecca crosses
out names of people who would not go out with her.
Let's see there's Jymn Magon, Tim Walker, Ed Ghertner, Rick
West, Derek Carter, John Kimball, Rob LaDuca, me and a bunch of
others from the crew.
It's not very realistic, though... I would have gone with her.
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I hope you enjoyed this peek at some of the fun
times and swell people that were a part of TaleSpin.
See when
TaleSpin and the Disney Afternoon took over Disneyland. |
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