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Now that Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space has dropped on Netflix, I thought I would share some of my recollections as to how this special series of Natasha Allegri’s came to be. –Fred Seibert
Taking a break from the BTS chronology I’m going to take a minute for some thank yous. Of course, I’ll forget to include some people, but you shouldn’t take it as more than swiss cheese brain.
Some say that filmmaking is a collaborative art, and in my case, that’s been totally true. Yes, for me, that’s an understatement. Getting to a series like “Bee and PuppyCat” is a collection of experiences where I learned from hundreds of people, and then worked directly with hundreds more. In cartoons alone, I’ve had 30 years of a lot of ups, too many downs, some great successes and greater misses.
It was clear to me right at the beginning that American cartoons suffered greatly from relegating women to support positions rather than primary creative ones. Within weeks of starting at Hanna-Barbera I’d voice the lament to anyone who’d listen. It was a long time before anyone even pitched, but by 2006, with Random! Cartoons, we had more women coming in with their ideas than ever before, and in the end nine women created finished cartoons. And during Too Cool! Cartoons, for our Cartoon Hangover channel, almost half the shorts were by a new generation of creative women, including Natasha.
Onto the thanks. Please remember that these posts are about the “behind the scenes” of what makes B&PC. None of us miss the plain truth that it’s our fans that makes everything worth it.
I’m not sure if there’s a way to thanks Natasha Allegri enough, is there? An amazing artist, a deep storyteller, a lovely person with a stunning vision.
Eric Homan and I were colleagues for 27 years, the last 15 or so, heading development at Frederator Studios. It was Eric who, for us, spotted what a special talent Natasha had. He was the person who saw her web comic that kickstarted the Fionna and Cake phenomenon. And, of course, he invited Natasha over to show us the cartoon she’d been working on in 2013.
Carrie Miller has been another indispensable presence during my Frederator years. She ran our New York operation, produced our first original cartoons for Channel Frederator, and by the time Eric sent over the PuppyCat storyboard for a second opinion (”Greenlight this cartoon right now!”), she was running the entire New York office and our YouTube channels.
Don’t think I’ve ignored Pendleton Ward. Because it was Pen’s and Natasha’s friendship, built around the web comics that they traded over years, that inspired Pen to convince her to join the Adventure Time team, her first foray into professional cartoons. Without Pen, I’m not at all sure that any of us could have become her great followers. And don’t think he didn’t help B&PC creatively whenever possible.
Kevin Kolde and I met during my time at Hanna-Barbera, and during his pre-cartoon and SPüMCø lives I did everything I could to bring him over to my side of things. Eventually he succumbed, and while he was developing what has become the ”Castlevania” universe, he patiently worked with dozens of the creators –almost none of whom had ever run a professional cartoon production– I foisted upon him during various shorts productions. Natasha was definitely a mature artist and storyteller who had relatively scant experience in production, and over the decade that Bee and PuppyCat has lived it’s Kevin’s subtle hand that has made all the productions possible.
Efrain Farias and Hans Tseng have been key creative collaborators with Natasha throughout the decade of the B&PC saga. Both of these folks are talented artists, but that doesn’t begin to catalog their contributions to the shows.
Larry Leichliter has worked on everything. As far as I’m concerned, Larry Huber introduced him my way to direct on ChalkZone; Eric and Kevin suggested him for the Adventure Time short, and he eventually became the series’ original supervising director. He served on Bee and PuppyCat the same way where set the directorial vision.
Actors, we’ve had a few. You’re undoubtedly familiar with Allyn Rachel, Kent Osborne, Pretty Patrick Seery, but I think if you peruse the who cast you might get a few surprises.
Didn’t Will Wiesenfeld do an amazing job? Just check out Baths too! Natasha really scored here.
The entire Frederator Studios production team, small as it was, kept things on track, particularly Sylvia Edwards and Steve Worth, who had a lot going on at the same time. The editors, sound department, special and visual effects, Garrett, they all did incredible work. Thank you!
Meredith Layne has voice casted and directed both series (among a whole lot of others for us). And if you look at the credits closely, these shows do not in any way tread the expected paths when it comes to actors.
Heather Kenyon and Junichi Yanagihara really made the difference when we moved the animation to OLM in Tokyo, and kept it up during “Lazy in Space.”
Matt Gielen had recently joined Frederator Networks when we started looking at storyboards for Too Cool!. Though “influencers” were already flooding YouTube, which de-emphasized scripted, character based programming, Matt became an industry leader understanding how to help us build a loyal community of viewers who became the backbone of the Bee and PuppyCat fandom.
We heard from Nate Olson in Part 4 of this BTS series, but as I said there, a Bee and PuppyCat series might not have existed with his sweat, blood and smarts he brought to bear in shepherding our community of viewers-turned-fans into a group of committed supporters, first with the Kickstarter, then with the product companies that came aboard. Maybe more than anyone else, Nate was the loud voice representing the community, keeping all of us in line, understanding that without that special audience all our work would be for nothing.
Making a show like B&PC should be enough. The Cartoon Hangover crew in New York –Cade Hiser, Nicky Fung, Zoe Barton, and all the interns– lost a few years of their lives helped our fans stay fans. No, it’s not as easy as it looks.
Tom Pickett had bought my company, Next New Networks, for Google and YouTube to help them find audiences. And when he started Ellation (owner of Crunchyroll) and VRV to work with independent streaming networks, he reached out to see if Cartoon Hangover might be interested. His programmer, Arlen Marmel and business development head, Eric Berman, were particularly interested in “Bravest Warriors” and “Bee and PuppyCat.” Without these intrepid entrepreneurs we couldn’t have made “Lazy in Space.”
Michael Hirsh, Canadian animation innovator, saved Frederator when we ran into some tough times. “Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space” probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day without him.
Brian Gucciardo was in the law department at my other company, Next New Networks. He’s been around the block, and then some, in almost every facet of the entertainment business. Let me tell you true, doing the kind of agreements we have with first time creators for “Too Cool! Cartoons” (home of B&PC) and “GO! Cartoons” (throw Sony Pictures Animation in that mix) is no easy rolling. Not to mention our arrangements with Netflix and everything else we through at him (thousands –thousands!– of Channel Frederator Network members!).
Fred Pustay and I have worked together for decades, starting at MTV. He's saved my bacon more often than I can say. And he kept Frederator on an even keel no matter now hard I tried to screw it up. We couldn't have gotten through the treacherous waters to get Bee and PuppyCat made without him.
Like I said, it takes a village. And any villagers I’d neglected will be added as they yell at me.
Wow! On Netflix now. Finally.
More to come in BTS w/B&PC Part 6. Catch up here.
