Neo Ultra Mike
Creeping Shadow of "15000"+ Posts
Now obviously though a cartoon in it's most original roughest draft typically either comes from either one or two artists, every series is going to have a team that especially if it goes on long enough will rotate out writers or directors who work on the series. Since obviously no series especially one that actually makes it to TV/Streaming is just going to come from one specific mind. Typically though for a lot of series once you get past the first or even second season, those creative minds who came up with the show really aren't in the writer's room anymore. They either moved on or are in a less creative field in regards to how the series operates or have made enough from the show to move onto another project they might be interested in. To the point where if you see their names in the credits still writing into like season 4 or 5 it's more of a surprise that they're still there when that typically isn't how cartoons go. So what's what this topic is; talking about the specific creators who are still associated with their show and have been with it through most of their run still having at least a hand on the ship guiding. And before we start a few stipulations.
1. I'm not talking about shows where yeah the creator is still always associated with the series because they voice main or supporting characters within the show thus are always going to show up. For example Family Guy/American Dad would NOT count for this because yeah Seth MacFarlane created those series and he is always going to be in every episode due to voicing Peter/Stewie/Brian/Stan/Roger etc but MacFarlane has also admitted he really stopped being creatively involved writing or directing AD even by it's second/third season and yeah work on some FG episodes in it's first season after the revival but hasn't really been in the writer's room since like late 2000's at least so yeah those shows wouldn't count for this list.
2. It's perfectly okay if for one reason or another the creator/creators may have missed like being involved with maybe one or two episodes. These though should be the outliers of the show as we're talking about shows that like have at least 90% of the creator involved in some form of the conception of the epiosde.
3. And yes I know cartoons that go to TV/Streaming generally do have a full writer's room so though one name is associated with the project it may be a variety of people and directors obviously have a bunch of different hands but point being if you are taking that specific credit you still did the most amount of work related to it to count and thus are what I consider the writer/director of the episode. And yeah even with official sources it's not always the easiest to know how 100% they are with credits but they are still proofable enough to count for this particular subject.
And to get the ball rolling here are the three that come to me off the top of my head.
Danny Antonucci, Ed Edd n Eddy - Something I always found interesting is that the idea of EEE was a dare requested of Antonucci to make by those who knew him best since he was known for his more disturbing adult animations so tried challenging him into what he would make as a kids show. Which wound up being one of Cartoon Network's big hits in the late 90's and 2000's that he not only had a hand in writing a majority of but directed all but ONE segment of. Like yeah "Smile For The Ed" in season 5 is the ONLY Segment of the series Antonucci didn't do himself so whether or not you're a fan of the show (and I could see being split either way) this isn't something he came up with and coasted on but was invested in the full ride. Even jumping at the chance to tell the movie as the swan song of EEE instead of just another full season and yeah also directed and help write the movie as well.
Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, The Venture Brothers -Now granted it does seem for a decent amount of Adult Swim shows that the creators are always heavily involved throughout due to some of those shows not really having even the budget for huge crews. Like most Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes are written and directed by Dave Wills and Matt Maiellaro so those deserve mention too. However because Venture Brothers has you know incredibly solid continuity and storylines throughout it's seven season plus movie run I wanted to give it special mention since yeah it's one of those series I feel would be really hampered if you brought on other writers. As only Jackson (aka Chris McCulloh) and Doc Hammer fully understand the series and would be able to explore all the proper themes and ideals for the show. Now granted there was one other credited writer for like 3 episodes; Ben Edlund aka creator of The Tick (who Chris knew due to working on the Tick animated series with him) but even that was only the first two seasons and yeah it's a show only as good as it is because of how focused the writing crew in terms of where they wanted to go with the story was always so heavily focused. That's not an insult to other shows and should point out none of this is meant as a knock to other shows where the creators aren't heavily involved but an acknowledgement of the ones that are and give them special attention. And to me the show that most exemplifies that is...
Trey Parker And Matt Stone, South Park- Again if you watch stuff like the 6 Days to Air Documentary and even the DVD commentaries you know SP episodes are written and thought of by the specific writing team and certain writers even guests can come up with ideas that make it into the show. Like it was Norman Lear who originally thought of the concept of lampooning how all encompassing reality shows can be which was made into "Cancelled" so again not saying SP is solely because of those two. Hell in terms of creativity Matt Stone after the first few seasons sans obviously voice a fair amount of characters throws out ideas and scenarios then doing any of the majority writing but yeah at the end of the day everything is still filtered through T&M and Trey is the one who fully maps out the story and concepting for most every episode and for doing a lot of them literally within only 6 days that is still impressive to work out. I guess you can also see this as kind of "cheap" which at this point does SP need to be but it is obviously part of the style of the show and really shows a vision that very few if any super long form cartoons have. Like just saying would you ever see Matt Groening having ANY writing credits 20 seasons in on the Simpsons? No but same isn't true for this show.
Now it's up to you guys; what are some shows you like that were also fully creator involved? Again looking for ones where through a majority of their run time had the creator involved in the creation process in some form in the episodes so tell me those ones down below.
1. I'm not talking about shows where yeah the creator is still always associated with the series because they voice main or supporting characters within the show thus are always going to show up. For example Family Guy/American Dad would NOT count for this because yeah Seth MacFarlane created those series and he is always going to be in every episode due to voicing Peter/Stewie/Brian/Stan/Roger etc but MacFarlane has also admitted he really stopped being creatively involved writing or directing AD even by it's second/third season and yeah work on some FG episodes in it's first season after the revival but hasn't really been in the writer's room since like late 2000's at least so yeah those shows wouldn't count for this list.
2. It's perfectly okay if for one reason or another the creator/creators may have missed like being involved with maybe one or two episodes. These though should be the outliers of the show as we're talking about shows that like have at least 90% of the creator involved in some form of the conception of the epiosde.
3. And yes I know cartoons that go to TV/Streaming generally do have a full writer's room so though one name is associated with the project it may be a variety of people and directors obviously have a bunch of different hands but point being if you are taking that specific credit you still did the most amount of work related to it to count and thus are what I consider the writer/director of the episode. And yeah even with official sources it's not always the easiest to know how 100% they are with credits but they are still proofable enough to count for this particular subject.
And to get the ball rolling here are the three that come to me off the top of my head.
Danny Antonucci, Ed Edd n Eddy - Something I always found interesting is that the idea of EEE was a dare requested of Antonucci to make by those who knew him best since he was known for his more disturbing adult animations so tried challenging him into what he would make as a kids show. Which wound up being one of Cartoon Network's big hits in the late 90's and 2000's that he not only had a hand in writing a majority of but directed all but ONE segment of. Like yeah "Smile For The Ed" in season 5 is the ONLY Segment of the series Antonucci didn't do himself so whether or not you're a fan of the show (and I could see being split either way) this isn't something he came up with and coasted on but was invested in the full ride. Even jumping at the chance to tell the movie as the swan song of EEE instead of just another full season and yeah also directed and help write the movie as well.
Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, The Venture Brothers -Now granted it does seem for a decent amount of Adult Swim shows that the creators are always heavily involved throughout due to some of those shows not really having even the budget for huge crews. Like most Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes are written and directed by Dave Wills and Matt Maiellaro so those deserve mention too. However because Venture Brothers has you know incredibly solid continuity and storylines throughout it's seven season plus movie run I wanted to give it special mention since yeah it's one of those series I feel would be really hampered if you brought on other writers. As only Jackson (aka Chris McCulloh) and Doc Hammer fully understand the series and would be able to explore all the proper themes and ideals for the show. Now granted there was one other credited writer for like 3 episodes; Ben Edlund aka creator of The Tick (who Chris knew due to working on the Tick animated series with him) but even that was only the first two seasons and yeah it's a show only as good as it is because of how focused the writing crew in terms of where they wanted to go with the story was always so heavily focused. That's not an insult to other shows and should point out none of this is meant as a knock to other shows where the creators aren't heavily involved but an acknowledgement of the ones that are and give them special attention. And to me the show that most exemplifies that is...
Trey Parker And Matt Stone, South Park- Again if you watch stuff like the 6 Days to Air Documentary and even the DVD commentaries you know SP episodes are written and thought of by the specific writing team and certain writers even guests can come up with ideas that make it into the show. Like it was Norman Lear who originally thought of the concept of lampooning how all encompassing reality shows can be which was made into "Cancelled" so again not saying SP is solely because of those two. Hell in terms of creativity Matt Stone after the first few seasons sans obviously voice a fair amount of characters throws out ideas and scenarios then doing any of the majority writing but yeah at the end of the day everything is still filtered through T&M and Trey is the one who fully maps out the story and concepting for most every episode and for doing a lot of them literally within only 6 days that is still impressive to work out. I guess you can also see this as kind of "cheap" which at this point does SP need to be but it is obviously part of the style of the show and really shows a vision that very few if any super long form cartoons have. Like just saying would you ever see Matt Groening having ANY writing credits 20 seasons in on the Simpsons? No but same isn't true for this show.
Now it's up to you guys; what are some shows you like that were also fully creator involved? Again looking for ones where through a majority of their run time had the creator involved in the creation process in some form in the episodes so tell me those ones down below.
