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Jeff Wilson was the first
person ever to grant me an interview for the site, way back nearly a
decade ago in the summer of 1999. I wanted to touch base with Jeff
again and he answered a few
more
questions for us at the tail end of 2006. To check out part
one of Jeff's interview Click
Here .
JOSH:
You mentioned in
part one of the interview that it was no surprise production was
ending. Do you know if this was due simply to lack of interest from
the financiers in more episodes? Due to Worlds of Wonder's demise?
Ken mentioned AlchemyII had never attempted to end the
series.
JEFF:
. I mentioned it was no surprise
to us, because Atkinson was shutting down production on Teddy after
Episode 65. The people in my deptartment understood the contract was
over and many of the staff were transitioning at this time onto
other projects, which were a couple of European co-productions and
Dennis The Menace for a U.S. TV network. Its possible the parent
production companies were planning further episodes, but Atkinson's
place in the picture was now complete.
I remember
hearing people in the department whispering "Did you hear we're
getting the contract for the next Teddy Ruxpin series?" amongst
themselves, but without physical evidence no one never took such
talk seriously. Certainly not I, because I was being assigned to
Dennis the Menace. The drop in pay on that project was so drastic, I
couldn't have afforded to live in Ottawa at that time. My family and
I ended up moving to another part of Ontario. Also, I didn't know it
at the time, but my animation career was over.
JOSH:
There is a rumor posted on WikiPedia,
and was also emailed to me by someone who's father worked on the
show, that a lot of 'R' rated titles had been written on some books
in one of the library scenes (probably in King Nogburt's castle)
during a period of boredom, and when these were shipped off to Korea
for the finalization of the animation they were never erased and can
still be seen in the episode. Any truth to this
rumor?
JEFF:
Yes, I do remember that.
There had been a scriptwriter's strike at the beginning of
production and then, around X-mas time, there was another real lag
in scripts and timing sheets, or "dope" sheets, as they call it in
the biz. I seem to remember viewing that particular show on Global
TV here in Canada, but the titles that got into the final cut were
just random words. Nothing at all X-rated and certainly nothing that
really made sense. For the most part, the titles were
erased.
I remember a co-worker telling me the story of
Teddy's sponsors and our brass getting together in a screening room,
anxious to see the latest rushes from Korea, when this just hit them
in the face. It looked bad for us and obviously there was just
nowhere to hide. As I recall the guilty artists were chastised and
warned it would not be tolerated if it ever happened again. It never
did, but it probably left a bad taste in the mouth of the
sponsors.
JOSH:
What projects other than
Teddy Ruxpin did you work on and what have you been up to since we
last caught up with each other?
Well, let me say it was a pleasure for me to
participate in the first part of the interview, Josh. I graduated
Sheridan College's "Cartooning" program in 1979 and right after
getting the diploma, I flirted briefly with working in the film
industry, meeting director Paul Lynch and doing storyboards for the
1980 Canadian film "Prom Night" (starring Jamie Lee Curtis and
Leslie Nielsen), then I worked in a number of Ontario locales at
various illustration and graphics jobs. After Labor Day, 1987, I was
hired on at Atkinson Film Arts and was proud to work as a poser,
then later a model/prop designer for the Teddy Ruxpin
project.
After Teddy, a comic feature I collaborated
on, (anyone remember Blue Collar Bart...?) was a "flash-in-the-pan"
phenomenon in the syndicated comics world. A difficult experience,
but through it I got to meet Lynn Johnston, the legendary Canadian
cartoonist. Through her support, I was able to create and develop a
comic strip called "The Avridge Farm", in my opinion the highest
quality feature I've ever had the privilege to work on and which ran
in as many as a dozen Canadian publications. I have since done a
humor panel called "Elmer E. Quipment" for the Equipment Journal and
still illustrate articles for a bi-monthly Canadian active living
specialty periodical.
In recent years, I have
surrendered to the 'power that insists on barricading my artistic
talents from the world' and have returned to the realm of the blue
collar. I have spent my spare hours researching "Wolf Dog", a 1958
Hollywood film which was made in my hometown of Markdale, Canada and
one tangible result of it has been the website I created in 2002.
www.geocities.com/wolf1958dog/ It has been a
labor of love for me and through it I have met and networked with
some interesting people. I have considered picking up pen and ink
again, but I've grown tired of fighting a battle it appears I'm not
destined to win. So, from now on I'll just draw for my own
enjoyment. That's all I have really ever done, anyway!
JOSH:
A lot of Animation Cels
from the series have been popping up on the web/ebay for sale (I own
two of them) I have some question as to the authenticity of a
few of them. Is there anyway to confirm the authenticity of a TAoTR
animation cel that you know of?
A) I do not know of anything concerning these
cels and I'd be highly suspicious of their authenticity, myself. All
I know is that the animation and coloring was done entirely by
sub-contractors in Korea. The storyboards were done in Ottawa and
probably by Alchemy II in L.A., but to my knowledge, the cels would
have to be from Korea to be authentic and I know of no way to
certify that.
JOSH:
In the
first interview it was so cool to hear you had done the cover art
for Grubby's Romance and that those were your best scenes, as that's
my favorite episode.
JEFF:
About Grubby's lost love "Karen", you weren't
alone in your infatuation with her, as she was quite a hit among
male animators in Ottawa. Variations of her image showed up on walls
around art desks and circulated around the studio for weeks after
that show. The female animators were non-plussed, wondering what all
the fuss was about, but guys were gaga over her. That was the thing
too: they DREW her best, too! You'd think a female would be more
familiar with the female form and how to make it sexy, but guys were
the ones who created her aura of attractiveness. When I got the 2nd
Teddy DVD, that was the one show I couldn't wait to see again,
mainly because of that episode. I guess you're right, she IS the
unattainable female. Alas, Grubby couldn't have her and I suppose
either can we.
I can remember a female reader
approaching me and accusing me of consciously creating this
"impossible image" around adult female characters in my features. I
apologized that she felt that way, but told her that I was guilty
only of drawing from my own life experience. Yes, we are bombarded
by so much stimuli in the visual world, but people still have to
accept responsibility for how they choose to conduct their
individual lives.
Another side to all of that is an
observation by Lynn Johnston about her first TV specials, produced
in the mid-1980s (at Atkinson Film Arts, coincidentally). She said
that it was the macho, testosterone-driven male artists who seemed
to best capture the innocent, sweetness of Elizabeth (the
Patterson's little girl in the early days of "For Better Or For
Worse"), not female artists, some of whom could be said to even
exhibit these traits. A scientist could probably study the phenomena
and discover the reason why, but for now it remains one of those
things that make us go "huh?"
JOSH:
Any other
memories you'd like to share, anything funny or special you remember
about your time working with the show.
JEFF:
I remember a carload of artists
(I'm pretty sure it included all of the following: Bob Jaques, Greg
Holfeld, Kelly Armstrong and John Delaney) doing a regular
Toronto-Ottawa commute along the MacDonald-Cartier freeway, along
which were exits to a couple of Ontario towns named Tweed and
Belleville. One trip I guess they got a bit silly, as animators are
prone to, cleverly re-dubbing them "Tweeg" and "L.B.-ville"! I've
never forgotten that and whenever I travel that way that memory
gives me a great chuckle.
I recently bought a book on
Canadian animation called "Cartoon Capers" by Karen Mazurkewich and
E. Chester Ong, full of some interesting and amusing anecdotes of
Canadian animation and animators from the 1940s to the present, some
of whom I knew and worked with on Teddy. Through it I found out that
Bob J. and Kelly A. later got hitched, going on to do some important
animation on the "Ren & Stimpy Show."
As far as
what others went on to do, I personally saw John D. on TV in a brief
stint back in the early 90s as a music video show host out of
Vancouver, B.C. and Greg H. drew the B&W independent "Dan Panic"
comic book series. I know that because I bought (and saved) a copy.
That group at least, went on to do other interesting things. One of
our layout artists named Blake James was actually the subject of a
National Film Board of Canada film back in the 1960s. Here's a link
to film details at the Internet Movie Database: (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064094/). Brian L. could tell
you about Marc Sevier, one of the Key Animation teamleaders and his
championship model car racing career! Alas, it was a pretty cool
time, as so many interesting people were a part of Teddy.
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