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.
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A Picture of the building
that used to house Atkinson Film Arts. This is where The Adventures
of Teddy Ruxpin was produced and where the animators and voice
actors went to work everyday. Much thanks to Jeff Wilson for sharing
this photo.
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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.
