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My 5 lives. (A biography)

When I established Frederator Studios in the late 90s I needed a biography for the press release. As it laid itself out, even I –snore!– was bored. “In the 18th century, he… and then he… and then…” I didn’t have much of a “career path,” having, as I’m fond of saying, “bounced around the pop culture winds like a ping pong ball.” So I begged my co-worker and friend –and not for nothing, the co-creator of “ChalkZone”– writer Bill Burnett to come up with something that could weave together the disparate threads of my work life and would be totally readable. 

He titled it “I’ve Lived Three Lives,” but six years later, when I founded a new internet company and he realized that “four” was a lousy number, he re-wrote and re-named it “I’ve Lived Three 5 Lives,” reflecting my times in jazz recording, cable television executive-ing, media branding and advertising, streaming video start up-ing, and of course, cartoons. 

The first few paragraphs are updated regularly with “As I write this…” and so as I transcribe Bill’s piece below, you’ll be reading the opening from November 2023, but if you want the latest, click this link. 

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I’VE LIVED THREE FIVE LIVES (SO FAR) 

As I write this, I’ve announced a new life as an independent cartoon producer after 20+ years at Frederator, along with a new limited edition postcard series and The FredFilms Professional Library (here’s a preview of #7 in the library: Best of Original Cartoons). I’m honored that Casey Gonzalez and Flip Sarta have joined me as FredFilms’ development executives.

I’m still dedicated to putting creators first, staying original –always– and bringing you your next favorite cartoon.

My production of the Castlevania franchise is on Netflix and fans are flipping out over the new series too, Castlevania: Nocturne. Not to mention that Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake debuted on Max on Aug 31, 2023 with a second season already in production. Natasha Allegri’s Bee and PuppyCat is over on Netflix too –the soundtrack by Baths is streaming everywhere!– and the Costume Quest series and holiday special are streaming at Amazon Prime. And, not for nothing, watch out for a new generation of The Fairly OddParents coming on Nickelodeon and Netflix. I founded the Channel Frederator Network –the first streaming animation network– and it’s now distributing more than 3000 channels, making it the world’s largest animation, video game and entertainment network.

I’ve been honored to win several awards over the years. But, my biggest surprise came recently when the Emmys announced that I’d been inducted –along with several other luminaries– into their “Gold Circle.” The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (aka The Emmys) says “…the Gold and Silver Circle is a society of honor. Inductees have performed distinguished service within the industry, setting standards for achievement, mentoring, leadership, and professional accolades for 50 or 25 years, respectively. They represent the best and the brightest in the television community.” I am a lucky and humbled fellow.

This biography used to be called “I’ve Lived Three Lives,” but since it was written I’ve added a few more lives. I just can’t seem to stop living! Here’s a rundown of all that I’ve been doing:

@Frederator Studios 1998-2020 & FredFilms 2020-?

LIFE #5 — TELEVISION CARTOON PRODUCER

In 1992 I became president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know much about cartoons when I started out, but I had one simple idea: If you want great cartoons, make them the way the greatest cartoons of all time were made. That’s why we launched Hanna-Barbera’s “What A Cartoon!” shorts project. I wanted to create short, seven minute, funny cartoons with vivid characters and hilarious stories and gags—the way the great cartoonists of the 30s and 40s did it.

A lot of industry professionals thought I was crazy.

That grand experiment gave us 48 original shorts, an Academy Award nomination, two Emmy nominations, and seven original half-hour cartoon series (The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, I am Weasel, Courage The Cowardly Dog, What A Cartoon!, and Dexter’s Laboratory). And it had the effect of revitalizing the entire TV animation industry, which was in pretty poor shape when we started.

In 1997, Nickelodeon asked me to use the same techniques to produce cartoons for them. All in all, I’ve produced 250 character based, creator driven short cartoons with hundreds of new characters for Nick –at Random! Cartoons and Oh Yeah! Cartoons– Cartoon Network, and Frederator’s Channel Frederator and Cartoon Hangover.

Our cartoons feature the work of some of the most talented professionals in the business today and have spawned such award-winning, crowd pleasing hits as The Fairly Oddparents, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Adventure Time. I created Channel Frederator in 2005, one of the first animation channels on the internet, helping to foment a video revolution that’s still unfolding. And in 2012, my team blasted off Cartoon Hangover, our channel for original productions, into the online universe.

In my lives, I’ve often found that being crazy isn’t such a bad thing. 

@Next New Networks 2006-2011

LIFE #4— INTERNET NETWORK EXECUTIVE

I’m the founder of a number of networks that have built the future of global streaming video.

I’ve always been drawn to community, whether it’s rock’n’roll (MTV), kids (Nickelodeon), or cartoons (Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network and Nick). Today the internet is the new town square, the place where people with fresh ideas are meeting and collaborating and creating a brave new pop culture. As television began to be possible in this world I knew I had to be part of it.

In 2006 I got together with a bunch of like-minded media mavens and created Next New Networks. Quickly, we began one of the leading video programmers online, helping to create the entire concept of multi-channel networks (MCNs), and in March 2011 YouTube acquired the company.

After the acquisition, I turned right around and formed Frederator Networks to continue the work started at Next New Networks, helping to creating the future of television. In rapid succession, we successfully launched Cartoon Hangover (one of select few partners in YouTube’s Original Channels Initiative), and started distributing independently owned animation channels on our newly formed Channel Frederator Network (as of now we’re at over 3000 channels, making us the world’s largest animation network). And with our audience asking us for more about videogames, TV and movies, we  started The Leaderboard Network and Cinematica.

Several years ago, a young former Frederator intern, David Karp, was working out of our New York office and developed the Tumblr platform. I became one of the company’s early investors and proudly served on its board of directors until Yahoo! acquired Tumblr in 2013.

Over the past 10 years, I took some guff from some of my Old Media buddies. They thought I was crazy to try such ambitious plans in a fledgling industry. But then, in my lives, I’ve often found that being crazy isn’t such a bad thing. So being crazy isn’t a liability in the Internet business, either.

@Fred/Alan, Inc. NY 1983-1992

LIFE # 3 — BRANDING & AGENCY MAN 

After quite a few productive years helping to give birth to TV networks (you can read about that in “Life # 2”) I formed a company with my producing partner, Alan Goodman. A lot of our associates thought we were crazy to leave sure-thing corporate success behind in favor of our own company, but once again, we made crazy work for us.

Because of Alan’s love for mid-twentieth century comedians we called our company Fred/Alan, and set up offices in Jackie Gleason’s former headquarters in the Park Sheraton hotel. Fred/Alan became the world’s first media branding company, a successful advertising agency/consulting firm/production company and think-tank for a wide range of new and established clients, including the MTV Networks, CBS, Showtime, HBO/ Cinemax, TBS, A&E, Lifetime, WNET, The Movie Channel, Sassy Magazine, Barq’s Soft Drinks, Comedy Central, and BMG Records. Most significantly, we retained a close relationship with networks we had helped create—MTV and its sister networks Nickelodeon and VH-1.

In 1985, Fred/Alan oversaw the relaunch of Nickelodeon. At the time it was a kids’ network that nobody watched – least of all kids. We redesigned the logo, created a new look, sound, and vocabulary for marketing/on-air promotion, and took Nickelodeon from worst to first in cable ratings in one year. Then we came up with the idea for Nick-at-Nite, creating the first television oldies network. Nick-at-Nite was an environment, a place…we called it TV Land! Our work took a bunch of old black and white reruns and turned them into an immediate ratings and sales success.

Not content with merely enhancing the value of existing shows, we also wanted to produce our own. So Fred/Alan launched Chauncey Street Productions with third partner Albie Hecht. We won three ACE awards for shows we made for HBO and Nickelodeon.

I’m especially proud of two of the last things Fred/Alan did before I headed for Hollywood. We made up the name and wrote the original branding and positioning for a new comedy channel—now known to the world as the successful and influential cable network Comedy Central. The next time you watch The Daily Show, South Park or any of Comedy Central’s other fine and funny shows, remember that it all started at Fred/Alan. We also helped launch MTV’s sister channel, VH-1. Then we relaunched it several times, and in 1991 dubbed it The Greatest Hits of Music Video, and the network’s ratings rose in 24 hours! That was the first time in history that VH-1 had turned a profit.

@MTV: Music Television 1980-1983

LIFE # 2 — CABLE PIONEER 

In 1981, when I was director of on-air promotion at The Movie Channel, my boss there asked me to help launch a fledgling cable network that would do nothing but play music all day and all night. It was going to be called MTV: Music Television and I became a founder. Back then very few people had cable. A lot of industry professionals thought the whole idea was crazy. 

I thought cable was a coming thing, and developed a strategy: If we could burn the MTV logo into viewers minds – literally ‘brand’ the network – it would create a sensation. Young rock fans would demand their MTV. The result was the now-famous “I Want My MTV” chant and the constantly mutating MTV logo, as changeable and fractious as the audience the channel reaches. We created hundreds of animated logos with dozens of the world’s independent studios. Our work won a special award from ASIFA, the international animation society, as well as CLIO awards from the advertising world. Adweek magazine named me one of eight “leaders of the new media.” During my time at the network I supervised everything that comprised MTV’s identity—programs, promotions, advertising, contests, premiums, and consumer products. And I am still in business with that network and its siblings in various ways today.

@WKCR-FM

LIFE # 1 — JAZZ CAT 

Before all that, I was in the music biz. Not so much as a musician, although I did play out a little in my youth. But I found other ways to express my love of music. While attending Columbia University I became a radio DJ and record producer. In the 70s I formed Oblivion Records, a blues and jazz label, and one of my independent jazz productions got nominated for a Grammy. I also helped make WHN in New York City the most listened-to country radio station in the United States.

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Does it seem strange for a former jazz cat to morph into a TV executive, and then turn into a cartoon producer who sets out to pioneer the new frontier of video on the Internet? Not to me. For me it’s all part of a very clear continuum. I’m attracted to community, to places where disenfranchised people find what they love, and find each other and get creative. I’m attracted to heart and soul and humor, and to things that are wild, weird and unpredictable. I guess you could say I’m attracted to crazy. With any luck I’ll have a few more crazy lives to add to this document in the years ahead.

– November 2023 (Heartfelt thanks to Bill Burnett for this biography) 

Illustrators (left to right): James Kochalka, Jeaux Janovsky, Jack Hinatsu, Dave Wasson, Stanley Chow 

I truly aspire to go as hard as Fred has in life.