Jay Ward
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J. Troplong "Jay" Ward (September 20, 1920–October 12, 1989) was a creator and producer of animated television cartoons. He is known for producing animated series based on characters such as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken. His company, Jay Ward Productions, also designed the trademark characters for Cap'n Crunch, Quisp, and Quake breakfast cereals and made commercials for those products, among others.
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Animation career
Ward moved into the infant medium of television with the help of his childhood friend, animator Alex Anderson. Anderson was the nephew of Terrytoons founder Paul Terry, and had unsuccessfully tried to sell Terry a concept for a cartoon series made specifically for the new medium. Together, Ward and Anderson took the character, Crusader Rabbit, to NBC and pioneering TV-program distributor Jerry Fairbanks. They put together a pilot film, The Comic Strips of Television, featuring Crusader, a parody of Sherlock Holmes named "Hamhock Bones," and a bumbling Mountie named Dudley Do-Right.
NBC and Fairbanks were thoroughly unimpressed with all but Crusader Rabbit (though Dudley would make his appearance, finally, ten years later). Crusader Rabbit premiered in 1949 and ended its initial run in 1952. Adopting a serialized, mock-melodrama format, the series followed the adventures of Crusader and his dim-witted sidekick Rags the tiger. It was, in form and content, much like the series that would later gain Ward fame, Rocky and His Friends.
Ward and Anderson, through a series of legal maneuvers, lost the rights to the character, and a new color Crusader series under a different producer premiered in 1956. It was, however, considerably inferior to the original.
An unsold series idea from his Crusader Rabbit days would eventually earn Ward a permanent place in animation history. Taking place in a TV studio in the North Woods, the series featured a cast of eccentrics such as newsman Oski Bear and two minor characters named Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle, described in the script treatment as a "French-Canadian moose." This was the genesis of what would become Rocky and His Friends, (later The Bullwinkle Show, when NBC gave Rocky's sidekick top billing). Premiering on ABC in 1959 (and moving to NBC two years later) the series reached a level of sophistication in its humor not seen in cartoons before. It skewered popular culture mercilessly, taking on such subjects as advertising, college sports, the Cold War, and television itself. The hapless residents of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota blundered into unlikely adventures much as Crusader and Rags had before them, pursued by "no-goodnik" spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, perenially under orders to "kill moose and squirrel."
Publicity hound
Ward fought many heated battles over content with the network and sponsor, but had little fear of censorship or lawsuits. He, in fact, begged organizations to sue him, quipping, "We need the publicity."
An eccentric and proud of it, Ward was known for pulling an unusual publicity stunt that happened to coincide with a major national crisis. Jay Ward bought an island in the area near his home and dubbed it "Moosylvania," based upon the home of his most famous TV character Bullwinkle. He and publicist Howard Brandy crossed the country in a circus wagon, gathering signatures on a petition for statehood for Moosylvania. They then visited Washington, D.C. and attempted to gain an audience with President John F. Kennedy. Unfortunately, they arrived at the White House just at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and were escorted off the grounds at gunpoint.
Trivia
In a running joke tribute to Jay Ward, many of his cartoon characters had the middle initial "J.", presumably standing for "Jay" (although this was never stated explicitly). The creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, gave his cartoon character Homer Simpson the middle name "Jay" as a tribute to Jay Ward cartoons.
Personal life
Jay Ward was born in San Francisco, California. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard University. His first chosen career was real estate.
Jay Ward died in Hollywood, California, of kidney cancer.
After his death
The Sunset Strip is still host to his production company (now managed by members of his family) and Dudley Do-Right's Emporium, which until 2005 sold souvenirs based on his many characters and was largely staffed by Ward and his family. They are located across the street from the famous Chateau Marmont.
In 2000, he was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, paid for as part of the publicity for The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
In 2002, Jay Ward Productions established a partnership with Classic Media called Bullwinkle Studios; the partnership produced DVDs of the first two seasons of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends in 2003 and 2004, and DVD collections of "Best of" segments from the series starting in 2005.
External links
- Template:Imdb name
- Shows produceed by Jay Ward Productions (http://www.imdb.com/List?production-companies=Jay+Ward+Productions), also from IMDb
- Bullwinkle Studios (http://www.bullwinklestudios.com/)
- The Cereal Commercials of Jay Ward (http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/articles/showarticle.php?ID=733), from the website of an animation business writer
- Rocky & Bullwinkle DVDs Pulled Out of a Hat (http://www.videobusiness.com/article.asp?articleID=5636&catID=14), a June 2003 article from Video Business
- Frostbite Falls Page (http://members.shaw.ca/fffff/index.html) extensive fan site, not updated since 2003