al·leg·ed·ly (adverb)
used to convey that something is claimed to be the case or have taken place,
although there is no proof.
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Okay, before I get any call from Mr. MacFarlane's lawyers let me just say that I'm ONLY KIDDING... although an acknowledgement in the credits would have been nice. About WHAT, you're asking? Okay, I'll tell you...
Back in the late 70s, early 80s - as a wee lad - I worked as an inbetweener/assistant animator at a place that seems to have been wiped from history called Ovation Films, Inc. They did mostly animated commercial spots for various clients - animated by a guy named Howard Basis and produced by Art Petricone. It was my first job and one that I was thrilled to have gotten offered right out of High School.
The studio was a very small place on 43rd street in Manhattan, right around the corner from the jewelry district - and I remember those days with fondness - learning animation while the golden tones of Mel Torme drifted down the short hallway from Howard's office into the room where my animation table was set up. Just down the hall from me was where the ink and paint department was - and it wouldn't be uncommon to hear the ink and paint ladies chatting away while they worked.
Very old school, mind you - this was before computers. Picture what you'd see when you'd watch a documentary about the early days of Disney - or Fleisher Studios - or perhaps, more accurately, Ralph Bakshi Studios - as many of the ink and paint ladies came from there. I'll never forget how one of them told me that they worked on the Popeye cartoons when he went to color - the white sailor suit era - and they thought those drawings of Olive Oyl were (in her words) "hideous". A few of them confessed (almost as if it was some type of secret they were keeping amongst themselves) that they worked on the world's first X-rated animated movie, "Fritz The Cat".
So, in short, here I am - just a kid - barely out of High School, when Howard offers me the opportunity of a lifetime... I found myself assisting him on a 60 second Public Service Announcement spot featuring McGruff The Crime Dog!
Here's the commercial in it's entirety as it appeared on TV roughly 38 years ago - - I haven't seen it since then, until now...
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Now you might assume that while clicking through YouTube I just came upon this without intentionally looking for it, but no... the reason why I came across this old commercial is because I actually came across THIS clip from FAMILY GUY first! Yep... Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy used a portion of the commercial and added Brian (the family dog) as McGruff's sidekick!!
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Imagine coming across THAT out of the blue! Seeing that animation again took me right back to 33 West 43rd street - - I couldn't believe it! Then of course, I followed a link to the original animation and saw even more...
So Seth, if you're out there - I was just kidding about you owing me money (really, I was) - - I guess if anything I should say THANKS TO YOU for breathing new life into something I worked on and had all but forgotten about! Seeing it again, it was like some sort of deja vu thing happened! Jeezuz...
EPILOGUE
Sadly, and much to my dismay, as hard as I've looked (and believe me I've tried) I've never found ANYTHING else on Ovation Films, Inc., or it's founders Howard and Art... surely, with everything they've created there'd be some footprint on the internet, wouldn't you think? But not really...
I mean, I have on occasion found a commercial or two that I've worked on - but it's always very random - or part of a 70s-80s retro commercial compilation... but never attributed to Ovation.
I remember once, near the end of my time there before they closed - they were throwing out PILES of painted animation cells. Sure, they were already shot on film, but piles and piles of these painted cells were being thrown out - and no one, including me, thought to save any. Well, actually - I did save a drawing that was used in an Excedrin Commercial - only to have it compensated by the guy who drew it when I asked him if he could sign it for me during a class he was teaching at Parsons School Of Design... but that's an emotionally scarring story for another day...
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