A to Z of Animation Studios: J Is for Jay Ward Productions
Proof that if your jokes are good enough, your animation can be held together with tape.
J is for Jay Ward Productions
The founder: Jay Ward, a producer with a wild sense of humor. REAL: with partner Alex Anderson, he made Crusader Rabbit (1950), one of the very first cartoon series made for television.
The approach: Very little money, very fast production and the sharpest writing on TV. Much of the animation was done cheaply at a studio in Mexico, and it showed. Nobody cared, because the jokes were so good.
Greatest hits
Rocky and His Friends / The Bullwinkle Show (1959–1964). A flying squirrel and a not-so-bright moose versus two spies named Boris and Natasha. The show was packed with puns, satire and segments that became classics on their own:
Peabody's Improbable History: a genius dog and his boy travel through time in the WABAC Machine.
Fractured Fairy Tales: classic stories, hilariously wrong.
Dudley Do-Right: a Canadian Mountie who wins entirely by accident.
George of the Jungle (1967). A Tarzan parody. "Watch out for that tree!"
Super Chicken (1967). A crime-fighting chicken in a cape and his lion sidekick, Fred.
The Jay Ward formula
Joke density. Jokes every few seconds, with puns stacked on puns.
Two levels of comedy. Slapstick for kids, clever wordplay and satire for the adults watching with them.
The narrator is a character. The announcer argues with the characters and comments on the story.
Make fun of yourself. The shows constantly poked fun at their own tiny budgets.
The struggle
Jay Ward's shows were beloved but never huge moneymakers. The animation budgets were tiny, the toy lines were small, and networks often moved the shows around the schedule.
Honorable mention: JibJab
An internet animation studio with a similar spirit: simple cut-out animation, big laughs. REAL: JibJab's ElfYourself (2006), which let people put their own faces on dancing elves, became one of the most-shared holiday things on the early internet.
The lesson
Jay Ward proves that writing beats polish. If your story and jokes are strong, audiences will forgive almost anything about the drawings. Write first. Polish second.
Up next
K is for Klasky-Csupo.
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