Marvel Animation studios: 1984
Here’s a post sent by my buddy Mark Lewis from the wayback machine in 1984 of the Marvel Animation Crew who I saw at the TAG Union Christmas Party. The studio developed from Depatie-Freleng Enterprises who made The original Pink Panther series as well as many of the original Bugs Bunny specials. You also might recognize the name Freleng as the surname of the famous Warner Bro;s director Friz Freleng. Yep that’s the guy!
A bit more from Mark:
I promised I’d send you that Marvel picture, so I thought I better hit it while it’s still fresh in my mind. It’s Marvel Productions, 1984. I don’t know who everybody is here, but it’s Larry Houston in the middle of that third row in the back (I think that might even be Stan Lee himself standing behind him!). Two to the right of Larry, I think that’s Rick Hoberg with the beard and mustache. Then down in the right corner crouching is Rob Dog. I actually ran into Rob at the party later in the evening!
Around this time they would have been making one of the following shows:
- Gallavants (1984)
- My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle (1984)
- The Transformers (1984) (Takara owns the Japanese rights (except for English license)
- Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies (1984)
Here’s an scan of a magazine article about the Marvel studio back in those days.
And here’s the inexpressible Wikipedia’s entry on Marvel at the time.
Marvel Productions (1981–1994)
Marvel Productions opened its Los Angeles studio in 1981.[3] In 1984, Margaret Loesch joined Marvel Productions as President and Chief Executive Officer.[5] MCG was owned from 1968 by Cadence Industries Corporation and was incorporate as Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG) and sold in 1986 to New World Pictures.[6] With New World having cash flow problems, MEG was sold in January 1989 to Andrews Group, a MacAndrews and Forbes subsidiary, owned by Ronald Perelman. However, Marvel Productions was merged into New World’s television business.[6] MP moved their offices from Van Nuys to West Los Angeles in May 1989.[1] New World’s problems continued which lead them to also be acquired by the Andrews Group within the year.[7]Loesch left for Fox Kids in 1990.[8]
