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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Dave Thomas, and I am a Producer and Director on Nickelodeon’s TUFF Puppy and The Fairly Oddparents.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I always had fun jobs. I worked in a comic book store, and a baseball card shop. But my best non animation job was as a waiter at Farrell’s Old Timey Ice Cream Parlor. We’d bang drums, sound sirens and run sundaes around the place. I was even there when a car smashed through the front of the building and into the candy shop. Some mother left her kid in the car with the engine running while she ran inside. The kid put the car in gear and WHAM! The crazy part is this happened all the time – twice while I worked there. And again after I left!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
There was a web cartoon Tod Polson and I collaborated on in the early days of the internet called “Mantelope.â€Art: Tod Polson. We were working on a TV series for Wildbrain, who were also making internet cartoons for CartoonNetwork.Com. They more or less demanded we pitch something as a condition of continued employment. Since we were overwhelmed with the series, we intentionally pitched the stupidest thing we could think of, hoping they’d hate it and we wouldn’t have to do it. (“Half Man, Half Antelope – MANTELOPE!â€)But Cartoon Network did like it, and Wildbrain gave us three weeks to ram the whole thing out! We had to move quick, but I have really fond memories of making it. And in the end we made something we’re all pretty proud of.I’m also really proud of El Tigre, (a show I was Supervising Producer/Director on.)We had an amazing collection of super talented artists and writers who all worked really hard to try to make something good. I’ve never seen so many talented people so happy to be working so hard.That’s all due to the creators, Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, who were absolutely the best. They created not only a great show, but a creative environment that inspired everyone to do their best work. And it paid off:In 2007 the crew of El Tigre brought home 4 Emmy awards – the most of any Nickelodeon show ever.
How did you become interested in animation?
It began with watching Warner Bros. cartoons on Saturday morning with my older sister. I idolized her, and loved anything she did. Since she loved cartoons, I loved cartoons. It was that simple.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from San Diego, and grew up surrounded by animation and comic books. The Spike and Mike Festival is based there, and then there’s Comic Con, which was enormous even then. I also lived near an animation gallery and got to meet Chuck Jones and a number of the Nine Old Men. All of that made me feel like this was a very real and attainable thing to do. My lucky break came when Continue reading
