HA! logo designed by Fred/Alan/Noel Frankel.
Upper left illustrated by Lou Brooks
I don’t know, I’m asking.
As we’re in the process of finding great video bloggers and creative talent to work on our various networks I keep being reminded making good work doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything.
One of my favorite projects back in the day was one few people have ever seen.It started out as a TV network branding assignment, our agency’s specialty, for HA!: The TV Comedy Network. And it led to one of our favorite cartoons that not enough people have seen.
Viacom’s HA! was their answer to HBO’s Comedy Channel. They both lost the competition and merged into Comedy Central. I’d co-founded a company that did cable channel “branding” (no one knew what it meant; sometimes we didn’t either) and we did some of our best work there.
Once our agency helped name HA! we went to work on its branding, figuring out the belief system of the channel. Our creative director, Noel Frankel, designed the distinct shouting logo, with various illustrators and models depicting the shout. Bill Burnett led the effort to write dozens of promotional spots, including the What is Funny?s, probably among the ones I liked best. Bill wrote it and he eventually named Comedy Central and made cartoons too.
Bill takes it from here: “It featured Marc Weil–a member of England’s legendary Madhouse Company of London, asking the question “Is This Funny? I don’t Know, I’m asking” in the face of increasingly bizarre events: For example, he’d be dressed in Judges Robes holding two squealing piglets; then two Mexican banditos would emerge from his robes. Then he’d be chased and lassoed by men in diapers, smoking cigars, and so on. The series was directed by Cliff Fagin, produced by Noh Hands Productions. The recurring What Is Funny? Chorus was performed by Bill Burnett, Suzy Williams and Lori Jacobson. Edited by
Chris Strand.”
The spots ran in 1989 and that was the end of that though they never left my mind. Fast forward about eight years and I was starting my latest set of cartoon shorts for
Nickelodeon,
Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Bill was one of our early creative signings and I kept bringing up What is Funny? I reminded him that Nick’s owner Viacom already owned the original spots, so why not take a flyer on creating a balls-to-the-wall funny cartoon character based on the same concept. Bill selected former Spumco artist/director
Vincent Waller (now a key part of the SpongeBob team) and they were
off to the races.
Nick production chief
Albie Hecht loved
the cartoon. So did their CEO
Herb Scannell. But I guess it didn’t have the typical cartoon hero at it’s center or something and we could never get series traction. It’s too bad. It’s a damn good cartoon.
Anyhow, HA! is the channel we’ve worked on I’m least asked about over the years. I think we did a great job, but a lack of passion for it by its owners probably doomed it. You’ve got to really want it to work.
Posted by Fred
at 6:07 pm on Sunday, January 14th, 2007
in Branding, Media.
You can follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 24th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Fred
I think we met when you were doing work on USA Today on TV for GTG (Grant Tinker Gannett).
I know I was introduced to Albie and I dimly recall we commissioned a script from him.
So, what is this site you and Herb et al are creating?
Regards,
Alan