Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 21, 1990 TAG: 9004210494
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL HILL THE BALTIMORE EVENING SUN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Are all those guys going to be in one show?" he asked with a combination of video-savvy incredulity and hopeful glee.
Assured that they were, he quickly made his plans for next Saturday morning. "Then I've got to watch that," he said.
It was precisely with that reaction in mind that the Television Academy's drug abuse committee sat down last year and began planning "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue," an anti-drug animated half-hour that features more than 20 of the most popular cartoon figures.
What the 5-year-old did not know is that, if he turns the TV on mid-morning Saturday, he probably won't have any choice other than watching this show. That's because ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are airing it at the same time, the first time in history such a programming feat has been accomplished.
In addition, the cable channels Nickelodeon, USA, The Disney Channel and the Black Entertainment Network will air it at that time along with numerous Fox affiliates and some 200 independent stations.
"Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" came out of the Television Academy committee whose chairman, John Aglolia, promised the cooperation of NBC, where he is president of business affairs.
The other two networks soon jumped aboard, followed by Fox agreeing to provide it to its affiliates, the independent television station's association urging its members to air the show, the CBC in Canada agreeing to air it along with the Mexican state system, as well as various cable channels expressing interest. Aglolia stayed busy.
Meanwhile, Roy Disney, Walt's brother who is head of Disney's animation department, signed on as executive producer, bringing his studio's considerable roster of characters along. Other studios were solicited for cooperation, several more characters joined the lineup, and then, as the word got out, studios began calling up to be sure their figures were included.
It was then that things began to get a bit hectic for writers Duane Poole and Tom Swale. The creative forces behind each of the characters were as temperamental as actors with emotional attachments to their parts.
Not only did they want to make sure that their figures were drawn properly, up to standards, but they also wanted to pass on the lines that the characters would speak. (Can't you just see the meeting now? "Papa Smurf would never say that!") And then there were questions of the relative size of the drawings. These figures have never appeared on the same stage together. Who would upstage whom?
Obviously, every studio wanted its character to be the hero and none wanted it to be the villain. And that is the way it will be. None of the popular cartoon figures will be seen using drugs and all will participate in the anti-drug message.
For the record, in addition to those mentioned above, the characters involved are Alf, the Muppet Babies, Kermit, Miss Piggy and Gonzo, Donald Duck's nephews Huey, Duey and Louie and the Chipmunks. Tigger will join Winnie the Pooh and it's Michaelangelo representing those ever-popular Teenage Mutant Ninja guys. The actors who do the characters' voices came along as part of the deal, working for scale.
The story, which is aimed at the ages of 5 to 11, focuses on three characters created for this cartoon. A 14-year-old boy named Michael has begun using drugs, lured by an evil drug-pushing apparition called Smoke, whose voice is by George C. Scott. Michael's 9-year-old sister Corey is concerned about her brother and leads him on a trip through the ages, much like in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," in which he meets all the cartoon characters and gets their anti-drug message.
The basic theme will be not to start using drugs in any form. (Research shows that drug experimentation now reaches down into the fourth-grade level.)
McDonald's, through its Ronald McDonald Childrens' Charity, is underwriting the program's approximately $650,000 cost. In addition, McDonald's is providing more than 250,000 videotapes for free rental to video outlets across the country as well as to schools, libraries and community groups, bringing its total contribution to the project to around $2 million.
Not only will the networks run "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" at the same time, they will lose money doing it, running it without commercials. That means it will probably be the only half-hour on Saturday morning with Ronald McDonald telling your kid not to use drugs instead of urging him to buy Happy Meals.
by CNB