We're back! After a long break the Animation Station is back. And in our come back show we interview Underdog co-creater, Joe Harris.

Posted by request from Michael and Evo. Please pass it on and take a stand for Net Neutrality.

In 1994 animation historian Jerry Beck authored The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. While Andrew and I failed to be included in this list, we felt it our duty to give you, our listeners, our two cents. And so here begins a ten-part series, as we watch, review and disect the 50 Greatest Cartoons.

"This is the story of Gerald McCloy, and the strange thing that happened to that little boy," begins the classic cartoon's narration. Gerald cannot talk, but, oh, the sounds he does make!

Based on the unlikely premise that a young boy named Gerald speaks not in words, but in sound effects like "boing," this simply drawn and animated series launched a revolution in animation. Gerald is reprimanded for his inability to speak in words in "Gerald McBoing Boing," celebrated for his vocal talents in "Gerald McBoing Boing's Symphony," understood through the marvels of science in "How Now Boing Boing" and looked upon as a curiosity in "Gerald McBoing! Boing! On Planet Moo."

Winner of an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1950, Gerald McBoing Boing in one of the truly remarkable theatrical cartoons of the golden age. It was a collaboration between UPA (United Productions of America) and Dr. Seuss.

John Sutherland worked as a assistant director for Disney before opening John Sutherland Productions in 1944 with the encouragement of Walt Disney. They specialized in writing and producing animation/live-action films and supportive print material during the remainder of the war years.

Soon thereafter, Sutherland began turning out animated industrial and propaganda films and was a place many animators went during periods of inactivity at the other animation studios during the 40s and 50s.

In 1957, “Time” magazine called him “one of the best makers of industrial shorts, saying that his films could turn a corporate client into ‘the nonirritating huckster’ by showcasing a company with subtlety and style.”

Special thanks to Mark Arnold for providing us with a copy of his John Sutherland article. The full article can be found in issue 12 of Hogan's Alley (2003).

In 1993, Jerry was a founding member of the Cartoon Network advisory board. He serves on the board of directors of ASIFA-Hollywood (The International Animated Film Society). Jerry produced Totally Tooned In for Columbia Tri-Star International Television in 1999, a 65 episode series that restored the Columbia theatrical cartoon library.

Beck is currently producing an animated pilot for Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon; is a programming consultant to Warner Bros. Home Video; and has resumed writing and producing for Rubberbug Animation.

Popeye the Sailor was created be Elzie Segar for the comic strip Thimble Theatre and intro introduced in 1929, eventually he proved so popular that the main character, Ham Gravy, was written out.

Popeye's first theatrical appearance was in a Fleischer Studio's 1993 Betty Boop cartoon. Fleischer Studios went on to produce 108 Popeye shorts between 1933 and 1942. Famous Studios took over production in 1942 and produced 125 Popeye shorts until 1957.

Fleischer Studio's produced three 2-reel Popeye shorts between 1936 and 1939. Besides being 2-3 times the length of a standard Popeye short, they were the first appearance of Popeye in color. Fleischer Studio's answer to the multi-plane camera, the Tabletop or Setback camera, was used in two of the shorts. Their apparatus used three-dimensional miniature sets built to the scale of the animation artwork. The animation cels were placed so that various objects could pass in front of and behind them, and the entire scene was shot using a horizontal camera.