JA: So let's start with your position as a production designer on the 1988 special This Is America, Charlie Brown, also known as You're on Nickelodeon, Charlie Brown; how did you arrive at this Charles M. Shulz production, and do you remember what first sparked your interest in becoming involved in the animation industry?
TB: I don’t know how all that info gets up on IMDB, but it's not all accurate all the time. I did work on that show, I just wasn’t a "production designer." (Though I like that title, so no one fix it, okay?) It was my first “drawing” job in the animation industry, done in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at CalArts. “Character Layout” would be the official job, but I’m not sure IMDB has that listing. It was my first “drawing” job because just before that I was working at Bakshi animation on the The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, second season, as a production assistant with my brother Tony. We dreamed of drawing on it, but we were extremely green. We would get Ralph his cigarettes and take his laundry to the cleaners. Seriously. We would also make photocopies of all the layouts by the artists. I had a month before CalArts started back up again and I was able to do a few scenes of “character layout” for Bill Melendez Productions (they were the studio that did all the Peanuts shows and commercials) on that Charlie Brown special. It was a dream at the time because I grew up loving-and drawing- the Peanuts. I did very little on it, so it was very cool of them to give me a credit at all.
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