Evaporated Liquid
A long, long, time ago in a world far, far away, it was 1992. I was working with a small TV animation studio. Word came that MTV, then the outermost molecule of the cutting edge, was seeking short animated series for its hip new anthology, Liquid Television. Everyone in the studio, even me, was invited to bring their ideas to a pitch meeting.
Even back then "hip" was not what I was. If I'd been any less hip I'd have needed replacement surgery. So I decided just to be myself. I prepared two boards to present my personal mixture of art deco, obscure reference, and word play. My series was to be called Flab of Fury, Sword of Doom. It was set in a city called Decotropolis, which name I think has since been used by someone else.
It's easy to tell the age of the proposal by its references: those were the days of Lone Wolf and Cub and a dog called "Spuds" who starred in Miller Light Beer ads. Mexican wrestling was still a niche genre, almost unknown outside Los Angeles.
I liked my idea, naturally, but it definitely wasn't what MTV was looking for. However our company did place a series on Liquid Television: Joe Horne's The Specialists. Joe is one of the many unsung talents of TV animation. He's still in the business--he has directed dozens of series from Disney's Teamo Supremo to Boondocks--but few people remember The Specialists and its equally brilliant MTV forerunner Stevie and Zoya. We had no idea what our competition would be, but we were all confident that The Specialists would be a smash. It was clever, it was hip, it was loaded with cultural references, and at the time its visual style was absolutely unique.
Which goes to show how wrong you can be. The Specialists got barely a nod. The MTV audience doted instead upon an animated comic-book fantasy called Aeon Flux. You may have heard of it. But there was one short that even the hippest of us thought was the ugliest, stupidest, and most worthless of all the Liquid Television contenders. This was a one-shot called "Frog Football," and it introduced two characters named Beavis and Butt-Head.
9 comments:
Joe Horne is amazing. I used to love watching the Stevie Washington bumpers on MTV. The Specialists was easily my favorite Liquid TV regular, even more so than Aeon Flux. I also enjoyed his El Hombre shorts that were featured on Pee Wee's playhouse, although I didn't make the coorelation that it was him at the time. I have always wished he'd make some sort of DVD that compiled all of that early shorts stuff he did for the various shows.
I'm with you on that! We need "Joe Horne: The Early Years."
I like the sound of that. I suppose MTv still owns the rights to most of that. I understand they are pretty notorious for screwing artists over in the past. I may be wrong in that, but at any rate... that would be pretty awesome. I have copies of the entire Stevie Washington serial, as well as the Specialists, I also have all of the Pee Wee Playhouse episodes so that would also cover El Hombre, but it would be nice to have them all together to enjoy.
Also meant to mention I think Flab of Fury, Sword of Doom looks and sounds like it would of been great. Better than a good bit of what was actually shown on LTV. Surprises me that MTV weren't into the idea. It looks hip, and funny with the right amount of retro quirkiness to really gel. I was right in the demographics for the average viewers for Liquid television, I am certain my friends who watched it would of dug it as well.
Just an FYI : after some searching on youtube I found the entire Specialists serial. That one is in 10 parts just as it aired. I also found the entire Stevie and Zoya serial, this one came from the Liquid Extract, so all the episodes are back to back. The same goes for the ESPERANTO FAMILY, all 6 eps in one sitting. Sadly, there only seems to be one segment of El Hombre up at this time. The bulk of the early years, right there!
Mr Bloody Mojo, copious thanks for finding The Specialists! It was great fun to revisit the show, though the image quality wasn't the greatest. Funny how mainstream Joe's designs look today--at the time they were unique. I don't think anyone's matched his free-form backgrounds, though.
@Smurfswacker
Background designs for the "Specialists" segments were also done by Disney veteran Walt Peregoy.
IIRC He also did background design for "The Esperanto Family"...
Anon, thanks for mentioning Walt Peregoy. Joe Horne was a big fan of Walt, who has (had?) a remarkable sense of color which he combined with a totally unique drawing style. Peregoy's work was definitely a major part of The Specialists' look.
@Smurfswacker
You're welcome.
Walt Peregoy is still around, at age 86 (or so?).
Looking back, "The Specialists" had quite the talent pool of aniamtion veterans...
including Fred Crippen, Chris Jenkyns... even animation great Richard Williams.
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