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Fred Seibert

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Fred Seibert
Seibert at Vidcon 2014
Born
Frederick Seibert

(1951-09-15) September 15, 1951 (age 73)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
EducationColumbia University (dropped out)
Occupation(s)Television producer, media & technology entrepreneur
Years active1975–present
Websitehttps://fredseibert.com/

Frederick (Fred) Seibert (born September 15, 1951) is an American television producer,[1] co-founder of MTV[2] and the CEO of FredFilms,[3] an animation production company based in Burbank, California. His official biography states he has led five (working) lives.[4] He has held leading positions with MTV Networks,[5][6] Hanna-Barbera,[1] Next New Networks,[7] and Frederator Studios and Networks. Seibert is an angel investor in several technology and media start-ups, has produced live action[8][9][10] and animated[11] programs for cable television[12] and the internet,[13] and began his professional career as a jazz and blues record producer.[14] Seibert's work has been honored in numerous fields. In music production his production has been nominated for a Grammy Award,[15] he has received an AIGA Medal[16] for lifetime exceptional achievements,[17] he is a member of the Animation Magazine Hall of Fame[18] and has been awarded several Annie Awards[19][20][21] and Emmy Awards[22][21] for his television productions.

Animated cartoons

In his time working in cartoons at three studios, Seibert has helped jumpstart the creator careers of over 100 animated filmmakers, including people like Genndy Tartakovsky,[23] Pendleton Ward,[24] Butch Hartman,[25] Kevin Kolde,[26] Craig McCracken,[27] David Feiss,[28] Van Partible,[29] John Dilworth,[30] Larry Huber,[31] Rob Renzetti,[32] Eric Robles,[33] Breehn Burns,[34] Bill Burnett,[35] Elyse Castro,[36] Mike Rosenthal,[37] James Kochalka,[38] Bob Boyle,[39] Warren Ellis[40] and Natasha Allegri.[41]

From 1992 until 1996, as the last president of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio, Seibert was able to reinvigorate the company's creative reputation with the establishment of the animation incubator What a Cartoon!.[42] Modeled on the Golden Age of mid-20th century cartoons, the 48 short films from creators around the world, Hanna-Barbera was able to launch seven hit series after a dry spell since the launch of The Smurfs in 1981 for NBC. The shows included Genndy Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory, David Feiss' Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel, Van Partible's Johnny Bravo, John R. Dilworth's Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Craig McCracken's The Powerpuff Girls.

After Ted Turner included Hanna-Barbera in Turner Broadcasting's 1996 sale to Time Warner, Seibert established Frederator Studios as an independent animation producer based in Burbank, California.

Frederator has established itself as a major American independent with several series on Nickelodeon (like Rob Renzetti's My Life as a Teenage Robot), Cartoon Network (Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time), and Cartoon Hangover (Pendleton Ward's Bravest Warriors, Natasha Allegri's Bee and PuppyCat), and Kevin Kolde's production of Castlevania for Netflix.[5]

Seibert created 250 short cartoons between 1995 and 2018 at Hanna-Barbera, Frederator Studios, 19 of which were continued as series at Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Hangover, Netflix and YouTube.

Seibert has also created several Internet channels featuring cartoons, including Channel Frederator, Cartoon Hangover, and Next New Networks.

After starting Frederator Studios in 1997, Seibert brought together a group of investors in a failed attempt to save the troubled underground/alternative comics publisher Kitchen Sink Press.[43]

Seibert's production of the first season of Natasha Allegri's Bee and PuppyCat for his Cartoon Hangover streaming channel was the most backed animated project on Kickstarter for several years. Season 2 was accidentally leaked onto Seibert's Vimeo channel in early 2020, but was eventually announced to be officially dropped on Netflix sometime in 2022.[44]

On February 23, 2022, Seibert announced the formation of cartoon production company FredFilms, with a first look deal at VIS Kids.[45] The company is in various stages of production on five reboots of vintage Seibert productions, including a live-action The Fairly OddParents for Paramount+ and a CG animated version for Netflix.[46] The company is developing several adult and children's original animated properties, furthering Seibert's philosophy of creators first,[47] always original,[48] and producing your next favorite cartoon.[49]

Streaming Video and Internet

In March 1999, MTV Networks CEO Tom Freston tapped Seibert to become the first president of the new MTV Networks Online, soon to split into MTV Interactive (The MTVi Group) and Nick.com.[6]

Building on this new media success, in 2007 Seibert conceived and founded Next New Networks (with Emil Rensing, Herb Scannell, Tim Shey, and Jed Simmons),[50] the leading online television company, with over 2 billion all time video views[51] and as of 2010 over 200 million views every month, making it, along with Maker Studios, creators of the Multi-channel networks. Along with their affiliated Indy Mogul, Barely Political, Channel Frederator and several other networks, the company's superdistribution allowed it to become among the most widely distributed video in the world, and to become YouTube's top professional content provider. By the end of 2010, Next New Networks had the globe's top two videos viewed on YouTube.[52] In March 2011, Next New Networks was acquired by YouTube.[53][54][55]

In 2004 David Karp interned at Frederator Studios at its first New York City location, and built the company's first blogging platform.[56] In 2007 he launched Tumblr from a rented desk at Frederator Studios' Park Avenue South offices, with chief engineer Marco Arment.[57][58] Seibert was one of Tumblr's first bloggers,[59] an angel investor in the company, and served on its board before its acquisition.[60]

Seibert was the original angel investor in Sawhorse Media[61], the company that created the Shorty Awards and MuckRack, a public relations management platform that enables organizations to connect with journalists to generate media coverage.

Seibert and his Frederator Networks partnered with John Borthwick and Betaworks; Jonathan Miller, Jason Ostheimer, Shari Redstone; and entrepreneur Yoel Flohr to form Thirty Labs in 2014, a startup studio based in New York City to develop and invest in video based technology businesses[62] Seibert is CEO and Flohr, COO. The company shuttered in 2015.

On February 21, 2012, Fred Seibert launched Cartoon Hangover, a channel on YouTube which consists of various animated shorts and series. Cartoon Hangover gained a much larger audience with the revival of Bravest Warriors by Pendleton Ward on November 8, 2012[63] which originally aired as a pilot on Fred Seibert's Random! Cartoons on Nicktoons Network in 2009.[64] In 2014, Channel Frederator was revived as a multi-channel network focused entirely on animation, signing one of YouTube's biggest animation channels, Simon's Cat.[65] By September 2014, the network was distributing 688 channels, with over 65 million monthly views and 10.5 million subscribers,[66] and by 2017 announced it had reached 1 billion monthly views on YouTube.[67]

Seibert stepped down from his position as CEO of Frederator in August 2020, though the company indicated that he would remain executive producer for current projects, including Bee & PuppyCat and Castlevania.[68][69]

Media Branding & Cable Television

Fred Seibert at Pixelodeon

After a late 1970s stint with media promotion innovator Dale Pon at New York's WHN Radio,[70] Seibert began his work at Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment in 1980.[5]

As a co-founder of MTV: Music Television[71] and the channel's first creative director,[72] Seibert was responsible for a complete rethinking of how the entire television industry was able to think of themselves as “brands.”[73] He guided his team to develop the original voice and visual identity for MTV, and went on to do the same at Nickelodeon, Nick-at-Nite (which he invented with his long time creative partner Alan Goodman), and Comedy Central.

Initially, MTV had none of the kinds of programs that were thought of as "television," only more than 160 hours (there are 168 hours in a week) of music videos that were about three minutes each, and with no set schedule that could be promoted. Seibert had to develop an alternative promotional strategy that was completely different than traditional networks.[74] The promos and network identifications his team produced did not resemble anything TV had every seen before, focusing on an approach that subtly made a series of "promises" to viewers in the wildest and most creative ways possible.[75][76] The network identifications, 10-seconds each, were based on the MTV logo he commissioned and approved,[73] designed by the Manhattan Design collective (that included his oldest childhood friend, Frank Olinsky). The logo mutated its design hundreds, thousands of ways, sometimes within one short animated film.[77] Some senior network executives objected to a logo that did not remain constant, but the approach ultimately prevailed.[78] The 10-second network IDs and the promos ultimately influenced graphic design and advertising for years to come.[79]

Within two years of launch, Seibert led the team that developed "I Want My MTV!", creative direction by his mentor Dale Pon, and it became one of the most famous advertising campaigns of the late 20th century.[80]

In 1983, with partner Alan Goodman, Seibert founded Fred/Alan Inc. in New York City as the world's first media branding company. Goodman had been one of his key creative lieutenants at MTV, and they had worked together in college radio a decade before. Together, they successfully adapted the MTV branding and promotional strategy to overhaul the then-floundering children's cable channel Nickelodeon between June 1984 and January 1985, moving it from worst to first in the ratings in six months,[81] and continued overseeing network branding and promotion for eight more years.

By the end of 1985, at the request of Nickelodeon president Geraldine Laybourne Seibert and Goodman conceived a radical rethinking of television networks by creating Nick-at-Nite, pitched as "the first oldies TV network."[82][83] Over the nine years of the company's existence they also did extensive work with The Movie Channel,[84] Lifetime,[85] Showtime[86] and Comedy Central.[87]

Seibert continued involvement with the cable TV industry for several years. He was employed by Turner Broadcasting as the last president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons,[88] then as a consultant for almost 15 years at Warner-Amex successor MTV Networks, and as a producer of several animated series[89] for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

Jazz & Blues Record Producer

Seibert began his media career in college radio at Columbia University's WKCR-FM in 1969.[90] He says he spent most of his college career at the radio station headquarters rather than going to classes, and he never graduated.[91]

While at Columbia he started his first company, Oblivion Records, with partners Tom Pomposello[92] and Dick Pennington, releasing LPs by Mississippi Fred McDowell (Live in New York) and Joe Lee Wilson. Simultaneously, he produced several dozen jazz and blues albums for independent companies such as Muse Records, JCOA Records,[93] and Birth Records (owned by instrumentalist/composer Gunter Hampel).[94] Seibert was an early employee of New Music Distribution Service, a non-profit distributor of musician-owned record company started by composers Carla Bley and Michael Mantler, before going on the road with Bley's big band as sound engineer and road manager.[95][96] Seibert announced the revival of Oblivion Records in 2021 for a digital release of a historic concert recording of jazz innovator Cecil Taylor.[97]

Fred Seibert's discography includes records he's produced by musical artists that include Hank Jones,[98][99] Mississippi Fred McDowell,[100][101] Willis Jackson,[102] [103] Willis Jackson with Pat Martino,[104] Jaki Byard,[105] Linc Chamberland,[106] Dom Salvador,[107] Tom Pomposello,[108] Johnny Woods,[109] Joe Lee Wilson,[110] Eric Kloss,[111][112] Richard Davis,[113] Don Patterson[114] and Cecil Taylor.[115]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ a b "The Story of Kids TV Mastermind Fred Seibert".
  2. ^ "MTV Founding Creators".
  3. ^ "Animation Vet Fred Seibert Launches New Production Company, FredFilms, And First-Look Deal With VIS Kids At ViacomCBS". 23 February 2021.
  4. ^ "I've Lived (strikethrough Three) Five Lives". 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Times, Los Angeles (18 December 2013). "Fred Seibert foresees 'next golden age of animation' on Internet". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ a b Katz, Richard (31 March 1999). "Seibert makes virtual return to MTV roots".
  7. ^ "'YouTube Next': Google Acquires Next New Networks". 7 March 2011.
  8. ^ Gilbert Gottried… Naturally, ‘’IMDB”, 30 October 2021
  9. ^ Kids’ Court, ‘’IMDB”, 30 October 2021
  10. ^ Turn It Up!, ‘’IMDB”, 30 October 2021
  11. ^ Strike, Joe. The Fred Seibert Interview, Animation World Network, 15 July 2003.
  12. ^ Grillo, Jean. New Network Look: Hairy, Fat Cablevision, Scribd.com, 7 June 1982.
  13. ^ Bolger, Tom. "I Want My NNN!", Gotham Magazine, February 2008.
  14. ^ "The Fred Seibert Interview — Part 1".
  15. ^ “Recording Academy Grammy Awards, Grammy.com, 20th Annual Grammy Awards 1977;
  16. ^ “AIGA Medal”, AIGA.com.
  17. ^ “AIGA Medalist, September 11, 2000”, AIGA.com,
  18. ^ Zahed, Ramin. World Animation & VFX Summit Enjoys Another Successful Edition ‘’Animation Magazine”, AnimationMagazine.net, 3 November 2017,
  19. ^ Adventure Time Annie Awards and Nominations
  20. ^ Fanboy and Chum Chum Annie Awards and Nominations
  21. ^ a b The Fairly OddParents Awards
  22. ^ Emmys.com
  23. ^ "Genndy Tarakovsky". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  24. ^ "Pendleton Ward". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  25. ^ "Butch Hartman". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  26. ^ "Kevin Kolde". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  27. ^ "Craig McCracken". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  28. ^ "David Feiss". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  29. ^ "Van Partible". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  30. ^ "John R. Dilworth". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  31. ^ "Larry Huber". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  32. ^ "Rob Renzetti". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  33. ^ "Eric Robles". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  34. ^ "Breehn Burns". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  35. ^ "Bill Burnett". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  36. ^ "Elyse Castro". Instagram. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  37. ^ "Mike Rosenthal". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  38. ^ "James Kochalka". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  39. ^ "Bob Boyle (animator)". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  40. ^ "Warren Ellis". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  41. ^ "Natasha Allegri". IMDb. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  42. ^ What A Cartoon? Ask.com
  43. ^ Stump, Greg. "News Watch: Teetering Towards a Shutdown, Kitchen Sink Searches for a Savior," The Comics Journal #196 (June 1997), pp. 7-14.
  44. ^ Bee and Puppycat season 2 finally finds a release at Netflix – Polygon
  45. ^ Hayes, Dade (2021-02-23). "Animation Vet Fred Seibert Launches New Production Company, FredFilms, And First-Look Deal With VIS Kids At ViacomCBS". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  46. ^ Julia Selinger (December 30, 2021). "Fairly OddParents Reboot Will Be Live-Action & Animation Hybrid". ScreenRant.com. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  47. ^ "Creators first". FredFilmsblog.tumblr.com. April 6, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  48. ^ "Original, always". FredFilmsblog.tumblr.com. April 19, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  49. ^ "Your next favorite cartoon". FredFilmsblog.tumblr.com. May 17, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  50. ^ Stone, Brad. "Internet Start-Up to Take a Hybrid Media Approach", The New York Times, 8 March 2007.
  51. ^ Shannon Miller, Liz. "Next New Networks Nears 1B Views, Profitability" Archived 2010-12-03 at the Wayback Machine, GigaOM.com.
  52. ^ "That Was The Year That Was", Frederator Blogs, 31 December 2010.
  53. ^ "Supercharging the “Next” phase in YouTube partner development", The Official YouTube Blog, 7 March 2011.
  54. ^ "Google's YouTube Buys Next New Networks", LA Times blogs, LATimes.com, March 2011.
  55. ^ "Here Comes YouTube Next", Next New Networks, YouTube.com
  56. ^ "Frederator Studios Blog". Archived from the original on April 19, 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  57. ^ Karp, David; Alexandria, Julie (May 27, 2008). David Karp and Tumblr (Video). Wallstrip. Event occurs at 1:30. Retrieved February 24, 2013. Sometime in 2006, we had a couple of weeks between contracts and said 'Let's see what we can do, let's see if we can built this thing', and we threw together the first working version of Tumblr.
  58. ^ ""Tumblr: David Karp's $800 Million Art Project" Forbes, January 2, 2013". Forbes.com. 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  59. ^ "Frederator Studios Blogs - Fred Seibert's Blog - Killing them softly".
  60. ^ "Tumblr CEO David Karp's Wild Ride from 14-Year-Old Intern to Multimillionaire - MediaShift". 22 May 2013.
  61. ^ . December 22, 2022 https://www.linkedin.com/in/fseibert/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  62. ^ Lawler, Ryan (25 September 2014). "Media Veteran Fred Seibert Ties Up With Betaworks To Create Video Technology Incubator Thirty Labs".
  63. ^ Video on YouTube
  64. ^ "Random! Cartoons".
  65. ^ Spangler, Todd (19 February 2014). "YouTube Animation Network Frederator Pacts with Simon's Cat".
  66. ^ "Channel Frederator Network Continues To Dominate Online Animation". 24 September 2014.
  67. ^ Frederator's Multi-Channel Network Surpasses 1 Billion Monthly Views Tubefilter, October 24, 2017
  68. ^ Kidscreen » Archive » Fred Seibert leaves Wow! Unlimited
  69. ^ The Frederator Studios Tumblr
  70. ^ "Fred Seibert on the MTV Logo". JazzWax by Marc Myers.
  71. ^ "Fred Seibert foresees 'next golden age of animation' on Internet". cablecenter.org. May 2, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  72. ^ "MTV Founding Creators". Los Angeles Times. December 18, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  73. ^ a b "Fred Seibert on the MTV Logo". JazzWax. August 1, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  74. ^ "I Want My… : A Conversation with MTV Co-Founder Fred Seibert". PostGenre Media. February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  75. ^ "Music Television Promo Lover". YouTube.com. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  76. ^ ""I WANT MY MTV" 1996 VHS". Internet Archive. November 18, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  77. ^ "Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert, IDs 1981-1983, version 2". Vimeo. January 2012. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  78. ^ "MTV Logo Story", FrankOlinsky.com
  79. ^ Ayla Angelos. ""A brief history of MTV IDs and the impact they've had on the creative world"". It's Nice That. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  80. ^ Tannenbaum, Rob; Marks, Craig (27 October 2011). I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution. Penguin. ISBN 9781101526415 – via Google Books.
  81. ^ "From Worst to First", Fred/Alan
  82. ^ "A Look Back at 35 Years of Nick at Nite" By Jeff Sheldon, 30 October 2021
  83. ^ "The first oldies television network., 30 October 2021, Fred/Alan
  84. ^ "The Movie Channel, network identifications 1988 & 1981", 30 October 2021, Fred/Alan
  85. ^ "Lifetime tries ‘Talk Television,’ 1984.", 30 October 2021, Fred/Alan
  86. ^ "Showtime's Got Rock!" & "The Honeymooners Lost Episodes Showtime 1984", 30 October 2021, Fred/Alan
  87. ^ "Naming Comedy Central", 30 October 2021, Fred/Alan
  88. ^ Variety Staff (24 March 1994). "Q&A with Hanna-Barbera president Fred Seibert".
  89. ^ "Fred Seibert". IMDb.
  90. ^ WKCR-FM, Columbia University
  91. ^ "Alan". Fred Seibert Dot Com (Personal Tumblr). 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  92. ^ Vidani, Peter. "WKCR and Oblivion".
  93. ^ "Discogs - Clifford Thornton / The Jazz Composer's Orchestra – The Gardens Of Harlem". Discogs.
  94. ^ "Fred Seibert". Discogs.
  95. ^ "My Mentors: Michael Mantler".
  96. ^ "On the Road with Carla Bley (and a big band of musical geniuses and misfits)".
  97. ^ Lydia Liebman (November 16, 2021). "NEW RELEASE: 'Cecil Taylor – The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert' out February 15, 2022 via Oblivion Records". LydiaLiebman.com. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  98. ^ "Bop Redux". Discogs. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  99. ^ "Groovin' High". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  100. ^ "Live in New York". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  101. ^ "Live at the Gaslight". AllMusic. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  102. ^ "In the Alley". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  103. ^ "The Gator Horn". Discogs.com. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  104. ^ "Single Action". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  105. ^ "Family Man". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  106. ^ "A Place Within". Discogs. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  107. ^ "My Family". Discogs. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  108. ^ "Honest Tom Pomposello". Discogs.com. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  109. ^ "Mississippi Harmonica". Discogs. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  110. ^ "Joe Lee Wilson > Livin' High Off Nickels and Dimes". Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  111. ^ "Now". Discogs. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  112. ^ "Together". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  113. ^ "Harvest". Discogs. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  114. ^ "Movin' Up". Discogs. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  115. ^ "Spring of Two Blue-J's". Discogs.com. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
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