Bill Burnett is the co-creator of ChalkZone along with Larry Huber. He is also a co-producer, director, writer, voice actor, singer, musician, composer and songwriter for the show. Most, if not all, of the musical credits for ChalkZone goes to Burnett. Outside of the show, he is the leader of the LA-based band The Backboners.
Before working on ChalkZone, he started out working with actress and singer Patti LuPone for her musicals produced for PBS. Later he joined Alan Goodman (who established the logos and banding for major cable networks like MTV and Nickelodeon) and Fred Seibert (who would later create Frederator Studios) in their advertisement agency to became a creative director creating groundbreaking campaigns for Nick-at-Nite, Sassy Magazine and Nickelodeon. When Fred Seibert become president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Burnett was hired to composed a number of songs for their shows, which including the theme song for the Flintstones spin-off the Cave Kids and songs for Cow & Chicken. After Fred Seibert left Hanna-Barbera Cartoons to start up his own production studio Frederator Studios, Burnett joined him to where he got to make his own cartoons for Oh Yeah! Cartoons, which included the original shorts for ChalkZone. The shorts become their own show. He would later return to the Oh Yeah! Cartoons spit-off showcase series Oh Yeah!.
He is close friends with Butch Hartman (Bill actually came up with the name "Fairly OddParents" for his upcoming pilot and later TV series), Larry Huber, Greg Emison, Rob Renzetti (creator of My Life as a Teenage Robot), Vince Waller and Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane (who he fired from Cow & Chicken) who were about 20 feet from his office. He was also close friends with famous ballet dancer Sally Rousse and cartoonist Bill Plympton who was a guest artist in his show ChalkZone animating some retro-1950s chalk drawings, as well as the inspiration for the character Drew Yerface on the show, and Plympton was also producing a short for Random! Cartoons called "Gary Guitar". Another of Bill's cartoon shorts, "Tutu the Superina" was actually created by him and Sally Rousse who helped him with material about ballet dancers which they came up with a ballerina crime fighter.
ChalkZone writing credits[]
All Oh Yeah! episodes were co-written with Larry Huber.
- OY1. "ChalkZone"
- OY2. "Amazin' River"
- OY3. "Rudy's Date" (later incorporated into the first season)
- OY4. "Snap Out of Water" (later incorporated into the first season)
- OY5. "Secret Passages" (later incorporated into the first season)
- OY6. "Chalk Dad"[1]
- OY7. "Chalk Rain"
- OY8. "Rapunzel" (later incorporated into the first season)
- 101a. "Rudy's First Adventure" (co-written with Larry Huber)
- 101c. "Bushel Full O' Yum" (co-written with Steve Rucker)
- 102c. "Future Zone (story, with Steve Marmel, Larry Huber, and Jenny Nissenson)
- 102d. "Mumbo Jumbo Jump"
- 103a. "The Wiggies"
- 103d. "Coming to Life"
- 104a. "French Fry Falls" (co-written with Larry Huber)
- 104b. "Gift Adrift" (co-written with Steve Marmel)
- 104c. "Escucha Mi Corazon" (story and song; story with Jenny Nissenson)
- 105c. "Rudus Tabootus"
- 105d. "All Day Jam"
- 106a. "The Skrawl" (co-written with Larry Huber)
- 106d. "In the Zone"
- 201a. "Hole In The Wall"
- 202b. "Portable Portal" (with Jenny Nissenson)
- 202c. "Snap on Tour"
- 203b. "What's My Line?" (with Jenny Missenson)
- 204c. "Fireplug Ballet"
- 205a. "The Heist"
- 206a. "The Smooch"
- 207b. "Snap's Nightmare" (with Jenny Nissenson)
- 301c. "Snapsheebah" (with Jenny Nissenson)
- 302b. "Following the Bouncing Bag" (with Jenny Nissenson)
- 304a. "Water Water Everywhere"
- 305c. "Insect Aside"
- 307c. "The Ballad of Toe Fu"
- 309b. "Duck Snap Duck"
- 310. "Double Trouble"
- 311/312. "The Big Blow Up" (with Ford Riley)
- 314a. "Howdy Rudy" (with Larry Huber)
- 315. "When Santas Collide"
- 316a. "Purple Haze"
- 316b. "No Place Like Home"
- 402b. "Family von snap" (with Ford Riley)
- 403b. "Poison Pen Letter" (with Ford Riley)
- 404c. "Snapshots 2: Wild ChalkZone!" (with Jenny Nissenson and Ford Riley)
- 406b. "Vincent VanGo"
- 409a. "Snap vs. BooRat"
- 409c. "Snapsody in Blue"
- 410a. "The Day ChalkZone Stood Still" (with Ford Riley)
Trivia[]
- He started writing songs at the age of five and sixteen. His mother, Mildred, was an opera singer and occasionally called to him operatically which was the inspiration for Rudy's mother along with Larry's father who was a real life butcher and taught Larry how to butcher animals.[2]
- According to 107 Facts About ChalkZone video on YouTube he states that a good series finale episode of the show will have Snap realize as Rudy grows up he will go to ChalkZone less and less until not at all.[3]
- In that same video, he cited "The Wiggies," "Portable Portal," "Pumpkin Love" and "The Big Blow Up" as his favorite episodes from the series.[3]
References[]
- ↑ Seibert, Fred. Chalk Dad. Scribd. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- ↑ ChalkZone speaks!. December 2, 2007. Frederator. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 ChannelFrederator (May 19, 2017). 107 ChalkZone Facts You Should Know! (107 Facts S6 E11). YouTube. Retrieved February 19, 2020.