Fred Seibert

Fred Seibert (born September 15, 1951) is a television producer, and an entertainment executive who has held leading positions with MTV Networks and Hanna-Barbera.

Seibert was MTV's first creative director and helped develop its on-air visual identity, creating hundreds of station IDs for the channel. He also commissioned and approved the mutating MTV logo, despite network executives objections to a logo that did not remain constant.

In 1985, with partner Alan Goodman at Fred/Alan Inc., Seibert successfully overhauled then-floundering children's cable channel Nickelodeon and developed the Nick-at-Nite concept. He also helped start the Nicktoons project.

Seibert became president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., in 1992, and turned around the struggling animation studio by revamping its production and development process. He created Cartoon Network's "What-A-Cartoon!", a showcase for new animated shorts which spun off several series including "Cow and Chicken", "Dexter's Laboratory", "Johnny Bravo", and "The Powerpuff Girls". He remained at Hanna-Barbera until 1996, when H-B's parent company, Turner Broadcasting, merged with Time Warner. Among Seibert's outputs at Hanna-Barbera Productions were SWAT Kats, 2 Stupid Dogs, and Jonny Quest Real Adventures, which was on preproduction for about 3 years.

Seibert founded animation production company Frederator Studios in 1997. Frederator currently has a first look production deal with Nickelodeon, and its productions include "ChalkZone", "The Fairly OddParents", "My Life as a Teenage Robot", "Nicktoons Film Festival", "Oh Yeah! Cartoons", "Random! Cartoons", and "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!.

In addition to his Frederator duties, Seibert returned to MTV Networks in 1999, and was president of MTV Networks Online, chairman of the MTVi Group, and president of Nickelodeon Online. After the dot-com bubble burst, he returned to Frederator full-time in 2001. Frederator Studios has grown to be one of the largest independent cartoon producers in America.

In November 2005 Seibert launched his innovative network for distribution on portable video devices, the world's first cartoon video podcast (or vodcast), which he calls Channel Frederator. Filmmakers submit animated films for weekly exhibition on Apple's video iPods, Sony's PlayStation Portables, or Archos Pocket Video Players. In quick succession was 'The Wubbcast' for pre-schoolers (with Bolder Media, in January 2006) and 'ReFrederator' with vintage cartoons (April 2006). Along with their affiliated 'VODcars', 'Veracifier', and several other networks, the Frederator podcasts are providing the foundation for [http://www.nextnewnetworks.com/ Next New Networks] (of which Seibert is a founder) and are among the most widely-distributed in the world.

In February 2006, Fred Seibert's first book (co-edited with Eric Homan) "Original Cartoons: the Frederator Studios Postcards 1998-2005" was published by the Easton Studio Press.

In June 2007, Fred Seibert, Kevin Kolde and Eric Gardner founded Frederator Films, a studio dedicated to creating animated feature films budgeted under $20 million.McNary, Dave. [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967622.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2564 Toon trio starts Frederator] . "Variety". Mon, Jun. 25, 2007.]

ee also

* List of AIGA medalists

References

External links

* [http://fredseibert.com FredSeibert.com]
* [http://frederatorblogs.com/frederator_studios Fred Seibert's Blog]
* [http://frederator.kz/ Frederator Studios]
* [http://newtoons.frederator.com/ The Frederator Studios Blog]
* [http://refrederator.com/ ReFrederator]
* [http://wubbcast.com/ The Wubbcast]
* [http://channelfrederator.com/ Channel Frederator]
* [http://www.nextnewnetworks.com/ Next New Networks]
*
* [http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=1800 Animation World News] interview (2003)
* [http://www.aiga.org/resources/Content/2/3/5/documents/seibertessay.pdf Essay] by Steven Heller at AIGA.org (American Institute of Graphic Arts) (PDF)
* [http://www.boldermedia.com/ Bolder Media for Boys & Girls]
* [http://web.mac.com/fredseibert/iWeb/Site%20157/MTV%3A%20Music%20Television%20Logo%20Article.html The MTV Logo]