History

My connection with Buzzco Associates began more than a decade before it was incorporated. I was an illustration student at the Rhode Island School of Design and one day I climbed up the hill to Brown University to hear Jack Zander give a talk about his New York animation studio. I had never considered animation before his presentation (there weren't many art schools teaching animation back then, including RISD.) But while watching Zander's commercial demo reel, I saw a way to marry my love of drawing with my love of acting and storytelling...without the stage fright. I asked him for a job right then and there and he said I should show him my portfolio when I could come to New York.

Zander didn't have a position to offer me, but he gave me a list of studios. I landed an internship with the newly created Perpetual Motion Pictures, where, after I graduated a few years later, I was hired fulltime. Veteran animator Vincent Cafarelli soon joined the staff and he became my mentor and teacher. Marilyn Kraemer joined about five years later as a bookkeeper.

In 1982, when Perpetual had grown to about 75 people, co-owner/producer Buzz Potamkin (interested in doing more for broadcast TV and the new cable networks) and co-owner/director/designer Hal Silvermintz (interested in the more profitable commercial work) parted ways. The staff was divided--Marilyn, Vinny, myself and others were recruited by Buzz for his studio, "Buzzco Productions" and Hal took the rest of the staff for "Perpetual Animation."

This site is less concerned with marketing for future work, but it is a tribute to Buzzco Associates and the people who worked there. And I wanted to tell the story of Buzzco from a personal perspective. It was the best of times.

I believe our most important work is the educational films. It started with our seminal relationship with Children’s Television Workshop: Sesame Street (It’s Hip to Be a Square, Jake the Snake, Animal Elevators, I Eat the Colors of the Rainbow among others), Electric Company, Square One TV.

We were approached by Planned Parenthood Federation of America to make a half hour video explaining puberty and sexuality to 10-14 year olds and their families. It was a daunting effort conditioned by a curriculum of hundreds of pages. We collaborated with writer Jim Thurman, a CTW veteran, an incredible cast, our staff, and Planned Parenthood educators. It generated an enormous reaction from educators — and was highly recommended by librarians, medical associations, even the religious right.

As an animated film, it won the prestigious Annecy Cristal award. It stayed relevant well through the 21st century, in fact, we were asked by various institutions to replace their VHS tapes with DVD’s! Now we are happy to have it streaming here.

Another milestone was a 17-minute DVD “It’s Still Me!- A guide for People with Aphasia and their Loved Ones” originally distributed by The National Aphasia Association. It was inspired by my mother, who had suffered a massive stroke that left her with aphasia, the inability to communicate with words. When people would come to visit her, they would speak only to me. They would ignore my mother, who was perfectly able to follow the conversation. She wanted to be involved. Although I created the DVD after she had passed, I'd imagine her nodding and pointing to the screen to show her friends she could be understood. 

I still get fan letters from people who find the explanations of aphasia and methods for non-verbal communication useful and hopeful. 

We continue to help organizations like TED-Ed, iHeed, the Albuquerque Balloon Museum, Macmillan Cancer Care and others explain complicated subjects through animation.