Difference between revisions 487717709 and 490741300 on enwiki

{{BLP sources|date=March 2008}}
{{Like resume|date=March 2008}}
{{Infobox person
| image         =
| imagesize     = 
| caption       = 
| birthname     = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date and age|1955|2|9|mf=yes}}
(contracted; show full)rts]] in [[New York City]] intent on becoming a great animator. But his interest in animation's history led him to working with [[Leonard Maltin]], becoming his 'research associate' on the landmark book, ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''. In the course of doing this work, Beck became well versed in the histories and films of every Hollywood cartoon studio.

===Early career===
Beck began his career in the film industry at [[United Artists]] in 
[[1978]], working with the [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM/UA]] film library as a salesman in the non-theatrical division.

In [[1981]], Beck teamed with colleague [[Will Friedwald]] to produce the filmography "The Warner Brothers (''sic'') Cartoons", published by [[Scarecrow Press]]. In [[1984]] Beck joined [[Orion Pictures|Orion Classics]], becoming an expert at theatrical distribution.

===Expanded Entertainment===
His interest in animation and knowledge of film distribution brought him to the attention of Terry Thoren's Expanded Entertainment company in [[1986]]. With Beck's expertise, Expanded began distributing the ''[[International Tournee of Animation]]'', ''The Festival of Claymation'' and ''The Puppetoon Movie'' to theatres. At Expanded, Beck helped organize two animation festivals (Los Angeles Animation Celebration in [[1987]] and [[1989]]) and was instrumental in the creation of ''[[Animation Magazine]]''. In addition to his writing for ''Animation Magazine'', Beck has contributed to ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', ''[[Hollywood Reporter]]'', ''Video Business'', ''The Whole Toon Catalog'', ''Animation Blast'', ''[[Animato]]'', ''[[Wild Cartoon Kingdom]]'' and the on-line ''Animation World Magazine''.

===Warner Bros.===
===Teacher===
Recognized as an authority on animation, Beck taught a nine week course at the UCLA Extension on "Animation: The State Of The Art" in [[1992]] and conducted seminars on "The History of the Hollywood Cartoon" for the [[American Film Institute]] in [[1994]]. In [[1995]] Beck taught "The History of Animation" at NYU and in the spring of [[1996]] taught "Promotion for Animation" at the [[School of Visual Arts]]. He was a founding member of the [[Cartoon Network]] advisory board in [[1993]], and serves on the board of directors of [[ASIFA-Hollywood]], a chapter of (The [[International Animated Film Association]]).

===The 1990s===
In the 1990s, Beck co-produced a successful series of laser disc compilations for MGM/UA Home Video, which included ''The Golden Age of Looney Tunes'', ''The Compleat Tex Avery'' and ''The Art of Tom & Jerry'' and he has programmed over 100 video tape collections. He has been an animation consultant to (contracted; show full)tion. He became Executive Producer of ''[[The Baby Huey Show]]'' for [[Harvey Entertainment|The Harvey Entertainment Co.]] Beck then joined [[Nickelodeon Movies]] as Vice President of Animation, under a three year contract. At Nickelodeon, Beck was instrumental in developing ''[[The Rugrats Movie]]'', and ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'' and ''[[The Stinky Cheese Man]]'' (both which weren't finished).

===Late 1990s===
From September 
[[1997]] through April [[1998]], Beck had an exclusive consulting and development deal with [[Walt Disney Television Animation]]. Also in 1997, Beck formed Cartoon Research Co. to write books, consult on animation projects, compile [[Compact disc|CD]]'s, [[DVD]]'s and home video products, supply cartoon stock footage and develop new features and TV series.

In [[1999]], Beck produced ''Totally Tooned In'' for [[Columbia TriStar Television|Columbia Tri-Star International Television]], a 65 episode series that restored the Columbia theatrical cartoon library; and for [[Cartoon Network]] wrote and co-produced the special ''Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons''.

Beck was co-creator, co-producer and co-writer of ''Karen and Kirby'' for Warner Bros. TV Animation. 13 ''Karen and Kirby'' interstitials were produced and were shown on Kids WB's ''[[The Big Cartoonie Show]]''.

===Writer===
Beck was the West Coast Bureau Chief for ''[[KidScreen]]'' magazine for one year (July [[2000]] through July [[2001]]), and co-wrote the Cartoon Network special ''Toonheads: The Wartime Cartoons'' (which aired 7/1/01 and received a modest 2.3 rating). Beck also co-wrote ''Toonheads: The 12 Missing Hares'' and ''Toonheads: The Worst Cartoons Ever'' (both projects were shelved). In 2002, Beck became a writer/producer for Rubberbug Animation, which produced an award winning educational DVD project named ''algebra'school''.

Beck had two more books published in [[2003]]: ''Outlaw Animation'' and ''Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide''.

In [[2004]], Beck was General Editor of Animation Art, and wrote two more books which were published in 2005: ''The Animated Movie Guide'' and ''Pink Panther: the Ultimate Visual Guide''.

===Current activities===
Beck's six minute cartoon short ''Hornswiggle'', produced by [[Frederator Studios]], aired as part of the ''Random Cartoons'' series Dec.ember  20, 2008 on [[Nicktoons Network]]. He collaborates with Mystery Science Theater's [[Frank Conniff]] to produce ''Cartoon Dump'' on the Web and as a monthly live comedy show at [[The Steve Allen Theater]] in Hollywood. An annual show of Worst Cartoons has become a Friday night staple of [[Comic-Con International]], drawing an audience of over a thousand to watch Beck's latest selection of terrible but commercially distributed television cartoon series episodes (mostly drawn from low budget 1960s syndicated programs).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDBb name|id=0065175|name=Jerry Beck}}
* [http://www.cartoonresearch.com Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research.com]
* [http://www.cartoonbrew.com Jerry Beck's blog]
* [http://www.cartoondump.com/ Cartoon Dump]
* [http://www.rembrandtfilms.com/worst-cartoons-ever.htm Worst Cartoon DVD]

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Beck, Jerry
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH     = February 9, 1955
| PLACE OF BIRTH    =
| DATE OF DEATH     =
| PLACE OF DEATH    =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Jerry}}
[[Category:1955 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Animation historians]]