Profile: Michael Sporn

An interview with famed independent New York studio head
by Jake Friedman
*Originally published in the November, 2006 issue of the aNYmator newsletter.

You might recognize his signature style in his numerous "Sesame Street" segments or his dozens of 30 minute films for cable. It's tactile in its paints and pencils, subtle in its animation and very deep in its storytelling. Currently, Sporn heads up the oldest standing studio in New York City, and he still has his own share of feasts and famines. He also has four films coming to DVD this April, and four more next autumn, all of which will no doubt be announced on www.MichaelSpornAnimation .com and his popular blog (or "splog"). Here, Sporn discusses his theory on television cartoons, on animator types, and how technology plays its role in the business.

JF: What was your particular career path?

I joined the Navy after college - better that than Vietnam - and I was a Russian interpreter there. I was based in Maryland, and I never left the United States. When I was down there I started contacting the Hubley studio. John Hubley was sort of a hero of mine. I saw Of Stars and Men (1964) when I was in college, and when I was in the military I started contacting the studio, and I got a response saying anytime I was up in New York, come in, we'll be glad to see you. Innocent as I was, I believed it. It turned out that the secretary who was being fired had a nice joke at my expense by signing John Hubley's name to this letter that she sent me. So when I started contacting them, they didn’t know who I was.

So after the Navy, what I did do was get a job as a messenger at the studio of Hal Seegar. Hal Seegar worked for Fleisher and was a production manager on Gulliver's Travels. In his own studio he revived Koko the Clown and Batfink. When I got the job, they had all the animation equipment, they just didn't do any animation - the studio was editing things for ABC. I got the job for $60 a week. At the time I was getting unemployment for $70 a week, so I took a cut in pay. But what that did was teach me about film editing, and I ended up being an assistant editor there doing commercials for ABC and segments for "Wide World of Sports."

That same year I was calling the Hubley studio almost every week, at the suggestion of the personal assistant there. And I had conversations with her for about a year, and then one day I got a call from her to come in. So I was hired for 2 days, which turned into 5 years.