Desert Island Series....Be sure to bring a power source for TV!

Desert Island Series....Be sure to bring a power source for TV!

compiled by Frankie Kowalski

When I reflect on autumn and what it means to me, I think of the season's beauty, fuzzy sweaters, kid's lunch boxes (with plenty of twinkies), and what I look forward to most--the new toons to hit the tube! International Television is this month's focus, so I spoke to the executives that graciously make it happen day in and day out: Clare Kitson, Commissioning Editor for Animation at Channel 4 in the UK; John Coates founder of TVC, in London; Gerry Travers, Marketing and Distribution Manager for Energee Entertainment, in Sydney; Fred Seibert, President, Hanna Barbera and Phil Roman, President, Film Roman, both in Los Angeles.

Clare Kitson's top 10 picks...OK, she couldn't resist--12 picks....

1. Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder
2. The Major and the Minor by Billy Wilder
3. One, Two, Three by Billy Wilder (a big Wilder fan as you see)
4. Singin' In the Rain by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
5. The Lady-Killers by Alexander Mackendrick (the only British entrant, how sad)
6. The Lady With the Dog by Joseph Heifitz
7. No End by Krzysztof Kieslowski
8. The Street by Caroline Leaf
9. The Big Snit by Richard Condie
10. The Tale of Tales by Yuri Norstein
11. The Wrong Trousers by Nick Park
12. The Cow by Alexander Petrov

Crapston Villas
Courtesy of Channel4

John Coates'...

The Yellow Submarine
© TVC-London

"We grew up at TVC making TV commercials--nearly 1,500 of them-- and it wasn't until we made The Yellow Submarine that I realized that it was really fun to entertain people. By Christmas this year, we will have completed one cinema feature, two TV features, and thirteen half-hour TV specials in the past fifteen years. Hopefully they will have entertained millions of people around the world and we have certainly had a lot of fun making them."

1. The Go Between by Joseph Losey
2. Au revoir les enfants by Louis Malle
3. Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni
4. North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock
5. Casablanca by Michael Curtiz
6. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa
7. Pinocchio by Walt Disney
8 The Man Who Planted Trees by Frederic Back
9. Granpa by Dianna Jackson
10. The Wrong Trousers by Nick Park

Gerry Travers'...

1. The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming
2. The Manchurian Candidate by John Frankenheimer
3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Walt Disney
4. Crocodile Dundee by Peter Faiman
5. F Troop (series) produced by William T. Orr & Hy Averback
6. Fritz The Cat by Ralph Bakshi
7. The Jungle Book by Walt Disney
8. Droopy cartoons by MGM

Brian at the drums, from Crocadoo.
© Energee

Fred Seibert's...

"Working with cartoons has been amazing. The talented animators and the people who support them are the best kind of colleagues to have. Traveling around the world and watching people laugh with films I've been lucky enough to touch is one experience that can not be duplicated."

1. Rock n Roll High School by Alan Arkush
2. Car Wash by Michael Schultz
3. Bringing Up Baby by Howard Hawks
4. The Godfather (all three) by Francis Ford Coppola
5. The Dick Van Dyke Show (series) produced by Carl Reiner
6. Missing by Costa Graves
7. A Hard Day's Night by Richard Lester
8. Looney Tunes by various directors
9. North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock
10. The Fugitive (series) produced by Quinn Martin

Phil Roman's...

1. Bambi by Walt Disney
2. The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming
3. It's A Wonderful Life by Frank Capra
4. Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder
5. Singin' in the Rain by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
6. Pinocchio by Walt Disney
7. Doctor Zhivago by David Lean
8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Robert Zemeckis
9. Roman Holiday by William Wyler
10 The Last Emperor by Bernardo Bertolucci

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