DRAFT: Fred Alan's Greatest Hits 7"x10"

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Fred/Alan
Greatest Hits
A Decade in Media History
1983-1992
By Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert
Eliot George Books

Fred/Alan Greatest Hits:
A Decade in Media History 1983-1992
Copyright ©2024, by Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert
Copyrights and trademarks of all images and logos

are held by their respective owners and
reproduced here with their kind permissions.
All rights reserved,

including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
2 3 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
First edition
January 2024
Dedicated with love to
Jack and Joe and Lily and Perry
Very few of the good things in life happen

without help and collaboration,
and that was certainly true at Fred/Alan.
To the dozens –hundreds– of our
subversives, misfits and thrillmakers,
this book is dedicated to you and all
your skills, talents and mostly,
your good cheer.
4 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS
You can watch much of the video
described in this book at
www.FredAlan.org
A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 5

Photograph
by Elena Seibert
Hand coloring
by Candy Kugel
The Fred/Alan Chronology

We were in business for less than 10 • 1988
years but packed a lot of fun, money, Expanded our staff to become America’s
and innovation into our time. Not to first advertising agency focused on people
mention, best of all, a small city’s worth under 35. Nominations and wins of every
of fantastic colleagues and collaborators. creative advertising award.
• 1983 • 1989
Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert open Fred/Alan opens Chauncey Street
America’s first media branding agency, Productions with producer Albie Hecht.
with production and consulting
capabilities, in New York City. • 1992
Fred/Alan Closes.

Photograph by Elena Seibert

INTRODUCTION
by Alan
Goodman
Photograph by Elena Seibert

August 1970. I arrived at Colum- massive intelligence, superior instinct,
personal charisma, consistent point of
bia University as an experienced
newspaper reporter and joined the view, and powers of persuasion were
college paper staff, getting my first like an iceboat through a frozen cor-
assignment almost immediately. I was porate sea of immobility, copycat de-
disillusioned just as quickly when I cision-making, blaming and shaming,
saw my article in print with virtually and general inaction. It was amazing
every word rewritten. That had never to see in person as co-workers, rivals,
happened to me in two summers of clients, and supervisors fell into line
working at my award-winning home- as Fred led any charge.
town paper.
Those traits were on display early.
Maybe radio, I thought. I rang the I remember a time at the radio station
bell at WKCR-FM, and Fred Seibert when we were in the midst of one of
answered the door. He’s been opening our trademark marathons celebrating
doors for me ever since. a musician’s birthday. This one hap-
pened to be a three-day event honor-
I’ve been telling that story for years. ing Charles Mingus. At some point
It’s shown up in print a time or two. around mid-way through the special
Recently I admitted to Fred I’m not we started playing Mingus’ music
entirely certain it’s accurate. It hap- chronologically. I believe it had been
pened more than 50 years ago. It scheduled. When it was Fred’s turn
might have been Lou Venech, who to take the mic, he said “I thought
was at the station every minute he we’d take a break from playing Min-
wasn’t in a classroom, keeping a pot gus’ music chronologically and for
of coffee hot next to the porcelain the next few hours focus on the music
frog “piggy bank” where you were that made us all fall in love with him
supposed to drop a quarter-per-cup. as a bass player and composer.” He
When I say it may not be true, I mean programmed his own three-hour
the first part. The second part, where shift. I stood there thinking, any one
opportunity after opportunity became of us could have done that. Who cares
available to me in my career and life, about the schedule? It was college
that was all Fred for sure. radio. Aren’t you supposed to be a
renegade? But none of us was, only
Fred.
I know this book is about our com- (People always said that at Fred/Alan
pany, Fred/Alan. But my relationship
with Fred is deeper and longer than we broke all the rules. Not true. We
that and so much of who we were as a obeyed lots of rules. We only broke
company was rooted in who and what the stupid ones.)
Fred is as a human. Like anyone, I
struggle to put into words how Fred’s After school we went off into the
world, Fred into radio and I into It wasn’t long before I was by his side
film school, then advertising at CBS producing animation for the network
Records. We were in touch all the and within days, working with him to
time. For a while I would call his new plan MTV.
station in L.A., ask for Fred Seibert,
and be corrected by the receptionist.
“Sei-BERG,” she would tell me as she One of Fred’s great innovations in
quickly put me on hold before I could on-air promotion was bringing The
tell her I actually knew the guy. Movie Channel subscribers to New
York for two days of sightseeing,
In radio he became a protégé of Dale dining, and promo recording. He
Pon, who in a few years Fred would believed in the value of unscripted
hire as the advertising agency for opinions from real people, a strategy
MTV. Dale taught Fred, and later me, we later employed at Nickelodeon
things like the inextricable link be- with real kids. One commercial for
tween media and creative, the value of The Movie Channel has stayed with
numbers, the importance of making me all these years. “There are only
and backing up a claim, and how to three things in my town that are 24
build audiences. In following Dale, hours,” the man told our camera. “The
Fred wound up back to New York, hospital, the diner, and The Movie
where he was able to resume his side Channel.” I’ve never written anything
hustle in freelance record produc- that good.
tion. He was doing a date in the city
once and called me to come sit with “24 hours a day” was an example of
him in the control room. He had just a promotable promise for The Movie
had an offer from Bob Pittman, head Channel that we also used for MTV,
of The Movie Channel, one of the in an era when it was typical for us to
new premium subscription channels develop a list of five or six promises for
springing up to take on HBO. Bob the networks we were promoting.
had gotten a recommendation from
Dale for Fred to run promotion for Again, Fred’s idea, borne out of his ra-
the network (Bob and Dale knew each dio experience where the DJs had a set
other from their days at NBC Radio). of “liners” they’d use in breaks to call
Fred was struggling with the deci- out the station’s attributes.
sion. I looked at the musicians on the
other side of the glass. One or two of Anyone who ever worked with us
them were drunk, I think there was knows about our affection for prom-
an argument in progress, no one was ises. We objected to slogans – slogans
sure what was happening, and it was wear out and get replaced. Also, we
unclear that anything worthwhile was insisted on devoting a LOT of time
going to get recorded that evening. to promotion, which would have
“Do it,” I told him. hastened that burn-out. With the
right promises, you could execute aesthetic reason was there as
endlessly and never run out of ways well.
to creatively tell each story. I could Later, as we built Fred/Alan, I was
probably rattle off all the promises, often in a position where young staff
to this day. It’s a system that wouldn’t members were asking me to interpret
work in today’s era where everything Fred for them. “I brought him an ad
is streamed, content is to see,” they’d tell me, “and he wrote
king, and brands are less valued. But a note on it, but I don’t really know
for years I would run into generations what he wants.”
of promo producers who learned
from Fred and me, and would tell me I would try to explain Fred to them.
about their promises, long after that “Look, Fred is at heart a jazz mu-
strategy ceased being useful. sician,” I’d tell them. “You brought
him something, and based on what
Another of our innovations was you showed him he started impro-
producing TV “audio first.” As MTV vising. He started riffing. I guess he
began building its staff and Fred wants to see something different,
started hiring producers, he found because if he were in love with what
he couldn’t afford seasoned pros and you showed him he would have told
none existed in TV who understood you. But don’t worry too much about
music the way we did. We had spent what he told you. It was just a riff. He
years doing segues and mixes and doesn’t necessarily want to see that
montages in college radio. Sound, we exact thing, and probably won’t even
believed, mattered more than picture. remember it. He wants you to think.
If something doesn’t sound right, it’s He wants something that works. Go
grating as hell. If a second-long im- away and do some more work. Don’t
age isn’t right, what difference does bring him one idea, because I can tell
it make? People are barely watching you he doesn’t want to see one idea.
anyway. So we worked with newbies Don’t come back and tell him his
and sent them all to Clack Studios, a idea doesn’t work either. But if you
recording studio where I had worked come back and show him, ‘I tried this
in the music business, owned by the direction, and then I tried this, and
best audio engineer in New York. Au- then I tried this third one, and then I
dio studio time was $50 an hour. Vid- thought about this, and this seemed
eo hours at video studios were $300 like the best way for us to go,’ he may
an hour, before they started adding all still not like what you have but he will
the extras like special effects proces- totally respect your process of devel-
sors, title generators, and dubs. Better opment and believe you did what he
to have novices crapping around at a wants you to do.”
lower rate than what the video joints
charged. Like many things with Fred, Other times I’d tell them, “Yeah, I
there was a practical reason, but the can’t read his writing either.”
While we could often finish each us. I once hired a comedy writer to
other’s sentences, we weren’t the same write ads for us because he made me
person. laugh. (Later he hired me to run his
sitcom.) We made account executives
An important thing to say about out of people who had never been
account executives before. We boosted
Fred is how he is the world’s great-
voiceover artists into being producers.
est champion of great ideas. A myth
We convinced East Village artists to
abounds that he only likes his own
do advertising for MTV, getting them
stuff. Nothing could be further from
to take commercial work for the first
the truth. I have never seen anyone
time in their lives because we prom-
discard his own work faster in favor
ised them they could do whatever
of someone else’s when it was clear
they wanted – we wouldn’t change a
the other person had a better idea. It
line in their drawings. (R. Crumb, the
was a great lesson to me. There can be
legendary underground comic book
great satisfaction in recognizing the
artist, did a full-page ad for MTV that
contributions of others.
was basically about how much he hat-
I think of all the things we did at Fred/ ed MTV. It’s a brilliant drawing.)
Alan I am most pleased about the ca-
reers we launched. Not the work. The In today’s corporate world HR de-
work was great. I still have some of partments write job descriptions, then
it hanging on the wall because I love go looking for people who fit those
looking at it. But nothing matches descriptions. It’s an impossible assign-
the joy I feel knowing I pulled people ment, because no one will ever match
out of the team to tell them, “You’re your dream applicant. Our attitude
a writer. You don’t know it yet, but was, let’s surround ourselves with
you’re a writer.” And now those people smart people we like being with, and
are writers. Or the junior art director we’ll figure out what they’re good at.
who was supposed to accompany me Our business cards never had titles on
to a shoot I was directing who I told them. That wasn’t the part we cared
at the last moment, “I’m not going. about. Instead, we gave people shots
You’re directing.” It was his first of and we were loyal. I still work with
many. He just needed the push. Fred/ suppliers who were Fred/Alan people
Alan was a wonderful nest, but how 40 years ago.
thrilling when we could push some-
one out of the comfort and safety into It was also a great place for personal
the wider world. experimentation, craft building, and
innovating. I would never have got-
At Fred/Alan we filled extra offices ten the breaks I got without Fred’s
with colleagues who needed space be- cheerleading for me. When we were
cause we wanted those brains around younger, he hired me to write liner
notes for his records. He hired me
to produce animation at The Movie butt. What’s more fun than working,
Channel when all I had done to earn and talking about work?
the job was attend one class in anima-
tion at film school before dropping We’ll always be checking up with each
the class. It’s not common for adver- other, too, if only to take each other’s
tising agency vice presidents to direct temperature on some issue or another.
commercials, but I loved doing it and I can usually count on him to fill in
Fred was absolutely determined that I gaps in my memory or fact base. In
should do things that I loved, so I was 50 years I’ve never heard Fred express
often our director. When Nickelodeon an opinion that wasn’t apparently
was getting ready to produce its first well-reasoned, deeply considered,
sitcom, he told them the reason the poked and prodded for holes and
pilot to “Hey Dude” sucked was that flaws, and ultimately decided in a way
they needed a story editor like Alan that would allow him to have a ready
to supervise the writing. I had never answer if called upon to respond to a
done that job before. But I wrote a question on that subject. I say “appar-
new pilot and we went on to do five ently” because no one could possibly
seasons and suddenly my career as a have that many opinions all sorted
writer/producer was launched. and filed away. He has to be making it
up as he goes, but always in a manner
Our Fred/Alan people were wonder- that makes you believe you’re not the
ful. But let me say this about the work. first person to ask.
The work was frikken unbelievable.
We did more work, and more great I can’t imagine what my life would
work, than seems possible to me now. have been if I hadn’t met Fred Seibert
Part of that comes from the fact that more than 50 years ago and fallen un-
Fred and I love to work. A guy who der his spell of creativity, inspiration,
was a big-deal consultant to MTV and delight in making things. I still
pointed this out to me early in our measure a lot of what I decide based
agency’s life. He had sold his direct on “what would Fred do.”
mail company to American Express
and didn’t have to do anything any- So much of the joy I’ve experienced in
more. “I’ve never seen anything like life I really owe to Fred’s moral, coura-
you guys before,” he told me. “You re- geous, generous, and spirited example.
ally seem to still love doing the work.” I love him more than I could ever say.
I don’t know about Fred, but I don’t Or maybe I owe it all to Lou Venech. I
think I’ll ever retire. What would I do? guess we’ll never really know.
Neither one of us plays golf. We don’t
really have any interests. We’re not
great at small talk. Travel is okay, but
it’s sort of an exhausting pain in the
Fred/Alan was a hoot. Great lumbia’s parent company. But I found
my way into commercial radio, then
colleagues and special, creative work.
Great clients too. Until they weren’t. became one of the early employees in
the new technology of the time, cable
Who we were –and are– was set at television, at the company that was to
our first meeting at WKCR-FM, the become MTV Networks.
college radio station at Columbia
University in New York. We became In a short while, Alan joined me, and
fast friends, learning about all sorts together we hooked up with my child-
of music and audio production. We hood friend, artist Frank Olinsky,
went on to work together in various and he and his partners designed the
places on various projects. We be- innovative MTV logo for us. Alan and
came brothers-in-law and uncles to I produced the video that introduced
our kids. And, we kept on working music television to the cable industry.
together, whether we were employed Frank led the charge into the unique
or not. We got each other jobs, and logos with which we surprised the
the more professional we became the world –we tried to use animation to
deeper our affection. Friendship, un- keep up with the graphic revolution of
derstanding and some work here and rock and jazz album covers– and I put
there has continued for more than 50 together the video promotion group.
years. It’s fair to say that our work is what’s
most remembered about MTV.
But, the most intense professional
period was the 10+ years we had at Having spent my childhood working
MTV and Fred/Alan. at my parents' Mom and Pop pharma-
cy, I was an anxious, and ultimately,
I really wanted to be in the record unhappy employee. It must have been
business. In our generation, pop a shock to Alan that, after all the acco-
music was the thing and records lades and promotions our MTV work
were the force multiplier. Being in brought us, I marched into his office
rock bands throughout high school one day after a confrontation in the
and college was great, but over time executive suite and announced that
I found myself wanting to help get “we” were quitting. The two of us had
music out there. Based in New York already joked, when we were disgust-
City, it should have been easy, but ed with the mediocre work of one the
my biggest success was getting some MTV ad agencies, that it would be fun
of my friends gigs at the world class to have a company called Fred/Alan,
Columbia Records. Alan worked because none of our young friends
there, and try as he might, as he once would have a clue about America’s
said, “Fred didn’t get hired in every most popular radio comedian, Fred
department at CBS Records,” Co- Allen. Maybe the oldsters who
INTRODUCTION
by Fred
Seibert
controlled budgets would hire us?
It took a year to figure out what we

were going to do. We found our office
through the friendship of Buzz Pota-
mkin, a leading MTV animation pro-
ducer, in Jackie Gleason’s former “Hon-
eymooners” production headquarters
at the top of the Park Central Hotel on
7th Avenue. “We’d left with thoughts
of making TV shows. (It took us a few
years, but we eventually got there.)
MTV networks hired us right back as
their major creative consultants.”
“We’d left with thoughts of making TV
shows. (It took us a few years, but we
eventually got there.) MTV networks
hired us right back as their major cre-
ative consultants.”
For years, I’ve said that we were the first
company to codify media “branding,”
an easy enough translation from the
radio business we’d both been in, along
with boss Bob Pittman. But really, no
one else did it, at least to the degree that
we were up to. Alan and I were the first
people in television to execute on the
notion that a “brand” could be applied
to media rather than only boxed con-
sumer products. (And of course, that
virus has spread far and wide to apply
to individuals and politicians won-
dering about their personal “brand”.) Photograph
Along with the rest of my MTV Pro- by Elena Seibert
gram Services team we’d succeed- Albie Hecht to our band of misfits,
ed with it beyond anyone’s wildest to restart our TV show ambitions,
dreams, and when we left that led to spinning off Chauncey Street Produc-
the company suggesting that Fred/ tions (the street in Bensonhurst that
Alan might be able to fix what was Jackie Gleason “lived” as Ralph Kram-
ailing Nickelodeon. den in The Honeymooners. Natch!)
with Albie, Alan and me producing.
Forty years later it’s hard to imagine, A few music videos led to a Gilbert
but in the early ''80s, the all-kids-all- Gottfried comedy special for HBO’s
the-time TV channel was the first Cinemax. Our friends at Nickelode-
of its kind, and they were failing at on liked our idea for a “Kid’s Court”
execution. No one watched. Nick- series, MTV thought our quiz show
elodeon was the lowest rated cable might just work (it didn’t), and HA!
channel in America. (the Comedy Central predecessor)
gave the greenlight to a set of half
We went to work, I even moved into hour specials featuring several up and
their offices, and with the then-un- coming performance artists. We even
heard of “brand” strategy, we helped did our one and only network TV
the Nick employees understand that comedy pilot for CBS.
they were the leaders of a club of
millions of kids who were hungry for
a television channel that understood Let’s be real, Alan and I had no idea
them. Our clients knew a lot about what we were doing. We were both
kids, we knew a little bit about how DIY before DIY was a thing. Maybe
to use TV to talk to them, and within Alan got a little guidance in the adver-
six months they’d gone from worst to tising department at CBS Records. I’d
first in the ratings, where they stayed read an advertising memoir (which,
for 25 years, following the path we’d ironically, made me sure to stay away
cleared for them. Soon, cable channels from ad agencies) and got some basic
across the country wanted a piece of training from my mentor Dale Pon
what we had. Longtime, lucrative gigs when we worked together in country
for Showtime, Lifetime, HBO and The music radio. But, of course, our lack
Movie Channel followed. We even of training made sure our solutions to
helped some of our friends who were problems were based on our personal
leading the world revolution in jazz experiences with media rather than
record reissues. It was a heady time. the tried, true and cookie cutter. And,
not for nothing, it caused us to hire
co-workers who had no “experience”
And after launching the company
either, other than street smarts, and
with a short lived series for The Play-
occasionally, their skills.
boy Channel, it took us four years,
and the addition of our college buddy
Over time, things started to go a little
sideways. The stress of supporting 50 special. The decades since have been
employees and their families meld- deep. Deep friendship, deep respect,
ed into our scrappy clients becom- deep love.
ing responsible corporate executives,
searching for financial growth rather Thanks buddy. You’ve made a life
than creative escalation. To this day, I worthwhile.
don’t think Alan and I ever had a dis-
agreement. That is, until our Fred/Alan
underlings would start to argue and we
both felt the need to defend whomever
we were responsible for. After a while,
it all got to be too much and we each
decided that making money couldn’t be
what it was all about.
Like I said, Fred/Alan was a hoot. I can

only speak for myself, but I’m sure Alan
would agree, we never really looked at
our colleagues and creative partners
around the world as “employees,” just
other friends with whom we could get
into good trouble, trying to change the
world. We took our work seriously, but
never ourselves. We’d try anything, and
if one thing didn’t work we were posi-
tive the next thing would.
Most of all, it was the special

chemistry that Alan and I have
always had. A lack of creative fear was
constantly fueled by the excitement
of giving new talent a chance to leap
up to world class. We were sure that
if we came to work to have some fun,
make some money, and be surrounded
by people we liked, it would result in
something special. And, sure enough,
something special happened day after
day, month after month, year after year.
The two of us share a vision that has

stayed remarkably in sync for 50 years.
The decade we worked side by side was
Fred Allen,
our patron saint:
“You know, television is called

a new medium, and I have
discovered why they call it
a Medium – because nothing
is Well Done.”
“This drudgery,
this sham,
this gold mine.”
“An advertising agency

is 85 percent confusion
and 15 percent commission.”
Fred/Alan business cards designed by George Lois 1983

Fred/Alan’s first reception desk, and one of our beautiful rugs.
870 7th Avenue, Manhattan, New York. 1983-1987
1980 -1992
MUSIC TELEVISION
The first MTV promotional bumper sticker August 1981
Fred Seibert & Alan Goodman :
MTV employees 1980 -1983
MTV:
Fred/Alan 1983 -1992
Fred/Alan was a viable business because of department to figure out what the hell
the promotional vocabulary, graphic was TV promotion on a channel with no
design and animation we'd developed while shows. Elias/Peterson Associates started
employees at MTV: Music Television. composing music for our animations
and Alan commandeered independent
During the summer of 1980, we commis- film studios Broadcast Arts, Buzzco and
sioned (without even setting a budget) Colossal Pictures to animate what was to
logo development from Manhattan become our iconic 'M.'
Design, a new firm sitting in a tiny work-
room behind a tai chi studio in lower The magic carpet ride we were on contin-
Manhattan. Months later Fred had hired ued beautifully when we left our jobs and
a small staff as the Program Services launched Fred/Alan on April 11, 1983.
Fred Seibert
Marcy Brafman
Marc Chusid
Jay Dorfman
Alan Goodman
MTV
Richard Schenkman
:MUS IC T E LEV I SIO N

PROGRAM SERVICES
[the in-house creative and promotion department 1980-1983]
Fred: On May 5, 1980 I lucked into my We had an incredible gang –Marcy
first job in television –cable television– at Brafman, Marc Chusid, Jay Dorfman and
Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Richard Schenkman– who executed all
Company (WASEC). Within 30 days our sui generis network videos. Against
programming head Bob Pittman started all odds, the unique logo, network IDs,
putting together the team to launch ‘The and promos set the look and sound for
Music Channel’ (the working name for progressive media over the next 20 years.
what eventually became MTV) and had Eventually, my departments included
me add to my existing duties as the head promotion, studio production, program-
of promotion for The Movie Channel and ming, advertising, and creative services.
work on music television too. Later on, I
was included in a group known as MTV’s By 1983 the entrepreneurial genes
were straining, so my great longtime
co-founders. Alan came along within
friend, creative partner, writer/producer
a year, at first, to start the process of
Alan Goodman, and I left the company
developing an actual vocabulary for the
to form the world's first media branding/
channel –probably the unsung key to any
production/advertising agency.
branding effort– to produce the dozens
of 10-second MTV network animations Our first client? MTV Networks, until
that defined the channel's unique person- 1992.
ality.
M Fred: I'd been friends with Frank Olinsky since I was four
years old and knew Frank as a talented artist and a life-
A
long music fanatic. In mid-1980, working in television for
the first time, I got the assignment to develop the logo for
what was then called "The Music Channel," a 24 hour pop
music video network on cable TV, and I was sure Frank
could handle it.
N
Alan and I went down to the studio Frank had started
with Pat Gorman and Patti Rogoff that was in the spare
room of a tai chi studio above Bigelow Chemists in Green-
H
wich Village and started a yearlong exercise of try/fails of
over 500 designs. You wouldn't have known how hard we
were pushing this new studio, and they kept up with the
same enthusiasm throughout the process. Several months
in, our boss settled on the name MTV: Music Television.
A
We asked Manhattan Design to incorporate it into the
"Mickey Mouse" hand squeezing a note before we realized
we had to go back to the drawing board.
MTV was three months away from launch when the
T
group came over to our offices with a pile of new ideas.
We rejected them all until we got to a wrinkled piece of
tracing paper on the bottom that contained a giant 'M.'
T
Yes! A flurry of activity followed to finalize everything
but the "final" colors, because, you know, a logo has to
have a final version. It took a few weeks and a dozen iter-
ations before we realized –to our trademark lawyers' cha-
grin–that there was no "final." We could use what would
A
eventually become thousands of different variations.
N
DESIGN
Pat Gorman
Frank Olinsky
Patti Rogoff
Early MTV logo developments
from Manhattan Design
Frank Olinsky originally spray painted We liked seeing rock stars like Cheap Trick's
the "TV " part of the logo to get a graffiti Rick Neilsen interacting with this version of
look that was so prevalent in the late 20th the logo, but less so when we finally changed
century in New York City. the name of "The Music Channel" to
MTV
Early MTV logo developments from
Manhattan Design 1980-1981:
The cartoon hand holding the music note was
appealing for a few minutes, but not so much
with the addition of the 'MTV ' name.

We had a few, last minute tusstles with Warner
Amex upper management. The sales department
was embarrassed by what they thought was a stupid
looking logo. They were afraid that national
adverstisers wouldn't take us seriously enough to
give us their money. The legal department was
concerned that all the hundreds of different design
executions meant that we couldn't trademark it.

The MTV logos from Manhattan Design
fit the 1980s TV screens perfectly.
Logo illustration by
Colossal Pictures, San Francisco

Some design guidance from one of Fred's mentors
was "dominate the space."
Logo illustration by

“HEY YOU!
DON’T
WATCH
THAT!”
Newsreel footage
from the
United States
Library of Congress
Voice over from

MADNESS:
“One Step Beyond”
The talented, inexperienced creative were on 24 hours a day in stereo (both

promo group of Marcy, Richard, Jay and revolutionary in the early '80s.) After the
Mark experimented for months to find team traveled to the Library of Congress
the right approach to talk to our audience. to take advantage of the free access to
We had a TV channel whose "shows" their video archives and came back with
were all three minutes long and never dozens of old black and white newsreels,
pre-scheduled, so all we could promote Richard Schenkman got the bright idea to
was what we were and how great it was match some ballroom dancing with the
going to be. We eventually brainstormed English band Madness and we had our
seven or eight "marketing propositions" first 30 seconds of "your favorite music."
that promised, among other things, we

WATCH
THIS!!!”
TALKING HEADS:
“Once in a Lifetime”
FLEETWOOD MAC:
“The Chain”
SHOES
“Too Late”
MTV PLAYS
YOUR
FAVORITE
MUSIC.
MTV:
MUSIC
TELEVISION
Written by Richard Schenkman

Happy Holidays!: Manhattan Design Illustration: Frank Olinsky Animation: Buzzco, NYC
Buzz Potamkin
originally had a New York City commer-
cial production company, Buzzco (neé
Perpetual Motion Pictures), whose reel
was the only one of 100 we reviewed that
was memorable for its fresh approach
to traditional hand drawn animation.
So, when Fred's mentor suggested that
we work together on MTV it was a no
brainer and the studio became one of
our first, trusted collaborators. We went
on to work on "I Want My MTV!" and
Buzzco continued their association with
the channel for a decade.
B
U
Z
Buzz
Potamkin
Vincent
Cafarelli
Z
Marilyn
Kraemer
Candy
Kugel
C
David
Sameth
Illustrated & directed by Candy Kugel, Buzzco, NYC

O
More than that we had no TV shows on our music
television network (or put another way,
75,000 times. we posted a new “show” every three min-
utes or so when a new video began). That
was world changing, right? (Well, not re-
Fred: The very first time the world saw
ally. CNN beat us to it by 14 months. But,
the visualization of our mutating logo
they didn’t “name it and claim it;” MTV
would lead an unsuspecting global pop-
did, so MTV would get the credit.)
ulace to all the other cultural barbarism
we were about to unleash.
This spot was obviously going to be our
most important. There would be over 30
There were very few “ideas” for spots
changing video pieces every hour (music
I could claim as mine at MTV: Music
videos, promos, VJs, and commercials)
Television. Media strategy and identify-
and this would be the only thing all day–
ing talent were my strengths, and I felt
all week, all year– that was constant. It
everything else would flow from there.
would get a lot of scrutiny.
But this spot was different; it’s the only
one for which I feel complete ownership.
I thought the “top of the hour” spot
should do its practical job and reflect our
MTV boss Bob Pittman and I knew there
arrogant self regard. And not for noth-
had to be a signal identification at the
ing, it needed to be inexpensive, and use
top and bottom of each and every hour
our ever changing logo that Manhattan
of MTV, where a VJ would identify the
Design brought us. (At least the con-
most important music videos in that half
stant logo metamorphosis –fractions of
hour. We agreed it would be a voice over
a second for each design– would keep us
animation, with stills IDing the songs.
fresh, distinct, and force folks to watch
that ‘M.’)
But, what should the animation be? It
had to be memorable, repeatable, and not
Of course, it goes without saying that like
drive a viewer completely crazy. After all,
everything we would do, it had to have
it was going to play almost 17,000 times
that indefinable rock’n’roll attitude.
every year. If we did it right, my biggest
goal could be achieved; I wanted the
The simplest way to combine all that stuff
world to fall in love with our ‘M.’
was to steal the shine from an already ex-
isting piece of video. “Let’s take the most
Oh. Since our logo didn't follow any
famous television scene ever,” I said, and
classic design and marketing rules, upper
fold, spindle, and mutilate it to our nefar-
management had dragged their feet
ious purposes.
approving it. By the time they got around
to it we had less than 90 days until launch.
Our brainstorming in my tiny office
cubicle turned up some famous, or really
It seemed to me MTV had the most
infamous, stuff. We were all children
stuck up and conceited view of ourselves.
of the '60s and '70s, so our immedi-
We were completely enamored of the fact
ate thought was the day in 1963 when

Top: Original NASA photograph of an Apollo moonwalk
Bottom: our 1981 MTV desecration; logo by Manhattan Design,
illustration by Candy Kugel, Buzzco, New York

everyone stayed home from school and Not the first or last time she’d hit the nail
were subjected to the live video horror of on the head.
the Lee Harvey Oswald shooting by Jack
Ruby. Aside from its total wrongness, it Let’s cop it, I figured. The worst that
occurred to me that it was pretty much could happen is that a generation of kids
an American memory. would grow up wondering why NASA
photoshopped an American flag with
I mean, please. The very first claim MTV MTV’s used to be.
was going to make, the first "promise" we
developed, was a promise we really had There was that attitude we needed.
to own.
My long time creative partner and
“The world’s first video music couldn’t-be-closer-friend Alan Good-
channel. MTV: Music Television.” man and I enlisted Buzz Potamkin’s
Perpetual Motion Pictures (soon to be
MTV needed a global moment. Or may- Buzzco) to put together the spot. David
be 75,000 of them. Sameth produced for Buzz, Candy Kugel
illustrated and directed (with some of
As our team was bullshitting ideas it the logos adapted from absolutely orig-
came to me. In the summer of ‘69 I was inal illustrations by Manhattan Design’s
traveling behind the Iron Curtain with Frank Olinsky), and the guitar blast track
my family on the day of the Apollo 11 (we thought it had the oomph of The
moonwalk. The streets of dirt poor Sofia, Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”) was by John
Bulgaria were choked with walkers look- Petersen and Jonathan Elias at Elias/Pe-
ing for apartments with scarce black & terson.
white TV sets to witness this seemingly
impossible achievement of man. Truly, By the way, our original version of
Earth’s most memorable event in televi- the spot never ran. A few days before the
sion history. channel's debut, the lawyers informed
me that we needed –and would never
My mentor Dale Pon had introduced receive!– permission from astronaut Neil
me to the treasure trove of free images Armstrong to use his quotation.
and film from NASA, a public govern-
ment entity which we all “owned” as US The quote was removed the next day.
citizens. It would be MTV's inexpensive But, another change was needed. John
source of public domain photographs Lack, the executive vice president of our
and video. As a start-up –no one was parent company, Warner Amex Satellite
really sure this thing would work except Entertainment Company, who’s idea had
us– we needed all the financial short-cuts been the seed from which MTV grew,
we could find. deserved to be in on the action.
“Space is very rock'n'roll,” 24 hours later –one night only!– at

said senior producer Marcy Brafman, midnight, August 1, 1981– came John's
when the NASA imagery was suggested. personal voice over: (continued)

“Ladies and Gentlemen, As I tell the story, the "Top of the Hour"
rock'n'roll.” was something we learned about very
late in the process – long after many if
John, a huge music fan, was proud of not all of the animated IDs we ordered
his role in jump starting this phase of for the launch were delivered. We under-
popular music's evolution. And from 1 stood instantly the need – it’s just that no
a.m. until the very end, the rocket blast one had asked us to make one, we had
sounded with only a 'beep beep beep’ in spent all our budget for animation, and
place of John and Mr. Armstrong. we were weeks away from launch. We
looked at all the spots we had created
The "top of the hour" ran at the top of and realized all but one of them worked
every hour, more than 17,000 times each only as the ten second pieces they were
year (48 times each day, including its designed to be. But since the logos inside
shorter variation at the 30 minute mark). Neil Armstrong’s flag were essentially
Nowadays, the only sense memory/DNA on a loop, we could just keep recycling
that’s left of it is the “Moonman” statue the logos inside the flag. It was the only
on the Video Music Awards (the idea of way to make a :30 second piece out of
Manhattan Design’s Pat Gorman). No one of our tens. By default, it became our
one in the audience knows why it exists. choice.
The spot itself had to be retired, tragi- [Fred: Buzzco's Candy Kugel reminded
cally, on January 28, 1986 –more than me that the animation was done in one
75,000 times in total– when the Chal- week!]
lenger Shuttle exploded in mid-air. The
end of the first space era in history. Same thing with the music from Elias/
..... Peterson Associates. We had commis-
Recently, Alan added some details I had sioned five pieces of music that we made
completely forgotten: available to any of the animators working
for us. Again, only one of those pieces
My memory is a little different on some could be looped. The “Duh, duh-duh,
of the details. duh-duh, duh-duh” was something I
could go into an audio studio and re-edit.
There is no question that the man on the We did three slightly different mixes and
moon was an audacious act of appropri- built it into a coherent piece of music 30
ation and historical vandalism, and an seconds long. There was not one single
inexpensive use of our national archive other choice.
of free images. But as I recall, it was just
one in a sack of animated IDs we com- "Top of the Hour" was a case of a happy
missioned. It was, as originally designed, accident! The man on the moon became
10 seconds long because all our anima- an important icon for us, and lives on
tions were ten seconds long. In fact, the in the Video Music Award. But who’s to
bottom of the hour spot we used forever say what it all might have been if we had
was that original 10 second piece. actually planned it all!

“Top of the Hour” Stills by NASA Logos by Frank Olinsky and Candy Kugel 1981

Design: Manhattan Design
Illustration: Frank Olinsky
Based on illustrations by Sam Steinberg Design: Candy Kugel
In 1984, MTV
management decided they
needed a "refresh" on the
original "top of the hour"
animation. After all, the
music was changing all
the time, the promotional
graphics were changing all
the time, and soon, the VJs
would start changing too.
Since Fred and Alan

produced the original it
was preordained that Fred/
Alan would do the refresh.
And since Buzzco had
animated the 1981 piece it
seemed logical that we'd
commission them for the
follow up. Of course, the
musical composition was
already iconic, so our in-
house music producer, Tom
Pomposello, did an update
on the Elias/Associates
theme.
“Top of the Hour”
Animated by
Buzzco
Footage and stills

by NASA
Handcoloring
and logo designs
by
Candy Kugel
1984

C
O
L
O
S
S
A
L
PICTURES
Gary Gutierrez
Drew Takahashi
Over the 1981 Memorial Day
Weekend we met in a New York midtown
coffee shop with Drew Takahashi, one of the
two co-owners of San Francisco’s Colossal
Pictures. Little did any of us know that over
a conversation that veered through Cecil
Taylor, Thelonious Monk, and oh yeah, the
soon to be launched MTV, we’d started the
beginning of a deep creative relationship
and a lifelong friendship.
Alan and I had searched far and wide to

find animation studios to work with for
this new channel, all to almost no avail. We
looked through 100 reels of people who’d
worked on commercials and network bum-
pers and found one to put in a ‘maybe’ pile
(more on them in another post). Then our
colleague Sue Steinberg dropped a cassette
on our desk that she thought we might like.
They were another ‘maybe’ until the last
piece, an animated video for a musician
we’d never heard of. Who cares?! For those
early days it was beyond awesome. They’re
in the ‘yes!’ pile (which was no pile at all.)
The studio's other co-founder, director Gary

Gutierrez intuitively understood what our
visual vision for MTV was all about. The
rhythm, the kinetic-ness, the explosion. The
studio might be expensive but they were
so worth it. They totally got us. And we got
them. Soon they started doing conceptual
art pieces –starting with a late might snack
of burgers and fries that Alan edited into
our first completely weird ID– that helped
cement MTV's reputation (and Colossal's)
as the most creatively forward network on
television.
I suppose that Memorial Day trip turned

out to be worth the scratch.

B
R
O
A
D
C
A
S
T
ARTS
Steve Oakes
60 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS Peter Rosenthal
MTV 's first creative award winner Animation by Broadcast Arts 1982
Fred: Well, I'm foggy on how many weeks or
or months Peter waited for a meeting,
Broadcast Arts not but during that time we had a quiet battle
only made the first animated MTV
with the bosses about the logo and when
network identification but before the
the issue was finally settled we had just
channel’s second birthday they’d won us
a few weeks to get some animation done
our very first creative award. Of course,
for our launch on August 1, 1981.
the first of many to come over the years
and across the globe.
It was truly panic time. We
needed at least two pieces –by the time
Nina Silvestri was a much more patient
Alan and I left the company in April
person than I. She eventually became an
1983 we’d produced almost 100– a 30 or
ace producer, but she was already exhib-
40-second film for the top of every hour
iting her skills in 1981 when she was my
and another of what would be our stan-
executive assistant. She regularly needed
dard 10-seconds.
to run herd over the bunch of wonder-
ful, creative misfits I’d assembled at The
“Nina! Is that guy still out there?” We
Movie Channel and the nascent music
were desperate. Maybe this guy’s stuff
channel we were planning at Warner
might be good? We’d already auditioned
Amex Satellite Entertainment Company.
100 animation studios’ reels and found
Our so-called offices were makeshift,
two that were even close to good for us
with my eventual partner Alan Good-
(and those two became the next commis-
man relegated to a step stool as a chair, a
sions for MTV).
typing table as a desk, and Nina
was outside the room at a desk by the
“He’s out to lunch, but I know how to
entrance door.
find him!” Nina’s skill was amazing.
Every once in a while when I’d step out
A half hour later Peter Rosenthal showed
Nina would introduce me to a quiet guy
me what was supposed to be the work
sitting in the waiting chair.
of Broadcast Arts –meaning him and
his creative partner Steve Oaks– and
“Meet Peter Rosenthal, he’d like to show
it looked pretty good. At least good
you his company’s animation.”
enough. It was entirely stop motion –the
same technique for The Gumby Show.
Peter never had an appointment, he’d just
MTV boss Bob Pittman wanted a Star
come by and wait. I never had time in my
Wars look, and Fred struck back that he
schedule and I wasn’t in the mood to see
thought Gumby was the thing. Fred won.
anyone’s work, there were more pressing
problems to deal with. Like, what was the
We later found out that Broadcast
name of our channel? And why did the
Arts had no clients and the work Peter
big bosses reject the logo we’d ask Man-
showed was stuff they’d worked on else-
hattan Design to work on endlessly for a
where. But, MTV was in a corner.
year before we even had a name?
“We need 10-seconds of our logo in six

"Swick," the first MTV animated network identification Designed by Frank Olinsky & Broadcast Arts 1981
"Freddy buys it" by Broadcast Arts "Bubblegum" by Broadcast Arts
weeks.” I gave Peter the initial sketches Never-on-TV.
Manhattan Design’s Frank Olinsky had (on the opposite page)
done of “versions” of the now approved
MTV mark. “How much?” Fred: A couple of months after the net-
work launch, Bob promoted me to Vice
“Um, $5000?” On the nose for our President of Production, MTV’s first (a
budget. big deal in those pre-title inflationary
days).
Six weeks later Steve and Peter
delivered. Boy did they. Luckily, Frank I was probably whining too much about
had made it easier by pre-designing how hard I was working.
almost everything they used in “Swick.”
Zebra stripes, a brick wall, a New York He put together a huge congratulatory
Taxi cab and “Hairy M,” which even- event and asked Alan to make some
tually became its own ID. They quickly video just for the party. Alan worked
put together a fabrication team, took one with Broadcast Arts to modify one of the
of our ‘hard rock’ pre-recorded tracks awesome claymation spots they’d made
(you’ll recognize it immediately as the for us. They put a plasticine me in the
MTV "theme") and just jump cut their spot and ignobly ran me over.
way through all the designs.
I probably got what I deserved.
Exactly what we wanted. MTV’s logo
would never stay the same, no matter
what logos had done before. And ideally,
it could change a lot, even in one short
film.
What became of Broadcast Arts? Steve

and Peter went on to make at least 20 IDs
for us, and then a few for Nickelodeon
too. They used their MTV “fame” to do
some awesome things, most notably the
wildly creative production of Pee Wee’s
Playhouse on CBS, before morphing into
curious?ictures in New York.
Oh, and that first creative award spot?

It's on page 58. Fred and MTV boss Bob Pittman
at the promotion party 1981

Tom Pomposello Productions
Jerry Lieberman Productions & Lou Brooks Eli Noyes
David Burd Silver Cloud Productions Director: Mario Kamberg
(Opposite page, top to bottom)
Broadcast Arts, Washington DC;

Eli Noyes, New York; Buzzco/
Candy Kugel à la Sam Steinberg,
New York.
(This page, top to bottom)
Manhattan Design/Jerry Lieb-

erman Productions, New York;
Broadcast Arts, Washington DC.

Logos, logos,
logos. Do we
have logos.
The animation producers
we worked with spanned
independent "art" filmmak-
ers and commercial houses
that were sick of the limita-
tions on them from their ad
agency clients. And most
of them were in animation
because of their beautiful
graphic sensibilities which
couldn't often be expressed
in a normal commission.
MTV was different. And

eventually, our clients at
Nickelodeon, The Movie
Channel, Lifetime and the
others were different.
The most obvious proof

of our ... idiosyncrasy?
peculiarity ? contrariness?
...was the excellence of our
animators. They took us
seriously that our logo was
a canvas for their creativity
and for the respect of our
viewers. For years they kept
delivering results that we
couldn't even imagine in
their relentless variations
of the opportunity that
Manhattan Design made
possible. As MTV spread
across the world the new
creative approaches multi-
plied exponentially.
None of it would have been

possible without the first
designers who actually
believed us when we asked
them to go for it.
LPG/PON
Dale Pon George Lois Bill Pitts Dick Gershon
Fred's radio mentor,

Dale Pon, started an ad agency with the
legendary George Lois. It took over a year
and a terrible MTV campaign from the
equally legendary Ogilvy to convince our
management to hire LPG/Pon. Though
Dale was an expert at media promotion,
both he and George had volatile reputa-
tions, but the quality of the work won out.
We guided their print ads before George
to would repurpose a '50s hot cereal com-
mercial to become one of the most re-
membered ad campaigns of the late 20th
Century.
We produced the campaign with Buzzco,

Dale came up with the media strategy and
MTV executives convinced rock stars to
work for free saying...
"I Want My MTV!"
Agency: LPG/Pon, NY
Creative director
& strategist: Dale Pon
Production:
Buzz Potamkin, Buuzco, NY
Alan Goodman
Interviews: Dale Pon

Directed by Thomas Schlamme
Logo illustrations:
George Lois
Pete Townshend
“I
want
my
MTV!”
Pat Benatar
David Bowie
Pete Townshend
Men at Work
The Clash
Hall & Oates
"Call your
cable company
and say...
“I
want
my
MTV!”
The road to
Enter Dale Pon and his partners at
"I åwant my MTV!" LPG/Pon. Everyone knew MTV needed a
was, in retrospect, not that long. But successful promotion method that only
when your channel is a start up that TV ads could provide. MTV was in less
many were writing off before it even than 10% of American homes. The au-
launched, it felt like a couple of lifetimes. dience was clamoring for it, but couldn't
get it, thanks to the reverse ageism of the
MTV boss and Fred were pitching cable system programmers. And without
the new ad agency that Dale Pon and a major expansion of viewers, advertisers
George Lois started to senior manage- wouldn't come on board and help pay to
ment from the start. But their explosive keep the company alive.
notorietes threw shade on Dale's unde-
niable successes in media promotion. Dale, aside from having a creative vision
Besides, one of the big bosses wanted to for the ads, was a master media strategist.
let co-owner American Express know we Quickly, he developed a solution that
respected their blue chip agency, Ogilvy. spent our meager budgets that could
They were a storied efficiently maximize
company, so even pressure on the cable
we had high hopes. operators.
Sure, they trucked Now, what was a

out the young creative solution for
copywriter with that pressure? George
a satin jacket Lois had been inspired
to "prove" their by copywriter Nancy
rock'n'roll bona- Podbielniak's line in
fides. But, at the The loser Ogilvy commercial for MTV 1981 the print ads:
same time they hated our beloved MTV
logo, and "Rock'n'Roll wasn't enough for them.
saddled us with a Now they want their MTV!" George
production company who was embar- knocked off a '50s cereal commercial:
rassed by it. The agency was renowned for "I want my Maypo!" Dale married rock
their research, but they did none for MTV. stars shouting the line with The Who's
The way they treated us, we might as Pete Townshend holding a phone:
well have been their giant client Hershey "America! Demand your MTV!
Chocolate Bars. Call your cable operator and say
'I WANT MY MTV!"
The Ogilvy commercial was a complete
bomb and netted MTV nothing it need- Soon enough, cable companies across
ed. That is more distribution with cable America were begging us to turn off the
operators. Who, in the infinite wisdom commercials in exchange for long term
of the old men who ran them, wanted to distribution deals. World domination,
program The Weather Channel instead. here we come!

It's been over 30 years since a rock star commercial
shouting "I want my MTV!" has been on television.
But, a 2023 internet search for the phrase returns
33 million results!
Designå by George Lois, LPG/Pon, New York

Phil
Collins
Billy
Joel
'Suddenly, everything changed.

One minute there was music.
The next minute... nothing.
Just like that! They took off MTV.
It’s the local cable company, you know.
It’s the guy you pay, every month.
Is it fair to take your MTV away?'

Rod
Stewart
Paula
Abdul
'I think if we all put the pressure on,

they’re going to have to change their mind.
If your MTV’s missing, call ‘em. I’d call.
Tell them “Don’t make decisions for me!”
Tell ‘em “I want what I paid for.”
'Tell them,
“I want my MTV...
Back!”'
We left our jobs at MTV young'uns who liked pop music.
to start Fred/Alan in April 1983, con-
vinced we could have an independent 33 years old, MTV boss Bob Pittman
career, using our street smarts, skills and was fearless and he wasn't about to back
talents. Soon after we left Bob Pittman, down to anyone, even someone like
our former boss and MTV Networks the powerful Malone, who was already
president, hired us right back as consul- known as the "Darth Vader of cable."
tants, which continued until we closed
Fred/Alan in 1992. First off, his team contacted every rock
star in the company Rolodex so that they
Over the next few years our company would all understand that the most pow-
broadened its mandate at MTVN to erful sales tool in the history of the music
reposition Nickelodeon's ratings from business was being threatened. Any time
worst to first in all of cable television, they were interviewed, the artists shouted
launch VH1, and invent Nick-at-Nite. out how their fans were being deprived.
And by 1988 we repositioned Fred/Alan Any of the bands that were available were
from just the world's first branding me- booked into a series of "SAVE MTV!"
dia branding consultancy to a full service concerts in TCI's Denver area venues.
advertising agency, not only strategically
creating and producing ads, but also And then, Bob called Fred/Alan.
the media buying and placement of TV,
radio and print ads. Once we understood the situation, Alan
went to work and wrote a commercial.
(the previous two pages)
Fred/Alan's first MTV ad Suddenly, everything changed.
assignment was a bit of a fire drill.
One minute there was music.
The cable wars really began around MTV. The next minute... nothing.
Just like that! They took off MTV.
And MTV won.
It’s the local cable company, you know.
A few years into the cable era relations It’s the guy you pay, every month.
between the programmers and cable sys- Is it fair to take your MTV away?
tem operators diverged from "we have to
work together to beat the broadcasters" I think if we all put the pressure on,
to "we [programmers] need more money they’re going to have to change their mind.
to grow" and "no," said the operators.
If your MTV’s missing, call ‘em. I’d call.
TCI, then the country's largest biggest Tell them “Don’t make decisions for me!”
operator out of Denver, decided MTV Tell ‘em “I want what I paid for.”
would be a good target. TCI's CEO, John Tell them,
Malone, took MTV off the air. After
all, parents paid the cable bill, not the “I want my MTV..Back!”

Alan: The ‘I want my MTV back’ cam- ment recognized our role in reimagining
paign is interesting because of how many the unique role their channels played in
other networks tried to do the same the lives of their loyal audiences. In fact,
thing when THEY got kicked off during they credited us in actually establishing
contract negotiations, and utterly failed. that loyalty.
The fact is, “demand” was something that
always worked for MTV ever since the We became a "full service" advertising
launch because our viewers felt locked agency and brought in agency pros. Ed
out. Do you think a lot of Lifetime view- Levine and Noel Frankel were just in
ers were motivated to grab the phone time for us to reinvent "I want my MTV!"
and call their cable operators when their past the original conception.
signal went off?
To make a long story short, Noel took the
“I remember Tom Godici, then one of idea of reinvention even more seriously
our fantastic, but junior, art directors, than we did. He rewrote the Cole Por-
with this campaign. I was slated to go ter classic "I Concentrate on You," and
direct one of the stars –can’t remember suggested we book Tony Bennett to sing
which one– and I walked into Tom’s it. Tony's son Danny had just taken over
office and told him to go instead. He was his management and was determined to
a little surprised and nervous about it, introduce his father to new generations.
but I told him I trusted him and knew he Danny jumped at the offer.
could do a good job. I loved that about
our agency, that we would give people a "I Want My MTV!" would never be the
shot.” same.
Needless to say, Pittman's plan worked. Alan: Tony was a sweetheart, sketching
In a couple of days, MTV was back to every spare minute (quite a talented
ruining the youth of America. artist). I own an original copy of his first
album for Columbia, which he signed for
(next two pages) me. "Your voice was so incredibly high
Tony Bennett's career revived then," I commented. "I was the original
25 years after his style of music had been Michael Jackson," he told me.
tidal waved by the rise of rock'n'roll. But,
.....
it didn't start with his 1994 Unplugged
concert, the conventional wisdom. Fred/
By the way, we learned a great agency
Alan brought Tony to MTV in 1988.
lesson from Noel on this shoot. He
decided the floor needed to be changed.
We had recently grown our business
Always budget conscious, we balked at
beyond its programming and branding
the $5000 up charge.
roots at the request of Nickelodeon and
MTV, becoming a "full service" adver-
"No, no," Noel insisted. "The client will
tising agency. We'd specialized in on-air
pay for it all!" Oh.
promotion, but MTV Networks manage-

Agency: Fred/Alan, Inc.
Copywriter & art director:
Noel Frankel
Director: Robert Small RSE
Production design: RSE
RSE producer: Jim Burns
Fred/Alan producer: Albie Hecht
Arrangement & recording:
Garry Sherman
Executive producers:
Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert
(Tony Bennett sings

Cole Porter’s
“I Concentrate on You”)
“Whenever skies
look gray to me,
and trouble begins
to brew,
Whenever the winter
winds become
too strong...
I want
my MTV.”
Tony Bennett
and Alan 1988

(announcer)
“It doesn’t sound like TV, it doesn’t look like TV,
it doesn’t even feel like TV.”
“Sure, you love TV. But sometimes you gotta ask yourself...”
(Tony talks) "TV or MTV?"
(Tony sings) “I want my MTV.”

Five years after Fred/Alan was followed this strategy perfectly.
founded, we'd become a bona fide, full
service advertising agency. The distance The core phrase of print, outdoor and TV
between being founding employees of advertising paraphrased directly from
MTV and being under the thumb of Alan's paper:
channel marketing executives was be-
coming really annoying.
"TV? or MTV!"
Each person at MTV had evolved a
The featured players? Rock stars –like
different set of standards to describe the
Jon Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, Cindy
place. Anyone who didn't agree, even
Lauper, The Bangles, Cher– natch. And...
their own co-workers, was derided as
the Burning Man.
someone who didn't "get it." And as the
people who led the effort to develop the
MTV had been such an influence on all
original "hymn sheet," we decided we
of television that hosts started shedding
needed to do something about it.
their stiff formalities, including every-
thing from hair styling to costuming.
Alan wrote the first official "positioning"
We thought that MTV's reaction to
paper for MTV. Logically argued, well
"normal TV" trying to cop its informali-
written and vetted from top to bottom
ties would be to put our spokesperson in
at MTV, there was one section that
a suit and tie. But how did a well dressed
wrapped their ethos up perfectly.
man represent MTV's rebellion?
"Watching TV is predictable.
Set him on fire.
"Watching MTV is reliable,
Of course. The challenge in those
not predictable.
pre-computer graphics days was that
we had to actually set the guy on fire.
"It's Normal TV vs. MTV." (Watching the outtakes was harrowing,
as Alan and Ed Levine had horrified
Or, as a future programming head would faces when it looked like his hair might
put it when deciding whether or not to have flamed up too.)
greenlight an MTV show:
The ads were shot as 10 second segments
"Does it have that 'fuck you?'" which were then mixed and matched
into a dozen different spots that could
With this positioning, not only could make watching them, over time, always
we have a yardstick that everyone could fresh.
agree on, but could guide our future
advertising efforts.
The so-called "Burning Man"

campaign from 1987 (pages 82-88)

The challenge for advertising in the It's fair to say that the campaign in
early '90s was that MTV –actually, all of Rolling Stone (pages 94-107)
the quickly maturing cable channels– might have been one of the agency's
had a loyal, consistent audience. Further, favorites. There was a sense that media
expensive television ads were considered buyers susceptible to MTV's charms mir-
a bit of a money sink. On the other hand, rored the magazine's readers, a perfect
there were special interests that needed place for our persuasions.
constant shoring up. Cable operators
(who paid MTV for carriage), the record Art director Tom Godici was the cham-
industry and artists' managers (who had pion of this campaign, selecting and
other ways of spurring on record and soliciting a group of fine artists – with
concert ticket sales), and most of all, ad- a mix of household names, ad biz faves,
vertisers (who had a lot of other places to and soon-to-be’s– most of whom would
offset MTV's premium ad rates). rarely be included in a commercial effort.
Cable operators (pages 90-91) Our favorite ? Hands down, R.Crumb.

had finally understood that they needed Generally, Tom would contact the artists
to sell ads to the 12-34 year old viewers personally, tell them something about
that MTV dominated like no other the campaign, and emphasize that we’d
channel, anywhere, that called for want their take on our headline “Just
print advertising in several cable trade when you think you know what it is… it’s
magazines. Chip Simons was a photog- MTV.” Crumb’s representative told Tom
rapher who's singular style would make it was extremely unlikely Crumb would
him a regular Fred/Alan contributor. His participate, but please send over some of
pictures of our young audiences stood the other artists’ work and that he’d send
out in print that usually focused on the it over to Crumb in France. Tom duti-
most boring imagery in existence. fully packed up the stuff with a personal
letter telling Crumb we knew he hated
Billboard magazine (pages 92-93) contemporary music but we loved his
was the primary trade publication for work.
the music industry. The programmers
gave us a list of the expanding group of Months later the package was mailed
recording artists currently represented back, seemingly unopened. Sure enough,
on the channel. the original contents spilled out, to all
appearances, unread. But Tom’s eyes
Black and white photography was the popped when along with all the other
ticket in the mosaic of color that plas- stuff flies out an old, yellow edged piece
tered music magazines. Fred/Alan cre- of onion skin typing paper with the
ative director, Noel Frankel, made sure Crumb drawing and a note.
the art direction dominated the visual
“Please forward the $300. My wife
space that made certain that the ads
is spending money faster than I can
couldn't be missed by anyone.
earn it."

Logos illustrated & animated by
Marv Newland, International Rocketship, Vancouver
Bus side advertising 1988
Illustration by Lou Brooks

Photography by Chip Simons
Art direction by
Noel Frankel
(Pages 94-107) Art direction and design by Tom Godici

We started Fred/Alan with a contract who were making videos that were being
to produce –with our friend Buzz censored for nudity. Perfect for Playboy.
Potamkin– a television series for the
Playboy Channel. But, they weren't nude enough for
Playboy. We dropped out after a couple
Music videos were the rage, we were the of episodes, but they'd breached our
only MTV "stars" in the open market, contract. The payout funded our first
and we knew there were many pop artists year in business.

1983
PLAYBOY CHANNEL
“Playboy’s Hot Rocks”

Series produced by
Fred/Alan
& Buzzco
Animation by Buzzco
Directed and illustrated by Candy Kugel

Poster design by Mark Larson
Illustrations by
Manhattan Design
SHOWTIME
1984 -1992
The Showtime subscription "We've got the rights to [Apple co-found-
channel was the Fred/Alan client with er] Steve Wozniak's US Festival! Can you
the most longevity after MTV Networks. help us?"
Josh Sapan, head of marketing (one of
our best clients ever and, eventually the We dutifully did the job, which was a
CEO of AMC Networks) was a guy who latter day, not so successful, Woodstock
let us stretch ourselves beyond our repu- with all the music acts you could imag-
tation as media brand gurus. But, at first, ine. This time it involved a direct re-
it wasn't easy. sponse approach to lure new subscribers.
Piece of cake, and Showtime was im-
Music video. Our blessing and curse. pressed we could do something strategic
When we realized in order to keep the rather than just a rock promo. We waited
rent paid and ourselves and co-workers for our non-music assignment.
paid that while we wanted to produce
television shows, after our Playboy Chan-
nel fiasco, we didn't exactly know where
to go next. So, our backup was going to
be the branding and marketing stuff we
could do in our sleep.
But, we didn't want to fall into the music

video trap.. First of all, we didn't want to
be typecast. And second, we didn't really
make music videos (though we eventual-
ly did two in our decade), and even if we
"Debbie wins Barry Manilow's piano!"
did, they didn't pay too well.
Produced by Linda Schaffer
So, we were hesitant when Showtime "Absolutely!"

wanted us to help them promote their When Josh asked us to promote a Barry
jump-on-the-bandwagon music video Manilow concert (really?!) we put our
show. Aside from the fact that it was hard foot down and refused until we had pre-
to say why theirs would be any good, we booked a non-music job. After a bit of
could see the trap ahead. hesitation, it was done. Another direct
response gig, which was great, because
We told Josh we'd agree to take the gig. if we did it right Showtime made more
If. If we could get a non-music project. money, which would guarantee a bunch
of future work. Which it did for the next
"Absolutely!" decade. And, not for nothing, from then
on we were fine doing their other music
We did "Showtime's Got Rock!!! (the projects over the years. (See the Police
previous page), it went over well, and we poster on the previous spread.)
waited for our next assignment.
Sometimes we were amazed by
the kind of work we were allowed to do

at Showtime. But that’s the way it some- a nice a cappella job for us on a couple
times is when one is in at the beginning of spots for the Playboy Channel, so we
of something bigger than one imagined. thought we’d try again with Brooklyn’s
own Honeymooners. (The Jive Five went
But our all time favorite job on to the biggest fame in their careers
for Showtime had to be The Honeymooners: later that year when we convinced Nick
Lost Episodes. (The following two pages) programmers that these folks needed to
Americans of a certain age have a great be the “sound of Nickelodeon.” Anoth-
feeling about Jackie Gleason’s Honey- er creative coup for us, and mostly for
mooners. The catch phrases (“To the them.)
mooooonnnn Alice!!!”), blue collar ev-
eryman families in Bensonhurst, Brook- At fredalan.org you can hear in
lyn, the cold water flats, and of course, the first couple of spots what a fantastic
the indelible characters, made it a must job Eugene and Steve did for Jackie and
watch show for the whole family, as TV Showtime. And like we suggested up top,
used to bill itself. the fact that Josh let us use five virtually
unknown doo-wop singers who com-
So, when actor/writer Jackie Gleason posed their own celebration of a 25 year
dusted off dozens of kinescoped comedy old, black & white sitcom, says some-
sketches done over the years, Showtime thing special. At least it did –and does!–
stepped up and presented them towards mean something to us.
the end of 1984. They asked Fred/Alan, …..
who, yes, had done some nice work for
Showtime to help out. Nice work, for The Honeymooners: Lost Episodes 1984
sure, but we also –truly!!!– had Client:Josh Sapan/Showtime
our offices in Gleason’s old New York Agency: Fred/Alan, Inc. New York
Honeymooners production offices. Creative directors:
Fred/Alan put a total New Yawk team Producer, copywriter & sound design:
to promote the series. Steve Stein aka Steve Stein
Music composition: Eugene Pitt & Steve Stein
Steinski from lower Manhattan was a Vocals: The Jive Five
friend and collaborator with our go-to
sound engineer, Queens born Doug De-
Franco (Double Dee). Aside from being
an early hip-hop, white “mastermix”
champ, in those days Steve made his liv-
ing writing advertising. He loved music
as much as we did, but also understood
the art of persuasion.
Eugene Pitt was the leader of The Jive

Five, a local quintet of doo-wop/soul
singers who’d had a few hit records. He
was also a smart composer and had done

The key to good health is fiber.
Don’t you want to be spry like me?
Ha ha!
But here’s a healthy offer.
Showtime has exclusive movies and shows.
Like Witness and Death Wish 3.
Without Showtime, you can’t watch them.
And if I’m lying, I’m buying!
Free cable for a year if you spot Show-
time’s Exclusives on HBO or Cinemax!
Plus raisin bran.

Couple of boxes are open.
I like raisins!

I’ve just come back from Paris, France.
This is what you’ll all be wearing next fall.
Ha ha!
But here’s something that really looks good!

Showtime has exclusive movies and shows.
Like Witness and Death Wish 3.
Without Showtime, you can’t watch them.
And if I’m lying, I’m buying!

Free cable for a year if you spot Show-
time’s Exclusives on HBO or Cinemax!
Plus a costume.

Nickelodeon, the HBO's success in subscription TV started
a gold rush, and the newly christened
Trojan Horse Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment
Nickelodeon Company (WASEC) wanted in. They
before MTV Networks and renamed QUBE's Star Channel as The
Movie Channel and felt that the commer-
before Fred/Alan cial free Nickelodeon was their ticket to
getting a piece of the future (they were off
April 1, 1979 –
by 50 years).
Nickelodeon launches, commercial free,
on Warner Cable Communications
In those days, cable companies sent their
sales folk door to door, carrying loose
December 1979 –
leaf binders to show homeowners their
Still commercial free, Nickelodeon
channel offerings like ESPN, Showtime,
becomes part of Warner Amex
TBS SuperStation. WASEC's hope was
Satellite Entertainment, alongside
that by opening their pitch with "we've
The Movie Channel, and distributes on
got this seven day a week children's chan-
nationwide, American cable systems
nel with no commercials!" would allow
them entry into the house where they
January 1984 –
could be upsold to their subscription
Nickelodeon becomes ad supported
offering of The Movie Channel.
.....
The effort stumbled and Showtime bought
Dr. Vivan Horner was hired by Warner
The Movie Channel in late 1983, and
Communications' interactive television
kickstarted some seismic changes. Bob
experiment QUBE, someone with expe-
Pittman, MTV Networks' successful leader,
rience as the director of research on the
addded Nick to his portfolio. He dismissed
PBS show "The Electric Company." She
the miscast leader, Cy Schneider, who
soon developed an entire children's chan-
was more comfortable trying to copy the
nel with licensed programs, originally
Disney Channel than coming up with
called "Pinwheel" after its only original
anything original.
series, eventually named "Nickelodeon."
No one seems to know why kids' enter-
Bob promoted staffer Gerry Laybourne to
tainment would be named after a 50+
run the place and contracted with Fred/
year outdated term, using a mime as its
Alan, telling all that would listen that unless
logo. Such is media history.
Nickelodeon found some viewers he would
be forced to shutter the channel. Luckily,
In 1979, Warner partnered with American
we all took him seriously.
Express to expand their cable systems
across the United States, taking advan-
1999, Vivian Horner: [Gerry] really under-
tage of the opportunities presented by the
stands what kids want: Her Nickelodeon
lower costs of satellite distribution (Amex
has an attitude. I'm not sure if I could have
felt that cable technology would spur
made Nickelodeon such a big hit."
interactive shopping; they were off by
about four decades).

1979: The Nickelodeon mime.
1981: The "silver ball."

Developed by Klein &,
Beverly Hills.
1984-2009:
The Nickelodeon logo,
developed by Fred/Alan,
designed by
Tom Corey & Scott Nash,
Corey & Co., Boston

ORANGE
you glad
you've got
your
NICK-EL
-O-
DE-ON?
Nickelodeon was the worst rated
cable network in 1984's lineup of 30
channels. Fred/Alan's first big assign-
ment was to fix that problem. And, from
our very first meeting we realized that
actually reinventing the presentation of
the entire channel was the solution.
Success! Nickelodeon went from worst

to first. Six months after we came
aboard, Nickelodeon was the #1 cable
network, where it stayed for 25 years.
About a year after we launched our

company, Bob Pittman called us over
1984 -1992
and asked us to work on Nickelodeon.
Only one show –"You Can't Do That on
Television"– got any viewers everyday,
and "Mr.Wizard's World," a science
show, got a few kids once a week. All the
others? Bupkis. Nothing. "Hash marks,"
in Nielsen's vocabulary.
Something had to change or MTV Net-

works, Nick's parent, would shut down
the channel. (continued)

Like all the other hipsters at For us, even a cursory look at the net-
MTV Networks, we'd pretty much work exposed its core weakness. There
ignored Nickelodeon. And, it turned was no structure or heft to the channel's
out, so did most of the kids in America. promotional efforts, the most efficient
Nickelodeon had lost almost $40 million way to attract viewers and hold them
since its launch in 1979 (that's over $100 for a few more minutes. Pittman had
million at the time of this book's publi- given us the bad news when he hired us.
cation) and needed to figure out how to Programming budget? Zero. Marketing
turn things around. budget? Zero. And the creative approach
to promotion? Basically, watered down,
Nick's business model had begun as a poorly executed versions of broadcast
non-commercial "door opener" for the network promos. An attempt to convince
company's cash cow, The Movie Chan- kids to watch dozens of shows they'd
nel subscription network. When TMC never heard of on a channel they all
didn't work and was sold to Showtime, thought were "for babies."
Nick had to put up or shut up and it was
decided that it needed advertisers. Obviously, a rethinking was necessary.
Here was the fundamental challenge.
Even though channel head Gerry Lay- For the first several years, MTV had no
bourne and her chief programming traditional television programs (we were
executive Debby Beece had researched more than thrilled to program music
every show thoroughly and reported videos 24 hours a day) and so, no pre-
back that kids loved them, it hadn't dictable schedule to promote. We figured
translated into much viewership. And out that promoting MTV itself was the
while 44% of the country tuned in at key. If our viewers loved MTV, they'd
least once a week, they stayed for less give new music a change. The program
than six minutes. "It's for babies," said services group developed a systematic
children of every age." approach of promising the viewers a lim-
ited number of ideas expressed in clear
We weren't particularly interest- English, no cheesy slogans –like... we're
ed in the job. We didn't attach much the world's first video music channel,
importance to kids television and at the we play your favorite music, new music
time neither of us had probably even too– that were executed by a young staff
contemplated having children. But, we that had no promotion experience and a
needed the work. Fred/Alan got down to limited practical knowledge of television.
business. But, they were way creative and even
more, way excited.
The math was pretty simple. If we could
lift that six minutes a week even just a Fixing Nickelodeon would take
little bit, the ratings would follow. We the same approach. We were simultane-
needed to accept Gerry's and Debby's ously working on two tracks: the brand-
assessment of the quality of their shows. ing and promotional strategies, and then
What did we know about what kids the creative solutions.
liked?

Tom Corey and Scott Nash were Boston for the zero'd out marketing budget.
based graphic designers, among the few
who immediately liked our TV-needs-lo- Network management saw that well exe-
gos-that-changes approach. Fred almost cuted, wildly creative promos, exclusively
blew it when they presented five designs based on our to-be-invented promises,
and picked a traditional "fixed" logo. But rotated through those 20,000+ slots,
Alan swept it aside for an idea that was would uplift the viewers to fall in love
the polar opposite of what we'd done with Nickelodeon.
with MTV.
Help the audience fall in love, and every-
The Nickelodeon logo would be thing else becomes easier.
one color only –"orange is a color that
doesn't often appear in nature, it'll stand Together with the Nick executives we
out against almost anything," said Corey invented these promises:
& Co– and a never changing, white
logotype. The change element would be Nickelodeon:
shapes, dozens, hundreds of them. (pages • The first kids network.
124-125) At first, Nickelodeon was hesi-
tant. "How come MTV gets all the colors • The only channel for you.
and we get only one?" But, we used all • It's what you want.
our persuasive powers to get it over the
• Everyday.
finish line. If the idea was something
risky, it just might be the right one to • Only kids win at Nickelodeon.
make an impression.
Would all these ideas actually work?
Alan got together with programming
scheduler Dee LaDuke and completely Scott Webb, our former colleague
revamped the network 18 page promo at The Movie Channel, would be the test.
guide (all the shows were acquired from Together, we knew we shared a creative
various international producers and had sensibility with Scott, who was a brilliant
a differnt format). They re-organized man/child who was not only a comic
every program to make room for two book collector but had also trained with
10-second network identifications and Dale Pon, Fred's mentor and future "I
four 30-second promotional spots. Want My MTV!" guru.
That’s what set up the pattern that we’d Scott scored big time with his first spot,
get the first and last spots in every break, "Everyday Hero," which mixed a sequen-
something that would lead to arguments tial frame format with, can you guess?
with the ad sales team for the rest of eter- The 'Everyday' promise. (pages 138-139)
nity (they always wanted to sell –at a pre- From the first time the Nick powers saw
mium– the spots adjacent to program- and heard the spot ("Isn't the announcer
ming. If we used them right, it would talking awfully fast?" "No." They trusted
amount to $25 million of annual network us.) they knew we'd found the future of
promotion ($75 million today). So much Nickelodeon.

Corey & Co. Boston
Logo design by Tom Corey & Scott Nash
for Fred/Alan

The origins of the anything we could," Nash says. "We were
Nickelodeon logo sketching away. Tom said, 'Well, what do
you really want to do on this?' I said, 'I
Tom Corey and Scott Nash designed think that a kids' network shouldn't have
a new Nickelodeon logo (its third one) one particular shape. I think it should
for Fred/Alan in 1984. Here's an constantly change."
excerpt of an interview with Scott
from NickAlive.com, published in One iteration of this evolving logo would
September 2023. be the splat, which was already part of
Nickelodeon lore, thanks to one of its
In the early 19'80s, Scott Nash, just out earliest programs, You Can't Do That on
of design school, found himself on a Television, on which the kid stars were
flight to meet with executives from the regularly slimed with green goo dumped
nascent cable channel for kids, Nickel- from above anytime they said, "I don't
odeon. He and a former professor, Tom know." So the splat was a no-brainer, and
Corey, had been tasked with developing they quickly came up with others.
some logos.
"And we presented those rough sketches,
"We had these, in retrospect, some really one of which was on a coffee cup that
bad ideas," Nash told Yahoo Entertain- we were given, because I had run out of
ment. "One of which was...because they paper," Nash says. "And we actually pre-
were owned by MTV, we would come sented the sketches we did on the plane...
up with something that was the equiva- We basically threw away the proposal
lent of NTV. And instead of having the that we were going to present to Fred
ever-changing M, we thought we'd turn and Alan, and showed them a bunch of
the N into a door, which would... sort of sketches done with Sharpies. It was a
greet kids and allow us to come into the revelation for me because, again, I was
world of Nickelodeon. But it was a really nervous, as a young designer, to show
short-sighted idea, and one that I wasn't something that unpolished. But [they]
comfortable with." absolutely embraced the idea, especially.
[They] was very enthusiastic about it."
'I don't know!'
The splat logo was born.
Although they had very little time to
spare, they decided to toss out what they And though there were eventually many
had and start over. Nick logos used — the zeppelin, which
Nash drew and became the shape of the
"So Tom and I, on the flight down to trophies at the Kids' Choice Awards; a
meet with Fred [Seibert] and Alan cow; and a dog bone, for example — the
[Goodman]," who were in charge of paint splatter became a favorite. Nash
rebranding Nickelodeon in 1984, five recalls that the product division partic-
years after its launch, "sketched on ularly loved the splat. For the people re-

sponsible for making T-shirts, toys and with it, it was really gratifying to see
other brand merch, the logo needed to what people would do with this idea that
be consistent; They were trying to build Tom and I basically hatched on a plane
brand identity. heading down to New York."
Nash says his team initially debated In Matthew Klickstein's 2013 book
whether the color of the splat should be Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelode-
slime green or orange. on's Golden Age, Scott Webb, Nick's first
creative director, went as far as citing
"We somehow got some information as Nash's late professor-turned-business
to what colors adults least liked at the partner as one of the people most re-
time. And lime green was one color. The sponsible for the network's eventual
other color was orange, and we went success. The splat had been everything.
with orange because green is a keyable
color," Nash says. The guys who had made the Nickelodeon
logo were suddenly in demand, and they
They settled on Pantone 021, the vi- went on to create imagery for Come-
brant orange that just screams "FUN!" dy Central, Cartoon Network, FX and
more. Nick continued to use the splat
Nash notes that everyone involved had a until the late aughts, when, according to
creative energy that comes with working Variety, its parent company decided to
on something fresh and new and vi- connect all of the Nickelodeon brands
brant. It was exciting times. He describes — Nick at Nite, Nicktoons, Nick Jr. and
some of what they created back then as TeenNick — by using matching low-
"groundbreaking," a word that he beer-case logos for all of them.
lieves is over-used but appropriate here.
The 'splat' initially might have been the
The splat remained part of the net- most visible of the logo Corey & Co.
work's identity as hits such as The Ren designed (though today, it might well be
& Stimpy Show, Rugrats and Hey Dude the Kids' Choice blimp) but it was only
cycled through. one out of hundreds that they eventually
drew. Tom and Scott became our go-to
"And so, for years," Nash says, "we were Fred/Alan designers, the ones who most
very proud of the Nickelodeon logo. instinctively understood our approach
We thought it was a new type of graph- to designing for the moving pictures of
ic identity. We referred to the logo as a television, and the people we worked with
flexi-logo. It's not one logo. It's a logo the most often until we built our own in-
that is imbued with creativity, because it house graphics department.
can change and morph. And the vari-
ous iterations that we saw throughout
the years through the creative services
department and everyone who worked

NL
Noyes & Laybourne –independent film-
makers Eli Noyes and Kit Laybourne–
became our first creative partners at
Nickelodeon.
OA
We'd know Kit quite a while –his "The
Animation Book" has always been a
must-have– and worked with Eli at
MTV, and they jumped in with us right
away, eventually making a few dozen
YY
shorts network identifications. (and then
there were the seemingly hundreds of
stop motion, live action variation piec-
es they did with us for Nick-at-Nite;
see pages 166 & 167). Aside from their
EB
core creativity –Eli had already been
an award winning indie film creator for
years– these two were the first of our
collaborators to fully embrace the various
creative milestones we would institute
SO
that could help our viewers fall in love
with Nickelodeon.
First up was the infinite changeability of

the Nick logo designed by Tom Corey
U
and Scott Nash. And then, there was our
sonic identity with the Jive Five (pages
136 & 137).
Take a look at the claymation on the
&R
next page. These images are just the ex-
tremes of the designs injust one 10-sec-
ond spot, and they don't really capture
the run, classic animated transitions
that instantly transformed one image
N
into another. Or that there were actually
a half dozen of the same visuals with
soundtracks that were vocalese from the
Five, and also musical scoring and funny
sound effect tracks.
E
The next three pages are just a few of
the other films that this duo graced our
audiences. Boy, were we lucky to have
such wonderful confederates.

Eugene Pitt & the Jive Five (soundtrack)
Noyes & Laybourne, New York (animation)
Produced by (left) Jerry Lieberman & Kim Deitch; (right) David Lubell;
Soundtracks by Eugene Pitt & the Jive Five
Noyes & Laybourne, New York (animation)
CHAR
Joey Ahlbum had done the animation
-LEX
Charlex –the company owned by
for Charlie Ahearn's groundbreaking, Charlie Levi and Alex Weil– was
1982 hip-hop documentary "Wild Style." completely unknown to us before they
But that's not how we met. won –along with Jeff Stein, and super-
vised by Alan's former co-worker and
Someone showed us a short film of Fred's future wife, Robin Sloane– the
Joey's, and we were entranced by it's first MTV Video Music Award in 1984
illustration style. And when he came by for The Cars' "You Might Think."
our office, we were completely charmed,
so much so that Nickelodeon was the
beginning of what's become an almost
50 year creative relationship.
Everyone that's ever worked with Joey Charlie and Alex began their eye pop-
was smitten with him and his films, and ping video innovations with ad agen-
the folks at our shop were no exception. cy animatics (an early look at what a
Every 10-second Nickelodeon he pre- commercial might look like before it was
sented was so much more than a bunch actually produced) and fun commercials
of drawings moving on a screen, Joey for The National Enquirer. But along
told stories. And when paired up with with The Cars and an explosive main ti-
the infectious words and melodies of the tle for Saturday Night Live they showed
Tom Pomposello produced jingles with up on our creative radar. We just had to
The Jive Five, those films and their char- work together.
acters became channel icons. Expecially
those dinosaurs! Our first projects together were IDs
JOEY
for Nickelodeon (but, they weren't the
last; see page XXX for VH1.) "Singing
Presidents" –a pantomime with the
AHLBUM a cappella of The Jive Five– on the far
right was a perfect amalgamation of
(Check out Joey's animations on the their nascent techniques and their
next two pages and then, pages XXX creative irreverence.
and XXX for more of his Fred/Alan
commissions.) We enjoyed every minute of working
with Charlex and we all became great
friends. In fact, Charlie and Alex totally
honored us when they asked us to create
their company's first trade ad campaign.
Eugene Pitt & the Jive Five (soundtrack. right) Charlex, New York (animation)
Eugene Pitt & the Jive Five (soundtracks)
Joey Ahlbum, New York (animation)
Eugene Pitt and the and a wonderful collaborator. When the
Jive Five were as perfect an element opportunity to work with Nickelodeon
of network identity as Fred/Alan ever presented itself, we all –including our
found. All the filmmakers who worked music and animation producer Tom
with us on Nickelodeon lined up to be Pomposello– knew immediately The Jive
the first to use their soundtracks on their Five would be the perfect underpinning
network IDs. for defining the sonic vocabulary of
the network.
The Fred/Alan television branding
execution often started with defining
a network’s sound. A background in
music and radio made this logical for us,
though it was a philosophy grounded
in our belief that TV was driven by the
sounds first, with the visuals often fol-
lowing the audio lead. In the case of the
Nickelodeon rebranding in 1984 the time
frame was short, under six months, so
the audio and the visual identities were Eugene Pitt, photograph by Sonny Maxon
developed simultaneously.
Working with the group was amazing.
For over a year we’d been thinking about Marty was right, Eugene was indeed
old radio jingles, and thinking of ways smart and a fabulous partner. His breadth
to incorporate a human, vocal sound in of composition incorporated gospel, soul,
our identities. (Not for nothing, almost even the close harmony of a barbershop
a decade later we actually used those quartet or The Mills Brothers. He and
radio style jingles for VH1 – on pages his compatriots were endlessly creative,
184 & 195). A year before, working on cheerful, and hard working. A charm.
The Playboy Channel’s "Hot Rocks," and
then at Showtime for "The Honeymoon- Convincing Nickelodeon was
ers Lost Episodes," we scouted around another story. When we brought up the
for an a cappella group for distinctive notion of a sound identity, Nickelodeon
soundtracks. Alan’s former colleague at executives, still not fully understanding
CBS Records, writer and producer Marty of where we intended to steer the chan-
Pekar, had started the Ambient Sound nel, suggested a consideration of Raffi,
label to capture contemporary recordings then a recent phenomenon as a singer for
of classic doo-wop groups from the '50s young children. “He’s very popular; our
and '60s. He introduced us to the lead- research confirms it.” Fred/Alan tried a
er of The Jive Five, Eugene Pitt, as “not lot of arguments to bring them around
only a great singer, but a smart man.” We to a doo-wop sound, but at first they fell
found Eugene to be, as former Marvel on deaf ears. “Doo-wop’s 30 years old, no
Comics president and Rock and Roll Hall kid has ever heard of it."
of Fame CEO Terry Stewart said, “the
most underrated soul singer in America,” We won the day on two grounds. Typi-

cally, Fred was a bit academic, playing on –and the Jive Five sang– was...
the executives’ inclinations. "Alan and I
love all forms of Black American music, Nick-Nick-Nick-Nick-
and using doo-wop will be a great way to
educate American kids without anyone Nick-Nick-Nick-Nick-
being the wiser.”
Nick-el-o-de-on.
Alan went right for it. He opened his
mouth and, quoting The Marcels’ ar- Nickelodeon is still using that song today,
rangement of chestnut “Blue Moon,” 40 years later.
sang:
The Jive Five was always a perennial
“Bom-ma-bom, a-bom-bom-a-bom, ba- favorite on the oldies and doo-wop
ba-bom-bom-a-bomp, b-dang-a-dang- circuit until Eugene passed away in 2018.
dang, b-ding-a-dong-ding.” But the group's popularity grew exponen-
tially with the Nickelodeon engagement.
“What kid isn’t going to love that right So much so that their stage uniforms
away?” Alan asked. quickly matched Nickelodeon orange
(Pantone Orange #021).
Case closed. The first audio sting
that Eugene, Tom and Alan composed Frame grab from “The Jive Five for Nickelodeon”
by Jon Kane/Optic Nerve, New York

Marv Newland, International Rocketship, Vancouver; Candy Kugel, Buzzco, New York
Joey Ahlbum, New York
Howard Hoffman & campers, Camp Androscoggin, Maine
The first “new” Nickelodeon promise promo. By Scott Webb.
Advertising magazine
trade ads 1988-1992

Alan Goodman
"Hey Dude" story editor

Sometime in early 1988, But, here we were talking about ad
Nickelodeon was on the hunt for a new agencies. Typically, advertising agen-
advertising agency. cies go through a multi-step process
in snagging a new client. Nick's recent
For four years, Gerry Laybourne had success –becoming the top rated cable
relied on us for programming and network, and staying that way, thanks to
promotional advice, which had extend- our brand and promotion repositioning
ed into all areas of now Nickelodeon in 1984, and the launch of our creation
presented itself to the world off of the of Nick-at Nite (pages 149-175)– had
television screen. put them at top of the most desired
accounts. After all, cable was the hottest
We'd help them reinvent the world of new media thing in the '80s, and Nick's
the advertising "upfront" presentations, worst-to-first performance had become
where broadcasting and cable networks the hottest thing in cable.
put agency media buyers in an auditori-
um and showed slides of their audience The problem with all the agencies? They
performance and maybe a bit of video had mostly made their bones in non-me-
of upcoming shows, hoping to persuade dia –laundry detergent, automobiles,
them to buy next year's ad inventory. beauty products and the like– so their
Fred/Alan made the argument that kids strategic and tactical knowledge didn't
advertising was ho-hum for most of endear themselves to Nick's manage-
the buyers and Nickelodeon showing ment.
slides was more ho-hum. Shouldn't the
network that had exploded modern As we discussed the pros and mostly
programming with the runaway success cons of the agency pitches, one day
of Double Dare's "physical challenges" Gerry burst out, "Why don't you guys do
–putting contestants in vats of melted it?!"
chocolate or smashing eggs on their
heads– show up with a new method of We explained that we weren't structured
presentation? properly –no media buying, no account
executive structure, no in-house art
Nickelodeon's first upfront required direction, et cetera, et cetera– but she
the media buyers to run a Double Dare wasn't buying it. A bit of to and fro, and
gauntlet before they got hit with the Fred/Alan added advertising to our
facts. Their upfront was such a success branding and programming practice.
that all the networks upped their game
for the next 30+ years. As we geared up our infrastruc-
ture, Nick had a new problem. No
In 1987, Fred/Alan's Chauncey Street matter how strong the channel's ratings
Productions convinced Gerry and pro- performance, media buying was a pretty
grammer Debby Beece that a successful conservative profession. And, no mat-
network needed their own awards show, ter our success, buyers and their clients
and who deserved an awards show more liked it the old way. For decades, kids'
than kids? (pages 210-211) television had been defined by Saturday

mornings on US broadcast networks, tors, and soon enough we were visiting
CBS, NBC and ABC. That's the way it most of them.
was, and that's what the clients wanted.
None of this cable crap. On the surface,
they had an argument, because while
Lifetime was our first new
network branding client (the next two
Nick was on seven days a week and #1
pages). A rebranding of the non-suc-
in cable, the average rating delivered a
cessful Cable Health Network, the new
fraction of the kids on Saturday morn-
management had decided on a strategy
ings. The result? Not too many clients
of "Talk Television," the TV equivalent of
and agencies would buy Nick ads.
the soon-to-be combustion of "Talk Ra-
dio." It was a great idea, poorly executed,
Alan: DickGershon –a consultant after
and within a few years the programming
he left LPG/Pon– had a revelation that
morphed and by the early '90s became
Nick was winning in monthly cume –
"Television for Women." Fred/Alan ten-
most viewers in a month. It's a worthless
ure was long gone.
number since being spread across a
month there was no weight to any of it
We brought in our Nickelodeon logo
against any one show or series. When he
friends, Tom Corey and Scott Nash to
told me that, I said “It sounds to me like
redesign their logo. We enlisted, among
we’re the number one network for kids.”
others, Buzzco, Olive Jar Productions,
and Colossal Pictures to help us develop
Nickelodeon was beating the networks
some fantastic animated "video logos"
in kids!
to distinguish the channel. Fred spent
countless hours with the on-air promo-
Fred/Alan's most effective
tion team trying to get them to unlearn
trade campaign (pages 144-145) put
the traditional promo rules that seemed
the case front and center in every trade
to seep from their pores.
publication available. The argument was
so effective, that even under the threat of
Nothing we did made any difference. A
lawsuits from the networks, the flood-
good enough strategy, badly executed,
gates on incoming ad sales for Nickel-
can never be overcome.
odeon were opened.
Ah well.
Fred/Alan eventually became the adver-
tising agency of record for all of Nick's
sister channels, including MTV, VH1
and Comedy Central.
Thanks Gerry!
Fred/Alan's successes in cable
network branding with MTV, Nickelodeon,
Nick-at-Nite and VH1 had captured the
attention of MTV Networks' competi-

Buzzco, New York Colossal Pictures, San Francisco
LIFETIME
1984 -1985
Olive Jar Productions, Boston Buzzco, New York

Written by Alan Goodman Design by Corey & Co. Boston Account & production management: Jessica Wolf
MOSAIC RECORDS
1984 -1985
Michael Cuscuna Charlie Lourie
We were damned lucky at Fred/Alan, able ing a little better and Mosaic was doing a
to work with clients that had exceptional lot worse; Michael and Charlie successfully
vision, and often, wonderful taste. Case in prevailed on us to finally help. We were
point: still ignorant about direct mail, but pretty
much like every other assignment we ever
Mosaic Records. had we took on Mosaic Records with the
full arrogance of youth.
In the late '70s Fred was producing jazz
records and became friendly with Michael Alan had started working with a first gen-
Cuscuna, soon to become one of the medi- eration portable computer and at the pic-
um’s most revered producers and the lead- nic table of our summer rental we invented
ing reissue producer in history. In 1983, the first Mosaic 12-page brochure. Alan
Michael and former Blue Note/Columbia/ wrote every word, our friends Tom Corey
Warner Records executive Charlie Lourie and Scott Nash designed the thing, Fred/
started the pioneering Mosaic Records as Alan mainstay Jessica Wolf supervised the
the first company specializing in boxed set production and printing. The first catalog
reissues of classic performances, available ever dropped in the autumn mail of 1986.
only by mail order. We became reacquaint-
ed when Fred ordered their first set ("The With direct mail, there's direct feedback
Complete Blue Note Recordings of The- from people. If the phone rings they like it,
lonious Monk") and Michael asked Fred/ if not, it's back to the drawing board. We
Alan to get involved with helping them out patiently waited for the order phones to
of the hole. It turned out their ‘sure thing’ ring, and lo and behold, in the first three
idea wasn’t having as many takers as they weeks Mosaic’s business had increased 10
needed and the company was worried fold and over the years it went up from
about the possibility of shutting down. there. They've been in business ever since.
We’ve never been prouder of any project.
We turned them down two years in a row So proud, in fact, that Alan continues writ-
with a lot of unsolicited advice about what ing all new release copy 30 years after Fred/
they could do better. Fred/Alan was still Alan closed, and former Fred/Alan CFO
pretty new and running on a shoestring, so Fred Pustay is now a Mosaic partner.
even though we loved what Mosaic stood
for we just didn't have the time and re- Fred/Alan was proud of all our work,
sources they needed. Everything we knew but Mosaic wrapped together a number of
about direct mail cataloging was from threads that went through all the work we
being mail order catalog customers our- did:
selves and from a direct mail how-to book
Fred had read (at least the first chapter). • Of course, we helped build Mosaic's
We admired what Michael and Charlie business, ensuring Michael’s and Charlie’s
were trying to accomplish at Mosaic, so we vision of exposing some of America’s great-
did our best to help out without jumping est art throughout the world.
all the way in.
• Our perspective was that Mosaic Re-
A couple years later Fred/Alan was do- cords is more than a bunch of wonderful

box record sets, it was an inspiration and Mosaic Records, Stamford, Connecticut
alchemy of artistic and business values.
The “promises” described in each and Brochure development:
every brochure have been kept for over 30 Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert
years. Now, that’s a “brand.” Account management & production:
Jessica Wolf
• Like Michael and Charlie, Fred/Alan
believed in the fans, and we always worked Brochure No. 4 (previous page)
on projects that revolved around what is Designed by
now talked about as “fandom” or “commu- Tom Corey & Scott Nash,
nity.” Mosaic epitomized it, and we made Corey McPherson Nash, Boston
sure their fans were front and center in Written by Alan Goodman
all our work for the company. So much so
that Brochure #6 was entirely composed of Brochures No. 5-11 (next two pages)
fan letters and critic quotes, thanks to our Written by Alan Goodman, with
collaborator Marty Pekar’s inventiveness. Marty Pekar and Juli Davidson
It doesn’t get better than your customers
doing all the work. Mosaic Images Brochure (pages 156-7)
Written by Alan Goodman
Both of us, Alan and Fred, have continued Designed by Noel Frankel
to work to help Mosaic for 30+ years. Alan
continues to write all the new release copy,
Fred helped them start the Mosaic Daily
Jazz Gazette. Jessica Wolf helped them
throughout the days of an actual printed
brochure, and the Fred/Alan CFO, Fred
Pustay became their partner.
Mosiac Records and their mission lives on.

We're honored to have been a small part of
it.

Mosaic Records Brochures #5-11
Written by Alan Goodman, with Marty Pekar and Juli Davidson
Account management & production by Jessica Wolf

We have always been big photography sets to amazing, historically necessary pho-
fans, and like a lot of other music nerds we tographic history. In 1991, Charlie and
were enamored with the jazz photographers Michael agreed and launched Mosaic Images.
like Roy DeCarava, Herman Leonard, Wil- Fred/Alan created one of their most beautiful
liam Gottlieb and particularly Blue Note catalogs, and photography became a critical
Records co-founder Francis “Frank” Wolff. part of Mosaic's business for 30 years.
Imagine how excited we were when Mosaic’s Now came the rigorous and joyous work of
founders, Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lou- actually living up to the promise of a world
rie –by far, our favorite friends and clients– class offering. Michael and Charlie selected
told us that three iconic photos featured on three classic
they had tak- Blue Notes –John Coltrane on “Blue Train,”
en ownership Sonny Rollins on “Volume 2,” and Art Blakey
of the entire on “The Big
Francis Wolff Beat”–and
photography did the deep
archive*. dive research
After all, he’d that helped
shot virtually make Mosaic
every Blue famous. We
Note record- engaged one
ing session from 1944 until 1967, even after of the last
the company was sold to Liberty Records in analog “mas-
1965. ter printers,”
Fred: “I had started doing a little Chuck Kelton’s Kelton Labs, to produce the
collecting of jazz photography –probably due limited edition prints. And since high priced
to our deep dive into Mosaic, and the shrink- photography was new to the mainstream jazz
ing size of CD covers– with non-vintage public, we also decided to release high quality,
prints by William Claxton, Roy DeCrava, and limited edition posters of the photographs at a
Chuck Stewart. It lower price. Alan’s background as a journalist
occurred to me that the Frank Wolff library –with a unique sensitivity to artists and a pitch
would be a fantastic addition to the body perfect writing talent– made the catalog copy
of jazz work starting to exhibit around the sparkle and Jessica Wolf produced one of our
world.” most gorgeous brochures, with printing and
paper quality that gave readers the assurance
So, we started that Mosaic Editions was all about quality.
bugging
Mosaic to Needless to say, things worked out beautifully,
think about in all ways. Jazz fans from across the world re-
expand- sponded overwhelmingly and Mosaic Images
ing their was on fire.
line from
just their *Update: Mosaic Images started with our 1991
amazing, catalog. In 2022, the Francis Wolff archive was
historically acquired by the Universal Music Group, the
necessary box current owner of Blue Note Records.

Design by Noel Frankel Written by Alan Goodman Account management & production by Jessica Wolf
Nick-at-Nite
logo designed by
Tom Corey &
Scott Nash
Corey & Co.
Boston
NICK
1985 -1992
NITE
THE GREATEST HITS OF TELEVISION
at
and
TV Land
America's first run an entire network with programming
oldies television network. that no one else wanted, but was solid
enough to get a good rating. Perfect for the
Fred/Alan invented audience and perfect for advertisers. Our
channel would be the television equivalent
Nick-at-Nite and of oldies radio, the most successful format
TV Land. in decades. Just like “The Greatest Hits of
That is, Fred and Alan. All Time” we wouldn’t try to hide what we
were. The networks might have reruns (sad
It’s funny to see it in print. Bill Paley created face), but at Nick-at-Nite we’d be RERUNS!!!
CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting Company, (happy face!). It would be a blast.
Ted Turner invented CNN, the Cable News
Network, John Lack conceived of MTV: Mu- The powers that be at Nickelodeon did
sic Television. But, there it is. Two guys most not like "The Donna Reed Show" at all; it was
people never heard of invented America’s seen as a pre-feminist throwback that set a
first oldies channel on television. depressing role model. Fred had watched it
for weeks at a time in high school during an
By mid-1985 we had developed the brand- illness, and figured any show that could hold
ing and vocabulary for MTV and Nickel- the attention of a high school boy for that
odeon. MTV Networks CEO Bob Pittman long had to be, at the very least, entertaining.
asked Nick's president, Gerry Laybourne,
to figure out what to do with the dark hours We convinced them to give it a go.
after Nickelodeon went off the air at 8pm*. Look for shows that fit the criminally low
Gerry and her team worked to develop orig- budget, were good (meaning strong char-
inal programming for a number of months acters and solid stories), package it all up
before throwing in the towel and asking us under the same guidance we were giving to
for suggestions. Nickelodeon and MTV, and go for it. No one
was sure what we were smoking, but after
We were ready. our last ditch presentation to Bob was met
with smiles and enthusiasm, they agreed to
A couple of years before, Pittman had pur- let us at it.
chased the rights to 275 episodes of "The
Donna Reed Show," a black & white comedy The two of us spent everyday for months at
series from the late 19'50s because they were Nickelodeon lining things up (though we
cheap and he thought they might be useful were still ‘outsiders’ we effectively served as
someday; I’d heard about the acquisition and the channel’s creative directors for the next
started hatching up ways to use them. When seven years). Programming chief Debby
we became independent producers in 1983 Beece came up with the name 'Nick-at-Nite;’
we spent over a year trying to convince ABC and she acquired a great debut line-up of
to create an “TV oldies” a block in their day- Donna Reed, "My Three Sons" (the black &
time hours. They eventually passed. “We’re white years), "Mr. Ed," and "Route 66." Tom
a television network. We can’t run old, black Corey and Scott Nash had already designed
and white shows!” the Nickelodeon logo, so we tapped them
again. We had a couple of bumps with our
So, when Nick came calling we had worked Nick promo team, the most important
out the whole thing in our heads. We could element in our scheme, because a couple of
them were smarter-than-thou and thought Late Late Show that sealed his contribution
oldies TV was the dumbest idea in creation. to the history of comedy, and his innova-
We convinced them by pointing out we didn’t tions can’t be overstated.
think we were doing great art, just “good TV”
(eventually one of our cornerstone promises The most striking element to me was how
to the audience). Scott Webb, Bob Mitten- gleefully the show embraced all the worn-
thal, Jay Newell, Jim Levi and Will McRobb, out, overplayed staples of late night with an
among others, wholeheartedly committed ironic “we know, it’s just stupid TV” atti-
to our vision and created some of the most tude. Coupled with that was their relentless
memorable and outlandish packaging a tele- devotion to bits that weren’t on the face
vision network had ever seen. (To promote of them funny, but became funny because
a "Donna Reed Show" marathon, they had a they just wouldn’t stop doing them. I re-
contest to have 30 women dress up as Don- member distinctly referencing Letterman
na.) in the pitch to the network for Nick at Nite.
“Letterman’s show isn’t just a late night talk
Nick-at-Nite was an instant show. It’s a late night talk show ABOUT a
success. Within months it was the #1 cable late night talk show.” Today, we would use
network in prime time. It started being refer- the word “meta” to describe what he was
enced in the popular culture, and became the doing, but we didn’t have that word yet.
shorthand for retro culture. In competitive
research Nick-at-Nite got credit for any old I compared what we were planning to
program a viewer liked, no matter where it do to that. “We’re going to be a televi-
ran on TV. And, it paved the way for Nick sion network about a television network.”
spinning off the 24 hour TV Land (Alan’s You guided the team to make things that
first “positioning” for NAN “HELLO OUT seemed like promos, but were more about
THERE FROM TV LAND!”). being short-form entertainment. I’ll always
remember a spot for Donna Reed where
In many ways, Nick-at-Nite was one of Fred/ the characters are all proclaiming their
Alan’s most satisfying triumphs. Creating love for each other, edited from different
success where most everyone else thought we episodes, ending with Donna saying “I
had nothing. It doesn’t get any better. love cheese.” That was the essence of what
we were trying to achieve as far as I was
* Back in the day, satellite transponders concerned (I believe that was Scott’s pro-
were scarce and extremely expensive; Nick- mo) and certainly nothing like what other
elodeon leased their nighttime hours to the networks were doing.
ARTS channel. When they got their own 24
hour berth and became A&E the cost was Nick-at-Nite was where we really cemented
too much for Nick to bear without hope for the value of establishing a brand. I re-
revenue. member when we got “F Troop.” One day,
it was on TBS doing no ratings. The next
Alan: At the time, David Letterman’s first day – literally the next day – it was on Nick
late night show at 12:35 am was relative- at Nite and it was a total winner. It wasn’t
ly new, and I was a massive fan. I always the show. It was that we had established the
enjoyed his stand-up, and had watched his right home for it.
very strange daytime show, but it was his

Oldies? Comedy?
The assignment to create network IDs for Nick-
at-Nite arose from two different circumstances.
The first and best is that the channel that we had
created was a roaring success (thank goodness,
we’d expended a lot of our reputation on this nutty
idea). But, the second was fostered by their ad
sales identity crisis.
Color good, black & white bad. Logical on the
surface. New good, reruns bad. Got it. Network
television (CBS, NBC, ABC) good, cable not so
much.
Well, our channel was all B&W, all reruns, all
cable. Nonetheless, the media buyers at the ad
agencies, while on the surface adhered to the
manta of “just show me the numbers!” turned
their back on us.
Comedy? The Nick sales team was hurting.They
made their case to the programming and market-
ing folks at NAN and suggested that we position
the channel as “all comedy.” Not a bad thought
(Comedy Central would be around the corner)
but it didn’t really work for Nick-at-Nite.
Nonetheless, they persisted. So, the brain trust
at Fred/Alan put our heads together. Led by
Alan, we had often referenced bits from the
Rocky & Bullwinkle show, particularly our
favorite.
Bullwinkle: “Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit
out of my hat!”
Rocky: “That trick never works.”
Alan: “In my view the most brilliant bumpers

ever because as a kid you knew there were
three endings. You’d wait through the commer-
cials to see which of the three it was this time."
Fred/Alan ID and music producer Tom Pom-

posello and two of our go-to animation wiz-
ards, Eli Noyes and Kit Laybourne, came up
with a way to use the Rocky & Bullwinkle
model to make hundreds of spots for the
normal cost of just a few made with "tradi-
tional" animation.
Noyes & Laybourne

Kit Laybourne Eli Noyes
Nick-at-Nite network identifications
Stop Motion Animation 1987-1989
Black & White shows J.Walter Thompson and Ogilvy, we were
are worthless? babes in the woods. So, we hired a couple
of experienced copywriters and account
When Nickelodeon convinced Fred/ executives and hoped we could pull it off.
Alan to become a full-service advertising MTV and Nickelodeon were two of the
agency (as opposed to being branding hottest commodities in television and
and programming consultants), Nick-at- here was this scrappy company that had
Nite came along in the package. the giant agency accounts.
Ratings were the issue, NAN was con- Noel Frankel was our most experienced
sistently the most watched TV block on copywriter and art director, and boy was
cable television of the late 19'80s. he good. And nutty. He'd fit right in. Bill
Burnett too.
Advertisers were another issues com-
pletely. They gotten past the oldies/come- And, our first the assignments to do
dy war, but agencies were still hesitant to commuter train and TV Guide ads
try a network that ran "old, black & white (whose real purpose was to persuade
shows." After all, everyone ran "reruns" clients to use Nick-at-Nite) excited Noel
but no one else positioned themselves so and he dove right in. Boy, did he.
boldly.
Maybe his work was even too weird for
Clearly, our contemporary, humorous Fred/Alan. We were wrong.
packaging didn't make a dent in their
consciousnesses. Yet. Noel was right on, and we worked on the
NAN account until we closed in 1992.
As part of our company's reinvention
in to becoming an agency we figured, Nick-at-Nite commuter train posters,
why not? Let's hire some people who TV Guide advertising, and trade advertising
Creative directors/writers:
had actually worked in advertising. The Noel Frankel and Bill Burnett
people at Fred/Alan came from a wide
ranging set of experiences, but when it Nick-at-Nite trade advertising (pages XXX-X)
came to straight advertising, where our copywriters: Steve Diamond, Bill Burnett
competition were the global giants like
Noel Frankel Bill Burnett

Fred/Alan’s innovation with Nick-at- the business at that. Nick-at-Nite needed to
Night had already defied all odds by run- do something bigger!
ning just “reruns” and become one of the
top rated cable networks. Better yet the We'd always loved "The Dick Van Dyke
channel was “branded,” which meant that Show," and we were about to debut one of
advertisers would pay more for their com- the great classics back to TV for the first
mercials. But there were only so many ways time in a long while. It was funny (and who
to re-package and re-present old shows, and didn't have a crush on the young Mary
we’d pretty much used them all. Tyler Moore).
“What next?” was the theme of the out-of- For a long while, we felt like a unique
office meeting at New York’s Royalton Hotel cable channel could use a star spokesper-
that Nickelodeon President Gerry Lay- son. We’d accomplished a lot with pack-
bourne called with her staff. Alan and Fred aging and promotion. Now, Fred had a
were invited as special guests. bright idea. Why doesn't the channel ac-
tually hire Dick Van Dyke –who's classic
We tossed around a lot of stuff, mainly vari- early 19'60s situation comedy was a giant
ations of what we were already doing. But hit on the network– as the "Chairman of
more marathons (“See all the black & white Nick-at-Nite?" He certainly looked the
"Bewitched” episodes in order!“) or stunts part, with an executive mane of gray hair
(”The Nick-at-Nite String-a-thon!“) weren’t and an authoritative mustache.
going to cut it; NAN was already the best in
Fred/Alan staff at the Dick Van Dyke press introduction

Left to right: Robert Hunter, Alan Goodman, Bill Burnett, Nick-at-Nite Chairman Dick Van Dyke, Fred Seibert,
Bill Horvath, Tom Barreca, Dave Landesberg, Lou Baur
Programming
head Herb Scan-
nell (soon to be
CEO) upped the
ante. He did a little
back-of-a-napkin
math and realized
the idea could be
even bigger. “We’ll
announce it as
a million dollar
deal.” Back in the
day, there were
no big deals being
done with name
talent, just little
hosting gigs here
and there. "Sal-
ary, promotion,
and programming
production com-
mitments... we can
swing it.“
Sure enough, the

announcement
made headlines
across the busi-
ness, and then
further, in news-
papers across the
country. Nick-at-
Nite (and cable)
was starting to
come into its own.
As things turned
out, the naming
of the Chairman
turned out to be
our last Nick-at-
Nite project before Summer 1992:
Fred/Alan called Fred/Alan names Dick Van Dyke as
it day. the Chairman of Nick-at-Nite

Fred/Alan had several engagements with
VH1 over several years. We started with
the all-hands-on-deck speedy launch in
1985 as a "fighting brand" in response to
Turner Broadcasting's Cable Music Chan-
nel that was meant to challenge MTV:
Music Television. We then became their
advertising agency in 1988. And finally, in
1991 we were asked to completely rethink
the programming of the entire network
because of their continued paltry ratings
based on their original strategies. (We sug-
gested –and they agreed –to an approach
that had worked for decades in radio: "The
VH1
Greatest Hits of Music Video!)
1986-1992
VIDEO HITS ONE 1985-1992
THE GREATEST HITS OF MUSIC VIDEO 1991-1992
Nothing stuck with viewers. We did some

good work, and some of it was great,
at least to us. We're proud of it. Hey, it
seemed like nothing ever worked at VH1,
even in the 30 years after we closed our
company. The network continued to be
distributed due to "bundling," which re-
quired that cable companies need to
carry VH1 if they wanted the very success-
ful channels MTV and Nickelodeon.
But alas, no one ever really loved VH1, no

matter who did what.
Left:
Animated network identifications 1985 Buzzco, New York
Logo designed by George Lois LPG/Pon, New York
Animated network IDs 1985
Colossal Pictures, SF
Animated network IDs 1985
Buzzco, NY
Advertising trade ad spread 1989
Creative/Art Direction/writer: Noel Frankel
Photography: Art Kane
VH1 Commercial 1989
Written by Bill Burnett
Art by Don Martin
Animation by The Ink Tank
Produced by JJ Sedelmaier (Ink Tank) and
Tom Pomposello (Fred/Alan)

VH1 Commercial campaign 1991. Sting, Elton John, Whitney Houston, kd lang.
Creative director/writer: Bill Burnett
VH1: The Greatest Hits of Music Video Zbigniew Rybczynski NJ Jingles produced by JAM Creative Dallas
VH1: The Greatest Hits of Music Video Alex Weil/Charlex 1991 Jingles produced by JAM Creative Dallas
Alan worked with the Colum-
bia and Epic labels at CBS Records (now
Sony Music) in the years before we were
at MTV. One day on our way to lunch on
New York's Avenue of the Americas –then
home of CBS and known as "media row"–
we ran into a few of his former colleagues.
They asked us to consider creating a video
for their annual sales conference.
This video wouldn't be just any video. It

would be almost an hour long and intro-
duce hundreds of sales people to dozens
of albums, from internationally famous
artists and brand new ones too. Well, not
just "introduce" them, but get the distri-
bution branches all worked up to go out
in the world and make sure those albums
would be stocked in every music store,
tiny and giant, and placed front and center
when customers walked in.
The deadline was way too short and

would require ridiculous amout of logis-
tics. We dragged in our friend and Alan's
former CBS colleague, Nancy Podbielniak,
to help with the writing. We convinced our
longtime audio collaborators, Clack Stu-
dios, to let us commandeer their opera-
tions on weekends, so we could personally
edit the recordings.
Craziest of all, the assignment would

mean that Alan would have to direct and
interview artists not only in New York, but
also in Los Angeles and London. In fact,
to make our dates, Alan flew to the UK on
the now discontinued, supersonic Con-
corde, did the production, and got back to
New York in 26 hours. Whew!
The video turned out great, featuring The

Clash, Luther Vandross, Ozzy Osbourne
and his babies. And many, many more.
Our Epic clients were ecstatic.

EPIC RECORDS:
EPA ASSOCIATED
LABELS
1984
“The Epic Epic”
Record company convention
Sales presentation video
Written by Alan Goodman and Nancy Podbielniak
Produced by Fred Seibert & Alan Goodman
Directed by Alan Goodman

Amy goes pop!
Fred/Alan didn't really want to make
music videos. Too much work for too little
money. Besides, MTV had already giv-
en us an amazing, music based, creative
rep. But, it was always tempting. After
all, video music was the creative "edge" of
the 80s. So, when Richard Frankel, our
former WASEC co-worker, went over to
A&M Records and asked us to work with
him on Amy Grant's first post-Christian
pop single... well, we took a shot.
Through Buzz Potamkin, we'd worked a

bit with director Tommy Schlamme on
the original "I Want My MTV!" com-
mercials, tried to get a movie going with
him (page XXX) and enjoyed his forward
thinking approach and genial manner,
perfect for working with a musical artist
like Amy. And, lucky for us, Amy's man-
agement was new enough to mainstream
video that our MTV reputations made
them comfortable enough to work with
first producers and director.
By 1985, the Quantel Paintbox video

graphics tool was just starting to become
"the look of TV in the 80s" –The Cars had
just won the first MTV VMA for their
Paintbox'd "You Might Think," courtesy of
Alan's former co-worker and Fred's wife to
be, Robin Sloane– and interestingly, both
our music video excursions (page XXX)
used it extensively, though in radically
different ways.
Tommy took just the right approach to

working with Amy, and to the modern
world of production design. The video
did its job and launched what became
an amazing mainstream career for Amy
Grant, making it into the Top 40 for her
maiden voyage.
AMY GRANT
"Find A Way"
A&M Records
1985
Executive producers: Directed by Thomas Schlamme
Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert Produced by Linda Schaffer & Albie Hecht
SWATCH WATCH
HOLIDAY 1985
Starring The Fat Boys

Directed by Alan Goodman

The Fat Boys Two years later, Swatch wanted to make
a spot for their limited edition Christmas
for Swatch watch and they wanted The Fat Boys
(previous four pages) again. Nancy, Steve, and Charlie asked
Fred: This commercial is Alan and all his Fred/Alan to create it.
talents at their best.
Up until that point we’d only done media
Our great friend and colleague from promotion, never anything for an actual,
MTV, Nancy Kadner Feingold, had physical product, so we took the assign-
bought me a Swatch when they were ment seriously. As seriously as you could
first imported in 1983. Two years later, with an act that weighed almost a ton
Max Imgrueth had set up a US office and between them.
Nancy was running marketing. Since
Swatch’s industrial design approach Alan, our resident writer and director,
was essentially the same as MTV’s ever constructed a spot that fused the hip-hop
changing logo she sensed a good fit and spirit of improvisation and the slick-
we started plotting some stuff together. ness of TV. The bit with the couple on
the couch being interrupted by Buffy,
Alan and I loved Swatch’s first TV com- the Human Beatbox was scripted. The
mercial for MTV with hip-hop's The Fat “Swatch” shouts and the rap bed were
Boys, and when Nancy and her colleague improvised in the back of the shooting
Steve Rechtshaffner intro’d us to their stage. Alan constructed the track in the
manager Charlie Stettler it was a lovefest, mixing studio and the video graphics in
and we became friends for three decades. the video in a post-production suite.
Charlie was a total character. Alan: I remember only that Buffy had no
A Swiss national in New York City, he’d underwear and we had to stitch two pair
embraced hip-hop culture early and together.*
completely. Putting the two together for
Swatch’s first American commercial. I experienced the ultimate director
humility when, with me four inches
In 1983 MTV hadn't realized that hip- from his face directing him in the scene,
hop had captured the most forward I watched as his eyes settled and closed
thinking members of its audience, and he fell asleep (hey, it was after lunch
Charlie showed his business street and he was taking ‘antibiotics’); and that
smarts. He wanted his rappers to get I had no idea what the track would be or
national television exposure, Swatch how to end it until I heard The Fat Boys
needed to be on the cutting edge. MTV rapping 'Ho, ho, ho’ in the next room.
was still new enough that the ad rates Which taught me the rule I live by: be
were perfect for a new company that 100 percent prepared and 30 percent
couldn't afford the giant traditional net- flexible.
works. A trio made for the moment.
* Sourced, with some difficulty,
by Assistant Producer Daria McLean
Charlie made a perfect fee-free deal.

Swatch Limelight Myers's Rum
Client: Swatch USA Video Network
Nancy Kadner Feingold (next page)
Steve Rechtshaffner
Agency: Fred/Alan, New York In 1986 music videos were still the
Director/writer: Alan Goodman coolest thing on earth and Alan's
Producer: Linda Schaffer colleague from the record business, Steve
Assistant Producer: Daria McLean Dessau,bam thought there was a way to
Production Manager: Steve Sheppard make some money with them.
Executive producers:
Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert Edgar Bronfman Jr. had just taken over
Seagram's, his family’s liquor business,
and was obsessed with pop music (later,
he sold Seagram's to buy the Warner
Music Group, and then it). He was
frustrated that liquor couldn’t use
television to sell its wares and that he
couldn’t take advantage of his favorite
entertainment trend.
Who better to sell an idea to him than

the only credible MTV guys who weren’t
working at MTV (us)?
Partnering with Steve’s company (we set

up a joint venture called Mystery Train
Partners), we convinced Edgar Jr. that the
Myers’s Rum Video Network could be his
own “network” at the “video nightclubs”
that were springing up around the coun-
try. It worked pretty well.
Mystery Train Partners

business card
Designed by
Kathy Seibert Carey

Myers's Rum Video Network IDs: Joey Ahlbum NY, Charlex NY, International Rocketship, Vancouver
MYERS'S
RUM
VIDEO
NETWORK 1986
Produced in association with Steve Dessau
Poster designed & illustrated by Joey Ahlbum
We can’t meet
Mr. Brown?!
(pages XXX-XXX)
"PEACE! UNITY! LOVE!

And HAVING FUN!"
Our second, and last, music video. Ah... to A Current Affair is an

work with the Hardest-Working Man in American television newsmagazine program
Show Business, the Godfather of Soul, "Mr. that aired in syndication from July 28, 1986
Dynamite, and Soul Brother No. 1! to August 30, 1996, before it was briefly re-
broadcast from March to October 2005. The
JB was half a decade away from his latest program was produced by Fox Television
chart hit and hip-hop was beginning to Stations, and based at Fox's New York City
explode, completely usurping The God- flagship station WNYW, starting as a local
father of Funk's excitement. A pioneering production in 1986. It was syndicated to
Bronx DJ, Afrika Bambatta had hit it big in Fox's other owned-and-operated stations the
1982 and was looking for his way back on next year, and then went into full national
the charts. syndication in September 1988. Its signature
"ka-chung" sound effect was created using a
Tommy Boy Records, born the same year combination of the sound of a construction
as MTV, was still pretty much a New York paper cutter and the swing of a golf club put
phenomenon. After their groundbreaking through a synthesizer.
mix ”No Sellout," featuring Malcom X on –Wikipedia 2023
the first sampled record, we picked up the
phone and quickly became fast friends The American "A Current Affair" was
with founder Tom Silverman and presi- exported from Australia at the insistence
dent/creative director Monica Lynch. of New Corps (and Fox) CEO Rupert
Murdoch.
Imagine our thrill when they asked for
help on "Unity," a duet between a classic Fox commissioned Fred/Alan to create an
soul artist and a hip-hop pioneer. audio signature for the show's introduction.
Alan took the assignment.
Only, they already shot the video. On a
crummy VHS tape with only the recording As Wikipedia posted, the "ka-chung" (three
studio lights. Could we help? years before 'Law & Order' burned into the
world's consciousness) used an early synthe-
Fred/Alan music producer Tom Pomposel- sizer to combine a golf swing and a paper
lo stepped in, with former MTV promo cutter. Pure Alan.
director Marcy Brafman, took the Quantel
Paintbox, just like the Amy Grant video
and made it a Bam/JB video.
After all was said and done, we (sort of)

worked with James Brown!

FOX/20th TELEVISION
1985-2005
Audio trademark sound design conceived and produced by Alan Goodman

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA
JAMES BROWN
Tommy Boy Records
1987
"Unity" written by James Brown, Khayan Music video: Produced by Tom Pomposello
Aasim Bambaataa, Douglas Wimbish, Bernard Video illustration by Marcy Brafman
Alexander Keith LeBlanc Robin Haplin Edited by Peter Caesar
Fred/Alan was founded to make set up a joint venture, and Albie took on
television shows. History made sure it was the task of establishing us in series and
Chauncey Street Productions specials production. Albie and Alan took
instead. the lead on all our shows.
In fact, the two of us quit our jobs at (Not for nothing, when we all decided
MTV Networks to produce "Hot Rocks" to partner Albie –who's given name is
(page XXX), a series at the Playboy Chan- Alan– realized he'd now be known pro-
nel. But, after that debacle, branding fessionally as "Albie" forever.)
and marketing took a higher bill paying
priority for a while. There were some Fred/Alan’s original home was Jackie
big and small shows here and there, but Gleason’s production office in Man-
it wasn’t until 1987 we decided to hit it hattan, so we named Chauncey Street
head on. Productions after the street Ralph
Kramden and Ed Norton lived on
Albie Hecht was one of Alan’s closest in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in "The
friends, we all went to college together, Honeymooners" series. We asked Corey
and worked together at the university’s & Co. to design a logo that adapted The
WKCR. Like us, he’d worked in the Honeymooners print work we’d done for
music business as a record company ex- Showtime (page XXX).
ecutive, writer, and manager (Crack the
Sky and Dean Friedman) but morphed We had a good run. Despite all the
into television, starting to establish his scripts that never sold (par for the
reputation. Our company was becoming course), our series ran on MTV, Nick-
a full service advertising agency, and we elodeon, Comedy Central, AMC. And,
realized if we brought Albie in to run pilots and specials for CBS, A&E, and
the agency’s commercial production, we VH1.
could have our cake and eat it too. We (continued on page XXX)

CHAUNCEY
STREET
PRODUCTIONS
1987-1992
Albie Hecht
Alan Goodman
Fred Seibert
Stationary design by
Tom Corey & Scott Nash
Corey & Co. Boston
Photographs of Albie Hecht

by Elena Seibert
Cinemax presents first real TV show production– put Fred/
Alan, and third production partner Albie
“Greetings Hecht, on track.
from Gilbert”
aka “Gilbert Gottfried...Naturally” In 1986, MTV was in its first moment of
maturing success with all music videos
Thanks to Barbara Kanowitz, Gilbert all the time. The promotion department
Gottfried, the comic’s comic, became that I’d started was being run by the
MTV’s first comedy star. MTV wasn’t as expansively creative Judy McGrath who’d
big in 1986. But, it did get Gilbert his first put together an incredible team that
TV special. continually found new ways to express
the rebellious, outsider spirit that was
Fred/Alan started life as a production rock’n’roll. And, it was in the '80s that
company for TV shows. We’d never made comedians and rockers really sealed their
a show, but we wanted to. For our first alliance that really blossomed during this
project, we partnered with producer first national cable TV era.
Buzz Potamkin to come up with a show
for the Playboy Channel. Things went Writer/producer/director Barbara
south with them after the third episode Kanowitz was one of MTV’s best. And
and we left. The good news is that we got Barbara’s the one who made Gilbert
ourselves agents. That’s the ticket, they’ll Gottfried famous.
help us sell our shows.
One day, seemingly out of nowhere, an
Well, not really. The good news is they obvious New Yorker, a comedian in a
introduced us to Stu Smiley, another blue tuxedo jacket, burst onto the screen
young’un who was trying to get things at MTV, in a dozen or so short films.
going. Eventually he became a comedy They were hilarious, for sure. But, from
exec at Showtime, then at HBO, then my perspective, as the architect of MTV’s
he scored big. But in the meantime, we “branding” strategy –aka, how to make
pitched him shows. the “M” famous– Gilbert Gottfried’s riffs
weren’t only hilarious, they were on mes-
“Make it funnier!” he’d write on our sage. The promos insinuated our brand-
scripts. ing “promises” into your head without
seeming like they were actually messages.
And then, one day, Stu gave us our big
break. When we finally came up with the And Barbara’s directing and editing…
right talent, the right idea and the right the spots were gorgeous.
director, Stu was there for us.
Barbara Kanowitz: I don’t really remem-
Fred: After … ahem… interesting ex- ber much about the origination of the
periences creating a music video show spots, Gilbert didn’t have much of a fol-
for The Playboy Channel and producing lowing at that point. I do remember his
the second Farm Aid concert for VH1, William Morris agent selling him pretty
Cinemax’s “Greetings for Gilbert” –our hard.
CINEMAX
HBO
1987
"Greetings
from
Gilbert"
Directed by
Thomas Schlamme
Produced by
Albie Hecht
Production design:
RSE Robert Small
Executive producers;
Alan Goodman &
Fred Seibert
I did know that Gilbert would be wear- was at Caroline’s original club on 9th
ing his infamous blue tuxedo jacket and Avenue in the 20s I think. I remember
thought that it would pop against the we went with Tommy Schlamme and
white cyc (or maybe the white cyc was all his wife, and she was gushing after it
we had the budget for – honestly, I don’t was over. From his “thank you.. thank
remember). Each spot had a marketing you.. no stop! stop!” that started the
message that Gilbert was to espouse on. show until he left the stage, the laughter
never stopped for a second. Continuous,
I asked him to speak to each marketing deafening laughter. Other times, there’d
point the same way in different angles be crickets.
and locations with a locked camera so
that we could pop him around the frame He got into the habit of coming to the
in post. Of course, Gilbert never repeated office in the afternoon, and planting
anything more than once, he just went himself in my office until it was time to
off on tangents – which of course was the go out. He’d sit there all afternoon telling
beauty of him and those spots. me jokes. Gilbert doesn’t much tell jokes
in his act, but he knows a trillion jokes
I worked with Gilbert recently and it was and he would just go non-stop. One day
nice to see him, he’s still as funny as ever. he was telling me how much he dislikes
Seinfeld, who was just another guy in
Fred: We saw those spots, and like every- the clubs back then. He started imi-
one watching MTV we fell in love with tating Seinfeld, but without the jokes.
Gilbert. Maybe this would get Fred/Alan “Did you ever wonder why a pencil has
into the TV specials business! an eraser only on one end, and not the
other? What’s up with that?” Again, he
Our friend Stu Smiley was a top comedy wouldn’t stop and his impression was
executive at HBO/Cinemax, which was spot on. That night at Catch, he couldn’t
then the top TV comedy venue, and he’d get one laugh. Not one. It was a terrible
had been generous to us in many ways, crowd. Out of nowhere, unannounced
trying to help us get something going. and unexplained, he just started doing
his joke-less Seinfeld. For me. Because
Without Stu, who knows where we he knew at least one person would be
would have been? laughing.
Alan: I always remember all the stuff When we had wrapped, he continued
around the show. to come to the office for a few weeks, to
sit in my room because he had nothing
I went to see Gilbert almost else to do all day. Eventually I had to tell
nightly in the month leading up to the him I had moved on to other projects. I
taping, at Catch a Rising Star or The remember he never stopped by without
Improv, to become super familiar with leaving with a couple of pens, a pad of
his set and talk about what to use. I never paper, whatever he could carry out of
in my life saw a comic blow so hot and there.
so cold. The very first time we saw him

The reason behind the baby blue dinner Albie: Wowser! - (You know, Gilbert will
jacket is that he had established some- probably ask us for additional payment!)
thing of a presence in the fabulous rants
Barbara Kanowitz Small had developed Best set I never built!
with him for MTV. That was his ward-
robe for those spots and we wanted to I walked into American Place Theatre
piggyback on the recognition. and they had a Sam Shepard play which
had an amazing Airstream trailer in a
I also remember a couple days before desert and I said, "I’ll take it!" – made
the shoot Tommy was very ill. There was the deal to keep it for our show.
some talk that I would have to direct.
Thank goodness he recovered, because I We’re always working with first timers!
would really have fucked this up.
Tommy Schlamme who was an amazing
I found a video tape of this show, credit- film director had rarely done multi-cam-
ed to FRED/ALLEN Inc, on HBO Video era shows so of course we chose him to
in a bargain bin years later, paired on the direct since we knew he had great come-
same tape with his “Norman’s Corner” dic timing and creative pov. Which was
produced by our pals Peter Rosenthal true and made this show so successful
and Steve Oakes, written by an equal- but when we began shooting and he
ly unknown Larry David. I have it still starting calling the cameras and called
shrink-wrapped with the price sticker, for camera 2 – there was dead silence in
$2.95. the truck - and then the TD said “We’re
on 2”– without a losing a beat Schlamme
This was also the show when I learned says “and stay on 2, it's a beautiful shot”
that, if the network tells you “We don’t and from then on he was perfect.
pay a lot of money for these comedy
experiments, but we leave you alone, “Working with the unpredictable!”
you don’t get a lot of notes,” it means you
won’t get much money, and you will still Gilbert was and is a unique and special
get a thousand notes. talent. When he walked out of the trailer
at the top of the show and immediately
I wonder what happened to the LP we went to his water pitcher and says “I’m
made from the special that QMI Mu- having a glass of water,” the audience
sic was going to release? Gilbert and I broke into big laughs and we thought
traveled down to Memphis together for –we’re home free– But then he kept
the launch party of QMI, and as we were repeating it “I’m having a glass of water'
walking through the airport he looked – after the third time, I looked at Alan in
around at the distinctively Southern the truck and said “we’re f-ed” – but Al
Christian inhabitants. “Somewhere in was cool and said “wait for it” and after
this airport is a digital counter,” he said, Gilbert repeating it another 3 times, the
“and when you and I got off the plane it audience started roaring and that actual-
clicked up to three. When we go back to ly went on for 10 minutes.
New York, it’ll go back down to one.”

Not all of it made the final cut but a big
moment (and learning moment)!!!
Alan: A story I have told many times is

about our ACE Award for the special.
Yes, the Airstream was already there,

and it’s a small detail but we couldn’t
move it because we shot during a two-
day hiatus of a play that was in the the-
ater. The play was coming back, and we
were told we couldn’t move it. Instead,
we built around it. And thanks to the
pre-existing trailer (and some addition-
al dressing by Bob [Small] and Jimmy
[Burns]), we got our first ACE Award…
for set design!
Fred: “Greetings from Gilbert” was a

eureka! moment for us. Alan, Albie and
I started to think it was more than a
dream. We actually had a future in this
business! We started Chauncey Street
Productions as our label for the shows we
would go on to produce.
Ah, show business!
" Your favorite music" MTV promo starring

Gilbert, directed by Barbara Kanowitz

Kids' Choice Awards –and please, movie stars were parents
too!– were more excited about Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon 1988 than anyone realized. And the chance
to be in the presence of a live Nick show
The blood was quickly draining from would draw out the crowds.
the faces of Gerry Laybourne and Debby
Beece. It was still an uphill battle to mount the
show. Budget would be an issue for sev-
Chauncey Street –Albie Hecht, Alan, eral years, convincing Universal's Holly-
Fred– was describing a scene of hopeful wood theme park to give us one of their
optimism for an annual kids' award show pavilions for free was, to say the least,
–the Kids' Choice Awards– Nickelodeon a triumph of negotiation (we promised
should produce. “There’ll be the biggest that we’d feature the tour in the show!).
movie stars in the world while 10,000 And those movie star guests? That took a
kids will be screaming at the top of their while.
lungs!”
The first show host was Tony Danza,
"But why will any stars come to a Nickel- then flying high on "Who's the Boss,"
odeon kids' awards show?" Nick network ID singers, Eugene Pitt &
the Jive Five and teen pop sensation Deb-
In 1988, Nickelodeon was only three years bie Gibson. And maybe most prophetic
into its Fred/Alan revival. Even with the of all, guest presenters included a star
network at #1 in the ratings, Nick man- of the sitcom "Head of the Class," Brian
agement was, smartly, still working like Robbins. "Prophetic?" Well, after several
the channel was an underdog. It allowed years of being a hit television producer
the staff to keep their creative and busi- with partner Michael Tollin ("Smallville,"
ness edges, striving to be the best. "All That," "One Tree Hill"), in 2018 Brian
became the president of Nickelodeon.
As much as Nick had grown, the
general perception was that The Disney Albie went on to become the Nickelodeon's
Channel was bigger. It wasn't true, not President of Film and TV entertainment
by a long shot, but Disney clearly had a where he produced all the Kids' Choice
bigger brand name in the public's –and shows until he was named Spike TV's
the media business's– imagination. So the founding CEO in 2003.
underdog needed to keep up the pressure.
We thought the Kids' Choice Awards, Not for nothing, after we shut down Fred/
executed well, could be Nickelodeon's nail Alan, Albie continued with Chauncey.
in The Disney Channel coffin. His KCA persistence led to a steady build
and the 1998 10th Annual Kids' Choice
Gerry and Debby became convinced, as Awards was held at UCLA's Pauley Pavil-
did the MTV Networks higher ups, that ion. The sold out capacity? 10,000 scream-
with cable in 50 million American homes ing kids.
in the late 19'80s, and Nick at #1 in the .....
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards created by
ratings (not to mention the dominance of Alan Goodman, Albie Hecht & Fred Seibert
Nick-at-Nite), in addition to kids, parents Chauncey Street Productions, New York

The Kids Choice Award
Blimp Kaleidoscope
Designed by Tom Corey & Scott Nash
and Albie Hecht
The Movie Masters! careful.
American Movie Well, Chauncey Street was a perfect fit for

a deliberate situation. We were still feeling
Classics 1989 our way in series production and we were
well aware we weren’t yet booking the big
Albie Hecht (executive producer &
gigs.
co-creator): “My favorite!”
Chauncey Street majordomo Albie Hecht
Christine Ecklund (producer/writer): “Wow.
loved game shows (CSP went on to pro-
Bet I can still answer every question. (“Ucipi-
duce Turn It Up! for MTV, Kid’s Court and
tal Mapilary”)
GUTS for Nickelodeon, and Albie oversaw
many more as president of Nickelodeon
Before Mad Men, before Breaking Bad
production). He and Alan created the idea
and The Walking Dead, AMC was actually
for The Movie Masters, with the notion that
“American Movie Classics,” the Turner Clas-
it would recreate the salad days of broadcast
sic Movies of its time, a cable channel ex-
network quiz shows.
clusively focused on, duh, movies from the
heyday of Hollywood. (In fact, the former
To that end we ran dozens of casting calls
head of AMC programming created TMC.)
at our office, talking to everyone including
musical legends Betty Comden and Marga-
Towards the end of the 80s, channels that
ret Whiting, before coming to the conclu-
relied on acquired, cost efficient stuff like
sion that we’d replicate a classic quiz show
AMC (or Nick-at-Night or USA or even
line up (American Movie Classics, right!).
MTV ) were realizing that advertisers and
The production landed on The Match
cable operators were on the hunt for pro-
Game’s Gene Rayburn as host, and actress
gramming that could excite viewers.
and veteran quiz panelist Peggy Cass, New
York Times’ theater critic Clive Barnes, and
The Movie Masters was one of AMC’s first
actress and To Tell the Truth stalwart Kitty
jump into the pool, and obviously, it wasn’t
Carlisle as contestants.
the approach that worked like crazy for
them. Fred/Alan’s primary Showtime client,
The production came off with only a few
Josh Sapan, had become AMC’s leader and
hitches and delivered on time and on bud-
thought that our Chauncey Street Pro-
get. It was a hoot working with such revered
ductions might have an idea for a network
acting, writing and television royalty. AMC
series.
would eventually find their way to “prestige”
TV, but as far as we were concerned, we did
Original television production, even when
a wonderful job in the name of the greatest
it’s done efficiently, is pretty expensive. And
movies of all time.
the explosion of cable TV had exploded in
.....
terms of dozens of channels, but it was still The Movie Masters!
trying to figure out how to make enough Created by Albie Hecht & Alan Goodman
money to thrive. The financial picture Producer/writer: Christine Ecklund
wouldn’t really come into it’s own until Director: Michael Bernhaut
the end of the 1990s. All the networks we Business Affairs: Elliot Krowe
worked with over the years approached Executive Producers: Alan Goodman,
originals very gingerly, and American Mov- Albie Hecht, Fred Seibert
ie Classics was one of the most, um, fiscally Chauncey Street Productions, New York
The Talent Pool history, politics, religion, and cultural
trends eventually gave him a regular perch
HA! TV Comedy Network on "The Daily Show."
1990 • Jim Turner became a star when MTV
"Performance Artist" was the term of art in presented him as his creation Randee of
the late 80s. As producer Christine the Redwoods, and later acted in movies
Ecklund remembers Albie Hecht's defi- and TV.
nition, "...longer form material, no joke
• Julie Hayden was a delightful writer
tellers. A downtown feel."
and actress who was later in Ben Stiller's
Monologist Spaulding Gray had a hipster "The Cable Guy" with Jim Carrey, She was
success with his performance piece (and finding her way in the TV pilot season
eventual film) "Swimming to Cambodia." when she died of cancer in 1997.
His recitation of his travel, writing and
• Chucklehead, a troupe who's comedy
acting experiences, mixed pathos and hu-
addressed fears of the Cold War, entropy,
mor to engaged audiences for several years
mortality, and the likelihood not enough
in New York theater.
tickets would be sold at their shows.
When MTV Networks launched HA! in
• Jeffrey Essman (not pictured), was
1990 we pitched channel head Debby
often referred to as avant-garde, but was a
Beece that among Gray's contemporaries
hilarious writer and often costumed per-
were humorists with the goods that would
former and a Benedictine monk.
hone the network's reputation with up
and coming talent.
• Danitra Vance (not pictured), was a
comedian and actress who came to great
"The Talent Pool" set up shop in midtown
attention in the 1985 season of "Saturday
Manhattan's Lamb's Theatre, site of a
Night Live." She was on The Talent Pool
beautiful gospel brunch, and started cast-
during her diagnosis and eventual death
ing about for an anthology of performance
from breast cancer. She was awarded with
artists. Between Chauncey Street and the
an Obie and NAACP Image Award.
network we settled on (clockwise from the
top left on the opposite page):
• Barry Yourgrau (not pictured), a
• Frank Maya was one of the first South African born writer and performer,
openly gay male comics to gain a foothold has published several books and whose
in mainstream stand-up comedy, who sadly fictions have appeared in the New Yorker,
passed away from AIDS in 1995. Paris Review, VICE, Bomb, Poetry, and
Film Comment.
• John Leguizamo is a writer and ac-
tor who went on to win four Tony Awards, The show wasn't particularly highly rated,
appear in over 100 films, and whose Co-
but we were completely taken by each of
lumbian/Latino roots and
our fantastic cast and heartened when so
community are always up front.
many of them went on to highly visible
• Lewis Black, who's angry rants about and acclaimed careers.
Clockwise from upper left: Frank Maya,
John Leguizamo, Lewis Black, Jim Turner,
Julie Hayden, Chucklehead.
"The Talent Pool"

Created by Albie Hecht & Alan Goodman
Producers: Christine Ecklund & Craig Coffman
Directors: Craig Coffman, Dana Calderwood
Business Affairs: Elliot Krowe, Jim Arnoff
Executive Producers:
Alan Goodman, Albie Hecht, Fred Seibert
Chauncey Street Productions, New York
777-FILM
Moviefone 1990
"Hello!
And welcome to Moviefone!"
-Russ Leatherman, 'Mr. Moviefone'
Moviefone Theatre spot #1 at what time, and whether there were

Sound effect: telephone busy signal ticket available. Voilà!
Announcer: We met Andrew through our friends at

There one phone number for movie Charlex and signed on as Moviefone's
showtime information that’s never busy. first agency. Together, we quickly came
Find out where and when it’s playing. up with several 20-second spots that
Call 777-FILM. would play in their partnered theaters
When all that matters is the movie. and starting running them in New York
Before there was a consumer internet, and Los Angeles.
getting to the movies was a pain. Even
figuring out whether a particular mov- Lo and behold! Moviefone was ringing
ie was playing in a given week at what off the hook, maximizing theater –and
theater required a logistic enterprise. It Moviefone!– profits. Soon, Andrew had
usually involved getting a local news- figured out how to use call volume to
paper and sifting through columns of predict ticket demand, which allowed
"listings" to figure out what showtimes film producers to target their advertising
were. You couldn't be sure if there were to optimum effect, and of course, more
tickets available and whether or not there success for all!
were a few next to each other. Or wheth-
er they were in the front or back rows, The company was acquired AOL at the
and squeezed you in the middle of a long height of the first internet craze. Andrew
row. Heaven forbid, if you lived in a city went on to become an Academy Award
with dozens of movie houses. nomimated filmmaker ("Capturing the
Friedman") and produce and direct "The
Enter entrepreneur, innovator and film- Jinx" for HBO and "Catfish" for MTV.
maker Andrew Jarecki. Partnering with .....
the original conceptualizer Russ Leath- Actors: Albie Hecht & Paula Brinkman
erman, they founded Moviefone to solve Director: Albie Hecht
the problem. Just dial 777-FILM and life Producer: Chris Strand
got easier. Now you could immediately Production: Chauncey Street Productions
know what movies were playing where, Agency: Fred/Alan

Thirteen
WNET NEW YORK
Rockschool
1988
Hosted by Herbie Hancock
Thirteen is the PBS affiliate
in New York, and not exactly known
for cultural programming that
appealed to the young'uns. But, we
got to know someone there, David
Thomas, who wanted to try.
The station bought US rights to

'Rockschool,' a UK series that –even
though 'rock' was a fading genre, hip-
hop was in its ascendancy– wanted to
teach the basics of popular music.
David hired Herbie Hancock to

'American-ize' the thing, and who
else to hire to put it all together but
a company run by a couple of MTV
folks?
Produced bv Tom Pomposello

Creative directors:
Art direction: Corey & Co., Boston
Client: David Thomas, Thirteen

Logo & poster designed by Tom Corey & Scott Nash
Illustration by Scott Nash
Corey & Co. Boston for Fred/Alan

Not all of the branding work Fred/
Alan did was visible or famous, but we
weren’t any less proud of it. The 1988
assignment to redesign The Movie
Channel was one of those.
Our clients at Showtime were now

running the channel after acquiring
it from MTV Networks. It began as
a wannabe competitor to HBO and
Showtime, but never quite made it to
the promised land.
Now, they wanted some of that

Fred/Alan logo magic.
Creative director Noel Frankel

provide the black arts this time. It's
hard to remember whether he told
our clients that "The Eyes Have It," the
title to a 1920s movie, or Shakespeare's
"Eyes are the windows to the soul." But
whatever, they were intrigued by the
notion of the mesmerizing visuals of
a different set of eyes in every network
identification.
Our friends at Charlex had by then

done several years of great produc-
tions for us at Nickelodeon, Myers’s
Rum, and HA!, and we worked well
with their emotional approach to
video. Almost unique among “motion
graphics” and visual effects compa-
nies, co-founder Alex Weil understood
it wasn’t all about floating type. He
instantly groked it. He brought all the
eyes alive, as it were, and found visually
clever and kinetic executions to what to
many might have been dull repetitions
of a wink and a nod.
.....
Logo design by Noel Frankel
Video animation by Alex Weil, Charlex, NY

THE MOVIE
CHANNEL
May 1, 1988
"Vertical hold is
a state of being, but heaven
is a state of mind."
"There are more things

on heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your phi-
losphy."
"Some people go from

dollars to donuts, but I'll take
pennies from heaven."
"Does history repeat

itself in heaven too?"
"Oh human love, thou spirits

given on earth of all we hope
in heaven."
“Old
TV shows
don't die,
they go to
heaven.”
TV
HEAVEN
1988-1989
Channel 41
St. Cloud, Minnesota
The sales team at Nick-at-Nite couldn't
figure out how to sell ads for oldies, so in
their infinite wisdom, they decreed the
channel should be positioned as "comedy."
At the same time, Fred/Alan was

approached by a tiny UHF station, 65
miles north of Minneapolis. We figured
that 1) they were UHF, local TV, not
cable and 2) NAN no longer wanted what
we had given them.
And just like that we renamed Channel

42, KXLI as "TV HEAVEN." That is, we
brought oldies television to Minnesota.
Fred/Alan producer Tom Pomposello

turned us onto pop artist/filmmaker Fred
Mogubgub who had a simple, distinctive
style that was eye catching and relatively
inexpensive. We commissioned some IDs
from Fred, got some of our other favorites
to use a similar approach using their own
Illustration
art styles.
& animation by
Fred Mogubgub
NY The station lept to the top of local ratings
and got more national press in a month
Soundtracks sung than NAN got in two years.
by Mac Rebennack
aka Dr. John
Nick-at-Nite was embarrassed and
threatened to fire us. We folded.
Good night, TV Heaven.

Illustration
& animation by
Marv Newland
International
Rocketship
Vancouver BC
Illustration
& animation by
Marv Newland
International
Rocketship
Vancouver BC
Soundtracks sung
by Dr. John
SASSY
Sassy Magazine certainly wasn't aimed
at us 30-somethings. An Australian brand
import, editor Jane Pratt exploded what
a teen girl magazine could be. No more
Seventeen headlines like "Tips for KISS-
MAGAZINE
ABLE Lips" and "Make your CRUSH come
true."
No way. Sassy asked "Do you need armpit

hair to be a feminist? The Sassy Debate."
Not to mention"Take Our Sex Survey,
Please" and "Understanding the daddy
love-hate vibe." Or "8 teens who fought for 1990-1991
their rights."
But it wasn't just the headlines. The

articles broke the fourth wall, allowing
readers to get to know Jane and all her
writers and photographers. It wasn't the
biggest magazine, but Sassy was certainly
one of the most special.
Our TV Heaven client was actually a mag-

azine publisher. He bought Sassy and asked
Fred/Alan to get involved.
The most lasting thing we did was when

we found out the office received 400,000
letters from readers. That's with a mag-
azine with a circulation of 400,000! And
when we read the stuff it might have been
written by the professional staff at Sassy.
So we suggested what became an annual

feature. How about having those super
smart readers take over from the editors
and writers?
HA!
1990-1991
TV COMEDY NETWORK
HA! logo designed by Noel Frankel, Fred/Alan creative director

Design & illustration by Lou Brooks Animation by Jerry Lieberman Productions NY
HA! business cards
Models:
Top: Jessica Wolf
Bottom: John
Sullivan
(Next page)
Top: Len Fischman
Bottom: Duck

Illustrated and animated by Marv Newland, International Rocketship, Vancouver BC
Designed, photographed and produced by Marc Karzen
Designed and produced by Alex Weil, Charlex NY
Designed by Drew Takahashi and produced by [Colossal] Pictures, San Francisco

Designed and produced by [Colossal] Pictures, San Francisco

HA! TV Comedy Network television logos had to be dynamic and
(pages X X X-X X X) and move. He designed a logo where designers,
Comedy Central illustrators, photographers and animators
(pages XXX-XXX) would always be linked for could all have a field day, with a mix-and-
Fred/Alan. match of people, color and visual humor.
A comedy channel had always been in the Everyone at the agency loved it. The HA!
long term planning, but life and business identity became some of Fred/Alan's
got in the way and with the roller coast- favorite work.
er of the cable television programming
business of the 19'80s it never got off the Then reality hit. The brass tracks
ground. of business.
So it was a bit of a shock to MTV Networks Both HBO and MTV Networks were
management when HBO announced "The spending a fortune competing to be funny.
Comedy Channel" in early 1990. They were As they realized there was probably no one
clearly coming after the MTV audience, winner, their powers decided to merge so
with a programming "clock" that replicated they each have half a dollar of profit.
the music video approach of three minute
comedy, mostly stand-up and an occasion- The new network's original management
al special. One again, like with VH1, MTV didn't have a lot of imagination and in
went into crunch mode and brought in their infinite wisdom decided to name the
Fred/Alan. While they wanted to rely on us channel CTV: Comedy Television. None-
for branding and promotion (and eventu- theless, as their branding and advertising
ally, a Chauncey Street produced series) agency Fred/Alan went to work on our
our first gig was kind of a hoot. patented positioning strategy.
The creative teams at all the MTV channels Creative Director Bill Burnett got the
were tasked with coming up with a name, assignment and he wrote a killer paper. He
but after 400 tries they couldn't agree on suggested that the channel needed to be
anything, so they wanted us to give it a go. the country's mecca for comic talent, the
place where everyone wanted to be. Not
"Send us over what you've got, so we don't unlike Detroit's Motown Records in the
spin our wheels." We were convinced there '60s. A 'comedy central,' if you will.
was a great name on the list but they were
all dizzy with overwork and couldn't see it. The next thing you know we got the word
that CTV had a new name.
Bingo!
For reasons unclear, we didn't develop the
HA! was on their list and we sold them on trademark. Based on what it was we could
their own name and collected a fine fee to tell that the shop they chose, our friends
boot. Noel Frankel, our creative and art di- and collaborators Corey & Co., wasn't
rector intuitively understood our view that listened to in the least.

Comedy Central network IDS Photography by Chip Simons Directed by Chris Koch
1983-1992
FRED/ALAN
SELF PROMOTION
& EPHEMERA
We promoted
media brands
for others.
Maybe we ought to do it for
ourselves?
Holiday parties, advertising,

PR and, of course, T-shirts
followed. (Swag was always
fun.) We're guessing we were
probably annoying clients to
ourselves.

Louie, Louie.
The Movie?
Since we originally started Fred/Alan
to make films, we tried ‘getting into the
movies’ with something other than a
ticket. The company was somewhat stable
by 1985 and we took a shot.
We’d always liked quickie teen movies

and there was a popular spate of them
happening right then so we took a flyer
and, having no idea what we were doing,
somehow succeeded in optioning the
rights to one of the most popular (and
strangely controversial) songs of the rock
era, “Louie, Louie.”
This ad was put together for the back cov-

er of the 2nd MTV Video Music Awards
program, figuring that something might
happen since the channel was then in its
first big flush of fame.
Front cover of the 2nd Annual
MTV Video Music Awards September 13, 1985 A script was written by Alan, Albie Hecht,
and our director, Tommy Schlamme (pre-
fame as a leading Hollywood television
director).
Hollywood paid attention, we "took" a

few meetings and subsequently optioned
two other garage band classics, “Wooly
Bully” and “Wipeout,” wrote a couple
more scripts, and... nothing.
Fred, for whatever reason, wasn't

knocked out by the scripts –he now
admits that his abject fear of moving
forward clouded his judgement– and our
efforts faded.
We were busy with the agency, and ul-

timately, we probably just didn’t want it
enough yet.

Fred/Alan ad on the back cover of the 2nd AnnualMTV Video Music Awards September 13, 1985

The Fred/Alan could get any better, but from '87 on we
tried hard to top ourselves. By the end,
Holiday Parties we just might have done it.
We never really understood the “standard” We went out with a sparrow!

protocols of running a successful agency, We didn’t know it was our last hurrah.
wining and dining clients with expensive We’d just moved into a new space that
dinners, golfing outings (you’ve got to we’d designed for ourselves, we were
kidding!) and annual holiday gifts. We celebrating. For the December 1990
came to the conclusion that our version party the entertainment booked was
would be killer holiday parties. the Calypso King of the World, Mighty
Sparrow, known for getting his fans in
We dipped our toes in the water with giant Caribbean stadiums up on their
a roller disco party, then moved on to feet to dance. By the end of our contract-
a "classy" joint, taking over New York's ed second set in a downtown Manhattan
Museum of Broadcasting. restaurant, his shirt had come off, the
crowd was sweating as much as he was,
But things really hit a peak in 1987, and he assured us he wasn’t done yet.
when Ed Levine, account executive Sparrow came back for another rockin'
and former music promoter/producer/ couple of hours!
now food writer, suggested we book Dr.
John* for our soiree. Creative director For some reason, Art Director Tom
Noel Frankel illustrated an amazing Godici thought it would be worth his
invitation, sized as a 45rpm vinyl pic- time to burn the edges of all 500 holiday
ture sleeve, using a Wite-Out!® brush! poster invitations by hand. We weren’t
A belly dancing school studio on 8th arguing, Tom always made sure his work
Avenue was booked. Sylvia’s, New York's was up to his personal creative stan-
"Queen of Soul Food," catered and the dards. He lived them.
doctor’s band played on their night off.
They completely blew the ceiling off *Ed and Dr. John/MacRebennack
the place, and people hearing the music had done a couple of wonderful
from the street started wandering in. records together, and Ed later
What a night! suggested him for a fantastic
campaign we did for TV Heaven.
Afterwards, we wondered if the events
Design and illustration (with Wite-Out!®) by Noel Frankel 1987
Our attempt at a
classy 'Holiday Affair'
at the Museum of
Broadcasting, with a
knock-off "TV Guide"
invitation. 1985
Photograph by
Elena Seibert
Why not try a

museum again?
The Museum of
Holography 1986
Design by
Corey & Co., Boston
Let's try music again! At a pool hall!
Texas singer/guitarist Johnny Copeland was 1983's Blues Entertainer of the Year.
Fred missed it, he had the flu.
Design by Noel Frankel 1988
Mighty Sparrow really
rocked the houe!
For some reason,

Art Director Tom Godici
thought it would be worth
his time to burn the edges
of all 500 holiday poster
invitations by hand.
Design & illustration by

Tom Godici 1990

Once we added 'advertising agency' to
our rep as the premiere media branders, we
thought that maybe we ought to go after
some non-media business. But how? Hav-
ing spent several years positioning clients,
we noticed that most agencies wanted to be
everything for everyone, all the better for
having big billings.
Let's have a sales brochure! Fred/Alan case studies this book has already cov-
became the only agency that focused on ered, we'll just reprint the part that tells
audiences under 35 years old, we printed our advertising agency story and the
up a brochure and started trolling for new piece about our client Barq's Root Beer.
business. We won't bore you with repeating
Ed Levine, Troy Ellen Dixon, Noel Frankel, Chris Strand, Linda Schaffer

Mark Tomizawa, Jill Gershon, Norm Magnusson, Steve Diamond, John Sullivan, Carol
Forsythe, Fred Pustay, Robert Hunter

Back in the day getting a write-up in the Over the years, we never got all that
New York Times or Adweek advertising much press, but it was just as well.
column could make an agency's reputa- For better and worse, we felt –as they
tion. We were lucky a few times to have say– like the quality of our work spoke
captured the attention of both. for itself.
Fred/Alan buys the New York Times.
About five years after Fred/Alan advertising industry; after all, for de-
launched as the world's first media cades, Manhattan had been the epi-
branding company with added produc- center of the world's great ad agencies.
tion capabilities for promotion, spe- Besides location location location, in
cials and series, there was a big change. the 1980s and 90s, Times columnist
Nickelodeon, and then MTV, asked us Phil Dougherty had a reputation as the
to expand our services to become a "full most honest, authoritative columnist in
service" advertising agency, something the business, and that made the paper a
neither Alan nor Fred had never con- must-read for anyone who was anyone,
templated and would would require add- client side included. Any ad in there
ing creative, print production and media would guarantee outsized attention,
buying personnel. After about a minute whether for sales of a client's wares or
we decided, what the hell!, let's go for it. for the agency who created the advertis-
ing in the first place.
Did we have any idea what we were
doing? No way! But, that had never Well, why shouldn’t we be our own
stopped us before. The big question was, client, and use the Times to generate
outside of our cable television and music new business leads? We could buy
biz network of contacts, how the heck remnant space at will for less than half
does an ad agency get some new clients? price (even then that was five figures!) ,
our current clients would feel like they
In for a dime, in for a bunch of dollars. were with a pretty together agency, and
We decided we'd take a big swing. businesses outside New York would take
notice and call. Did it work? You bet.
Our company never did do too much .....
advertising for itself (it was expensive), Client: Fred/Alan, Inc. New York
so if we did every word had to count. Copy & design: Noel Frankel & Alan Goodman
Photography: Elena Seibert
The New York Times was, by far, the
most influential publication in the

New York Times full page advertisement 1991
Manhattan, inc. magazine February 1990
(It's really hard to believe the cover of this issue.
It was even depressing back in the day.)

Fred/Alan co-workers were smarter, prettier, and
more fun than we were. Their hardwork was only
the beginning. We were all serious people who never
took oursevles seriously.
Top: Albie Hecht

Clockwise staring top left: Mike Shavelson; Nancy Nalven;
Tom Leonardis; Tom Pomposello & Marietta Szubski; Rie Koko;
Chris Strand & Jeffrey Beer; Tom Leonardis; Fred Seibert
Fred/Alan & Chauncey Street
870 7th Avenue
Manhattan, New York 1987
Top: Jessica Wolf
Clockwise from top left:
Ed Levine; Janet Gutyan, Marietta Szubski, Nancy, Lori
Jacobsen, Barbara Powers; Len Fischman & Alan Goodman;
Lori Jacobsen; Marisel; Elliot Krowe; Noel Frankel; Chris Strand
Jim Spegman
Paul Buckley
Mrs. & Mr. Noel

Frankel
Paula Brinkman
Paula Brinkman,
Carol
Forsythe,
Marietta Szubski
Christine
Ecklund, Fred,
Scott Webb
Jessica Wolf,
Melissa
Kurnitt,
Christine
Ecklund
Jessica Wolf
Gilbert Hsiao
Ray Meola
Fred/Alan & Chauncey Street retreat
Shelter Island & Southhold summer 1989
Alan and Fred
Paula Brinkman,
Carol Forsythe,
Marietta Szubski
Fred &
Carol Forsythe
Christine
Ecklund,
Magda Liolis
Chris & Baby

Strand
Dave
Landesberg
Laurie & Micky

Hyman
Robert Hunter
Half the
Fred/Alan staff
XXX &
Ray Meola
Bill Burnett
Ed Levine.
Vicki Bijur, Baby
Strand, Albie
Hecht
Paul Brinkman,
Dave Landesberg
Albie Hecht,
Nelson Heumann,
Lou Baur
Bob & JuneAnn

Zeltman
Yvette Yasui
Kay Sarlin,
Melissa Kurnit
Fred/Alan & Chauncey Street retreat
Shelter Island & Southhold summer 1989
Kenny &
Mrs. Kenny
Paula
Brinkman
& Dave
Landesberg
Dave & Amy

Landesberg &
Nancy Bacher
Fred &
Troy Ellen
Dixon
Bridget, Elliot
& Cassie Krowe
Ray Meola,
Robert Hunter,
NancyBacher,
Bill Burnett
Ed & Will
Levine
Pierce & Carol

Forsythe
Illustrated by Donna J. Pallotta Illustrated by Paul Corio
Illustrated by John Resi Illustrated by Mike Oldroyd

Fred/Alan made our third and It was, by far, the nicest working environ-
final move –from 870 7th Avenue to ment we'd had, a testament to the great
16 West 61st Street to 708 Broadway work all of our brilliant teams had done
(pages 270-5), all in Manhattan– late in over the years.
1991. We decided to go all out.
7th Avenue –our cheapest space of the
Our moving announcement was decade– was at the top of a mid-level
emblematic of the approach the company Manhattan hotel, only accessible by, first,
used on all our best projects. Twelve walking through the hotel elevator, then
talented artists and illustrators contributed taking the hotel elevator. Getting off at
the top floor, there was a tiny –really
small– elevator that went to the "tower,"
a warren of rooms whose tenant histo-
ry included the production company
of popular actor, comedian, writer, and
composer Jackie Gleason ("The Great
One"). It was "decorated" with carpet
remnants of each of the pop art rugs
from each hotel floor. And, ceiling lights
in the circular, stucco coated reception
area were enclosed in stalactites. (See
pages 18 & 19.)
Moving a few blocks to 61st kept us

close to our MTV Networks clients –our
biggest and most lucrative. And the client
who afforded us the most creative free-
dom– and was easy to get to for most of
our co-workers. And there was no need
to have to explain the complicated access
to visitors. We'd taken it over from a TV
movie production company, and aside
Postcard package/ moving annoucement from the bigger footprint we needed to
accomodate our growing staff, compared
their own unique styles in the fold-out to the hotel it was gorgeous and "profes-
postcard set we sent to our clients and sional." But, it was still someone else's
friends. home, and we had to adapt ourselves to
their vision of work.
Then, architect Yossi Friedman was given
a blank canvas when it was clear our new 708 Broadway was all ours. Clean,
location needed to be gutted and rebuilt modern in an 19'80s kind of way, we felt
to accomodate a space that was actually we'd finally grown up. Little did we know
two buildings connected by a narrow what a short time we'd spend there.
walkway.
Illustrated by Bob Fortier Illustrated by Ray Domingo
Illustrated by Leslie Cabarga Illustrated by Paula Brinkman

Illustrated by Mike Quon Illustrated by Joey Ahlbum
Illustrated by David Burd Illustrated by Drew Hodges

Fred/Alan's last office
708 Broadway 8th floor
Manhattan, New York City
Time to go...
The end came fast, but it was due. And, tions led us elsewhere. Most of our great
of course, there were myriad reasons. staff landed well –we still work with a
The two of us never meant to be in bunch of them!– and now that it's all
the branding and advertising business. over we can look back and feel proud of
We –Fred, Alan, and all our fabulous the friends we all continue to be and the
colleagues– were always excited about contributions everyone made.
the work and felt like we did some great
stuff. However, the clients, the business The party was over, except for the last
environment, and our personal ambi- one. It was a blast.

There were a lot of folks who were
surprised when Fred/Alan announced it
was shutting down. And it was probably
those in the marketing and ad industry
who were most shocked, since it was the
beginning of the era of agency mergers
and consolidation. Why would a "hot"
company like Fred/Alan close when
there were untold riches to be made by
selling the shop?
One of our champions in the press,

Adweek's Richard Morgan, had written
a glowing piece about Fred/Alan just
three years before and gave us as nice
a professional send off as any company
could have wanted.
The notion of doing what we'd been

doing for a decade for five or ten more
years just wasn't appealing. We'd done
some groundbreaking, innovative work,
and OK... some not as special, and we
were extremely proud of what had been
accomplished. And, if we did say so
ourselves, we felt like we'd treated our
clients with the best we had in us. Maybe
most of all, we hoped that our co-workers
felt the same way.
We just didn't have in us anymore.

Jill Gershon was a Fred/Alan
account executive in the late 80s, and she
kindly decided to put on a party for those
of us she could locate. The result was a
wonderful time for all (though Fred had to
leave early due to a severe allergic reaction
to Jill’s cats). We thought to commemorate
the event with a small poster run for the
attendees. Maybe it’ll inspire another get
together.
Fred/Alan loved posters, especially Fred,

who collected (and still collects) more of
them than was healthy. Any time we could
come up with an excuse we made a poster.
This one was a direct cop by the world
famous Hatch Show Print in Nashville.
Fred/Alan spent a fair amount of time

promoting itself; we had to get new
business after all. But, of course, like all
creative companies we had a lot of cool
things we wanted to do, and the best client
for cool things is always yourselves.

Fred/Alan was blessed with dozens of
incredible colleagues, as we've featured in
a number of spots in these pages.
There are two, Gilbert Hsiao and

Jessica Wolf, who were there for
everyone in the joint every step of the way.
Thank you both, sincerely.

Did Fred/Alan ever have
a Halloween party?
(L-R) Jill Gershon, Troy Ellen Dixon,
Jessica Wolf, Bill Burnett, Darth Vader
Fred/Alan
Greatest Hits
A Decade in Media History
1983-1992
By Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert
Eliot George Books

DRAFT: Fred Alan's Greatest Hits 7"x10"

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FT

By Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert

Eliot George Books

Copyrights and trademarks of all images and logos

All rights reserved,

Very few of the good things in life happen

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 5

The Fred/Alan Chronology

6 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 7

Photograph by Elena Seibert

It took a year to figure out what we

Like I said, Fred/Alan was a hoot. I can

Most of all, it was the special

The two of us share a vision that has

“You know, television is called

“An advertising agency

Fred/Alan business cards designed by George Lois 1983

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 19

:MUS IC T E LEV I SIO N

MTV was three months away from launch when the

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 29

32 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

34 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 35

Voice over from

The talented, inexperienced creative were on 24 hours a day in stereo (both

36 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 37

Illustrated & directed by Candy Kugel, Buzzco, NYC

40 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 41

“Space is very rock'n'roll,” 24 hours later –one night only!– at

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 43

44 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 45

Since Fred and Alan

“Top of the Hour”

Footage and stills

50 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

Alan and I had searched far and wide to

The studio's other co-founder, director Gary

I suppose that Memorial Day trip turned

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 55

62 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

What became of Broadcast Arts? Steve

Oh, and that first creative award spot?

A DECADE IN MEDIA HISTORY 1983-1992 65

Broadcast Arts, Washington DC;

(This page, top to bottom)

Manhattan Design/Jerry Lieb-

70 FRED/ALAN GREATEST HITS

MTV was different. And

The most obvious proof

None of it would have been

Fred's radio mentor,

We produced the campaign with Buzzco,

Interviews: Dale Pon