CHUCK MENVILLE
(April 17, 1940-June 15,
1992)
Notable Roles: Animator,
writer, story editor, producer, director
Born in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, Menville moved to Los Angeles at age 19 with designs to become an
animator. He was hired by Walt Disney
Productions and served as an assistant on The Jungle Book
(1967). Unhappy with his working environment, Menville got into
writing and began a long partnership with his friend, fellow animator and
writer Len Janson. Together,
they produced a series of live-action short films utilizing the long-forgotten stop-motion pixilation
method. Among them was the Academy Award-nominated Stop Look and Listen, which
followed a day in the life of motorists who tooled around the city in invisible
cars. They wrote, directed and starred in their shorts. Clips from their second
film, Vicious
Cycles, were used in ABC’s The
New Communicators which landed them a gig making commercials for Gulf Oil’s “no-nox” gasoline. In 1969,
Menville and Janson started long stints at both Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, serving
as story editors and producers for several of their shows. Outside
of television, he wrote the book The
Harlem Globetrotters: Fifty Years of Fun and Games in 1978. Over
at DiC
Enterprises in the 1980s, Menville and Janson were offered the story
editor position of The
Real Ghostbusters, but they initially turned it down due to the
massive workload of having to produce a syndicated and Saturday morning version
of the show at the same time. Following the departure of story editor J. Michael Straczynski over
creative differences in changes ABC wanted to make, Janson and
Menville became the story editors for the remainder of the show’s
run. They went on to write, produce and story edit for the reboot of Land
of the Lost and Tiny
Toon Adventures. Menville’s final project was a story for Batman:
The Animated Series. However, he died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma
before the script could be written. Brynne Stephens wrote the
teleplay for the episode, and Menville was given story credit. His children
keep the “family business” going, as Scott Menville became an actor
primarily in animation and Chad Menville is an author.
Saturday Credits:
Cattanooga Cats
Will the Real Jerry Lewis
Please Sit Down
Groovie Goolies
Sabrina, the Teenage
Witch (1969)
Fat Albert and the Cosby
Kids
The Flintstone Comedy
Hour
The ABC Saturday
Superstar Movie (episodes)
Lassie’s Rescue Rangers
Speed Buggy
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Wheelie and the Chopper
Bunch
Hong Kong Phooey
Korg: 70,000 B.C.
Shazam! (1974)
Uncle Croc’s Block
The New Adventures of
Gilligan
The Secrets of Isis
ABC Weekend
Specials (episodes)
Ark II
The New Adventures of
Batman
Space Sentinels
Tarzan, Lord of the
Jungle
Tarzan and the Super 7
Jason of Star Command
The New Fred and Barney
Show
The New Shmoo
Fred and Barney Meet the
Shmoo
The Flintstone Comedy
Show
Space Stars
The Smurfs
Mork & Mindy/Laverne
& Shirley/Fonz Hour
Benji, Zax & the
Alien Prince
The Biskitts
Kissyfur
The Real Ghostbusters
The Little Wizards
Tiny Toon Adventures
Land of the Lost (1991)
The Little Mermaid: The
Animated Series
Batman: The Animated
Series
