Klasky Csupo

Klasky Csupo, Inc. (pronounced "Class-key Chew-po") is a multimedia entertainment production company located in Los Angeles, California, founded by artist/producer Arlene Klasky and animator Gábor Csupó.

History
Klasky Csupo was started in 1982 in the spare bedroom of a Los Angeles apartment where Klasky and Csupo were living while married. Klasky Csupo's first major work came in 1989, when they became the 'animation house' for the first three seasons of The Simpsons (after which Film Roman took over in 1992), Klasky Csupo had already produced the animated pilots for The Simpsons, as sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show.

In 1991, Klasky Csupo began producing Rugrats, an animated show for Nickelodeon.

Their next major series was Duckman for the USA Network. The show revolved around the home life and adventures of a dim-witted and lascivious private detective duck named Eric Duckman. The series ran from 1994 to 1997.

During the same time Nickelodeon released Klasky Csupo's second Nicktoon series, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. During this time Klasky Csupo ended production on Rugrats. However, Klasky Csupo produced three new Rugrats specials between 1995 and 1996. The specials were so successful that the series was revived in 1997.

After Duckman was cancelled in 1997, Klasky Csupo began producing The Wild Thornberrys for Nickelodeon. The cartoon, premiering in 1998, revolved around a girl who could talk to animals.

On December 23, 1998, CEO Terry Thoren concluded an eleven-month negotiation with Mercedes-Benz and moved the company into the state of the art studio in the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street.

Between the late-1990s and 2000s, Klasky Csupo began producing new shows Rocket Power, As Told by Ginger, Santo Bugito and Stressed Eric.

In 2001, in honor of the Rugrats 10th Anniversary, Klasky Csupo released a two-part special entitled, "All Growed Up". The special featured the famous babies as pre-teenagers. It was popular enough that a series based on that special premiered in 2003. The series was put on hiatus in 2006 and officially cancelled in 2008. Several previously unaired in the US episodes aired on Nickelodeon in November 2007 and August 2008.

In May 2002, Klasky Csupo was accidentally credited as producers for two episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, a hit show on Nickelodeon as they had their logo shown after the end credits. However, in 2006, it was remade to be said that United Plankton Pictures Inc was the producer of the two episodes, and their logo will be shown at the end of all future airings since 2006.

The company was also active in producing recorded music with the labels "Tone Casualties" and "Casual Tonalities." Gabor Csupo was a good friend of Frank Zappa and occasionally collaborates with Mark Mothersbaugh, who did most of the music for Rugrats.

Klasky Csupo also produced a number of projects in commercial advertising, including a series of direct-to-video features (The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald) for the McDonald's fast food chain.

By 2004, Klasky Csupo shut down production on most of its shows, including Rugrats and in 2006, shut down production on all their shows except the new pilots they created.

In fall 2006, Klasky Csupo announced development of 14 new animated pilots, which will be up for sale at a later date:


 * Ace Bogart, Space Ape
 * Big Babies
 * Commander Bunsworth
 * Ronnie Biddles
 * Chicken Town
 * Grampa and Julie, Shark Hunters (based on the Nick Magazine strip and slated to feature Dustin Hoffman as Grampa)
 * Sugarless
 * Zeek and Leo
 * Wiener Squad
 * Rollin' Rock Starz
 * Twinkle
 * Ricky Z
 * Junkyard Teddies
 * Little Freaks

The animation design in these pilots are in various styles, instead of the typical style that Klasky Csupo was famous for in the 1990s.

Company logo
Klasky Csupo's logo is divided up into squares with the letters in "KLASKY" in a funky looking font, with "CSUPO" in black squares all in the same font. Klasky Csupo does not have a logo until 1991, as the pilot episode of Rugrats uses the Nickelodeon logo instead of the Klasky Csupo logo.

"Graffiti" (1991-2003)
On a white background of gray dancing "graffiti", we see several squares sliding from left to right. The 1st square has choppily letters forming a K, 2nd, a shoe forming an L, 3rd, some weird shapes forming a lowercase A, 4th, a lizard forms an S, 5th a bull forms another K, and 6th, an acrobat jumps and turns into a Y, all occurring at a very fast pace. The next 5 squares have the letters, "CSUPO" stenciled inside them. We then zoom out to reveal "KLASKY" on top of "CSUPO" and "INC." appearing one letter at a time, after which the entire logo turns black-and-white as the "Y" in "KLASKY" turns purple a second later. The music was a 15-note bass tune,weird sound effects colliding into a dog barking at the end. The logo is used on all pre-1998, and 2003 episodes of Rugrats, Duckman!, Santo Bugito and AAAH! Real Monsters, and, surprisingly, appeared on pre-1999 episodes of The Wild Thornberrys. Many fans remember this logo. Duckman used a warp-speed variation of the 1991 logo with more higher pitched music.

"Super Scary Face" (1998-present)
On a purple static background, blue and black paint emerges from the center and a hand passes by magazine clippings of a mouth and two big blinking eyes. The face speaks the company name in a vocoder robotic voice (the voice is done on the "Speakonia" program on Mac OS X and Mac OS 9) as 3-D white blocks fly out of the mouth and arrange themselves forming the Klasky Csupo logo (from before, but more modernized than before) and the background turns to black, and the "Y" in "KLASKY", like before, turns purple. The music is a splattering once the paint hits the screen, and a techno version of the 15-note bass tune from the 1991 logo during the face's screen time, and finally, once the face's screen time is over, we hear a lip flapping sound, a horn honking and a boing sound. The logo first appeared in The Rugrats Movie and appears currently on reruns of All Grown Up!, 1998-2004 episodes of Rugrats, and 1999-2004 episodes of The Wild Thornberrys, all of which are being rerun on Nicktoons Network. On films from the company, the music is in warp speed as the logo itself is too. Wetpaint members WillWill45 and Wizardduck are afraid of this logo.

"Crazy Rooster" (2003)
On a green city skyline, a rooster's silhouette on one of the buildings. The sun rises, and the rooster wakes up, opens its eyes and turns red. It yells "WAKE... UP!!!" as the blocks in the Klasky Csupo logo float around. When the rooster is finished screaming, the sun brightens, then dims back to normal, and the Klasky Csupo logo appears in the center. It looks "grungier" than the one in the past two logos. The music is a techno theme. The logo only appears on Rugrats Go Wild.