While the overall segment was to promote Wilson's new book, Ziggy Faces Life, it was also likely a test for animating the character because the following year saw the broadcast of Ziggy's Gift, an animated holiday special that first aired on this day in 1982. I can't find much in the way of production details, but a half-hour special like that probably took the better part of a year to make so the animation sequence on The Today Show was likely part of a trial of some sort. Seeing how well the character could be animated or how audiences responded or something. The most directly obvious impact it had was that Ziggy's Gift has the main character remain mute because evidently a number of people wrote in to complain that the voice used on The Today Show didn't remotely match people's expectations of what Ziggy "should" sound like. Since I can't find an actual clip of the sequence, I don't know what he actually sounded like, and I can't even seem to find who provided the voice. But it was enough to reinforce the idea Wilson already had -- that providing Ziggy with a speaking voice would never satisfy everyone, regardless of who the character.
In any event, Ziggy's Gift went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program and was broadcast again in 1983. However, despite being very well-received, it was only re-broadcast for a couple years. It was released on DVD in 2004 (the copy on the back of the box suggests it hadn't aired at all after 1984) and it is not currently available on any streaming platforms. So to fill that gap on the anniversary of its first airing, here is Ziggy's Gift...
0 comments:
Post a Comment