tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post4958913816116664312..comments2024-03-26T22:42:06.412-07:00Comments on TAG Blog: At the Sherman Oaks Galleria...Steve Huletthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-24826012217188426722008-10-14T10:48:00.000-07:002008-10-14T10:48:00.000-07:00Warners originally planned that former May Company...Warners originally planned that former May Company building to house WB Animation and Cartoon Network combined, including a substantial area for ongoing feature animation development. This decision was made just after the peak of the 1990's boom and as it glacially slid forward with diminishing expectations, the thing was finally too big to completely curtail. The company ended up with a 15 year lease on a white elephant eating over 10 million bucks annually, not including executive parking costs (which were, of course, markedly higher than those of the creatives). As final Sherman Oaks division head Sander Schwartz kept hacking the budgets and operating costs (even beyond his naturally cheap inclinations, under his corporate superiors' demands), the once-great studio wound up churning out crap with production values on par with those of DIC. The seedy Imperial Bank building was certainly superior in every respect, because it took itself less seriously. The suit who picked out all the furniture and managed the Sherman Oaks decor went around bragging how the new building "was designed specifically for animation" when it always seemed more like a generic business office. He was canned soon afterward, as part of the first of many waves of corporate cutbacks. The MPAA should feel right at home and it'll be poetic justice in one regard: WBA once mocked former MPAA president Jack Valenti in an episode of "Freakazoid", using Valenti himself to do the voice. "Hello, I'm Jack Valenti, and these are my cheeks!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-68710179157767617712007-09-12T11:21:00.000-07:002007-09-12T11:21:00.000-07:00I remember having a cubicle with a nice view of th...I remember having a cubicle with a nice view of the entire San Fernando Valley in the Imperial Bank building. Never again, I'm guessing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-3198380595013922952007-09-08T17:13:00.000-07:002007-09-08T17:13:00.000-07:00I nver did understand why Warner Bros. Animation m...I nver did understand why Warner Bros. Animation moved from the Galleria office tower -- as eccentric as the various floors it occupied were -- to the old May Co. building.<BR/><BR/>Jean McCurdy's farewell gift to Warners, I suppose. WB still has the space under lease.Steve Huletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-78521083433904726602007-09-06T18:14:00.000-07:002007-09-06T18:14:00.000-07:00It's incredibly appropriate that the MPAA is now i...It's incredibly appropriate that the MPAA is now in that horrible space that Warners used to be in. Talk about having no soul...that space was a dreamkiller for the creatives. <BR/><BR/>The squalor of the old Imperial Bank bldg. space is preferred over that May Co. hellhole.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com