Macheesmo (Franchise)

The History of Macheesmo

## Creation

Macheesmo was created in 1982 by comic book illustrator Joey Dumpins as a serialized, grayscale comic strip in the Wisconsin State Journal.

The comic strip ran from 1982-1989. It was quickly popularized by a national syndication run in various newspapers across the US during the latter half of its run. Dumpins also authored a much more adult-themed Macheesmo Comic Book series, which ran from 1984 to 1990 (75 Issues and one graphic Novel), with an additional run from 1996 until Dumpins' death in 1999 (31 Issues).

## Animated Series

Joey Dumpins had tried unsuccessfully to get an animated Macheesmo project off the ground for a number of years prior to his chance meeting of Grant Singlemork, then head-writer for a major animated project at CBS. Singlemork was able to convince Head of Broadcasting for CBS Howard Stringer to take a chance, and a pilot was greenlit in 1988.

CBS executives felt the series' plot about a piece of cheese that inexplicably talked and had personality was "devoid of purpose" and imposed a number of changes, including a backstory about Macheesmo having previously been a human man named Martin Cheesmo. Executives also felt that the adult-oriented content from the Comic Book series would need to be toned down to fit a more family-friendly target audience. While Dumpins initially balked at the changes, Grant Singlemork convinced Dumpins to go along with them to appease the network

The pilot episode never aired, but the series was approved for a single season in April 1988 contingent upon numerous changes from the source material, with production to begin six weeks later. Dumpins rewrote the pilot episode (which allegedly originally featured a naked Macheesmo getting caught in a toaster and trying to escape before he melts, an apparent nod to an early panel of his acclaimed comic strip) into Brie Careful, a satirical take on the growing trend in children’s animation to feature a ham-fisted moral lesson. The re-worked series would cast Macheesmo as a would-be hero, ditching his devil-may-care, rebellious attitude from the comic strip in favor of “a character that kids could find inspiring”, as described by then-CBS President Bud Grant.

70's theme song veteran S. Palmer Pickles was recruited to compose a theme song that would energetically tell Macheesmo's origin story, and the theme song was recorded in June 1988.

The first season of Macheesmo: The Animated Series premiered Thursday, November 16, 1989 to perilously low ratings. Season one featured twelve 22-minute episodes.

Because of its relatively low cost of production and surprising success in the west asian market, the series was given an order of two more seasons, giving the series 53 total episodes (54 including the never-before-seen pilot).

Just before the series' third-season premier, an NES title was released on August 9, 1991.

On February 27, 1992, Macheesmo: The Animated Series was cancelled just four weeks prior to airing of its’ third season finale. It is often speculated that friction surrounding CBS's insistence that Dunkins discontinue the adult-themed comic book series is partially to blame for the Animated Series' cancellation.

The final two episodes, titled "This One's For Colby" and "The Last Thing I Ricotta" were never aired.

    Howard Stringer, then Broadcast Chairman of CBS, recalled it as one of his biggest career regrets.