The Optical Company

The Optical Company is a puppetry and practical effect studio that was founded in the 1940s, by Gerald Fitz, to provide cheap entertainment for families.

## History

### Founding and Early History

In 1923, Gerald Fitz was born in Bavaria, Germany. He immigrated to the USA illegally, but pretty quickly managed to squeeze his way into legal citizenship. During his time, he noticed that a lot of families were struggling with money, and desired escapism and entertainment, so in 1948 he founded The Optical Company, This company specialized in puppets, which Gerald had an uncanny knack for. He even got his wife and daughter in on the business, all creating puppets and effects, and putting on small live shows for families. These shows all were quite popular among the local communities, with sharp witty humor that was just as funny for adults as it was for children. Eventually, Gerald started getting contacted by brands to create advertisements, this of course was a godsend for Gerald, and it seemed like the beginning of a fulfilling career.

### Gerald's Death

On July 8th, 1957, Gerald was killed in a car crash. He left the company, via will, in the hands of his friend and assistant, Jacob Mitchell, and his wife and daughter left the company to mourn, and honor Gerald's wishes for them to have peace.

### The Era of Success

Jacob was similar to Gerald, and tried his best to keep the company going with the same energy, although he was more business minded. He started to sacrifice some of the high standard, to make deadlines and hire more employees. Thanks to Jacob, Optical became a true, working film studio, where there was always a project being worked on. Most of these were advertisements, but some were comedy shorts that would air with the late night talk show, The Eric Oldman Show. The commercials were a big success, and eventually got the attention of two people, Leonard Grimm, and Zoe Arbors. These two college friends had recently graduated, and were ready to dive into the entertainment industry, with a TV series titled "Pants 'N Pals." The show received tons of marketing tie-ins before it even began FILMING.

### Pants 'N Pals

The production of Pants 'N Pals is largely shrouded in mystery, much like the series itself, which ended up being a remarkable marketing failure. Filming began in the middle of 1964, and finished in late 1967. It seems Leonard and Zoe had major disagreements, Leonard's need for perfection causing the show's production to take far longer than expected, spending more and more money, more of Optical's resources... but finally, the series aired, and was promptly cancelled after a single ten episode run. Kids found the series really strange, and parents found it uncomfortable and creepy. The marketing and merchandise, as such, was a huge mis-investment, largely being ignored, and removed from shelves as soon as the series finished production. Leonard Grimm and Zoe Arbors split after that, never working together again, while poor Jacob Mitchell was left to try and salvage his crumbling company.

### The End of The Optical Company

After the colossal failure of Pants 'N Pals, Jacob struggled to keep the company alive through more commercial work, but with the ever-rising competition, Jacob was largely ignored in favor of bigger brands. The Optical Company went bankrupt, and fully shut down all work in September of 1971. Jacob retired after this, and passed himself, in 1994, happily with his family.

### Legacy

Optical was very much forgotten, outside of strange nostalgia-bait websites, and internet horror stories. Not much footage exists online, I'm trying my best to fix that issue, with the tapes my dear departed grandfather left for me.

I hope this was informative :>

## List of (Known) Productions

### Fitz Era

* The Optical Puppet Spectacular
* Yum-Bites Brand Candy Advertisement
* Fruity Fragrance Hairspray Advertisement
* Sponsered Anti-Smoking PSAs

### Mitchell Era

* Eric Oldman Shorts
* Caffine Free Coffee Advertisement
* Pants 'N Pals Season 1
* Swift Scent Deodorant Advertisements