As I write this, it will officially be 20 years to the day that Johnny Bravo premiered on the Cartoon Network! Yay! (insert virtual confetti throwing here)
When I was in the middle of producing the first season, I hit a bump when I mistakenly forgot to add a piece of dialogue into the episode, "The Sensitive Male" during the final mix. One of the animation producers at Hanna Barbera gave me some old school advice by telling me, "Don't worry. It's just a cartoon. It's for kids. They'll watch it once, maybe twice, then go on with their life. It's not the end of the world." Mind you, the internet was in its infancy, DVD's were on the horizon, and the Cartoon Network was only available in a few million households. Needless to say, his advice was right for the time, but ultimately off base.
Since then, I've received wonderful letters from children all over the world expressing their love for the show and drawing cute pictures of Johnny.
I've had the opportunity to hear wonderful stories from people who grew up watching the show, not just here in the states, but around the world. From India to Portugal, Australia to Switzerland, I've heard Johnny speak in different languages (it's fun to hear the Japanese interpretation of a southern Elvis drawl).
I had a man come tell me that Johnny Bravo was the only show he used to watch with his father because it was the only show that made his dad laugh. Another woman told me it was the favorite show of her autistic daughter who couldn't get enough of Johnny's voice (shout out to Jeff Bennett!).
So, I made a cartoon with a mistake. I made a series with a slew of mistakes. And they live on through reruns, DVD's, and the internet. But if I've learned anything from Johnny Bravo, it's that you make your mistakes and you move on. Maya Angelou said it best when she said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Right now, I'm directing on the upcoming series for Amazon, "Pete The Cat," which is being produced by Swampy Marsh (the co-creator of Phineas And Ferb) and based on the best selling children's books by James Dean. So I'm still making cartoons. And for that, I'm grateful.
And if you're reading this, thank you for being a part of this amazing journey. I hope to continue making you feel joy through my work for years to come.