Klasky Csupo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Klasky-Csupo, Inc.

Logo used since 1996
Formerly	Klasky & Csupo (legal name until 1991)
Former type	Private
Industry	Animation
Fate	Dormancy (original)
Founded	1982; 43 years ago (1982) (original) 2012; 13 years ago (2012) (current)
Founders	Arlene Klasky Gábor Csupó
Defunct	2008; 17 years ago (2008) (original)
Headquarters	1238 North Highland Avenue Los Angeles, California 90038
Key people	Terry Thoren (CEO, 1994–2006) Tracy Kramer Norton Virgien Brandon Scott (vice president)
Products	Animated series Music videos Animated shorts Animated commercials Comic books Live-action shows Animes
Owners	Arlene Klasky Gábor Csupó

Klasky-Csupo, Inc. is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was started in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and her then-husband, Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó. The company's name comes from their last names.

Klasky-Csupo began in a spare room of their apartment. It grew into a large animation studio in Hollywood with many artists and staff. In the 1990s and 2000s, they created and animated many popular shows for Nickelodeon. These included Rugrats, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, and As Told by Ginger. They also animated the first three seasons of The Simpsons. In 2008, their partnership with Nickelodeon ended, and the company took a break for four years. Klasky-Csupo reopened in 2012. In 2018, they started working on a new computer-animated version of Rugrats, which began airing in 2021 on Paramount+.

History of Klasky-Csupo

How it All Started (1982–1991)

Klasky-Csupo, Inc. began in 1982. It was founded in the spare bedroom of Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó's apartment in Hollywood. A year later, the company grew and moved to a new building in Hollywood.

At first, Klasky-Csupo was known for making cool logo designs and commercials. They also created opening titles for TV shows and movie trailers. They quickly became known as a very creative and new studio. As they became more successful, they moved to a bigger location in Hollywood in 1988. The studio eventually grew to include six buildings. These buildings became famous in Hollywood because their outside walls were decorated with big pictures of their cartoon characters.

The studio got its first big chance in 1987. A producer named James L. Brooks asked them to create the opening for a comedy show called The Tracey Ullman Show. Klasky-Csupo also got to make and animate new one-minute cartoons for the show. These cartoons featured a family called the Simpsons, created by Matt Groening. Klasky-Csupo made all 48 of these short cartoons. They became so popular that Fox started airing a weekly half-hour show called The Simpsons. Klasky-Csupo animated every episode of the first three seasons. They even won Emmy Awards for their work on The Simpsons in 1989–1990 and 1990–1991.

Klasky-Csupo also produced the popular music video "Do the Bartman". An animator at Klasky-Csupo, Gyorgyi Kovacs Peluce, came up with the idea for The Simpsons characters to have yellow skin and Marge Simpson to have blue hair. She wanted them to look different from anything else. In 1992, another company took over animating The Simpsons. This led to Klasky-Csupo having to let go of many of the animators who worked on the show.

Big Success with Animated Shows (1991–2005)

In 1991, Klasky-Csupo created Rugrats. This was one of the first animated shows for Nickelodeon called "Nicktoons". The idea for Rugrats came from Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó's own two sons. They wondered what their babies would say if they could talk. Their next major show was Duckman for the USA Network. This show was about a silly private detective duck named Eric Duckman. It ran from 1994 to 1997.

At the same time, Nickelodeon released Klasky-Csupo's second Nicktoon series, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. Rugrats was very popular, and its ratings went way up. This made Nickelodeon and Klasky-Csupo decide to make more episodes of Rugrats. People said Rugrats was "a show like the Simpsons, but for children."

In 1993, Klasky-Csupo worked with comedian Lily Tomlin to bring her character, Edith Ann, to TV. They made two half-hour animated specials for ABC. These specials were well-liked by critics and viewers.

In 1995, the studio launched Santo Bugito. This was the first Saturday morning animated comedy on TV. Created by Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó for CBS, Santo Bugito was about a small town of insects. It had a unique look and music by Mark Mothersbaugh, who also composed music for Rugrats.

The same year, Klasky-Csupo started a division for animated commercials. They made commercials for big companies like Oscar Mayer and Taco Bell. In 2001, they also started a division for live-action commercials.

After Duckman and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters ended in 1997, Klasky-Csupo began making The Wild Thornberrys for Nickelodeon. This show started in 1998. It was about a girl named Eliza Thornberry who could talk to animals.

In 1998, Klasky-Csupo made its first full-length movie, The Rugrats Movie. It was the number one movie in the country when it opened. It earned over $141 million worldwide. It was the first animated movie not made by Disney to earn over $100 million in the United States. Two more Rugrats movies followed: Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) and Rugrats Go Wild (2003). Rugrats Go Wild was a special movie that combined characters from Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. The Wild Thornberrys also got its own movie in 2002.

Around this time, Klasky-Csupo also created The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald. This was a series of six animated videos for McDonald's that featured their mascot, Ronald McDonald.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Klasky-Csupo started two more shows for Nickelodeon: Rocket Power and As Told by Ginger. They also produced the first season of Stressed Eric, an animated series for adults on BBC Two in the UK.

In 2001, to celebrate ten years of Rugrats, Klasky-Csupo released a two-part TV special called All Growed Up. This special showed the Rugrats babies as teenagers. It was so popular that Nickelodeon asked for a whole series based on it. This new series, called All Grown Up!, ran from 2003 to 2008.

In 2003, Klasky-Csupo worked with Cartoon Network to make a music video for the band They Might Be Giants. The song was called "Dee Dee and Dexter" and featured characters from Dexter's Laboratory drawn in an anime style.

A Break and Return (2006–Present)

In the mid-2000s, Klasky-Csupo stopped making their shows for Nickelodeon. Their long partnership with the network ended. In 2006, the company's CEO, Terry Thoren, left. The company then went through a quiet period and was not very active.

In 2006, Klasky-Csupo announced they were developing 28 new animated cartoon pilots. These pilots were made in many different animation styles. Some of these cartoons were later shared by Gábor Csupó on his YouTube channel.

In 2012, Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó reopened the company. They created their first new project in four years, Ollie Mongo. This was a digital comic book about a skateboarding zombie teenager in the future. In 2015, the company announced they were working on RoboSplaat!. This is a web series featuring the character from their famous 1998 on-screen logo. The character, named "Splaat," has a robotic voice. The web series started on December 21, 2016.

On September 2, 2015, Nickelodeon mentioned they might bring back classic shows, possibly including Rugrats. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2016, Arlene Klasky said she would be happy to work on a new version of Rugrats.

On July 16, 2018, Nickelodeon announced a new Rugrats series with 26 episodes. Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó returned as executive producers. The new Rugrats uses computer animation instead of the hand-drawn style of the original. It premiered on Paramount+ on May 27, 2021.

In April 2022, Gábor Csupó launched an NFT project called Cosa Monstra.

RoboSplaat! Web Series

RoboSplaat! is an American animated web series created by Arlene Klasky for YouTube. The series is about a character named Splaat, who is an ink splat. Splaat is voiced by Greg Cipes, who also voiced Beast Boy from Teen Titans.

RoboSplaat! Characters

Splaat

• Splaat (voiced by Greg Cipes) is the main character. He is a purple ink splat with two yellow rectangles. The top rectangle has blue eyes, and the bottom one has a mouth with red lips. He wears black long sleeves and red and white sneakers. Splaat also appears in the Klasky-Csupo logo. In the logo, he has no arms or legs, looks more realistic, and has a robotic voice. Before 2012, people often thought he was a robot, but it was later shared that he is a "splaat."

Splaat's Family

• Digital (voiced by Debi Derryberry) is Splaat's 12-year-old younger brother. Digital has red rectangles instead of yellow ones, and his lips are blue. He wears a black short-sleeved shirt and grey and white shoes.
• Sergei (voiced by Cooper Barnes) is the father of Splaat and Digital, and the husband of Blossom. He looks like an ink bottle with sea-green eyes and pink lips. He wears purplish-black armless sleeves and black shoes.
• Blossom (voiced by Candi Milo) is the mother of Splaat and Digital, and the wife of Sergei. She is the only female in Splaat's family and has no legs. She looks like a pair of blue scissors with blue eyes and a yellow rectangle that has a mouth with red lips. She wears an orange skirt and gloves.
• Grandpa (voiced by Richard Tanner) is the grandfather of Splaat and Digital, and Sergei's father. He is a grey ink splat with blue eyes and black eyebrows. He wears green glasses, a black suit with a green shirt and a purple necktie, and brown shoes.

Shows and Movies by Klasky-Csupo

Television Series

Web Series

Movies

Pilots (Short Test Animations)

Other Projects

Commercials

See also

In Spanish: Klasky Csupo para niños

• Nickelodeon Animation Studio
• Film Roman