108 EMMY
Foundation Interviews
I said,“Aren’ttheycute?”
Hesaid,“It’syourshow.”
SoI workedwithPeyo.I’dgotoBrussels
withmyteam,andhewouldcomehere.While
weweredevelopingit,ourproducerGerard
Baldwinwasmakinga littlesalesclipforthe
merchandisingpeopleandfortheaffiliates’
meeting.WhenFred(wholovedtheshow)
sawtheclip,hesaid,“You’vegottochangethe
musicandadda laughtrack.”Butwedidn’t
changethemusicoradda laughtrack.Tothis
dayyoungpeoplecomeuptomeandsay,“I
loveTheSmurfsandI lovethemusic!”I’vealso
hadpeoplesaytome,“I’msohappyitdidn’t
havecannedlaughter.”Q: But there was a risk for you....
A: I’ve done a lot of things that were risks.
Power Rangers [Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers] was a risk and X-Men [X-Men: The
Animated Series] was a risk. The shows that Ireally believed in — on many of them, I felt like
a lone wolf.
The one serious confrontation I had was with
the head of children’s programs at NBC, Mickey
Dwyer. Early on in the development of The
Smurfs, her office conveyed to me, “You can’t tell
the Smurfs apart. Make them different colors.”
This actually turned out to be a great
note. I thought, I’m not making them different
colors, because I’d have to go tell Peyo and
he’ll kill me. I went to our head artist, Iwao
Takamoto, and said, “Iwao, can we accessorize
the Smurfs? I think Peyo would accept it
because we’re not changing the design.” We
accessorized each Smurf so that kids could tell
them apart. So while it was a misguided note,
the reason behind the note was right.Q: There was one property you were trying for
when you were at Hanna-Barbera....
A:Yes.I wasa longtimefanofKermittheFrog.At Hanna-Barbera, I got the idea to do an
animated Kermit, but Jim Henson consistently
turned me down. He didn’t want to confuse the
audience with characters that were rendered
as puppets to also be animated.
I had been offered a job at Marvel as CEO
and president, which was a huge jump for me.
I was very interested in it, but I loved Hanna-
Barbera and working for Joe and Bill. Still, I
accepted the job and I left Hanna-Barbera
thinking, I’ll never be able to do Jim Henson’s
Muppets.
But at Marvel I got a call from Judy Price,
who was in charge of children’s programs at
CBS. She said, “Margaret, I saw a picture of
the Muppets dressed as babies in a dream
sequence from The Muppets Take Manhattan.
What if you did something called Muppet
Babies?” I said, “That’s a fabulous idea. Maybe
Jim will accept that.” The rest is history. That
begana greatrelationshipI hadwithJimfor
thesixyearsthatI wasatMarvel.Q:DidyoudevelopmanyMarvelproperties
duringyourtimethere?
A:WhenI gottoMarvel,I triedtosellX-Men, a
moreauthenticSpider-ManandTheAvengers.
I wasn’tsuccessful.WesoldMuppetBabies
andwedevelopedandproducedtheoriginal
MyLittlePony,G.I.Joe:ARealAmericanHero,
Transformers, anda lotofshowsforHasbro
—theywerea greatclient.Duringmyyears
atMarvel,weweregreatproducers,butnotof
Marvelproperties.I feltsortoflikea failure.
Having said that, I’m very proud of the
work we did. Stan Lee worked for me! When
I got to Marvel, I took him to lunch and said,
“Stan, I know on paper I’m your boss, but I’m
not really. If anything, I’m honored to be your
partner.”
He said, “Maggie, you can be my boss any
day of the week. I only have one rule and if you
follow this, we’re going to get along famously.
When we go to lunch and I order dessert, don’t
ever ask to eat any of my dessert.” Later, when
we’d go to lunch with clients, he’d always order
dessert, and the network executives — ready
with their spoons — would start to say, “Stan....”
I’d say, “No, you can’t have any of Stan’s
dessert.” That was Stan’s rule.Q: Did you work closely with him on projects?
A: When I was doing G.I. Joe and Transformers,
we were using an animation studio in Japan
called Toei. The head of their live-action studio,
Mr. Watanabe, knew Stan and admired him. He
called him and said, “I’ve got a show that we’ve
been doing and it’s very successful in Japan.COURTESY MARGARET LOESCH... with Stan Lee and Marvel entertainment president Jim Galton...