User:Lolcatistan/A Cat among Lions: The Argosy/MTM Story

1993-2006: Argosy Golden Age
After the death of Lopez, Argosy underwent a reorganization, and Lopez' understudies, Ellen Peck and Nathan Blake, were placed in charge of the animation unit. Blake proposed a show based on "Aaron", the cat in the Argosy production logo, drawn by Peck in 1984, which had been used in a comic series by Lopez. The duo were given near-infinite money to hire anyone they wanted. The higher-ups at TVS (which was being acquired by IFE at the time) were expecting former Disney, Warner, or DreamWorks talent. Instead, they got Robert Stainton, an inventor from Chicago who created an early computer animation method, Rotanimation (or Rotan). Stainton ran the Chicago Rotanimation Studio, owned by the Sony Wonder unit of the Sony conglomerate (which also distributed Sesame Street VHS tapes), which had already helped produce the live-action/animated hybrid series Jeff Jones for ADTV.

The series, The Aaron Show, was officially co-created by Peck, Blake, and Stainton, "based on characters by Ellen Peck and Paul Lopez". Like the Twisted World of MTM before it, it was a variety show featuring a wide cast of characters, but unlike that series, it had a more clear focus: a "core" of 6 characters.