Freddy Monnickendam

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Freddy Monnickendam was executive producer of The Smurfs (1981) and The Snorks (1984). He also was the writer of Foofur (1987).

Freddy Monnickendam was a businessman who came into contact with comics when he negotiated the rights to the Smurfs for Father Abraham in 1977. Afterwards, he became the head of "SEPP" (La Société d'Edition, de Presse et de Publicité), the branch of Dupuis (the editor of the Smurfs) that was responsible for the merchandising of the comic heroes. He negotiated the contract between Dupuis, Peyo, NBC and Hanna-Barbera, for the creation of a series of Smurf cartoons, and became the first executive producer of the series. Peyo wanted the Smurf cartoons to be as faithful as possible to the world he had created in his comics, but Monnickendam preferred to make the cartoons more accessible, and more mainstream. This led to fast deterioration of relations between the two men, ending in court cases about the division of the rights and the money involved. Annoyed by these discussions and problems, he decided to start a new series of cartoons called The Snorks, which was created by Nic Broca. Monnickendam later acquired all the rights, hoping to equal the success of the Smurfs, but the success of The Snorks was limited and the series soon ended production. Having bypassed Dupuis, the collaboration between the publisher and Monnickendam ended, and as a result, SEPP was disbanded. Monnickendam continued to work with Hanna-Barbera on Foofur and other shows (including Tom and Jerry Kids), but he was never able to replicate the success he had with the Smurfs.^[1]