Eric Fogel

Eric Fogel (born 1969) is an American director, writer, producer and voice actor who is best known as the creator of the TV series Celebrity Deathmatch.^[1] He also created the cult series The Head and Starveillance and also directed several episodes of Daria.

Early life

Fogel graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1991 with a BFA in Film/TV. During his time there he created his first animated film, titled Mutilator: Hero Of the Wasteland, a film which one professor cited as being "inappropriate due to its violent content." Mutilator would go on to win NYU's Award of Excellence in Animation and became a cult favorite of Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. Fogel continued to produce animated shorts and soon his reel came across the desk of an executive at MTV Animation.

The Head

In 1994, at age of twenty-four, Fogel created his first animated series for MTV. The Head was a bizarre show about a high-spirited alien named Roy, who survived on Earth by living inside the head of an everyman named Jim. The show, which blended sci-fi action and comedy, ran for two seasons and spawned a graphic novel for Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster.

Celebrity Deathmatch

For his next series, Fogel was determined to revive the seemingly lost art of stop-motion animation. The pitch was simple: Celebrities square off in a ring and proceed to beat the pulp out of one another…in clay. Celebrity Deathmatch premiered in 1998 during the Super Bowl Halftime and turned out to be the highest rated special in the history of MTV. Fogel directed every episode from 1998 to 2002, along with voicing some characters, and the show became popular enough for Fogel to be named one of the most creative people in the TV industry by Entertainment Weekly. Four seasons and nearly a hundred episodes later, Deathmatch was known over the world and remained as one of MTV's highest rated shows.

In 1999, a Celebrity Deathmatch soundtrack was released, the single "Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes" by Marilyn Manson had a video directed by Fogel in the style of the show. Though no wrestling is involved, the two hosts from Celebrity Deathmatch introduce Manson and his entire band are portrayed in clay performing the song.

In 2006, Deathmatch was revived by MTV2 but Fogel decided not to get involved with the show so he could work in his new show Starveillance. Despite being replaced by Jack Fletcher and Dave 'Canadian' Thomas, Fogel is still credited as the creator and co-executive producer of the show.

Starveillance

Fogel recently created a new claymation series called Starveillance which parodies several celebrity situations through claymation animation and debuted on January 5, 2007 on E! to positive reviews. Fogel's production company Fogelmania Productions and Cuppa Coffee Studios produce the show.

Anton & Crapbag

A series of 2-3-minute shorts called Anton & Crapbag that started airing on MTV2 in April 2008. The series is produced using rod puppetry and 2D animated mouths. The series revolves around two slackers who try various Jackass-esque stunts that inevitably end in disaster.

Glenn Martin, DDS

Glenn Martin, DDS premiered on Nick at Nite August 2009. It follows the adventures of a father, who is a road dentist, and his family.

Havoc

In 2013, Fogel started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for his new short film called Havoc about a lone warrior facing off against mutants, However founding for the short was unsuccessful. Fogel later posted on his Twitter that Havoc will live on!

References

External links

• Eric Fogel at the Internet Movie Database
• Eric Fogel at curiouspictures.com
• Eric Fogel's interview with animation magazine
• Mutilator: Hero Of the Wasteland