Jean MacCurdy


Jean H. MacCurdy is an American television executive, best known for her role as president of Warner Bros. Animation from 1989 to 2001.

Career

MacCurdy was hired by Warner Bros. Animation in 1980, and eventually became a vice president and a general manager. In 1983, she left to become an executive for Hanna-Barbera, supervising the production of shows such as The Smurfs and The Flintstone Kids.
In 1989, MacCurdy was hired by Warner Bros. Animation to help the studio make a push into original content production for television. She hired several members of the creative team at Hanna-Barbera, including Tom Ruegger, Paul Dini, and later Alan Burnett, to form the creative team of her first Warner production, the Steven Spielberg-executive produced Tiny Toon Adventures, which ran in syndication.
Under MacCurdy's leadership, Warner Bros. Animation experienced a second renaissance, producing very popular children's programming and winning several Emmys. The company's output was expanded to include other successful programming for the Fox TV during the early 1990s such as Taz-Mania, ', The Plucky Duck Show, and Animaniacs.
In 1995, Warner Bros. launched The WB television network, and made the Warner Bros. Animation shows exclusive to it. New shows produced for The WB's Kids' WB block included ', Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, Road Rovers, Waynehead, Histeria, Batman Beyond, Detention and Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain. During MacCurdy's tenure, Warner Bros. Animation was also the parent company of Hanna-Barbera following the Time Warner/Turner merger, until it was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation in 2001. MacCurdy resigned as head of Warner Bros. Animation in 2001.
In 1997, MacCurdy was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her work to enhance and improve the perception of women through the medium of television.

Personal life

MacCurdy lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, but still frequently visits Los Angeles. She participated in the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con panel on the creation of Tiny Toon Adventures, Freakazoid, and Animaniacs, in San Diego, California.

Filmography