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Jay Ward (born as Joseph Ward Cohen Jr.) was an American creator and producer of animated television series. He was the eponymous founder of the animation studio Jay Ward Productions (1948-), one of the earliest American studios to market its productions to television audiences. Ward co-created "Crusader Rabbit" (1950-1959), the first animated series produced specifically for television. His subsequent productions included "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" (1959-1964), "Hoppity Hooper" (1964-1967), "George of the Jungle" (1967), and "The Dudley Do-Right Show" (1969-1970). In the 1960s, Ward's studio started producing animated television commercials for the Quaker Oats Company. Its best known project in this field were the commercials featuring the cartoon mascot Cap'n Crunch, depicted as an 18th-century naval captain.
In 1920, Ward was born in San Francisco. His parents were Joseph Ward Cohen (1890-1967) and his wife Mercedes Juanita Troplong Ward (1892-1972). He was primarily raised in Berkeley California, and his family name had changed to "Ward" by his teen years. He attended the Frances E. Willard Intermediate School in Berkeley.
Ward received his college education at the University of California, Berkeley, and gained an undergraduate degree. He pursued further studies at the Harvard Business School, graduating in 1947 with a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Following his graduation, Ward opened his first real estate office. It was profitable, but Ward was soon injured when a runaway truck crashed into his office building.
During his recuperation period, decided to invest profits from his real estate business into opening a new animation studio. He partnered up with the animator Alex Anderson (1920-2010), who was his childhood friend. Anderson had previous experience working with the animation studio Terrytoons (1929-1972), and happened to be a nephew of the studio founder Paul Terry (1887-1971).
Ward and Anderson developed the pilot film "The Comic Strips of Television" to market a new group of characters to television producers. The characters included Crusader Rabbit (a short but intelligent adventurer), Hamhock Bones (a parody version of Sherlock Holmes) and Dudley Do-Right (a bumbling Canadian Mountie). Nobody was interested in Hamhock and Dudley, but producer Jerry Fairbanks (1904-1995) was interested in financing an entire series about Crusader. Ward and Anderson produced the first seasons of the Crusader Rabbit series from 1950 to 1952, developing Rags the Tiger as Crusader's dimwitted sidekick. The episodes followed a comedy adventure format, with cliffhangers at the end of each episode. This version of the series lasted for 195 episodes.
In 1953, Fairbanks declared bankruptcy. His inventory of filmed, low-budget productions from past decades was considered outdated, and he could not find a market for it. Ward and Anderson entered a legal battle in an attempt to secure their rights to the "Crusader Rabbit" series, but lost. When the series was revived in 1956, a new producer had hired a different production team. By that time, Ward was trying to develop the script for a new series. It was to be called "The Frostbite Falls Revue" , and was intended to feature an entire cast of eccentric characters. This project never materialized, but two characters developed for it became the next big stars for Ward's animation studio: Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose.
Ward found television success with the "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends", which recycled some of the adventure comedy ideas from "Crusader Rabbit". The new series benefited from having a talented group of animators working of it (Ward had hired veterans from the United Productions of America/UPA), from its witty scripts by Bill Scott, Chris Hayward, and Allan Burns, and from its frequent use of self-referential humor.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ward's animation studio largely ended its production of new animated series. Ward had recurring problems with finding network executives interested in his ideas, while his television commercials were a more stable source of profit for the studio. Ward also operated his own gift shop, "Dudley Do-Right Emporium" (1971-2005). It marketed toys and souvenirs based on the studio's past productions.
Ward died in October 1989, due to renal cancer. He was 69-years-old at the time of his death. His family continued operating the studio and the gift store for several years.
