title: Josh McDaniels

text: Recruited out of Canton McKinley High School by Greg Debeljak, McDaniels attended John Carroll University, where he played football primarily as a wide receiver from 1995 to 1998. Though a quarterback in high school, he lost out at that position at John Carroll to Nick Caserio, who joined the Patriots staff in 2001 (the same year as McDaniels). His other teammates at John Carroll included London Fletcher, formerly a linebacker with the St. Louis Rams, Buffalo Bills, and Washington Redskins; as well as Brian Polian, the former head coach at the University of Nevada-Reno; Jerry Schuplinski, the New York Giants quarterbacks coach; Tom Telesco, general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers; and Dave Ziegler, general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: McDaniels began his coaching career as a senior graduate assistant at Michigan State University in 1999 under Nick Saban, parlaying his dad's friendship with Saban. After assisting Michigan State, McDaniels moved to Cleveland and worked as a plastics sales representative.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: McDaniels joined the Patriots in 2001 as a personnel assistant. From 2002 to 2003, he served as a defensive coaching assistant for the team, working with the defensive backs in 2003. In 2004, he became the team's quarterbacks coach. After offensive coordinator Charlie Weis left the team following the 2004 season, the Patriots did not name an offensive coordinator for the 2005 season. According to "The New York Times", in 2008, it was McDaniels who called the offensive plays for the 2005 season, although suggestions to that effect were made in 2005. After the season, McDaniels was officially promoted to offensive coordinator, while retaining his responsibilities coaching the team's quarterbacks.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: In the 2007 season, with McDaniels at the helm of the offense, the Patriots set NFL records, scoring 75 touchdowns (67 on offense, 50 passing and 17 rushing) and 589 points, leading to rumors that McDaniels might leave the Patriots for a head coaching job. McDaniels withdrew his name from consideration, however, during the Patriots' January 2008 playoff run. Shortly after the Patriots' loss in Super Bowl XLII, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick gave McDaniels a five-page typed report on what it takes to be an effective head coach and run a winning organization, which McDaniels termed "his bible." Throughout the 2008 season, the two would meet to discuss the report and allow McDaniels to ask non-coaching questions that he brought to later head coaching interviews.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: Starting quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1 of the 2008 season. McDaniels directed the Matt Cassel-led Patriots' offense as the team finished the season with an 11–5 record.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: On January 11, 2009, the Denver Broncos named McDaniels their head coach, replacing Mike Shanahan. The Broncos introduced McDaniels, who agreed to sign a four-year, $8 million contract, as their head coach in a press conference the next day.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: McDaniels's tenure with the Broncos was marred early on by a controversy involving an alleged trade offer from the Patriots involving the team's quarterback, Jay Cutler, which would have sent Matt Cassel to Denver. On March 9, 2009, according to ESPN, a conference call involving McDaniels, team owner Pat Bowlen and Cutler failed to resolve the issues. Cutler said he did not trust McDaniels and the organization following the trade controversy. On April 2, 2009, the Broncos traded Cutler and a 2009 fifth-round draft pick to the Chicago Bears for quarterback Kyle Orton, first- and third-round picks in 2009 and a first-round pick in 2010.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: The Broncos started their first season under McDaniels with six straight wins, including an overtime win over the Patriots in Week 5, before suffering four straight losses. In the last game of the season, McDaniels and the Broncos still had a potential playoff berth on the line, but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 44–24, Denver's third straight home loss to a division opponent. That left the Broncos with an 8–8 season record. Controversy surrounded McDaniels for his benching of Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall for the game due to disciplinary reasons; Marshall would be traded to the Miami Dolphins after the season.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: McDaniels' second season in Denver ended with a 3–9 record. The Broncos lost to the Kansas City Chiefs on December 5, and on the next day, McDaniels was fired by the Broncos.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: On November 27, "The Denver Post" reported the Broncos were under investigation from the NFL, after it was reported that Steve Scarnecchia, the team's director of video operations hired by McDaniels in 2009, videotaped a San Francisco 49ers' walkthrough practice, during the teams' Week 8 game at Wembley Stadium in London, England.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: The same day, the NFL fined the Broncos and McDaniels $50,000 each, and Scarnecchia was fired as a result of the incident. Scarnecchia told NFL investigators he acted alone and "knew it was wrong" to tape the walkthrough practice, after the rest of the Broncos' staff had left the stadium. Scarnecchia later presented McDaniels with the six-minute video, but McDaniels declined to view it, and it was not shown to any other Broncos staff member, and therefore the NFL determined the Broncos had not gained a competitive advantage from it. An anonymous source alerted the Broncos on November 8, who conducted an internal investigation before alerting the NFL. NFL Security then began its investigation, which included a forensic analysis of the computer from which the recording was later deleted by Scarnecchia. Both the NFL and the Broncos determined that McDaniels knew nothing about the incident.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: However, the NFL fined McDaniels due to the fact that he did not immediately report the incident to the league office, as required by policy. The NFL also fined the Broncos, as "clubs are ultimately accountable for the conduct of their employees."


title: Josh McDaniels

text: "I apologize for not promptly reporting the improper conduct of our video director before our game against the 49ers in London. The actions of this individual are in no way representative of the values and integrity held by myself, our players and coaches, and the entire Denver Broncos organization. I understand the punishment from the National Football League and support its commitment to the integrity of the game. We have addressed the situation internally to assure that nothing like this happens again."


title: Josh McDaniels

text: According to "The Denver Post", the videotaping incident was a major factor in McDaniels' firing a week later; while the Broncos did not deem it something that merited being fired for cause, they considered his failure to report the incident "unforgivable."


title: Josh McDaniels

text: On January 18, 2011, McDaniels agreed to become the offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams under head coach Steve Spagnuolo. In Super Bowl XLII, Spagnuolo was the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants, while McDaniels was the offensive coordinator of the Patriots. Spagnuolo stated, "I've always recognized that he is one of the top offensive minds in the NFL. We think he is a great addition to our organization." Also, during the same news conference, it was announced McDaniels would have no hand in any personnel decisions.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: Following the 2011 season, the Rams fired Spagnuolo as head coach. While McDaniels was under contract for the 2012 season, the Rams informed him that they would not hold him to his contract, and would allow him to leave. The Patriots then hired McDaniels to act as an offensive assistant coach during their 2011 playoffs, and to replace Bill O'Brien as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the 2012 season. O'Brien left the Patriots after the 2011 season concluded to become head coach at Penn State, but maintained playcalling duties through Super Bowl XLVI.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: During the 2014 season, McDaniels was a part of another championship for the Patriots, winning Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks despite a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter. During the 2016 season, McDaniels coached the offense in another Patriots championship season, this time winning Super Bowl LI against the Atlanta Falcons. In the game, the Patriots defeated the Falcons by a score of 34–28 in overtime, this time coming from a 25-point deficit. The Patriots scored only 9 points in the first 3 quarters, but overcame a 3 possession deficit to tie the game in the last minute and win in overtime.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: 2 days after Super Bowl LII, on February 6, 2018, McDaniels was announced as the new head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. However, McDaniels withdrew from the position on the same day and announced that he had decided to stay with the Patriots. In response, his long-time agent, Bob LaMonte, terminated his representation of McDaniels. The Patriots went on to win Super Bowl LIII in 2018, earning McDaniels his third championship as offensive coordinator.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: On January 31, 2022, McDaniels was hired as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. McDaniels got his first win with the Raiders when the Raiders beat McDaniels' former team, the Denver Broncos 32-23.


title: Josh McDaniels

text: McDaniels is the son of Thom McDaniels (the 1997 "USA Today" High School Coach of the Year and often described as a "legend" of Ohio high school football). Attending his father's practices during his youth has been credited with inspiring McDaniels to enter coaching. Josh is also the brother of Ben McDaniels who currently coaches with the Houston Texans.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American animator and filmmaker. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote. He has been involved in numerous television projects as director, writer, producer, and animator.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Beginning his career at the Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher, Bakshi was eventually promoted to animator, and then director. He moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in 1968. Through producer Steve Krantz, Bakshi made his debut feature film, "Fritz the Cat", released in 1972. It was based on the comic strip by Robert Crumb and was the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, and is the most successful independent animated feature of all time.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Over the next 11 years, Bakshi directed seven additional animated features. He is well known for such films as "Wizards" (1977), "The Lord of the Rings" (1978), "American Pop" (1981), and "Fire and Ice" (1983). In 1987, Bakshi returned to television work, producing the series "", which ran for two years. After a nine-year hiatus from feature films, he directed "Cool World" (1992), which was largely rewritten during production and received poor reviews, consequently being his last theatrical feature-length film to date. Bakshi returned to television with the live-action film "Cool and the Crazy" (1994) and the anthology series "Spicy City" (1997).


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: During the 2000s, he focused largely on fine art and painting, and in 2003, co-founded the Bakshi School of Animation with his son Eddie and Jess Gorell. Bakshi has received several awards for his work, including the 1980 Golden Gryphon for "The Lord of the Rings" at the Giffoni Film Festival, the 1988 Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation, and the 2003 Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest Film Festival.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Ralph Bakshi was born on October 29, 1938, in Haifa, British Mandate of Palestine, to a Krymchak Jewish family. In 1939, his family migrated to the United States, and he grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The family lived in a low-rent apartment, where Bakshi became fascinated with the urban milieu. As a child, he enjoyed comic books, and often dug through trash cans to find them.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: According to an interview in 2009, Ralph said he was very poor and the walls of his neighborhood were constantly repainted. He liked the feeling when he looked out the window and saw the sun as a little boy, and whenever he would walk out in the streets, someone would break the wooden crates, that were filled with food, in the push carts open. Ralph says this in the interview, "And the push carts were wood, and most of the buildings were made out of old wood, going back to the turn of the century, and they were repainted a lot but the paint was faded by, you know the hundred years of snow and rain, repainted and faded again." Bakshi loved the faded colors, the nails, the wooden crates, and he would build his own toys from the wood. Ralph recalls, "I had a great feeling with wood, cement, and nails".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In the spring of 1947, Bakshi's father and uncle traveled to Washington, DC, in search of business opportunities, and soon moved the family to the black neighborhood of Foggy Bottom. Bakshi recalled, "All my friends were black, everyone we did business with was black, the school across the street was black. It was segregated, so everything was black. I went to see black movies; black girls sat on my lap. I went to black parties. I was another black kid on the block. No problem!"


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: The racial segregation of local schools meant that the nearest white school was several miles away; Bakshi obtained his mother's permission to attend the nearby black school with his friends. Most of the students had no problem with Bakshi's presence, but a teacher sought advice from the principal, who called the police. Fearing that segregated whites would riot if they learned that a white, let alone Jewish, student was attending a black school, the police removed Bakshi from his classroom. Meanwhile, his father had been suffering from anxiety attacks. Within a few months, the family moved back to Brownsville, where they rarely spoke of these events.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: At the age of 15, after discovering Gene Byrnes' "Complete Guide to Cartooning" at the public library, Bakshi took up cartooning to document his experiences and create fantasy-influenced artwork. He stole a copy of the book and learned every lesson in it. During his teenaged years, Bakshi took up boxing. While attending Thomas Jefferson High School, he took little interest in academics, spending most of his time focusing on "broads, mouthing off, and doodling". After participating in a food fight and being caught smoking, Bakshi was sent to the principal's office. Believing Bakshi was unlikely to prosper at Thomas Jefferson, the principal transferred him to Manhattan's School of Industrial Art. At the school, he was taught by African-American cartoonist Charles Allen. In June 1956, Bakshi graduated from the school with an award in cartooning.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: When Bakshi was 18, his friend Cosmo Anzilotti was hired by the cartoon studio Terrytoons; Anzilotti recommended Bakshi to the studio's production manager, Frank Schudde. Bakshi was hired as a cel polisher and commuted four hours each day to the studio, based in suburban New Rochelle. His low-level position required Bakshi to carefully remove dirt and dust from animation cels.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: After a few months, Schudde was surprised that Bakshi was still showing up to work, so promoted him to cel painter. Bakshi began to practice animating; to give himself more time, at one point he slipped 10 cels he was supposed to work on into the "to-do" pile of a fellow painter, Leo Giuliani. Bakshi's deception was not noticed until two days later, when he was called to Schudde's office because the cels had been painted on the wrong side. When Bakshi explained that Giuliani had made the mistake, an argument ensued between the three. Schudde eventually took Bakshi's side. By this point, the studio's employees were aware of Bakshi's intention to become an animator, and he received help and advice from established animators, including Connie Rasinski, Manny Davis, Jim Tyer, Larry Silverman, and Johnnie Gentilella.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi married his first wife, Elaine, when he was 21. Their son, Mark, was born when Bakshi was 22. Elaine disliked his long work hours; parodying his marital problems, Bakshi drew "Dum Dum and Dee Dee", a comic strip about a man determined "to get—and keep—the girl".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: As he perfected his animation style, he began to take on more jobs, including creating design tests for the studio's head director, Gene Deitch. Deitch was not convinced that Bakshi had a modern design sensibility. In response to the period's political climate and as a form of therapy, Bakshi drew the comic strips "Bonefoot and Fudge", which satirized "idiots with an agenda", and "Junktown", which focused on "misfit technology and discarded ideals".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi's frustrations with his failing marriage and the state of the planet further drove his need to animate. In 1959, he moved his desk to join the rest of the animators; after asking Rasinski for material to animate, he received layouts of two scenes: a hat floating on water and a running Deputy Dawg, the lead character of a Terrytoons' series then being shown on CBS. Despite threats of repercussion from the animators' union, Rasinski fought to keep Bakshi as a layout artist. Bakshi began to see Rasinski as a father figure; Rasinski, childless, was happy to serve as Bakshi's mentor.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: At the age of 25, Bakshi was promoted to director. His first assignment was the series "Sad Cat". Bakshi and his wife had separated by then, giving him the time to animate each short alone. Bakshi was dissatisfied with the traditional role of a Terrytoons director: "We didn't really 'direct' like you'd think. We were 'animation directors,' because the story department controlled the storyboards. We couldn't affect anything, but I still tried. I'd re-time, mix up soundtracks—I'd fuck with it so I could make it my own."


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Other animation studios, such as Hanna-Barbera, were selling shows to the networks, even as the series produced by Terrytoons (which was owned by CBS) were declining in popularity. In 1966, Bill Weiss asked Bakshi to help him carry presentation boards to Manhattan for a meeting with CBS. The network executives rejected all of Weiss's proposals as "too sophisticated", "too corny", or "too old-timey".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: As Fred Silverman, CBS's daytime programming chief, began to leave the office, an unprepared Bakshi pitched a superhero parody called "The Mighty Heroes" on the spot. He described the series' characters, including Strong Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man, Cuckoo Man, and Diaper Man: "They fought evil wherever they could, and the villains were stupider than they were."


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: The executives loved the idea, and while Silverman required a few drawings before committing, Weiss immediately put Bakshi to work on the series' development. Once Silverman saw the character designs, he confirmed that CBS would greenlight the show, on the condition that Bakshi would serve as its creative director and to oversee the entire project. It would appear as a segment of "Mighty Mouse Playhouse" on the network's 1966–67 Saturday-morning schedule; the series was renamed "Mighty Mouse and the Mighty Heroes" in recognition of the new segment.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi received a pay raise, but was not as satisfied with his career advancement as he had anticipated; Rasinski had died in 1965, Bakshi did not have creative control over "The Mighty Heroes", and he was unhappy with the quality of the animation, writing, timing, and voice acting. Although the series' first 20 segments were successful, Bakshi wanted to leave Terrytoons to form his own company. In 1967, he drew up presentation pieces for a fantasy series called "Tee-Witt", with help from Anzilotti, Johnnie Zago, and Bill Foucht.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: On the way to the CBS offices to make his pitch, he was involved in a car accident. At the auto body shop, he met Liz, who later became his second wife. Though CBS passed on "Tee-Witt", its designs served as the basis for Bakshi's 1977 film "Wizards". While leaving the network offices, he learned that Paramount Pictures had recently fired Shamus Culhane, the head of its animation division. Bakshi met with Burt Hampft, a lawyer for the studio, and was hired to replace Culhane.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi enlisted comic-book and pulp-fiction artists and writers Harvey Kurtzman, Lin Carter, Gray Morrow, Archie Goodwin, Wally Wood, and Jim Steranko to work at the studio. After finishing Culhane's uncompleted shorts, he directed, produced, wrote, and designed four short films at Paramount: "The Fuz", "Mini-Squirts", "Marvin Digs", and "Mouse Trek".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: "Marvin Digs", which Bakshi conceived as a "flower child picture", was not completed the way he had intended: It "was going to have curse words and sex scenes, and a lot more than that. [...] Of course, they wouldn't let me do that." He described the disappointing result as a "typical 1967 limited-animation theatrical". Animation historian Michael Barrier called the film "an offensively bad picture, the kind that makes people who love animation get up and leave the theater in disgust". Production of "Mighty Heroes" ended when Bakshi left Terrytoons.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi served as head of the studio for eight months before Paramount closed its animation division on December 1, 1967. He learned that his position was always intended to be temporary and that Paramount never intended to pick up his pitches. Although Hampft was prepared to offer Bakshi a severance package, Bakshi immediately ripped up the contract.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Hampft suggested that Bakshi work with producer Steve Krantz, who had recently fired Culhane as supervising director on the Canadian science-fiction series "Rocket Robin Hood". Bakshi and background artist Johnnie Vita soon headed to Toronto, planning to commute between Canada and New York, with artists such as Morrow and Wood working from the United States.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Unknown to Bakshi, Krantz and producer Al Guest were in the middle of a lawsuit. Failing to reach a settlement with Guest, Krantz told Bakshi to grab the series' model sheets and return to the United States. When the studio found out, a warrant for Bakshi's arrest was issued by the Toronto police. He narrowly avoided capture before being stopped by an American border guard, who asked him what he was doing. Bakshi responded, "All of these guys are heading into Canada to dodge the draft and I'm running back into the States. What the fuck is wrong with that!?" The guard laughed, and let Bakshi through. Vita was detained at the airport; he was searched and interrogated for six hours.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi soon founded his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in the Garment District of Manhattan, where his mother used to work and which Bakshi described as "the worst neighborhood in the world". Bakshi Productions paid its employees higher salaries than other studios and expanded opportunities for female and minority animators. The studio began work on "Rocket Robin Hood", and later took over the "Spider-Man" television series. Bakshi married Liz in August 1968. His second child, Preston, was born in June 1970.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1969, Ralph's Spot was founded as a division of Bakshi Productions to produce commercials for Coca-Cola and "Max, the 2000-Year-Old Mouse", a series of educational shorts paid for by Encyclopædia Britannica. Bakshi was uninterested in the kind of animation the studio was turning out, and wanted to produce something personal. He soon developed "Heavy Traffic", a tale of inner-city street life. Krantz told Bakshi that Hollywood studio executives would be unwilling to fund the film because of its content and Bakshi's lack of film experience, and would likely consider it if his first film was an adaptation. While browsing the East Side Book Store on St. Mark's Place, Bakshi came across a copy of Robert Crumb's "Fritz the Cat". Impressed by Crumb's sharp satire, Bakshi purchased the book and suggested to Krantz that it would work as a film. Krantz arranged a meeting with Crumb, during which Bakshi presented the drawings he had created while learning the artist's distinctive style to prove that he could adapt Crumb's artwork to animation. Impressed by Bakshi's tenacity, Crumb lent him one of his sketchbooks for reference.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Preparation began on a studio pitch that included a poster-sized cel featuring the comic's cast against a traced photo background—as Bakshi intended the film to appear. Despite Crumb's enthusiasm, the artist refused to sign the contract Krantz drew up. Artist Vaughn Bodē warned Bakshi against working with Crumb, describing him as "slick". Bakshi later agreed with Bodé's assessment, calling Crumb "one of the slickest hustlers you'll ever see in your life". Krantz sent Bakshi to San Francisco, where he stayed with Crumb and his wife, Dana, in an attempt to persuade Crumb to sign the contract. After a week, Crumb left, leaving the film's production status uncertain. Two weeks after Bakshi returned to New York, Krantz entered his office and told Bakshi that he had acquired the film rights through Dana, who had Crumb's power of attorney and signed the contract. Crumb was subsequently hostile both to the film and Bakshi. Krantz produced a sequel, "The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat" (1974), to which Bakshi was steadfastly opposed, having wanted to kill Fritz off to avoid further movies.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: After Bakshi pitched the project to every major Hollywood studio, Warner Bros. bought it and promised an $850,000 budget. Bakshi hired animators with whom he had worked in the past, including Vita, Tyer, Anzilotti, and Nick Tafuri, and began the layouts and animation. The first completed sequence was a junkyard scene in Harlem, in which Fritz smokes marijuana, has sex, and incites a revolution. Krantz intended to release the sequence as a 15-minute short in case the picture's financing fell through; Bakshi, however, was determined to complete the film as a feature. They screened the sequence for Warner Bros. executives, who wanted the sexual content toned down and celebrities cast for the voice parts. Bakshi refused, and Warner Bros. pulled out, leading Krantz to seek funds elsewhere. He eventually made a deal with Jerry Gross, the owner of Cinemation Industries, a distributor specializing in exploitation films. Although Bakshi did not have enough time to pitch the film, Gross agreed to fund its production and distribute it, believing that it would fit in with his grindhouse slate.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Despite receiving financing from other sources, including Saul Zaentz (who agreed to distribute the soundtrack album on his Fantasy Records label), the budget was tight enough to exclude pencil tests, so Bakshi had to test the animation by flipping an animator's drawings in his hand before they were inked and painted. When a cameraman realized that the cels for the desert scenes were not wide enough and revealed the transparency, Bakshi painted a cactus to cover the mistake. Very few storyboards were used. Bakshi and Vita walked around the Lower East Side, Washington Square Park, Chinatown, and Harlem, taking moody snapshots. Artist Ira Turek inked the outlines of these photographs onto cels with a Rapidograph, the technical pen preferred by Crumb, giving the film's backgrounds a stylized realism virtually unprecedented in animation. The tones of the watercolor backgrounds were influenced by the work of Ashcan School painters such as George Luks and John French Sloan. Among other unusual techniques, bent and fisheye camera perspectives were used to portray the way the film's hippies and hoodlums viewed the city. Many scenes featured documentary recordings of real conversations in place of scripted dialogue; this, too, would become a signature of Bakshi's.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In May 1971, Bakshi moved his studio to Los Angeles to hire additional animators. Some, including Rod Scribner, Dick Lundy, Virgil Walter Ross, Norman McCabe, and John Sparey, welcomed Bakshi and felt that "Fritz the Cat" would bring diversity to the animation industry. Other animators were less pleased by Bakshi's arrival and placed an advertisement in "The Hollywood Reporter", stating that his "filth" was unwelcome in California. By the time production wrapped, Cinemation had released Melvin Van Peebles' "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" to considerable success, despite the X rating it had received. When the Motion Picture Association of America gave Bakshi's film an X rating, as well, Cinemation exploited it for promotional purposes, advertising "Fritz the Cat" as "90 minutes of violence, excitement, and SEX ... he's X-rated and animated!" "Variety" called it an "amusing, diverting, handsomely executed poke at youthful attitudes". John Grant writes in his book "Masters of Animation" that "Fritz the Cat" was "the breakthrough movie that opened brand new vistas to the commercial animator in the United States", presenting an "almost disturbingly accurate" portrayal "of a particular stratum of Western society during a particular era, [...] as such it has dated very well." "Fritz the Cat" was released on April 12, 1972, opening in Hollywood and Washington, D.C. A major hit, it became the most successful independent animated feature of all time. The same month as the film's release, Bakshi's daughter, Victoria, was born.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: By the time "Fritz the Cat" was released, Bakshi had become a celebrity, but his reputation was primarily based upon his having directed the first "dirty" animated film. Facing criticism of his work on publicity tours and in trade publications, he began writing poetry to express his emotions. This became a tradition, and Bakshi wrote poems before beginning production on each of his films. The first of these poems was "Street Arabs", which preceded the production of "Heavy Traffic" in 1972. Inspiration for the film came from penny arcades, where Bakshi often played pinball, sometimes accompanied by his 12-year-old son, Mark. Bakshi pitched "Heavy Traffic" to Samuel Z. Arkoff, who expressed interest in his take on the "tortured underground cartoonist" and agreed to back the film. Krantz had not compensated Bakshi for his work on "Fritz the Cat", and halfway through the production of "Heavy Traffic", Bakshi asked when he would be paid. Krantz responded, "The picture didn't make any money, Ralph. It's just a lot of noise." Bakshi found Krantz's claims dubious, as the producer had recently purchased a new BMW and a mansion in Beverly Hills. Bakshi did not have a lawyer, so he sought advice from fellow directors with whom he had become friendly, including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg. He soon accused Krantz of ripping him off, which the producer denied.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: As he continued to work on "Heavy Traffic", Bakshi began pitching his next project, "Harlem Nights", a film loosely based on the "Uncle Remus" story books. The idea interested producer Albert S. Ruddy, whom Bakshi encountered at a screening of "The Godfather". Bakshi received a call from Krantz, who questioned him about "Harlem Nights". Bakshi said, "I can't talk about that", and hung up. After locking Bakshi out of the studio the next day, Krantz called several directors, including Chuck Jones, in search of a replacement. Arkoff threatened to withdraw his financial backing unless Krantz rehired Bakshi, who returned a week later.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi wanted the voices to sound organic, so he experimented with improvisation, allowing his actors to ad lib during the recording sessions. Several animation sequences appear as rough sketchbook pages. The film also incorporated live-action footage and photographs. Although Krantz, in an attempt to get the film an R rating, prepared different versions of scenes involving sex and violence, "Heavy Traffic" was rated X. Due to the success of "Fritz the Cat", though, many theaters were willing to book adult-oriented animation, and the film did well at the box office. Bakshi became the first person in the animation industry since Walt Disney to have two financially successful movies released consecutively. "Heavy Traffic" was very well received by critics. "Newsweek" applauded its "black humor, powerful grotesquerie, and peculiar raw beauty." "The Hollywood Reporter" called it "shocking, outrageous, offensive, sometimes incoherent, occasionally unintelligent. However, it is also an authentic work of movie art and Bakshi is certainly the most creative American animator since Disney." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" ranked "Heavy Traffic" among his "Ten Best Films of 1973". Upon release, the movie was banned by the Film Censorship Board in the province of Alberta, Canada.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1973, Bakshi and Ruddy began the production of "Harlem Nights", which Paramount was originally contracted to distribute. While "Fritz the Cat" and "Heavy Traffic" proved that adult-oriented animation could be financially successful, animated films were still not respected, and Bakshi's pictures were considered to be "dirty Disney flicks" that were "mature" only for depicting sex, drugs, and profanity. "Harlem Nights", based on Bakshi's firsthand experiences with racism, was an attack on racist prejudices and stereotypes. Bakshi cast Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas, Barry White, and Charles Gordone in live-action and voice roles, cutting in and out of animation abruptly rather than seamlessly because he wanted to prove that the two media could "coexist with neither excuse nor apology". He wrote a song for Crothers to sing during the opening title sequence: "Ah'm a Niggerman". Its structure was rooted in the history of the slave plantation - slaves would "shout" lines from poems and stories great distances across fields in unison, creating a natural beat. Bakshi has described its vocal style, backed by fast guitar licks, as an "early version of rap".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi intended to attack stereotypes by portraying them directly, culling imagery from blackface iconography. Early designs in which the main characters (Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox) resembled figures from "The Wind in the Willows" were rejected. Bakshi juxtaposed stereotypical designs of blacks with even more negative depictions of white racists, but the film's strongest criticism is directed at the Mafia. Bakshi said, "I was sick of all the hero worship these guys got because of "The Godfather"." Production concluded in 1973. During editing, the title was changed to "Coonskin No More...", and finally to "Coonskin". Bakshi hired several African-American animators to work on "Coonskin", including Brenda Banks, the first African-American female animator. Bakshi also hired graffiti artists and trained them to work as animators. The film's release was delayed by protests from the Congress of Racial Equality, which called Bakshi and his film racist. After its distribution was contracted to the Bryanston Distributing Company, Paramount cancelled a project that Bakshi and Ruddy were developing, "The American Chronicles".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: "Coonskin", advertised as an exploitation film, was given limited distribution and soon disappeared from theaters. Initial reviews were negative; "Playboy" commented that "Bakshi seems to throw in a little of everything and he can't quite pull it together." Eventually, positive reviews appeared in "The Hollywood Reporter", "New York Amsterdam News" (an African-American newspaper), and elsewhere. "The New York Times" Richard Eder said the film "could be [Bakshi's] masterpiece [...] a shattering successful effort to use an uncommon form—cartoons and live action combined-to convey the hallucinatory violence and frustration of American city life, specifically black city life [...] lyrically violent, yet in no way [does it] exploit violence". "Variety" called it a "brutal satire from the streets". A reviewer for the "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner" wrote, "Certainly, it will outrage some and, indeed, it's not Disney. [...] The dialog it has obviously generated—if not the box-office obstacles—seems joltingly healthy." Bakshi called "Coonskin" his best film.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: After production concluded on "Harlem Nights", Bakshi wanted to distinguish himself artistically by producing a film in which live action and animated characters would interact. Bakshi said, "The illusion I attempted to create was that of a completely live-action film. Making it work almost drove us crazy." "Hey Good Lookin'" is set in Brooklyn during the 1950s; its lead characters are Vinnie, the leader of a gang named "The Stompers", his friend Crazy Shapiro, and their girlfriends, Roz and Eva. Vinnie and Crazy Shapiro were based on Bakshi's high-school friends Norman Darrer and Allen Schechterman. Warner Bros. optioned the screenplay and greenlit the film in 1973.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: An initial version of "<nowiki>Hey Good Lookin'</nowiki>" was completed in 1975. A three-minute promotion of this version was screened at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, and the film was scheduled for a Christmas 1975 release, but was moved to the summers of 1976 and later 1977, before ultimately being postponed indefinitely. Warner Bros. was concerned about any controversy the film would encounter as a result of the backlash over the film "Coonskin", and felt that the film was "unreleasable" because of its mix of live action and animation, and it would not spend further money on the project. Bakshi financed the film's completion himself from the director's fees for other projects such as "Wizards", "The Lord of the Rings", and "American Pop". The live-action sequences of "<nowiki>Hey Good Lookin'</nowiki>" were gradually replaced by animation; among the eliminated live-action sequences was one featuring the glam punk band New York Dolls. Singer Dan Hicks worked on the initial musical score, but the final version was scored by John Madara.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: "<nowiki>Hey Good Lookin'</nowiki>" opened in New York City on October 1, 1982, and was released in Los Angeles in January 1983. The film's release was limited, and went largely unnoticed in the United States, although it garnered respectable business in foreign markets. In a brief review, Vincent Canby wrote that it was "not exactly incoherent, but whatever it originally had on its mind seems to have slipped away". Animation historian Jerry Beck wrote, "the beginning of the film is quite promising, with a garbage can discussing life on the streets with some garbage. This is an example of what Bakshi did best—using the medium of animation to comment on society. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it enough in this film. There is a wildly imaginative fantasy sequence during the climax, when the character named Crazy starts hallucinating during a rooftop shooting spree. This scene almost justifies the whole film. But otherwise, this is a rehash of ideas better explored in "Coonskin", "Heavy Traffic", and "Fritz the Cat"." The film has since gained a cult following through cable television and home video. Quentin Tarantino stated that he preferred "<nowiki>Hey Good Lookin'</nowiki>" to Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1976, Bakshi pitched "War Wizards" to 20th Century Fox. Returning to the fantasy drawings he had created in high school for inspiration, Bakshi intended to prove that he could produce a "family picture" that had the same impact as his adult-oriented films. British illustrator Ian Miller and comic book artist Mike Ploog were hired to contribute backgrounds and designs. The crew included Vita, Turek, Sparey, Vitello and Spence, who had become comfortable with Bakshi's limited storyboarding and lack of pencil tests. As the production costs increased, Fox president Alan Ladd, Jr. declined Bakshi's requests for salary increases, and refused to give him $50,000 to complete the film. At the same time, Ladd was dealing with similar budget problems on George Lucas's "Star Wars". Bakshi and Lucas had negotiated contracts entitling them to franchise ownership, merchandising and back-end payment, so Ladd suggested that they fund the completion of their films themselves.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi chose rotoscoping as a cost-effective way to complete the movie's battle scenes with his own finances. Because he could not afford to hire a film crew or actors, or develop 35mm stock, Bakshi requested prints of films that contained the type of large battle scenes needed, including Sergei Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky", and spliced together the footage he needed. However, the cost of printing photographs of each frame would have cost $3 million. Learning that IBM had introduced an industrial-sized photocopier, Bakshi asked one of the company's technical experts if he would be able to feed 35mm reels into the machine to produce enlarged copies of each frame. The experiment worked, and Bakshi got the pages he needed for a penny per copy.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: As "War Wizards" neared completion, Lucas requested that Bakshi change the title of his film to "Wizards" to avoid conflict with "Star Wars"; Bakshi agreed because Lucas had allowed Mark Hamill to take time off from "Star Wars" to record a voice for "Wizards". Although "Wizards" received a limited release, it was successful in the theaters that showed it and developed a worldwide audience. Dave Kehr of "The Chicago Reader" saw it as "marred by cut-rate techniques and a shapeless screenplay". In the view of film historian Jerry Beck, the lead character, an aging sorcerer, "clearly owes much to cartoonist Vaughn Bodé's Cheech Wizard character."


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In late 1976, Bakshi learned that John Boorman was contracted to direct an adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings", in which J. R. R. Tolkien's three-volume novel would be condensed into a single film. Bakshi arranged a meeting with Mike Medavoy, United Artists' head of production, who agreed to let Bakshi direct in exchange for the $3 million that had been spent on Boorman's screenplay. Down the hall from Medavoy was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer president Dan Melnick, who interrupted a meeting with Peter Bogdanovich when he learned that Bakshi wanted to discuss acquiring the rights to "The Lord of the Rings". Melnick agreed to pay United Artists $3 million, but was soon fired; the project was canceled by his replacement, Dick Shepherd. Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who wrote a check to cover MGM's debt and agreed to fund the $8 million budget for the first of what was initially planned as a series of three films, and later negotiated down to two. Before production began, Bakshi and Zaentz insisted that the Tolkien estate receive residuals from the film.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi did not want to produce a broad cartoon version of the tale, so he planned to shoot the entire film in live action and animate the footage with rotoscoping. The film also incorporated brief cel animation and straightforward live-action footage. Production of the live-action sequences took place in Spain. During the middle of a large shoot, union bosses called for a lunch break, and Bakshi secretly shot footage of actors in Orc costumes moving toward the craft service table, and used the footage in the film. Jerry Beck later wrote that, while he found the rotoscoped animation "beautiful", he felt that it was unclear whether the use of live action was an artistic choice or due to budgetary constraints.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: After the Spanish film development lab discovered that telephone lines, helicopters and cars were visible in the footage, they tried to incinerate it, telling Bakshi's first assistant director, "if that kind of sloppy cinematography got out, no one from Hollywood would ever come back to Spain to shoot again." When Bakshi returned to the United States, he learned that the cost of developing blown-up prints of each frame had risen. He did not want to repeat the process that had been used on "Wizards", which was unsuitable for the level of detail he intended for "The Lord of the Rings", so Bakshi and camera technician Ted Bemiller created their own photographic enlarger to process the footage cheaply. Live-action special effects and analog optics were used in place of animation to keep the visual effects budget low and give the film a more realistic look. Among the voice actors was the well-regarded John Hurt, who performed the role of Aragorn. The project's prominence brought heavy trade journal coverage, and fans such as Mick Jagger visited the studio for the chance to play a role. Animator Carl Bell loved drawing Aragorn so much that Bakshi gave Bell the live-action Aragorn costume, which he wore while animating.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Viewing "The Lord of the Rings" as a holiday film, United Artists pressured Bakshi to complete it on schedule for its intended November 15, 1978, release. Once it was finished, Bakshi was told that audiences would not pay to see an incomplete story; over his objections, "The Lord of the Rings" was marketed with no indication that a second part would follow. Reviews of the film were mixed, but it was generally seen as a "flawed but inspired interpretation". "Newsday"s Joseph Gelmis wrote that "the film's principal reward is a visual experience unlike anything that other animated features are doing at the moment". Roger Ebert called Bakshi's effort a "mixed blessing" and "an entirely respectable, occasionally impressive job [which] still falls far short of the charm and sweep of the original story". Vincent Canby found it "both numbing and impressive". David Denby of "New York" felt that the film would not make sense to viewers who had not read the book. He wrote that it was too dark and lacked humor, concluding, "The lurid, meaningless violence of this movie left me exhausted and sickened by the end." The film, which cost $4 million to produce, grossed $30.5 million. The studio refused to fund the sequel, which would have adapted the remainder of the story. "The Lord of the Rings" won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Following the production struggles of "The Lord of the Rings", Bakshi decided to work on something more personal. He pitched "American Pop" to Columbia Pictures president Dan Melnick. Bakshi wanted to produce a film in which songs would be given a new context in juxtaposition to the visuals. "American Pop" follows four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians, whose careers parallel the history of American pop and starred actor Ron Thompson in a dual lead role. While the film does not reflect Bakshi's own experiences, its themes were strongly influenced by people he had encountered in Brownsville. The film's crew included character layout and design artist Louise Zingarelli, Vita, Barry E. Jackson, and Marcia Adams. Bakshi again used rotoscoping, in an attempt to capture the range of emotions and movement required for the film's story. According to Bakshi, "Rotoscoping is terrible for subtleties, so it was tough to get facial performances to match the stage ones." Bakshi was able to acquire the rights to an extensive soundtrack—including songs by Janis Joplin, The Doors, George Gershwin, The Mamas & the Papas, Herbie Hancock, Lou Reed, and Louis Prima—for under $1 million. Released on February 12, 1981, the film was a financial success. "The New York Times" Vincent Canby wrote, "I'm amazed at the success that Mr. Bakshi has in turning animated characters into figures of real feelings." Jerry Beck called it "one of Bakshi's best films". Due to music clearance issues, it was not released on home video until 1998.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: By 1982, fantasy films such as "The Beastmaster" and "Conan the Barbarian" had proven successful at the box office, and Bakshi wanted to work with his long-time friend, the fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta. "Fire and Ice" was financed by some of "American Pop"s investors for $1.2 million, while 20th Century Fox agreed to distribute. "Fire and Ice" was the most action-oriented story Bakshi had directed, so he again used rotoscoping; the realism of the design and rotoscoped animation replicated Frazetta's artwork. Bakshi and Frazetta were heavily involved in the production of the live-action sequences, from casting sessions to the final shoot. The film's crew included background artists James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, layout artist Peter Chung, and established Bakshi Productions artists Sparey, Steve Gordon, Bell and Banks. Chung greatly admired Bakshi's and Frazetta's work, and animated his sequences while working for The Walt Disney Company. The film was given a limited release, and was financially unsuccessful. Andrew Leal wrote, "The plot is standard [...] recalling nothing so much as a more graphic episode of Filmation's "He-Man" series. [...] "Fire and Ice" essentially stands as a footnote to the spate of barbarian films that followed in the wake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance as Conan."


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: After production of "Fire and Ice" wrapped, Bakshi attempted several projects that fell through, including adaptations of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", William Kotzwinkle's "The Fan Man", E. R. Eddison's "The Worm Ouroboros", Stephen Crane's "", Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels and an anthropomorphic depiction of Sherlock Holmes. He turned down offers to direct Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". He passed the latter to Ridley Scott, who adapted it into the 1982 film "Blade Runner" (although he was planning a TV version of said film).


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: During this period, Bakshi reread J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", which he had first read in high school, and saw parallels between his situation and that of the book's protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Inspired to seek the film rights, he intended to shoot the story's bracketing sequences in live action and to animate the core flashback scenes. Salinger had rejected previous offers to adapt the novel, and had not made a public appearance since 1965 or granted an interview since 1980. Bakshi sent Salinger a letter explaining why he should be allowed to adapt the novel; the writer responded by thanking Bakshi and asserting that the novel was unfit for any medium other than its original form.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Prompted in part by Salinger's letter, Bakshi briefly retired to focus on painting. During this time he completed the screenplay for "If I Catch Her, I'll Kill Her", a live-action feature he had been developing since the late 1960s. United Artists and Paramount Pictures each paid Bakshi to develop the film in the 1970s, but were unwilling to produce it, as were the studios he pitched the film to in the 1980s. According to Bakshi, "They thought that no one was going to admit that women can—and do—cheat on their husbands. They thought it was too hot, which made no sense." In 1985, he received a phone call from The Rolling Stones' manager, Tony King, who told Bakshi that the band had recorded a cover of Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle", and wanted Bakshi to direct the music video. He was told that the live-action shoot needed to be completed within one day (January 28, 1986) for it to be shown at the Grammy Awards. Production designer Wolf Kroeger was forced to drastically compact his sets, and animation director and designer John Kricfalusi had to push his team, including Lynne Naylor, Jim Smith and Bob Jaques, to complete the animation within a few weeks. The band's arrival at the set was delayed by a snowstorm and several takes were ruined when the cameras crossed paths. Bakshi was forced to pay the union wages out of his own fees, and the continuity between Kricfalusi's animation and the live-action footage did not match; however, the video was completed on time.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi recognized Kricfalusi's talent, and wanted to put him in charge of a project that would showcase the young animator's skills. Bakshi and Kricfalusi co-wrote the screenplay "Bobby's Girl" as a take on the teen films of the era. Jeff Sagansky, president of production at TriStar Pictures, put up $150,000 to develop the project, prompting Bakshi to move back to Los Angeles. When Sagansky left TriStar, Bakshi was forced to pitch the film again, but the studio's new executives did not understand its appeal and cut off financing. Bakshi and Zingarelli began to develop a feature about Hollywood's Golden Age, and Bakshi Productions crewmembers worked on proposed cartoons influenced by pulp fiction. "Bobby's Girl" was reworked as a potential prime time series called "Suzy's in Love", but attracted no serious interest. They would try again in 2003 over at Spümcø, but nothing came from this either.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In April 1987, Bakshi set up a meeting with Judy Price, the head of CBS's Saturday morning block. Three days before the meeting, Bakshi, Kricfalusi, Naylor, Tom Minton, Eddie Fitzgerald and Jim Reardon met to brainstorm. Bakshi remembers, "My car was packed to the windows. Judy was my last stop before driving cross country back to New York to my family." Price rejected Bakshi's prepared pitches, but asked what else he had. He told her that he had the rights to "Mighty Mouse", and she agreed to purchase the series. However, Bakshi did not own the rights and did not know who did. While researching the rights, he learned that CBS had acquired the entire Terrytoons library in 1955 and forgotten about it. According to Bakshi, "I sold them a show they already owned, so they just gave me the rights for nothin'!"


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Kricfalusi's team wrote story outlines for thirteen episodes in a week and pitched them to Price. By the next week, Kricfalusi had hired animators he knew who had been working at other studios. "" went into production the month it was greenlighted; it was scheduled to premiere on September 19, 1987. This haste required the crew to be split into four teams, led by supervising director Kricfalusi, Fitzgerald, Steve Gordon and Bruce Woodside. Each team was given a handful of episodes, and operated almost entirely independently of the others. Although the scripts required approval by CBS executives, Kricfalusi insisted that the artists add visual gags as they drew. Bruce Timm, Andrew Stanton, Dave Marshall and Jeff Pidgeon were among the artists who worked on the series. Despite the time constraints, CBS was pleased with the way Bakshi Productions addressed the network's notes.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: During the production of the episode "The Littlest Tramp", editor Tom Klein expressed concern that a sequence showing Mighty Mouse sniffing the remains of a crushed flower resembled cocaine use. Bakshi did not initially view the footage; he believed that Klein was overreacting, but agreed to let him cut the scene. Kricfalusi expressed disbelief over the cut, insisting that the action was harmless and that the sequence should be restored. Following Kricfalusi's advice, Bakshi told Klein to restore the scene, which had been approved by network executives and the CBS standards and practices department. The episode aired on October 31, 1987, without controversy.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1988, Bakshi received an Annie Award for "Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation". The same year, he began production on a series pilot loosely adapted from his "Junktown" comic strips. According to Bakshi, the proposed series "was going to be a revitalization of cartoon style from the '20s and '30s. It was gonna have Duke Ellington and Fats Waller jazzing up the soundtrack." Nickelodeon was initially willing to greenlight 39 episodes of "Junktown".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: On June 6, 1988, Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association (AFA), alleged that "The Littlest Tramp" depicted cocaine use, instigating a media frenzy. The AFA, during its incarnation as the National Federation for Decency, had previously targeted CBS as an "accessory to murder" after a mother killed her daughter following an airing of "". Concerning Bakshi's involvement with "Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures", the AFA claimed that CBS "intentionally hired a known pornographer to do a cartoon for children, and then allowed him to insert a scene in which the cartoon hero is shown sniffing cocaine." Bakshi responded, "You could pick a still out of "Lady and the Tramp" and get the same impression. "Fritz the Cat" wasn't pornography. It was social commentary. This all smacks of burning books and the Third Reich. It smacks of McCarthyism. I'm not going to get into who sniffs what. This is lunacy!" On CBS's order, Klein removed the sequence from the master broadcast footage. Wildmon claimed that the edits were "a de facto admission that, indeed, Mighty Mouse was snorting cocaine". Despite receiving an award from Action for Children's Television, favorable reviews, and a ranking in "Time" magazine's "Best of '87" feature, "Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures" was canceled by CBS following the controversy.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: The incident had a ripple effect, weakening Nickelodeon's commitment to "Junktown". Bakshi has also stated that "we were trying something different [...] but a series didn't make sense. It just didn't work". The series was scrapped, and the completed pilot aired as a special, "Christmas in Tattertown", in December 1988. It was the first original animated special created for Nickelodeon. Bakshi moved into a warehouse loft in downtown Los Angeles to clear his head, and was offered $50,000 to direct a half-hour live-action film for PBS's "Imagining America" anthology series. Mark Bakshi produced the film, "This Ain't Bebop", his first professional collaboration with his father. Bakshi wrote a poem influenced by Jack Kerouac, jazz, the Beat Generation and Brooklyn that served as the narration, which was spoken by Harvey Keitel. After a car crash, Bakshi completed the post-production in stitches and casts. Bakshi said of the work, "It's the most proud I've been of a picture since "Coonskin"—the last real thing I did with total integrity."


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: As a result of the film, Bakshi received an offer to adapt Dr. Seuss's "The Butter Battle Book" for TNT. Ted Geisel had never been satisfied with the previous screen versions of his Dr. Seuss work. Bakshi wanted to produce an entirely faithful adaptation, and Geisel—who agreed to storyboard the special himself—was pleased with the final product. Bakshi next directed the pilot "Hound Town" for NBC; he described the result as "an embarrassing piece of shit". Besides Bakshi, sitcom alumus Rob Sternin and Prudence Fraser wrote and produced the project.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1990, Bakshi pitched "Cool World" to Paramount Pictures as a partially animated horror film. The concept involved a cartoon and human having sex and conceiving a hybrid child who visits the real world to murder the father who abandoned him. The live-action footage was intended to look like "a living, walk-through painting", a visual concept Bakshi had long wanted to achieve. Massive sets were constructed on a sound stage in Las Vegas, based on enlargements of designer Barry Jackson's paintings. The animation was strongly influenced by the house styles of Fleischer Studios and Terrytoons. As the sets were being built, producer Frank Mancuso Jr., son of Paramount president Frank Mancuso Sr., had the screenplay rewritten in secret; the new version, by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, was radically different from Bakshi's original. Paramount threatened to sue Bakshi if he did not complete the film. As Bakshi and Mancuso wrangled over their creative differences, Bakshi and the studio also began to fight over the film's casting. To keep actor Brad Pitt, Bakshi had to replace Drew Barrymore, his original choice for the character of Holli Would, with Kim Basinger, a bigger box office draw at the time. The film's animators were never given a screenplay, and were instead told by Bakshi, "Do a scene that's funny, whatever you want to do!"


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Designer Milton Knight recalled that "audiences actually wanted a wilder, raunchier "Cool World". The premiere audience I saw it with certainly did." The critical reaction to the film was generally negative. Roger Ebert wrote, "The DJ who was hosting the radio station's free preview of "Cool World" leaped onto the stage and promised the audience: 'If you liked "Roger Rabbit", you'll love "Cool World"!' He was wrong, but you can't blame him—he hadn't seen the movie. I have, and I will now promise you that if you liked "Roger Rabbit", quit while you're ahead." The film was a box-office disappointment. While other film projects followed, Bakshi began to focus more attention on painting.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1993, Lou Arkoff, the son of Samuel Z. Arkoff, approached Bakshi to write and direct a low-budget live-action feature for Showtime's "Rebel Highway" series. For the third time, Bakshi revisited his screenplay for "If I Catch Her, I'll Kill Her", which he retitled "Cool and the Crazy". The picture, which aired September 16, 1994, starred Jared Leto, Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Blanc and Matthew Flint. Reviewer Todd Everett noted that it had the same "hyperdrive visual sense" of Bakshi's animated films. He said, "Everything in 'Cool' [...] seems to exist in pastels and Bakshi shoots from more odd angles than any director since Sidney J. Furie in his heyday. And the closing sequences ably demonstrate how it's possible to present strong violence without any blood being shed onscreen. Bakshi pulls strong [performances] from a cadre of youngish and largely unknown actors".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 1995, Hanna-Barbera producer Fred Seibert offered Bakshi the chance to create two animated short films for Cartoon Network's "What a Cartoon!": "Malcom and Melvin" and "Babe, He Calls Me", focusing on a trumpet-playing cockroach named Malcom and his best friend, a clown named Melvin. Both were heavily edited after Bakshi turned them in and he disowned them as a result. Bakshi was subsequently contacted by HBO, which was looking to launch the first animated series specifically for adults, an interest stirred by discussions involving a series based upon Trey Parker and Matt Stone's video Christmas card, "Jesus vs. Santa". Bakshi enlisted a team of writers, including his son Preston, to develop "Spicy Detective", later renamed "Spicy City", an anthology series set in a noir-ish, technology-driven future. Each episode was narrated by a female host named Raven, voiced by Michelle Phillips. The series premiered in July 1997—one month before the debut of Parker and Stone's "South Park"—and thus became the first "adults only" cartoon series. Although critical reaction was largely unfavorable, "Spicy City" received acceptable ratings. A second season was approved, but the network wanted to fire Bakshi's writing team and hire professional Los Angeles screenwriters. When Bakshi refused to cooperate, the series was canceled.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Bakshi retired from animation once more, returning to his painting. In 2000, he began teaching an undergraduate animation class at New York's School of Visual Arts. On December 14, 2001, he did some paintings for the Cameron Crowe film "Vanilla Sky". He later became involved in several screen projects, including a development deal with the Sci Fi Channel, In September 2002, Bakshi, Liz and their dogs moved to New Mexico, where he became more productive than ever in his painting and began development on the Last Days of Coney Island film. In 2003, he appeared as the Fire Chief in the episode "Fire Dogs 2" of John Kricfalusi's "Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon""; the episode starts as a repeat of the plot of the original episode, only to quickly drop it just under a minute in, as the Chief's appearance suddenly transforms into that of Bakshi and the episode instead revolves around the pair living with the Chief.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In September 2008, Main Street Pictures announced that it would collaborate with Bakshi on a sequel to "Wizards". In 2012, Bakshi began producing the short film series "Bakshi Blues". The first of these shorts, "Trickle Dickle Down", contains reused animation from "Coonskin" and criticizes 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The shorts were to focus on "old and new characters" and comment on modern-day America.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In February 2013, Bakshi launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to obtain funding for his latest film, "Last Days of Coney Island".


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Actor Matthew Modine was cast in the film in February 2013 after Modine, a longtime Bakshi fan, came across the film's Kickstarter campaign online.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: "Last Days of Coney Island" was released on Vimeo in 2015. Bakshi released the film for free on YouTube on 13 October 2016.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: After he quit the animation industry, Bakshi did multiple interviews with the media and on podcasts. He continues to sell art on eBay and his website, both run by the Bakshi family. He currently sells an art series called Little Guys and Gals, which are fictional portraits of cartoon people. The series originated in November 2020 as random character sketches and officially began in January 2021, originally calling the series Little Gals and Little Guys. Bakshi appeared as a guest at a Canadian film festival which celebrates animation, SPARK Animation, which was held virtually, from October 28 to November 7, 2021.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 2003, Bakshi received a Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival the same year he began teaching an animation class in New Mexico - this became The Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning, which is run by Ralph's son Edward and his partner Jess Gorell.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: The Online Film Critics Society released a list of the "Top 100 Animated Features of All Time" in March 2003 that included four of Bakshi's films: "Fritz the Cat", "The Lord of the Rings", "Coonskin" and "Fire and Ice". "Fritz the Cat" was ranked number 56 in the 2004 poll conducted by Britain's Channel 4 for its documentary "The 100 Greatest Cartoons". The Museum of Modern Art has added Bakshi's films to its collection for preservation.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: In 2021, Ralph Bakshi won the Animafest Zagreb Lifetime Achievement Award for his animation career and the impact of his films.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: The availability of Bakshi's work on the Internet sparked a resurgence of interest in his career, resulting in a three-day American Cinematheque retrospective held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California, in April 2005. "Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi", a hardcover book of Bakshi's art, was released on April 1, 2008. The foreword was written by Quentin Tarantino and the afterword by Bakshi. His rotoscoping techniques in "Lord of the Rings" inspired the animation rotoscoping techniques of the independent film The Spine of Night in which the animator developed his own rotoscope style by watching behind-the-scenes footage of Bakshi's warehouse and reverse-engineering it. Billie Eilish had the idea for an animated version of herself for her in the concert film "" (which is a promotion for the album of the same name) and suggested to director Patrick Osborne that the character should have a 1980s look and rotoscope-ish animation. Eilish referenced the works of Bakshi and animator Richard Williams to him.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: Gore Verbinski commented about Bakshi and showed that he was inspired by him during an interview in "The Hollywood Reporter" for his first animated movie, "Rango", saying: "What happened to the Ralph Bakshis of the world? We're all sitting here talking family entertainment. Does animation have to be family entertainment? Audiences want something new; they just can't articulate what."


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: On January 12, 2014, at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, there was a special screening of Bakshi's film "American Pop" with actors Ron Thompson and Mews Small in attendance, it was the first time lead actor Ron Thompson had ever introduced the film before a live audience.


title: Ralph Bakshi

text: At the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California, on March 27, 2015, there was a screening of "Heavy Traffic" and "American Pop" with Bakshi, Ron Thompson and Mews Small attending.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is a 2003 romantic comedy film directed by Donald Petrie, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. It is based on the picture book of the same name by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long. The book has no narrative, only a list of comedic dating "don'ts", so the characters and plot were created specifically for the film. In the film, advertising executive Benjamin Barry makes a bet that he can make any woman fall in love with him, while women's magazine writer Andie Anderson plans to write an article about how she led her boyfriend to dump her, putting them at cross-purposes after they choose each other as their romantic partners. Andie employs a number of the dating "don'ts" from the picture book in her efforts to get Ben to break up with her.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Andie Anderson is a writer for the women's magazine "Composure" as the subject-matter expert for a series of "How to" articles. She is bored and wishes she could write about more serious topics. Michelle, Andie's friend, experiences yet another break-up, and she becomes despondent and says she is not attractive enough. Andie argues that the problem is rather her needy, excessively emotional behavior with men, and is inspired to write an article titled "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" in order to prove her point; she will begin dating a man and drive him away within 10 days simply by imitating Michelle's behavior.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Advertising executive Benjamin Barry is looking to branch out from his usual remit of beer and sports campaigns, and lead a prestigious advertising campaign for a diamond company. At a bar, Ben's boss, Phillip, questions whether Ben has enough insight into the romance typically associated with diamonds. In response, Ben wagers he could make any woman fall in love with him. Phillip says that if he can achieve this before the company ball that will take place in 10 days, he will allow Ben to lead the diamond campaign. Ben's rivals, Judy Spears and Judy Green, were at the "Composure" magazine offices earlier in the day and know about Andie's task. Seeing Andie at the bar, they pick her as the woman to be romanced by Ben.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Ben and Andie meet and soon start their quests, neither revealing their true intentions. Andie works hard to make Ben first fall for her and then break up with her in order to complete her article, but Ben continues to stick around in hopes of making her fall in love with him. Andie makes Ben miss seeing the final shot in a Knicks game by sending him to get her a soda, gets him knocked out in a movie theater by talking aloud while watching a film, moves her things into his apartment, gets him a fern plant to represent their relationship and a Chinese Crested Dog, and takes him to a Celine Dion concert when he was under the assumption he was going to see a New York Knicks basketball game. However, she also occasionally lets her normal side show, which Ben begins falling for.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Fed up with the project, Andie throws a fit at Ben's boys' poker night to finally drive him to break up with her. However, Ben's friends Tony and Thayer push him to stay the course by proposing couples counseling with Andie. Andie has Michelle pose as a couples therapist and suggest Ben is ashamed of Andie. Ben counters by offering to introduce her to his family in Staten Island that weekend. While visiting the family together, Ben and Andie form a genuine bond.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Andie and Ben go to the company ball together where Phillip talks with Andie and tells Ben that he "met her, she loves you, you win." To sabotage Ben, Judy and Judy tell Tony and Thayer that Andie knew about the bet all along and was playing along to help Ben win. Tony and Thayer beg Andie to keep quiet, unwittingly making her aware of the bet. Simultaneously, Andie's boss Lana, who is unaware of Ben's role, tells him about Andie's "How To" article. Upon learning of Ben's bet, Andie attempts to humiliate Ben in front of everyone at the party, and the pair argue on stage before breaking up.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Tony shows Ben Andie's subsequent article, in which she explains how she "lost the only guy I've ever fallen for." When he hears she quit her job at "Composure" (since Lana again refused to let her write about serious topics) and is on her way to Washington, D.C., for an interview, he chases her taxi and stops her. After he accuses her of running away, they reveal their true feelings for each other. Ben instructs the taxi driver to return Andie's belongings to her home - Ben will be taking her now - and then they kiss.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: Gwyneth Paltrow and director Mike Newell were originally attached to the project but producer Lynda Obst was unable to get Newell to commit to a date and Paltrow went on to work on the film "View from the Top".


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: The yellow gown Kate Hudson wore in the movie was created by Carolina Herrera along with the film’s costume designer. The necklace she wears with the yellow gown is called, in the film, the "Isadora Diamond" named after Isadora Duncan. The 80-carat yellow diamond in the necklace was designed by Harry Winston and is worth $6 million.


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: The apartment interiors were conceived by Yeadon born sculptor Zoë Waterman, who said she thought the characters should live in "spaces which I consider to be dream spaces. That is to say their apartments are as close as I've seen on screen to my dream apartment. I just said to myself 'where would I absolutely love to live in my wildest dreams?', and the whole design came together in about fifteen minutes."


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" received mixed reviews from critics. Metacritic gave the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 42%, based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson are charming together, but they can't overcome "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" silly premise and predictable script."


title: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

text: The film was released on February 7, 2003, and earned $23,774,850 in its first weekend. Its final gross is $105,813,373 in the United States and $71,558,068 internationally.


title: Recycling

text: Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling).


title: Recycling

text: Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" waste hierarchy. It promotes environmental sustainability by removing raw material input and redirecting waste output in the economic system. There are some ISO standards related to recycling, such as ISO 15270:2008 for plastics waste and ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management control of recycling practice.


title: Recycling

text: "Recyclable materials" include many kinds of glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, tires, textiles, batteries, and electronics. The composting and other reuse of biodegradable waste—such as food and garden waste—is also a form of recycling. Materials for recycling are either delivered to a household recycling center or picked up from curbside bins, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials for manufacturing new products.


title: Recycling

text: In ideal implementations, recycling a material produces a fresh supply of the same material—for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper, and used polystyrene foam into new polystyrene. Some types of materials, such as metal cans, can be remanufactured repeatedly without losing their purity. With other materials, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so "recycling" of many products and materials involves their "reuse" in producing different materials (for example, paperboard). Another form of recycling is the salvage of constituent materials from complex products, due to either their intrinsic value (such as lead from car batteries and gold from printed circuit boards), or their hazardous nature (e.g. removal and reuse of mercury from thermometers and thermostats).


title: Recycling

text: Recycling has been a common practice for most of human history with recorded advocates as far back as Plato in the fourth century BC. During periods when resources were scarce, archaeological studies of ancient waste dumps show less household waste (such as ash, broken tools, and pottery), implying that more waste was recycled in place of new material. However, archaeological artefacts made from recyclable material, such as glass or metal, may neither be the original object nor resemble it, with the consequence that a successful ancient recycling economy can become invisible when recycling is synonymous with re-melting rather than reuse.


title: Recycling

text: In pre-industrial times, there is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected in Europe and melted down for continuous reuse. Paper recycling was first recorded in 1031 when Japanese shops sold repulped paper. In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was collected by "dustmen" and downcycled as a base material for brick making. These forms of recycling were driven by the economic advantage of obtaining recycled materials instead of virgin material, and the need for waste removal in ever-more-densely populated areas. In 1813, Benjamin Law developed the process of turning rags into "shoddy" and "mungo" wool in Batley, Yorkshire, which combined recycled fibers with virgin wool. The West Yorkshire shoddy industry in towns such as Batley and Dewsbury lasted from the early 19th century to at least 1914.


title: Recycling

text: Industrialization spurred demand for affordable materials. In addition to rags, ferrous scrap metals were coveted as they were cheaper to acquire than virgin ore. Railroads purchased and sold scrap metal in the 19th century, and the growing steel and automobile industries purchased scrap in the early 20th century. Many secondary goods were collected, processed and sold by peddlers who scoured dumps and city streets for discarded machinery, pots, pans, and other sources of metal. By World War I, thousands of such peddlers roamed the streets of American cities, taking advantage of market forces to recycle post-consumer materials into industrial production.


title: Recycling

text: Manufacturers of beverage bottles, including Schweppes, began offering refundable recycling deposits in Great Britain and Ireland around 1800. An official recycling system with refundable deposits for bottles was established in Sweden in 1884, and for aluminum beverage cans in 1982; it led to recycling rates of 84–99%, depending on type. (Glass bottles can be refilled around 20 times.)


title: Recycling

text: New chemical industries created in the late 19th century both invented new materials (e.g. Bakelite in 1907) and promised to transform valueless into valuable materials. Proverbially, you could not make a silk purse of a sow's ear—until the US firm Arthur D. Little published in 1921 "On the Making of Silk Purses from Sows' Ears", its research proving that when "chemistry puts on overalls and gets down to business [...] new values appear. New and better paths are opened to reach the goals desired."


title: Recycling

text: Recycling—or "salvage", as it was then usually known—was a major issue for governments during World War II, where financial constraints and significant material shortages made it necessary to reuse goods and recycle materials. These resource shortages caused by the world wars, and other such world-changing events, greatly encouraged recycling. It became necessary for most homes to recycle their waste, allowing people to make the most of what was available. Recycling household materials also meant more resources were left available for war efforts. Massive government campaigns, such as the National Salvage Campaign in Britain and the Salvage for Victory campaign in the United States, occurred in every fighting nation, urging citizens to donate metal, paper, rags, and rubber as a patriotic duty.


title: Recycling

text: A considerable investment in recycling occurred in the 1970s due to rising energy costs. Recycling aluminium uses only 5% of the energy of virgin production. Glass, paper and other metals have less dramatic but significant energy savings when recycled.


title: Recycling

text: Although consumer electronics have been popular since the 1920s, recycling them was almost unheard of until early 1991. The first electronic waste recycling scheme was implemented in Switzerland, beginning with collection of old refrigerators, then expanding to cover all devices. When these programs were created, many countries couldn't deal with the sheer quantity of e-waste, or its hazardous nature, and began to export the problem to developing countries without enforced environmental legislation. (For example, recycling computer monitors in the United States costs 10 times more than in China.) Demand for electronic waste in Asia began to grow when scrapyards found they could extract valuable substances such as copper, silver, iron, silicon, nickel, and gold during the recycling process. The 2000s saw a boom in both the sales of electronic devices and their growth as a waste stream: In 2002, e-waste grew faster than any other type of waste in the EU. This spurred investment in modern automated facilities to cope with the influx, especially after strict laws were implemented in 2003.


title: Recycling

text: As of 2014, the European Union had about 50% of world share of waste and recycling industries, with over companies employing people and a turnover of €24 billion. EU countries are mandated to reach recycling rates of at least 50%; leading countries are already at around 65%. The overall EU average was 39% in 2013


title: Recycling

text: In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly set 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, specifies 11 targets "to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns". The fifth target, , is defined as substantially reducing waste generation by 2030, indicated by the National Recycling Rate.


title: Recycling

text: In 2018, changes in the recycling industry have sparked a global "crisis". On 31 December 2017, China announced its "National Sword" policy, setting new standards for imports of recyclable material and banning materials deemed too "dirty" or "hazardous". The new policy caused drastic disruptions in the global recycling market, and reduced the prices of scrap plastic and low-grade paper. Exports of recyclable materials from G7 countries to China dropped dramatically, with many shifting to countries in southeast Asia. This generated significant concern about the recycling industry's practices and environmental sustainability. The abrupt shift caused countries to accept more materials than they could process, and raised fundamental questions about shipping waste from developed countries to countries with few environmental regulations—a practice that predated the crisis.


title: Recycling

text: For a recycling program to work, a large, stable supply of recyclable material is crucial. Three legislative options have been used to create such supplies: mandatory recycling collection, container deposit legislation, and refuse bans. Mandatory collection laws set recycling targets for cities, usually in the form that a certain percentage of a material must be diverted from the city's waste stream by a target date. The city is responsible for working to meet this target.


title: Recycling

text: Container deposit legislation mandates refunds for the return of certain containers—typically glass, plastic and metal. When a product in such a container is purchased, a small surcharge is added that the consumer can reclaim when the container is returned to a collection point. These programs have succeeded in creating an average 80% recycling rate. Despite such good results, the shift in collection costs from local government to industry and consumers has created strong opposition in some areas—for example, where manufacturers bear the responsibility for recycling their products. In the European Union, the WEEE Directive requires producers of consumer electronics to reimburse the recyclers' costs.


title: Recycling

text: An alternative way to increase the supply of recyclates is to ban the disposal of certain materials as waste, often including used oil, old batteries, tires, and garden waste. This can create a viable economy for the proper disposal of the products. Care must be taken that enough recycling services exist to meet the supply, or such bans can create increased illegal dumping.


title: Recycling

text: Four forms of legislation have also been used to increase and maintain the demand for recycled materials: minimum recycled content mandates, utilization rates, procurement policies, and recycled product labeling.


title: Recycling

text: Both minimum recycled content mandates and utilization rates increase demand by forcing manufacturers to include recycling in their operations. Content mandates specify that a certain percentage of a new product must consist of recycled material. Utilization rates are a more flexible option: Industries can meet their recycling targets at any point of their operations, or even contract out recycling in exchange for tradable credits. Opponents to these methods cite their large increase in reporting requirements, and claim that they rob the industry of flexibility.


title: Recycling

text: Governments have used their own purchasing power to increase recycling demand through "procurement policies". These policies are either "set-asides", which reserve a certain amount of spending for recycled products; or "price preference" programs that provide larger budgets when recycled items are purchased. Additional regulations can target specific cases: in the United States, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency mandates the purchase of oil, paper, tires and building insulation from recycled or re-refined sources whenever possible.


title: Recycling

text: The final government regulation toward increased demand is recycled product labeling. When producers are required to label their packaging with the amount of recycled material it contains (including the packaging), consumers can make more educated choices. Consumers with sufficient buying power can choose more environmentally conscious options, prompting producers to increase the recycled material in their products and increase demand. Standardized recycling labeling can also have a positive effect on the supply of recyclates when it specifies how and where the product can be recycled.


title: Recycling

text: "Recyclate" is a raw material sent to and processed in a waste recycling plant or materials-recovery facility so it can be used in the production of new materials and products. For example, plastic bottles can be made into plastic pellets and synthetic fabrics.


title: Recycling

text: The quality of recyclates is one of the principal challenges for the success of a long-term vision of a green economy and achieving zero waste. It generally refers to how much of it is composed of target material, versus non-target material and other non-recyclable material. Steel and other metals have intrinsically higher recyclate quality; it is estimated that two-thirds of all new steel comes from recycled steel. Only target material is likely to be recycled, so higher amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials can reduce the quantity of recycled products. A high proportion of non-target and non-recyclable material can make it more difficult to achieve "high-quality" recycling; and if recyclate is of poor quality, it is more likely to end up being down-cycled or, in more extreme cases, sent to other recovery options or landfilled. For example, to facilitate the remanufacturing of clear glass products, there are tight restrictions for colored glass entering the re-melt process. Another example is the downcycling of plastic, where products such as plastic food packaging are often downcycled into lower quality products, and do not get recycled into the same plastic food packaging.


title: Recycling

text: The quality of recyclate not only supports high-quality recycling, but it can also deliver significant environmental benefits by reducing, reusing, and keeping products out of landfills. High-quality recycling can support economic growth by maximizing the value of waste material. Higher income levels from the sale of quality recyclates can return value significant to local governments, households and businesses. Pursuing high-quality recycling can also promote consumer and business confidence in the waste and resource management sector, and may encourage investment in it.


title: Recycling

text: There are many actions along the recycling supply chain, each of which can affect recyclate quality. Waste producers who place non-target and non-recyclable wastes in recycling collections can affect the quality of final recyclate streams, and require extra efforts to discard those materials at later stages in the recycling process. Different collection systems can induce different levels of contamination. When multiple materials are collected together, extra effort is required to sort them into separate streams and can significantly reduce the quality of the final products. Transportation and the compaction of materials can also make this more difficult. Despite improvements in technology and quality of recyclate, sorting facilities are still not 100% effective in separating materials. When materials are stored outside, where they can become wet, can also cause problems for re-processors. Further sorting steps may be required to satisfactorily reduce the amount of non-target and non-recyclable material.


title: Recycling

text: Scotland's Recyclate Quality Action Plan proposes a number of actions the Scottish Government wants to take to increase the quality of materials collected for recycling and sorted at recovery facilities before it is exported or sold on the reprocessing market. Its objectives are to:


title: Recycling

text: The plan focuses on three key areas, with 14 actions to increase the quality of materials collected, sorted and presented to the processing market in Scotland. These areas are:


title: Recycling

text: A number of systems have been implemented to collect recyclates from the general waste stream, occupying different places on the spectrum of trade-off between public convenience and government ease and expense. The three main categories of collection are drop-off centers, buy-back centers and curbside collection. About two-thirds of the cost of recycling is incurred in the collection phase.


title: Recycling

text: Curbside collection encompasses many subtly different systems, which differ mostly on where in the process the recyclates are sorted and cleaned. The main categories are mixed waste collection, commingled recyclables, and source separation. A waste collection vehicle generally picks up the waste.


title: Recycling

text: In mixed waste collection, recyclates are collected mixed with the rest of the waste, and the desired materials are sorted out and cleaned at a central sorting facility. This results in a large amount of recyclable waste (especially paper) being too soiled to reprocess, but has advantages as well: The city need not pay for the separate collection of recyclates, no public education is needed, and any changes to the recyclability of certain materials are implemented where sorting occurs.


title: Recycling

text: In a commingled or single-stream system, recyclables are mixed but kept separate from non-recyclable waste. This greatly reduces the need for post-collection cleaning, but requires public education on what materials are recyclable.


title: Recycling

text: Source separation is the other extreme, where each material is cleaned and sorted prior to collection. It requires the least post-collection sorting and produces the purest recyclates. However, it incurs additional operating costs for collecting each material, and requires extensive public education to avoid recyclate contamination. In Oregon, USA, Oregon DEQ surveyed multi-family property managers; about half of them reported problems, including contamination of recyclables due to trespassers such as transients gaining access to collection areas.


title: Recycling

text: Source separation used to be the preferred method due to the high cost of sorting commingled (mixed waste) collection. However, advances in sorting technology have substantially lowered this overhead, and many areas that had developed source separation programs have switched to what is called "co-mingled collection".


title: Recycling

text: At Buy-back centers, separated, cleaned recyclates are purchased, providing a clear incentive for use and creating a stable supply. The post-processed material can then be sold. If profitable, this conserves the emission of greenhouse gases; if unprofitable, it increases their emission. Buy-back centres generally need government subsidies to be viable. According to a 1993 report by the U.S. National Waste & Recycling Association, it costs an average $50 to process a ton of material that can be resold for $30.


title: Recycling

text: In 2017, glass was essentially valueless because of the low cost of sand, its major component. Similarly, low oil costs thwarted plastic recycling.


title: Recycling

text: Drop-off centers require the waste producer to carry recyclates to a central location—either an installed or mobile collection station or the reprocessing plant itself. They are the easiest type of collection to establish but suffer from low and unpredictable throughput.


title: Recycling

text: For some waste materials such as plastic, recent technical devices called recyclebots enable a form of distributed recycling. Preliminary life-cycle analysis (LCA) indicates that such distributed recycling of HDPE to make filament for 3D printers in rural regions consumes less energy than using virgin resin, or using conventional recycling processes with their associated transportation.


title: Recycling

text: Once commingled recyclates are collected and delivered to a materials recovery facility, the materials must be sorted. This is done in a series of stages, many of which involve automated processes, enabling a truckload of material to be fully sorted in less than an hour. Some plants can now sort materials automatically; this is known as single-stream recycling. Automatic sorting may be aided by robotics and machine learning. In plants, a variety of materials is sorted including paper, different types of plastics, glass, metals, food scraps, and most types of batteries. A 30% increase in recycling rates has been seen in areas with these plants. In the US, there are over 300 materials recovery facilities.


title: Recycling

text: Initially, commingled recyclates are removed from the collection vehicle and placed on a conveyor belt spread out in a single layer. Large pieces of corrugated fiberboard and plastic bags are removed by hand at this stage, as they can cause later machinery to jam.


title: Recycling

text: Next, automated machinery such as disk screens and air classifiers separate the recyclates by weight, splitting lighter paper and plastic from heavier glass and metal. Cardboard is removed from mixed paper, and the most common types of plastic—PET (#1) and HDPE (#2)—are collected, so these materials can be diverted into the proper collection channels. This is usually done by hand; but in some sorting centers, spectroscopic scanners are used to differentiate between types of paper and plastic based on their absorbed wavelengths. Plastics tend to be incompatible with each other due to differences in chemical composition; their polymer molecules repel each other, similar to oil and water.


title: Recycling

text: Strong magnets are used to separate out ferrous metals such as iron, steel and tin cans. Non-ferrous metals are ejected by magnetic eddy currents: A rotating magnetic field induces an electric current around aluminum cans, creating an eddy current inside the cans that is repulsed by a large magnetic field, ejecting the cans from the stream.


title: Recycling

text: Finally, glass is sorted according to its color: brown, amber, green, or clear. It may be sorted either by hand, or by a machine that uses colored filters to detect colors. Glass fragments smaller than cannot be sorted automatically, and are mixed together as "glass fines".