Craig Michael Bartlett (born October 18, 1956) is an American animator. He wrote, directed, created, and produced the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

television series ''

Hey Arnold! ''Hey Arnold!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. It originally aired from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandparents in an inner ...

'' and the

PBS Kids PBS Kids (stylized as PBS KIDS) is the branding used for nationally distributed children's programming carried by the U.S. public television network PBS. The brand encompasses a daytime block of children's programming carried daily by most PBS ...

television series ''

Ready Jet Go! ''Ready Jet Go!'' is an American animated educational children's television series produced by Wind Dancer Films. The series aired new episodes on PBS Kids from February 15, 2016 to May 6, 2019, although re-runs continue to this day. It was cre ...

'' and ''

Dinosaur Train ''Dinosaur Train'' is an animated television series aimed at children ages 3 to 6 and created by Craig Bartlett, who also created Nickelodeon's '' Hey Arnold!''. The series features a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' named Buddy who, together with the re ...

''.

Career

Bartlett's first job, after graduating from the Evergreen State College in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

, was at Will Vinton Studios in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, where he learned the art of stop-motion animation, working on movies such as '' The Adventures of Mark Twain''. Bartlett moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1987 to animate the "Penny" claymations for the second season of '' Pee-wee's Playhouse'' on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. He later made an animated ID for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

with Klasky Csupo. He later worked at BRC Imagination Arts, directing projects such as ''Postcards'' and ''Mystery Lodge'' for

Knott's Berry Farm Knott's Berry Farm is a amusement park in Buena Park, California, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. In March 2015, it was ranked as the List of amusement park rankings#North America, twelfth-most-visited theme park in North Ameri ...

. He also animated the music video for "

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

" by

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

from the 1993 album ''

Alapalooza ''Alapalooza'' is the Weird Al Yankovic discography, eighth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1993 in music, 1993. By the completion of his previous album, ''Off the Deep End'', Yankovic had already wr ...

''. Bartlett met the

execs while story editing ''

Rugrats ''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a group of toddlers, most prominently Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, and their day-to-d ...

'' in its first three seasons. He pitched ''

'' to them in the fall of 1993 and produced a pilot the next spring. The series was greenlit in January 1995. ''Hey Arnold!'' was in production continuously from 1995 to 2001, made by Bartlett's own production company, Snee-Oosh, Inc., which he founded in 1986. The series culminated in a TV movie originally titled ''Arnold Saves the Neighborhood'', but Nickelodeon decided to release it theatrically as '' Hey Arnold!: The Movie'', in June 2002. A dispute over a second planned ''Arnold'' movie resulted in Bartlett leaving Nickelodeon to write, direct and produce an animated TV movie for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

called ''Party Wagon'', a story originally intended as a pilot for an ongoing series. It ended up being the first Cartoon Network movie-length pilot to be broadcast, but not picked up until '' Underfist: Halloween Bash'', which was created by

Maxwell Atoms Adam Maxwell Burton, known professionally as Maxwell Atoms, is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is the creator of the Cartoon Network series '' Grim & Evil'' and its subsequent spin-offs, '' The Grim Adve ...

, who created '' The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' and '' Evil Con Carne''. In 2002, he published the official

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

of the first ''Hey Arnold!'' movie (having written it with Maggie Groening; ). In 2005, Bartlett returned to BRC to make a multimedia simulator attraction for NASA's

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

Cape Canaveral, Florida Cape Canaveral is a city in Brevard County, Florida. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 9,912 at the 2020 US census. History After the establishment of a lighthouse in 184 ...

, called the ''Shuttle Launch Experience''. In the course of the three-year project, Bartlett interviewed 26 astronauts to gather their experiences from launch to orbit. One of these was four-time shuttle flier and commander and current NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. After developing various pilots and feature scripts, Bartlett moved to

The Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...

, where he co-wrote the animated film '' Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby''. He stayed at Henson to work as story editor on a PBS Kids preschool show called '' Sid the Science Kid'' with PBS executive

Linda Simensky Linda Simensky is an American executive. She served as a creative executive for Nickelodeon Furniss, Maureen. (February 5, 2008)240 ''Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics'' ''Indiana University Press''. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved October 1 ...

, whom he had worked with at Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. In September 2008, a show for preschoolers called ''

'' was picked up by

; produced by

, this was the first show created by Bartlett to be picked up since ''Hey Arnold!''. The series debuted on PBS stations on September 7, 2009. In April 2015, ''Ready Jet Go!'' (formerly ''Jet Propulsion'') was also picked up by PBS Kids. Produced by Wind Dancer Films and his company, Snee-Oosh, Inc., the series premiered on PBS stations on February 15, 2016. In November 2015, Viacom announced that Bartlett would return to Nickelodeon to write '' Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie''. It premiered on November 24, 2017.

Personal life

Bartlett attended and graduated from Anacortes High School in Anacortes, Washington. In 1987, Bartlett married Lisa Groening, sister of

Matt Groening Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is best known as the creator of the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Futurama'' (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2 ...

, creator of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'', ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...

'' and ''

Disenchantment In social science, disenchantment () is the cultural rationalization and devaluation of religion apparent in modern society. The term was borrowed from Friedrich Schiller by Max Weber to describe the character of a modernized, bureaucratic, ...

'', after whom

Lisa Simpson Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television sitcom series ''The Simpsons''. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa was born as a character in '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' short ...

is named. They have two children, Matt and Katie. In August 2018, it was reported that Craig and Lisa were going through a divorce settlement and that they had been separated since 2015.

Filmography

Internet

References

External links

Interview with Victoria Mixon
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, Craig 1956 births Animators from Washington (state) American storyboard artists American animated film directors American animated film producers American comics writers American comics artists American humorists American voice directors Living people Artists from Seattle Evergreen State College alumni American stop motion animators Clay animators Nickelodeon Animation Studio people Nickelodeon people Showrunners of animated series American television show creators American showrunners American character designers