James Jinkins (born August 8, 1953) is an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, and children's author. He is best known as the creator of the animated

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

'' Doug'', which was later the basis for a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

. Jinkins also created '' PB&J Otter'', as well as several other shows produced by his two companies, Jumbo Pictures and Cartoon Pizza.

Background and career

Jinkins was born in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, and lived there during his childhood. His experiences growing up in Richmond would serve as an inspiration for the fictional town of Bluffington, Virginia, in the series ''Doug''. Jinkins was also an actor on the old Nickelodeon series '' Pinwheel'' and ''Hocus Focus'', and a graphic designer on '' By the Way'' and ''Video Comics''. After his first tenure with Nickelodeon, he went to work for Children's Television Workshop (now

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and Television station, television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's ...

), becoming the graphics director for their show '' Square One Television''. Later, Jinkins worked in advertising, creating television commercials and promotions featuring a young boy and a dog, who would become the main characters of his major creation, ''Doug''. A character resembling Doug appeared in grapefruit juice commercials sponsored by Florida Grapefruit Growers. Jinkins had developed Doug Funnie through doodles during the early days of his career. Doug and his dog Porkchop first appeared in Jinkins' book ''Doug Got a New Pair of Shoes'', which led to his creating an animated pilot titled ''Doug Can't Dance''. He sold the ''Doug'' pilot to

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 ...

. The pilot tested higher than any other pilot for the network at the time. Jinkins established Jumbo Pictures in 1990 to produce ''Doug'' for Nickelodeon. ''Doug'' went on to become one of Nickelodeon's most popular and successful series. Jinkins also served as executive producer and voice director for ''Doug'' as well as writing only two episodes. Jinkins also created a TV show for the Nick Jr. block, ''

Allegra's Window ''Allegra's Window'' is an American musical children's television series that aired on Nickelodeon during its Nick Jr. block from October 24, 1994, to December 8, 1996, with reruns being shown until February 5, 1999; it was later shown on Nogg ...

''. ''Doug''s success was noticed by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

executives. In 1996, Jinkins sold Jumbo Pictures to Disney. Disney then developed ''Disney's Doug'' (originally ''Brand Spanking New! Doug'') as part of their "

One Saturday Morning ABC Kids (originally known as Disney's One Saturday Morning until 2002) was an American Saturday morning children's programming block that aired on ABC from September 13, 1997 to August 27, 2011. It featured a mixture of animated and live-ac ...

" lineup. Jinkins and his team at Jumbo Pictures produced the '' PB&J Otter'' and '' 101 Dalmatians: The Series'' animated series and feature film ''

Doug's 1st Movie ''Doug's 1st Movie'' is a 1999 American animated comedy film based on the television series '' Doug''. Despite the film's title, it is the series finale of the show. Directed by Maurice Joyce, the film was produced by Walt Disney Television An ...

'' for Disney. Jinkins also founded an independent company, Cartoon Pizza, which produced shows such as ''

JoJo's Circus ''JoJo's Circus'' is a stop-motion animated television series created by Jim Jinkins, David Campbell, Lisa Jinkins, and Eric Weiner and produced by the Canada-based Cuppa Coffee Studios and Cartoon Pizza. The series was written by Douglas Woo ...

'', ''

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

'', and ''

Pinky Dinky Doo ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' is an animated children's television series created by Jim Jinkins. It was produced and co-owned by Jinkins' Cartoon Pizza and Sesame Workshop. The series was made in association with Discovery Kids Latin America, and the Ca ...

''. As of 2017, Jinkins was living in

Brunswick, Georgia Brunswick ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County, Georgia, Glynn County in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As the primary urban and economic center of the lower southeast portion of Georgia, it is the second-larges ...

, where he ran a workshop. As of 2019 he and his wife live in

Brevard, North Carolina Brevard ( ) is a city and the county seat of Transylvania County, North Carolina, United States, with a population of 7,609 as of the 2010 census. Brevard is located at the entrance to Pisgah National Forest and has become a noted tourism, ret ...

, and volunteer regularly in their community.

Jinkins on ''Doug''

References

External links

*
Cartoon Pizza
1953 births Animators from Virginia American television directors American animated film directors American animated film producers American television writers American male television writers Nickelodeon Animation Studio people Disney Television Animation people Showrunners of animated series Living people Lipscomb University alumni Nickelodeon people Artists from Richmond, Virginia American voice directors Screenwriters from Virginia Television producers from Virginia Sesame Workshop people {{US-animator-stub