Hal Seeger had a good hit on his hands when he produced The Milton the Monster Show in 1965. Exploiting the “non-scary monster” genre of TV shows that was made popular by The Addams Family and The Munsters, the show was refreshing for the landscape of TV animation, which had already begun its descent into lifeless fodder entirely controlled by business executives. Milton brought a refreshing texture, with each segment trying to push how strange or offbeat it could be, with lots of off the wall thinking that makes most cartoons worth a watch.

A lot of this success helps with the crew that Seeger had assembled. Most of the animators, who were directing their segments, were seasoned NY animators with a couple of younger ones mixed in, bringing their East Coast mindset at a time when most TV animation was being produced in the West. Each of these individuals brought their own senses to the cartoons they worked on, while retaining a consistent sense of fun that made the Hal Seeger Cartoons so memorable and engaging. In this article, I’d like to highlight a few of the animators responsible for the show. These eight animators were just some of the men responsible for bringing this show to life in their own ways.

Myron Waldman was one of Hal Seeger’s top animators, and an initial partner in forming his studio. Much of his previous work at Fleischer (the later Betty Boops with Pudgy) and Famous Studios (Casper the Friendly Ghost) had directly targeted a more juvenile audience than his contemporaries, and thus his drawing tended to be cuter. Because of his partnership with Seeger, he did the lion’s share of work on the show, including animating the famous opener (above) to the Milton segments, as well as many of the supporting segments such as Flukey Luke and Muggy Doo, Boy Fox.

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Shamus Culhane was the other key animator at Hal Seeger’s studio during much of the 60s, until he got the chance to take over the Paramount Studio as producer and director. Because of this departure, Culhane only animated about half as many cartoons as Myron Waldman, but provided a lot of funny posing and expressions throughout.

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Izzy Klein was the oldest animator on the show, starting on the Barre-Bower Mutt and Jeff cartoons of the 1910s, and was an early contributor to The New Yorker magazine before returning to animation, both as an animator and storyman. Although he was somewhat boxed in on the show, he still retained nice drawing, and a feeling of looseness in the linework that other studios rarely went for in the world of limited animation.

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Tom Golden and Arnie Levy worked as a duo on four cartoons for the show, on two of the Flukey Lukes and Penny Penguin cartoons. Golden was an experienced animator and de-facto director from Famous Studios, while Levy had just come from being an assistant at Terrytoons, likely paired with Golden for support and further training. Their cartoons contain pleasing, open compositions and layouts with strong poses, though fewer drawings than other animators

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Johnny Gentilella, nicknamed Johnny Gent, was another Famous Studios alumni, who had also been dubbed “The Popeye Man” by his colleagues for his excellent work on the character, bringing a thoughtfulness to the animation that the direction rarely received after a certain point. With this in mind, it makes sense that Gent only animated a single cartoon with the Milton cast (Crumby Mummy), instead doing several of the Fearless Fly entries, where he brought much of the same charm in his drawing and posing to these cartoons.

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Ken Walker was an animator with a lengthy career, being at Disney for much of the 40s and 50s, appearing on a Disney themed segment on the TV Show You Asked for It. While his animation for Milton (Monsters for Hire, Horrorbaloo, Batnap) may not be the most substantial part of his career, he did good work. He used more drawings, albeit drawn a bit simpler, but very geometric and expressive. It’s likely he freelanced his three cartoons from the West Coast.

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Bill Ackerman was a real standout talent of the Milton crew, despite only animating two cartoons (Witch Crafty and Dunkin’ Treasure). His more geometric rendering of the characters and an emphasis on hands and fingers gave him really funny posing, composing each scene more like a comic strip panel. Initially an assistant from Terrytoons, he would continue to animate on Batfink for Seeger, then moved West, eventually becoming a storyman at Hanna Barbera.

Bill’s talent must’ve been recognized internally, as he animated an unsold pilot, Wilbur the Wanted, a hide and seek situation about a Dog framed for a crime by a Hare he seeks to prove alive.

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Jim Tyer was saved for last, as there is no one else who can appropriately follow up his individual and distinct mindset in the world of animation, despite animating only a few cartoons for Milton the Monster.

His four Stuffy Durma cartoons are classics in their visuals and story, and are perhaps the single best use of limited animation. That discussion could be its own article, so I’ll leave it here with one of them.

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For those looking for more of these segments to watch, Milton the Monster and its secondary segments are airing almost everyday during the Casper and Company block on MeTV Toons, along with Hal Seeger’s Batfink.

(Thanks Jerry Beck, Kamden Spies and Mike Kazaleh)