Classic Bantha Tracks: Miki Herman Talks TV

This article originally appeared in Bantha Tracks #29, Published in Summer 1985

Executive Producer Miki Herman Talks About TV and "Raising the Standards"

Bantha Tracks visited the offices of Lucasfilm Executive Producer Miki Herman recently to screen a just completed rough-cut of a new "Ewoks" episode. "Ewoks" is one of two new television series slated for early Saturday morning. The second series in the ABC-TV one-hour time block is "Droids: The Adventures Of R2-D2 & C-3P0."

A rough-cut is not quite what it sounds like. It wasn't rough at all. In fact, its "roughness" comes from it not yet having the music and sound effect tracks laid into the sound track; and from the absence of the opening title sequence. In all other respects the episode was complete. Our expectations were as high as our hopes for the screening, and both were met.

The episode we watched opened with a night sequence. Wicket and his friends were seen bathed in the glow of Fire-Folk light under a star filled sky. It surpassed the stuff of most Saturday morning animation. As we later found it, this was a primary goal of the animated series. The backgrounds have a handcrafted look that isn't present in much contemporary animation, and the characters' movements seemed more fluid with higher fidelity of motion. We found out why--more cells, better animation.

After the videotape had ended we asked Miki Herman to talk about the two new TV series.

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How did you become the Executive Producer for "Droids" and "Ewoks"?

George offered me the job. I've always loved cartoons and thought it was a great break for me to finally produce. So, of course, I said yes.

When you started work on "Ewoks" and "Droids" you must have watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoon shows to get a feel for things.

Yes, but I lost interest in them very quickly. I didn't find that other shows are a measure of what we're aiming to achieve. You see, George Lucas wants to raise the standards of Saturday morning programming for children.

His main complaint with most of the current programming is the acting. Everybody sounds alike whether it's a crisis or a happy event. And, all the same voices are used over and over again. Good acting can even save a cartoon that doesn't have really sophisticated animation. Some of George's favorite shows were pretty limited in their animation; but, the writing, performances and characters were great. We're going for both better animation and better acting and character work.

We also want to put real feelings into the show: happy feelings, some sadness and comedy, humor. The shows will be funny. Comedy is very important to us.