Fred Calvert

Fred Calvert is an animation director and producer whose animation company was Fred Calvert Productions (later renamed Farmhouse Films). Calvert was among the first animators whose work was showcased on Sesame Street. While Ken Snyder (with whom Calvert had worked on Roger Ramjet as production coordinator, and in varying capacities on other projects) received the studio credit^[1], the work was outsourced to Fred Calvert Productions, with Ron Campbell and Norm Gottfredson (son of Mickey Mouse comic strip artist Floyd Gottfredson) directing the spots.^[2] In a later interview, he recalled Snyder getting the work by being "the type of guy who'd walk into a place and shout out, 'Alright, who's in charge here?'"^[3]

Calvert Productions, according to a 1970 article penned by Calvert himself, produced 46 segments during the first season.^[4] Among the subsequent pieces from Calvert's studio were "Bumble Ardy" and "Seven Monsters," both of which were collaborations with Jim Henson and Maurice Sendak.^[5] He supplied voices for some of his segments, as did then-wife Kimie Calvert (also an animation artist) and son Philip Calvert (in children's roles).^[6] He produced and directed the "monolith" segments, based on 2001: A Space Odyssey, used on The Electric Company, and two related segments appeared on Sesame Street.

Prior to Sesame Street, Calvert worked at Disney studios as a runner and directed "Super Chicken" segments for Jay Ward. At his own studio, he produced commercials as well as animated series and specials based on pop culture personalities and TV shows: Emergency+4 (based on Emergency), the Muhammad Ali cartoon I Am the Greatest, and specials featuring the Munsters and Nanny and the Professor. One of his studio's later projects was supplying additional animation for the Miramax release of Richard Williams' unfinished animated feature The Thief and the Cobbler. In 1971, the studio supplied animation for the Dutch film The Little Ark, based on the novel by Jan De Hartog, and featuring Theodore Bikel. Based in Los Angeles, he was writing a series of science-fiction novels as of 2023.^[7]