The Most Important Person

I worked for Sutherland Learning Associates when these films were made -- often editing the audio tracks (since visual editing on animation is minimal). John Sutherland is only the director of record (he owned the company). Dan Weisburd directed the audio recording (and did the voice of the big green bird) as well as writing the scripts. Various professional animation directors did the actual directing (think Chuck Jones's job). The most talented contributor was Elaine Simone (Mrs. D. Weisburd) who wrote all the songs (not to mention the wonderful music for another Sutherland series: 36 6-minute animated films for "Project Bilingual," intended for Mexican American kids in kindergarten and first grade. More than 30 years later, I can still sing several of her songs, word for word. --Jim Stinson