Although we’ve enjoyed all the guests we’ve interviewed for our weekly podcast, Mark Kirkland, Supervising Director of “The Simpsons” television show, may be of special interest to many of you. In the first half of the show Mark talks about four of his mentors… grand World of Animation, Jules Engel, T. Hee, Moe Gollub, and Ollie Johnston… who he learned from, was encouraged by, and received the sort of inspiration that only four men of this caliber could convey, effortlessly, and generously. Then, in the second half of the show Mark describes the unique production process used for the weekly Simpsons shows. Being a long-running primetime hit, the production team can afford the kind of fine-tuning that the rest of us can only dream about.

Since animators are not big stars in Hollywood, and their lives are not a part of the movie magazine culture, it’s a pleasure to be able to bring some of their wisdom to you each week. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are. Doing the Mark Kirkland show was an extra pleasure for us, because, after two weeks of “location” shows, it was great to get back to the first-class home recording studio of Ed Stevens. Actually, in the coming months, we’ll be back on the road again, bringing you location interviews from the Platform Festival, in Portland, Oregon, Anima Mundi, in Brazil, Comic-con, in San Diego, and the big Ottawa Festival, in… well, Ottawa. Let us know if there is anyone you’d like us to interview, while we’re out and about, or for that matter, back at our home base in Los Angeles.

Listen to Mark’s interview here.