I’ve been following the “Clerks”/Disney story with both interest and distress. Kevin and Dave are good friends of mine and I’ve been aware of “Clerks – The Cartoon” since almost day one. A year ago they asked me if I’d like to work on the show, and other than contributing a story idea here or a voice there, I didn’t have time to add much more than enthusiastic support. Then again, it looked like “Clerks” would be a runaway hit regardless of anything I could bring to the Quick Stop. It had hysterical scripts, inspired visual direction and a great cast. Everything seemed to indicate that the series would find an audience and flourish in prime time.

Now it seems ABC (and thereby Disney) is intent on dumping “Clerks” in the middle of the summer wasteland. This is a terrible mistake. Not only is “Clerks” funnier than nearly everything else ABC has in primetime, it would be the perfect series to hook the upper teen audience too old for “Sabrina” and too young for “Drew Carey”. Ah, but now I’m thinking like a network programmer, and ABC clearly employs chimpanzees for that.

What has happened here is another example of what has come to be known throughout LA animation circles as “The Disney Switch”. Many’s the time Disney has wooed top cartoon talent (writers, composers, producers, designers, you name ’em) with great deals and the opportunity to produce dream projects, only to quickly shoot those projects out from under the talent and reassign them to routine busy-work once they got them under contract and on staff. That way Disney would own the projects but they wouldn’t have to produce them (and, more importantly, neither could any competing studio) and the talent could then toil away on more traditional DIsney fare for the greater glory of the Mouse. Welcome to Pleasure Island, boys. Just bray a little if that harness feels too tight, won’tcha? We won’t loosen it any, we just likes ta hear ya cry.

Okay, so I’m being melodramatic, and we all know Dave and Kev are not going to wind up finishing out their “Clerks” stint story-editing “Recess”. But it is tragic to think that a company which claims to thrive on creativity would shunt “Clerks” aside because it isn’t “Pepper Ann” (thank god) or because they fear it won’t attract as big a tune-in as “Who Wants to Be Regis’s Brain-Dead Straight Man”. Wise up, Mickey. You’re only hurting yourself by trying to stifle a great show. Run it now and buy more. Lots more.

Paul Dini