John P. McCann is an American-born writer, actor and producer who has mostly focused on writing/producing animation and family-friendly scripts in the past. He is best known for his work on television cartoons, for which he has received numerous awards, but he has also produced live-action screenplays and television scripts. At present McCann is also working on short stories, and a novella. His fiction tends to be either darkly humorous or horror-related. McCann was featured on a panel in July 2008 at Comic-Con with other veterans of Warner Bros. Animation, discussing '' Tiny Toons'', '' Freakazoid!'', and ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

'' (the panel included

Jean MacCurdy Jean H. MacCurdy is an American television executive, best known for her role as president of Warner Bros. Animation from 1989 to 2001. Career MacCurdy began her career as a secretary in the Children's Programming Department at the NBC Televi ...

Sherri Stoner Sherri Lynn Stoner is an American actress, animator, and writer. She also voiced Slappy in the children’s television series '' Animaniacs''. Biography She has worked extensively in animation. She was a writer and producer for such 1990s anima ...

, Andrea Romano,

Bruce Timm Bruce Walter Timm (born February 5, 1961) is an American artist, animator, writer, and producer. He has contributed to building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably '' Batman: The Animated Series'' (1992–1995) and the subseque ...

Paul Dini Paul McClaran Dini (; born August 7, 1957) is an American screenwriter and comic creator. He has been a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, most notably '' Batman: The Animated Series'' (1992–19 ...

, and

Paul Rugg Paul Kevin Rugg (born October 21, 1960) is an American screenwriter, producer, voice actor, and puppeteer. Biography Rugg has worked extensively in the field of animation. His list of credits include writing for, co-producing, and playing th ...

Early life

Born in

Elmhurst, Illinois Elmhurst is a city mostly in DuPage County and overlapping into Cook County in the U.S. state of Illinois, and a western suburb of Chicago. As of 2021, the city has an estimated population of 47,260. History Members of the Potawatomi Nativ ...

in 1952, McCann grew up with his brother and his sister
Mary McCann
now a well-known radio DJ in her own right, based in Seattle) in the Chicago area—mostly in Skokie. McCann's first memory of making someone laugh is said to have been in a moment with his father. He did standup for some years in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

, where he met

Arsenio Hall Arsenio Hall (born February 12, 1956) is an American comedian, actor and talk show host. He hosted the late-night talk show, ''The Arsenio Hall Show'', from 1989 until 1994, and again from 2013 to 2014. He has appeared in ''Martial Law'', '' Com ...

and

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's '' The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 20 ...

Acting and improv work

McCann moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

in 1979 to become a writer. Distracted by acting for a while, he worked at two separate comedy improv groups&mdash
The L.A. Connection
an
M.D. Sweeney
s Acme Comedy Theater (formerly Two Roads Theater; Sweeney has sold the theater, and now runs the restaurant and club next door, said to have been an investment of Acme Alumnus

Adam Carolla Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio personality, comedian, actor and podcaster. He hosts '' The Adam Carolla Show'', a talk show distributed as a podcast which set the record as the "most downloaded podcast" as judged by ''Guin ...

). Writing comedy skits enabled him to hone his abilities with dialogue and narrative, and to explore the way comic timing is affected by the needs of a story: he was no longer simply throwing out one-liners. He reached the summit of his acting career, he claims, as a double for

Duncan Regehr Duncan Peter Regehr (born October 5, 1952) is a Canadian writer, multimedia artist, and film and television actor. He was also a figure skater and a classically trained Shakespearean stage actor in his native Canada, before heading to Hollywood ...

(as

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, freque ...

) i
''My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn''

Television writing

After

joined Acme Comedy Theater, Rugg and McCann were recruited by

Tom Ruegger Tom Ruegger () is an American animator and songwriter. Ruegger is known for his association with Disney Television Animation and Warner Bros. Animation. He also created ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Pinky and the Brain'', and ''Hist ...

and

of Warner Bro. Animation for freelance scripts. Ruegger then brought both Rugg and McCann aboard at Warner Bros., where they worked on ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, until ...

'' and '' Freakazoid!''. Along with being one of the primary creative forces behind ''Freakazoid!'', McCann performed the voice for Douglas Douglas, Dexter Douglas' father, and Hero Boy. McCann later worked on ''

Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain ''Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain'' is the retooling of the American animated television series ''Pinky and the Brain'' (itself being a spin-off from ''Animaniacs''), with the title characters being joined by Elmyra Duff from ''Tiny Toon Adventures''. ...

'', a spinoff of ''

Pinky and the Brain ''Pinky and the Brain'' is an American animated television series that was created by Tom Ruegger that premiered on Kids' WB on September 9, 1995. It was the first animated television series to be presented in Dolby Surround and the fourth col ...

'', which was ironic: the first script he'd written for Ruegger had been an experimental workup of a spinoff from '' Tiny Toons'', using Elmyra Duff as the main protagonist. McCann has received a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

and been nominated for seven Emmys—including one for songwriting—and has received three

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

: one for ''

'' (as a writer), one for ''Freakazoid!'' (as a producer), and one for ''

'' (as a producer). At Warner Brothers, he worked not just on those titles, but also on '' Ozzy & Drix'', ''

Batman Beyond ''Batman Beyond'' (known as ''Batman of the Future'' outside the United States) is an American superhero animated television series developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation in collaborati ...

'', and an adult animated streaming series based on the character Lobo. He also produced a couple of public service announcements for the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

(in a joint project with Warner Brothers Animation) that featured

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merr ...

and

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Mel ...

, in which Cambodian people were warned about the dangers of picking up stray ordnance from the ground. He remarks that the project took him to

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...

once, and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

twice. McCann also won a Prizm Award in 1999 for helping to raise public awareness about the dangers of drug addiction.

Indie film production

In 1999 McCann wrote, produced and directed a short film in the improvisational style later popularized by

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...

's ''

Curb Your Enthusiasm ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' is an American television sitcom produced and broadcast by HBO since October 15, 2000, and created by Larry David, who stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself. It follows David's life as a semi-retired televi ...

''. A take-off on ''The Blair Witch Project'', it was entitled ''The Glendale Ogre'', and starred Marc Drotman, Scott Kreamer, and Kate Donahue. Scored by Julie and

Steve Bernstein ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

, it featured camera work by

David Coons David B. Coons is a computer graphics professional and longtime CGI expert. Biography David B. Coons was born in 1960, and grew up in Santa Monica, California. He attended Santa Monica High School while living in a highly unconventional fami ...

of Los Angeles
Artscans
himself most well known as the inspiration for the title of

Po Bronson Po Bronson (born March 14, 1964) is an American journalist and author who lives in San Francisco. Early life and education Bronson was born in Seattle, Washington. After attending Lakeside School in Seattle, he graduated from Stanford Univers ...

's ''The Nudist on the Late Shift.'' In the years since leaving Warner Brothers Animation, McCann has worked on '' Jimmy Neutron'', '' Dave the Barbarian'',

's ''

Sushi Pack ''Sushi Pack'' is an animated action-adventure television series created by Studio Espinosa and developed by Tom Ruegger and Nicholas Hollander. Produced by DIC Entertainment Corporation and CloudCo, Inc. that aired for two seasons and 52 episod ...

'', and ''Animalia''. He was also story editor for the animated European series ''Sherm'', produced by BAF.

Personal life and running

McCann lives with his wife in the hills east of Los Angeles, and claims to like "long walks through large corporate and government buildings." He has completed five

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

s (including

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...

, the ill-fated

Chicago Marathon The Chicago Marathon is a marathon (long-distance foot race) held every October in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the six World Marathon Majors. Thus, it is also a World Athletics Label Road Race. The Chicago Marathon is the fourth-largest r ...

of 2007—and the Eugene, Oregon marathon, for which he "broke" four hours in May 2008). He acted as an assistant coach for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training at the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll marathon in June 2008.

External links

* McCann'
own blog
* McCann'
"Death Honk"
in The Journal of Microliterature * McCann'
"Fresh Ideas"
in Every Day Fiction * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCann, John P. American animators American animated film producers American male comedians Living people American television writers American male television writers 1952 births Comedians from Illinois People from Elmhurst, Illinois Male actors from Illinois 20th-century American writers 20th-century American artists 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American male writers Screenwriters from Illinois