David Kirschner

Just in time for spooky season, Jaclyn speaks to writer/producer David Kirschner (Hocus Pocus, Child's Play) about kindness in his life, his fascination with family & fantasy stories, and how the kindness of others propelled his career.

David Kirschner's imagination has spawned a body of work that has evoked laughter, fear, suspense, and heartfelt emotion for over 40 years. It was 1975 when the legendary Neil Diamond laid eyes on 19-year-old David's illustrations. From here, David would photograph, and design twenty-two album covers, including the Grammy-nominated for design, The Jazz Singer. Soon after, David's talents were enlisted by famed creator, Jim Henson, for work on Sesame Street and The Muppets. Next, David harkened the voice of his creative entrepreneurial spirit, creating a fantasy garden world, Rose-Petal Place. Inspired by his daughters, Rose-Petal Place quickly blossomed into a book series, toys, apparel, television specials, and a float in the Macys Day Parade.

This success brought David to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Backed by Steven's company, David created and produced the Oscar-nominated and two-time Grammy-winning, An American Tail, which spawned a theatrical sequel, and television series. It wouldn't be long before David struck again, but this time it was the fear of his sister's dolls that would soon become the horror icon, Chucky, in Child's Play. Chucky has prospered in 7 films, and the Chucky VT series is in its third year with an average score of 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. David ran Hanna Barbera Studios as President and Chairman for four years, where he led the resurgence of the venerable animation house. During his reign, David co-wrote and produced the two-time Emmy nominated live action, The Dreamer of Oz, with legendary writer, Richard Matheson, and produced the live-action feature The Flintstones. David's book, The Pagemaster was translated into fourteen languages around the world and became a film starring Macaulay Culkin. David produced for Disney, based on his story, the film Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2, Hocus Pocus 3 is in pre-production.

His other projects include; Frailty, Cats Don't Dance, animated feature Titan A.E, Secondhand Lions, Miss Potter, and Martian Child, David also collaborated with Ron Howard to produce Curious George. He continues today as Executive Producer on the multi-Emmy-winning Curious George PBS daytime series. Ron Howard has been signed to direct a live-action Curious George, that David will produce with Imagine Entertainment. David has continued to honor his commitment to children and society with dedicated positions, Ambassador to The University of Southern California School of Cinema, Trustee of the Board of Crossroads School, Board of Directors for Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and Board Member of The Center for Early Education.

This podcast is one of the many ways we live out our organization's mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness. Visit our site kindness.org and sign up to become a part of our global community which spans more than 100 countries. It's free to join and when you do you'll be the first to get access to our latest research, tools, and even episodes of this podcast. Let's build a kinder world, together. Contact us at [e-mail] or on social at @kindnessorg. 

Important links from this week's episode:
kindness.org

Credits

• Host: Jaclyn Lindsey
• Guest: David Kirschner
• Producer: Melissa Malone
• Music Composition: Chris Christiana
• Design: Ben Gibson, Christine Do, Smithfield Studio

Transcript available at this link. https://why-kindness.simplecast.com/epis