Krantz arranged a meeting with Crumb, during which Bakshi presented the drawings he had created while learning the artist's distinctive style to prove that he could adapt Crumb's artwork to animation.

In 1966, Bill Weiss asked Bakshi to help him carry presentation boards to Manhattan for a meeting with CBS.

Down the hall from Medavoy was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer president Dan Melnick, who interrupted a meeting with Peter Bogdanovich when he learned that Bakshi wanted to discuss acquiring the rights to The Lord of the Rings.

In April 1987, Bakshi set up a meeting with Judy Price, the head of CBS's Saturday morning block.

Three days before the meeting, Bakshi, Kricfalusi, Naylor, Tom Minton, Eddie Fitzgerald and Jim Reardon met to brainstorm.

After meeting with Bakshi, Crumb loaned him one of his sketchbooks as a reference, but was unsure of the film's production and refused to sign the contract.

In April 1987, Bakshi set up a meeting with Judy Price, the head of CBS's Saturday morning block.

When the CBS representatives asked if there were any other proposals, Bakshi, at the time a young animator who had been invited to the meeting, spoke up and improvised the proposed The Mighty Heroes on the spot.

At a production meeting, the representative proposed a title change, which Bakshi was in favor of the decision because he wanted the film to be reverted back to its original title ; however, Ruddy insisted on his preferred title and told the representative to get out of his office.

Bakshi returned to television with the live-action film Cool and the Crazy ( 1994 ) and the anthology series Spicy City ( 1997 ).

The family lived in a low-rent apartment, where Bakshi became fascinated with the urban milieu.

Bakshi recalled, " All my friends were black, everyone we did business with was black, the school across the street was black.

The racial segregation of local schools meant that the nearest white school was several miles away ; Bakshi obtained his mother's permission to attend the nearby black school with his friends.

In June 1956, Bakshi graduated from the school with an award in cartooning.

In response to the period's political climate and as a form of therapy, Bakshi drew the comic strips Bonefoot and Fudge, which satirized " idiots with an agenda ", and Junktown, which focused on " misfit technology and discarded ideals ".

Bakshi was dissatisfied with the traditional role of a Terrytoons director: " We didn't really ' direct ' like you'd think.

Bakshi received a pay raise, but was not as satisfied with his career advancement as he had anticipated ; Rasinski had died in 1965, Bakshi did not have creative control over The Mighty Heroes, and he was unhappy with the quality of the animation, writing, timing and voice acting.

Bakshi met with Burt Hampft, a lawyer for the studio, and was hired to replace Culhane.

Hampft suggested that Bakshi work with producer Steve Krantz, who had recently fired Culhane as supervising director on the Canadian science fiction series Rocket Robin Hood.

Bakshi and background artist Johnnie Vita soon headed to Toronto, planning to commute between Canada and New York, with artists such as Morrow and Wood working from the United States.

Failing to reach a settlement with Guest, Krantz told Bakshi to grab the series ' model sheets and return to the United States.

Artist Vaughn Bodé warned Bakshi against working with Crumb, describing him as " slick ".

Bakshi later agreed with Bodé's assessment, calling Crumb " one of the slickest hustlers you'll ever see in your life ".

Krantz sent Bakshi to San Francisco, where he stayed with Crumb and his wife, Dana, in an attempt to persuade Crumb to sign the contract.

Bakshi hired animators he had worked with in the past, including Vita, Tyer, Anzilotti and Nick Tafuri, and began the layouts and animation.

Although Bakshi did not have enough time to pitch the film, Gross agreed to fund its production and distribute it, believing that it would fit in with his grindhouse slate.

Bakshi did not have a lawyer, so he sought advice from fellow directors with whom he had become friendly, including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.

Bakshi wanted the voices to sound organic, so he experimented with improvisation, allowing his actors to ad lib during the recording sessions.

Bakshi cast Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas, Barry White and Charles Gordone in live-action and voice roles, cutting in and out of animation abruptly rather than seamlessly because he wanted to prove that the two mediums could " coexist with neither excuse nor apology ".

After production of Fire and Ice wrapped, Bakshi attempted several projects that fell through, including adaptations of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, William Kotzwinkle's The Fan Man, Eric Rücker Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels and an anthropomorphic depiction of Sherlock Holmes.

" When Bakshi returned to the United States, he learned that the cost of developing blown-up prints of each frame had risen.

Viewing The Lord of the Rings as a holiday film, United Artists pressured Bakshi to complete it on schedule for its intended November 15, 1978, release.

United Artists and Paramount Pictures each paid Bakshi to develop the film in the 1970s, but were unwilling to produce it, as were the studios he pitched the film to in the 1980s.

Artist Alex Niño signed a contract with Bakshi to work on the film, and was granted a work visa, but was unable to gain permission from the Philippine government in order to leave for the United States until two months afterward, and later found that by the time he had arrived in the U. S., not only had the film's animation had been completed, but Niño's visa did not allow him to submit freelance work on any other projects.

In 1978, Tolkien Enterprises and the distributor United Artists funded an animated version of The Lord of the Rings directed by Ralph Bakshi, which covered approximately the first half of the Lord of the Rings.

A few hundred Krymchaks still clinging to their Crimean identity live in the United States and Israel: animator Ralph Bakshi is the most famous of these.

Failing to reach a settlement with Guest, Krantz told Bakshi to grab the series ' model sheets and return to the United States.

The most successful animated features produced in the United States primarily for adult audiences were directed by Ralph Bakshi, including Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic and Coonskin.

United Artists and Paramount Pictures each paid Bakshi to develop the film in the 1970s, but were unwilling to produce it, as were the studios Bakshi pitched the film to in the 1980s.

* Daffy's head can be seen on a building two times in the 1992 Ralph Bakshi live action / animated film Cool World.

Bakshi served as head of the studio for eight months before Paramount closed its animation division on December 1, 1967.

Bakshi moved into a warehouse loft in downtown Los Angeles to clear his head, and was offered $ 50, 000 to direct a half-hour live-action film for PBS's Imagining America anthology series.

The director fires Bakshi immediately and calls the studio head, General Fred Clutterbuck ( J. Edward McKinley ), about the mishap.

" Bakshi pitched Cool World to Paramount Pictures ( where Bakshi had worked as the final head of the studio's animation division ) as an animated horror film.

In 1973, production of Harlem Nights began, with Paramount Pictures ( where Bakshi once worked as the head of its cartoon studio ) originally attached to distribute the film.