WarnerMedia’s Acquisition of Suzanna Makkos Might Be The Biggest Free Agent Signing In 2019 For Animation

And how this will help shape WarnerMedia’s future.

Numerous outlets are reporting that FOX Vp of Comedy Suzanna Makkos , known for developing Bob’s Burgers as well as other live-action fare, has been tapped as the new VP of Comedy and Animation for the WarnerMedia streaming service and it sounds as though your traditional animated comedies will not be her focal point in terms of development with Deadline saying that she will be overseeing creative development for comedy and animation, with shows ranging from anthology rom-com series to millennial satire to new takes on legacy animated properties.

This is a bigger deal on a number of different fronts and we’re going to explain them:

1) It has been a nightmare for new animated series launches on TBS. It’s nearly two years to the day when TBS forged heavy into original adult animation with renewing American Dad then picking up Final Space, Close Enough, Tarantula, and The Cops to series. Here’s where those shows are now:

  • Final Space was ordered for a second season and a VR special, however, the show has since moved it’s original premieres from TBS to Adult Swim. The success of this series is largely attributed to show creator Olan Rogers who put this franchise on his back and made sure that both his existing audience and a new audience would come into fold in a variety of ways. Had he not done that, there’s no way we’re talking about a second season of Final Space. 
  • TBS decided to dump the entire very good season of Tarantula pretty much after Thanksgiving 2017 with not even a billboard posted anywhere to let anyone know that would help aid the network in making sure this series never saw a second season.
  • I guess we can’t all the way blame TBS for the cancellation of The Cops after allegations of sexual misconduct would effectively destroy show co-creator Louis CK’s career. In any event, The Cops never made it to air.
  • Close Enough was ordered to series, but despite the show being done in terms of production, is only rumored to be part of a 2019 premiere. Where? Your guess is as good as mine though Adult Swim getting Final Space would hopefully be a good template for this series to follow suit.
  • Honoroable Mention: The Super Deluxe animation studios closed last year

2) Having a woman high up for WarnerMedia is a great way to dissuade any sort of worry that there might be by women creators in pitching to the Adult Swim brand. Adult Swim network head Mike Lazzo has caught flack in the past for comments he’s made about women animation showrunners and while there have been some great advances in Adult Swim’s cause in being more inclusive, a lot more can be done and you can only put so much lipstick on one’s reputation to really change peoples’ made up minds. Hiring on Suzanna Makkos to effectively be a superior to Mike puts women producers back in the driver’s seat for adult animation series pitches to be had and should result in more opportunities to open up. Netflix is embracing inclusiveness in it’s adult animation push, Adult Swim will have to adapt to survive.

3) I love the fact that Suzanna is looking at other sub genres of animation with anthology, romantic comedies, and satire being the three points of emphasis in her announcement. Most major publications continue to tout animation as a genre and not an industry and if Suzanna can some of that same sauce in breaking molds that she had in getting Bob’s Burgers to the success it is now by allowing a show to defy trends and really grow out it’s own audience, this hiring is going to be a start of something very exciting.

4) WarnerMedia at launch will have a decidedly big catalog of adult animation. We already know how important Rick and Morty was to Hulu’s streaming success last year, however, now we’re getting a service that could potentially have back catalogs of content from the Boomerang, Cartoon Network, TBS, TruTV, and Adult Swim brands which would give the service an animation footprint that can rival anyone else in the industry. Add in the fact that Adult Swim’s got a great foothold in the anime industry and is continuing to get all of the top action-series brands in that category, and not only does this service now position itself against Netflix, but the likes of Funimation as well. Suzanna’s gonna have a lot to work with from the get-go and will have a bunch more in the future.

My gut tells me that WarnerMedia may shutter each and every ancillary streaming service it has right now. I think VRV, Crunchyroll, DirecTVNow, Boomerang, all of it gets combined into one streaming platform that will have a lineup of channels ondemand that off the bat will be easier to navigate than Netflix which doesn’t have ancillary brands to do the same with. Parent company AT&T is a company with tech and GUI wizards that will be able to have three levels of programming that should help make it formidable in years to come. They’ll need animation to get there and Suzanna’s a great asset to have.