Jeffrey Scott
Production and Script Advisor

The Clayman is happy to introduce Mr. Jeffrey Scott as a production and script advisor.

Jeffrey Scott Biography

In the beginning was the word, and the word was Maurer. That’s because Jeffrey Scott was born Jeffrey Alan Maurer in Hollywood, California, to Norman Maurer, a successful comic book artist and creator of the world’s first 3-D comic book, and Joan Howard Maurer, daughter of Moe Howard, “chief slapper and eye poker” of the world renown comedy team, The Three Stooges.

In addition to watching classic Three Stooges shorts on TV, Jeffrey grew up watching classic cartoons, including Disney, Warner Bros., and his favorites: Max Fleisher’s Superman.

At age eleven, Jeffrey began his creative career by acting in motion pictures, including two Three Stooges films produced and directed by his multi-talented father. Then, at age 17, Jeffrey began to hone his writing skills by penning a screenplay for what was to be the final Three Stooges film, “Make Mine Manila”. But the production was canceled when the producers failed to successfully replace ailing stooge, Larry Fine. Jeffrey’s writing career would have to wait. While majoring in Motion Pictures & Television at UCLA, Jeffrey developed his artistic skills and worked for four years, inking and lettering comic books for Western Publishing Company, including such classics as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Coyote & Roadrunner, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, etc.

After obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA, Jeffrey began to experiment in fine art. He originated a new form of mixed-media pop art that combined real U.S. currency with iconic images. His most successful piece was a limited edition “American Flag” made of 117 U.S. one-dollar bills. One of Jeffrey’s money art pieces is hanging in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

Jeffrey’s career turned back to writing when his father asked him to be his assistant story editor on Hanna-Barbera’s animated series, Dynomutt: Dog Wonder. After receiving a priceless six-month apprenticeship under his father’s creative tutelage, Jeffrey was given his first animated series story-editing assignment: Superfriends. His successful helming of the series garnered high ratings for ABC and a precedent-setting order for 32 new half-hour episodes the following year. When Jeffrey mentioned to the producer that he intended to write all 32 scripts he was told that “Bill Hanna was a taskmaster”, and that writing them all would be impossible. But rather than being discouraged, Jeffrey felt “challenged”, and began to write the series. Thirty-two weeks later, he’d completed all of the scripts, and Challenge of the Superfriends was a smash hit for ABC.

Tired of people misspelling and mispronouncing his last name, and because his fiancée would be changing her maiden name, Jeffrey decided to do the same. After marrying Sonya “Sunny” Kroch at the world-renown Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, they became Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Scott. (If you’re a sucker for mushy love stories you’ll appreciate that Jeffrey met Sonya when he was ten years old, and it was love-at-first-sight in both directions!)

Over the next five years, Jeffrey wrote 125 episodes of Superfriends. He soon became known for story-editing and writing entire series, including Spider-Woman and Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies for Marvel Productions, Pac-Man for Hanna-Barbera, The Littles and Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling for DIC, and the final season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Fred Wolf Films.

Over the course of his writing career, Jeffrey has written over 600 animated television scripts for the above series, as well as Dungeons & Dragons (Marvel Productions); Plastic-Man, Thundarr the Barbarian, Mega Man (Ruby-Spears Productions); Wacky World of Tex Avery, Sonic the Hedgehog (DIC Enterprises), Zorro and James Bond, Jr. (Fred Wolf Films); Duck Tales, Tale Spin, Winnie The Pooh (Disney); Dragon Tales (Columbia-TriStar/Children’s Television Workshop); and Mr. Baby (Wild Brain).

In addition to his work for U.S. networks and studios, Jeffrey has written for companies around the globe, including Animation Studio Ludwig in Germany, JadooWorks in India, HIT Entertainment in England, Pixel Cartoons in Italy, Digital Dreams in South Korea, and Decode Entertainment in Canada.

Jeffrey’s animation writing has been recognized with several awards, including 3 Emmys and the Humanitas Prize for his work on Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies, and Emmy nominations for his writing of The Wacky World of Tex Avery and Dragon Tales. A complete list of Jeffrey’s credits and awards can be found on his website at www.jeffreyscott.tv.

After being asked to speak about animation writing at numerous conventions and seminars, Jeffrey realized that something was missing in the field of animation education. Although there were books on the various techniques of animation production, there was none on the subject of animation writing. So Jeffrey organized all of the tricks and techniques he had learned over the years and turned them into his acclaimed book, HOW TO WRITE FOR ANIMATION. “Writing for animation is both an art and a discipline,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO or DreamWorks Animation, “and Jeffrey Scott is terrific at teaching others what he’s mastered himself.”

In addition to his cartoon writing experience, Jeffrey has also worked freelance and as a staff writer in live-action television, writing scripts for The Misadventures Of Sheriff Lobo (Universal), Mr. Merlin (Columbia), Wake, Rattle & Roll (Hanna-Barbera), and The Powers Of Matthew Starr (Paramount). He has also written several feature films, including the first 3-D (anaglyphic) animated feature, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, and live-action screenplays for Paramount Studios and Columbia Pictures.

When Moe Howard passed away, Jeffrey’s father took over the management of The Three Stooges rights. Following in the family tradition, Jeffrey did the same, and managed the worldwide rights to The Three Stooges for seven years, including the development of motion pictures, television and licensing. He executive-produced, wrote and played the part of his grandfather, Moe, in The Three Stooges Live-Stage Show at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, and again performed the role of Moe in a Verizon SuperPages television commercial which aired throughout the national U.S. market.

Jeffrey currently lives in Southern California with his wife, Sonya, daughter, Caroline, and son, Moe. He writes and produces film and TV projects, and continues to enjoy creating new pieces of “money” art.