Steve Oakes and Peter Rosenthal met at a social club for independent filmmakers in Washington, D.C., in early 1981. Oakes, a recent graduate of the experimental Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Rosenthal, a business-savvy go-getter who was then working for a documentary filmmaker, formed a quintessential mismatched pair that somehow clicked. The duo built the largest and zaniest animation studio in New York during the 1980s and 90s, helping to brand MTV and initiating the stylistic approach to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.