Alumni
Alumni
Adam Pava '99 an Out-Of-This-World Ideaman
- Class: 1999
- Degrees: B.A. English/Whittier Scholars Program; M.A. USC School of Cinematic Arts
- Current Job: Screenwriter and co-creator of Out of Jimmy's Head on Cartoon Network
It's a simple story really. Kid has a brain transplant. Transplanted grey matter belonged to cartoonist. Kid now sees animated cartoon characters in his everyday world.
Out of Jimmy's Head on Cartoon Network is born.
Well—maybe it isn't that common a story, but to someone as creative as screenwriter Adam Pava, the world of out-of-this-world ideas is a place where he is very much at home.
Adam and writing partner/co-creator Timothy McKeon came up with the idea for the show after the two became fascinated an urban legend that Walt Disney had himself (or his head, depending on the story) cryogenically frozen. As Pava says, it was a short journey to imagine what could happen to that head. The result of this strange leap became Cartoon Network's first ever live-action program, interspersed with animation. (The idea was first executed in Pava and McKeon's 2006 film Re-Animated, which did so well Cartoon Network decided to adapt the film into the series.)
Adam's career path is one mirrored by many successful writers in Hollywood. On leaving Whittier and getting a master's through USC, Pava took on a wide variety of jobs and internships. Through these, he was able to explore the entertainment industry and build contacts that would, eventually, provide him the opportunity to showcase his potent imagination and writing skills. From internships on Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, to creating jokes for Kermit the Frog, to writing on the award winning Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Adam worked his way up, gaining a name for himself as a writer with a sharp sense of humor.
"The funny thing" he explains, "is being a screenwriter is not glamorous like some people might think. It's a job like any other. It can be fun—and it can be taxing."
Pava's first official writing gig was on the short-lived Clone High—a show about a group of high school students cloned from famous historical figures. A brilliant and unorthodox basis for a program, the concept was also provocative enough to prompt 50 Indian lawmakers (unhappy at the idea of the show's cloned Mahatma Gandhi character) to go on a hunger strike until Viacom cancelled the series. "We made 13 episodes—and five aired. Sadly, mine was episode number six."
A Whittier Scholar and English major, Pava regards his time at Whittier as key in his development as a writer. "I arrived not knowing who I was or what I wanted to do. Writing for classes and as a columnist for the Quaker Campus—every week having to write something funny on a deadline—that really shaped who I am now."
Pava recalls thriving in fiction writing courses where, as he describes it, "I really began to find my voice as a writer, creating a body of work which always skewed in a decidedly comedic direction."
And it was one Faculty Master's event in particular that he claims put him squarely on his career path.
"Tony Barnstone (professor of English) knew some of us were interested in TV writing, so he invited Ian Maxtone-Graham, one of the writers from The Simpsons, to come and speak. We hung out all day, and he wrote a sketch and showed us how he edited it and punched it up, making it funnier and tighter. Then, when we performed it that night—and all I remember was that in the sketch Tony and I had to fit in a giant shirt together like a man with two heads—I thought to myself that writing like this is exactly what I want to be doing in my life."
--Published in The Rock, Spring 2008
