Jean Chalopin

In the early 1970s, Jean Chalopin wrote and produced a number of television commercials and programs through his company, D.I.C. (Diffusion Information Communication). The company's focus was on children's animated programming, and by the early 1980s D.I.C. was Europe's most successful producer of cartoons. Chalopin's reach extended to the United States and Japan within a few years, making shows such as the inventive-detective farce "Inspector Gadget," the mischievous-cat burlesque "Heathcliff," the soft and plushy "The Care Bears," the movie-based "The Real Ghostbusters" (one of their most prominent kids' shows), and the wildly off-the-wall "MASK" among many others. Chalopin has worn various creative hats for the company (and his subsequent venture C & D Group), including writing and creating many of the shows. He also worked as a producer on the live-action HBO anthology program "The Hitchhiker" and on the live-action yet cartoonish motion picture version of "Inspector Gadget" (and its sequel), starring Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, and Michelle Trachtenberg.