Betty wrote this little poem way back in 1990. I clearly remember this day. I looked at her and told her it was a book at that we were going to embark on a path that would get us an animated series on some network.
Sadly it wasn't Junior Kroll that got produced but Maggie was just a good. She said to me once that she didn't think she would have created Maggie and the Ferocious Beast if it wasn't for all her weekly poem writing on Junior Kroll. It was a great fun. Junior ran weekly in Dan's Papers from June 8th 1990 until she woke up one day and told me, "I'm done with little Junior. I've got nothing left to say about this guy."
In all she wrote about 416 story poems. I have to count them. We published 4 Junior Kroll books with Harcort Brace and 1 extra book with Cookie Jar.
We had a deal at CBS but for some reason Betty got angry that the network wanted the dog to talk. She walked away. We also had a deal at PBS but there were too many changes they wanted and we substituted Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse. I guess they didn't care. Marvin was a big hit.
Junior is around. Sometimes he appears in The Green Monkeys. My old friend Junior will live to tell his story.
Betty, I miss you everyday and nothing makes me happier than look at Junior's smiling devilish face and thinking about all the work we did together.
I should have written this on Mother's Day. Better late than never.
More stories of Betty to come.
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