After working at Stowmar Enterprises, Steve Oakes and Peter Rosentheal co-founded Broadcast Arts in Washington, D.C. in 1981. One of the company's first assignment was a series of network IDs for MTV, which had set the standard for the network's irreverent humour. This success established the fledgling studio and brought them projects for WPLJ, Showtime, Cinemax, ABC, and more. Broadcast Arts moved to New York City in 1985. Broadcast Arts produced hundreds of commercials, constantly weaving together multiple animation and special effects techniques for various projects, as well as the animation for the first season of Pee-wee's Playhouse. Broadcast Arts changed its name to Curious Pictures in 1993.
Having worked together for several years, the team of five partners, Susan Holden, Steve Oakes, David Starr, Peter Rosentheal, and Richard Winkler, continued producing television commercials, with the intention of expanding to television programming, toy production, and other ventures. In 1994, the company expanded into a 25,000 square-foot studio in Lower Manhattan, fully equipping it with a cel and computer animation department, a shooting stage with two motion control camera systems, a prop and model shop, and digital editing rooms. From 1995 to 1999, an office was maintained in San Francisco to support the company's expansion into animated television series.
In 1998, A Little Curious for HBO became the company's first half-hour series, followed soon after by another project, Sheep in the Big City, for Cartoon Network. Other television animated prod included Codename: Kids Next Door, created by Mr. Warburton, for Cartoon Network, Little Einsteins for the Playhouse Disney,[1] and the last show is Team Umizoomi for Nickelodeon.
