New projects underway for former Harrisburg puppeteer Dave Pavelonis
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Dave Pavelonis spends most of his time creating characters at home in Simi Valley, Calif., and in meetings in Los Angeles promoting those characters to Hollywood executives.
Over the weekend he returned to his home town in Harrisburg with his daughter, Sloane Fabricius, and grandson, Drew, to spend Easter with his mother, Olive.
Also while in town he took some time to chat with the Daily Register/Daily Journal about trends in television and upcoming projects.
Pavelonis has based much of his career around his puppets. He got his start creating a televised puppet show for mentally disabled children at Harrisburg's A.L. Bowen center where he was also a teacher. He moved on to Missouri and started a puppet company --Whattacharacter! -- making commercials and Hallmark programs. He garnered the attention of actor William Conrad. The next thing he knew he was shaking hands with Johnny Carson who agreed to take on Pavelonis' program Wizzle Falls. The pilot aired opposite "60 Minutes" and was subsequently dropped.
Decades later, Pavelonis keeps his nose to the grindstone and believes his latest project could be his most successful. It is an animated series.
Pavelonis says the show appears to be progressing toward production and could involve a myriad of Hollywood stars.
He is also promoting a show to Nickelodeon called "The Laffs."
He has been burned by the industry in the past, but he also knows nothing will happen if he doesn't keep coming up with ideas and getting them to the ears of the right people. He is leading the life he had envisioned prior to leaving Harrisburg.
"I knew I wanted to do something with my art. I knew I wanted to do something and do it as big as I could do it," Pavelonis said.
"Opportunity comes around in ways you never expect and when it does you've got to be ready."
Pavelonis' website is whattacharacter.com
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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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