 Paramount pitched the idea of producing a "Superman" series to its animation producer, Fleischer Studios.Co-owner Dave Fleischer did not want to take on the task of producing such a demanding series, he went up to Paramount and gave them a ridiculously high budget quota of $100,000 per cartoon - six times the cost of the Fleischers' black-and-white "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons, hoping to get Paramount to change its mind about the shorts.To his surprise, Paramount negotiated it down to a production cost of $50,000 for the first cartoon, and $30,000 for subsequent cartoons, and Max and Dave began work on the first short in the series, "Superman."