Gumby wasn't on TV much in the 70's, but by the early 80's it had become a cult classic. The bendables started showing up on rear view mirrors all across the nation and Art and Gloria started touring college campuses giving Gumby shows. To their amazement, huge sell out crowds gathered wherever they went. The fans howled with excitement when they watched classic Gumby episodes and were fascinated by Mandala and the Clay Peacock. During every question and answer session the fans would always ask about Davey and Goliath. Both sets of pals had become American icons.

Just about that time Eddie Murphy did a series of hilarious skits on Saturday Night Live spoofing Gumby. This multiplied the firestorm of Gumby's comeback. The episodes got back on TV where a whole new generation of children became fans of the adventure series. Many college aged kids who'd grown up with Gumby in the 60's got into it all over again.

From 1987 through 1988 Art produced 99 new Gumby episodes. Funded by Lorimar, a new studio in Sausalito California was formed. Art's new company was called Premavision (which comes from the ancient Sandscrit word "Prema" or universal love). This studio had a crew of 60. Some of the best stop motion animators of the modern era were gathered. Many in this crew went on to produce the stop motion classics "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach". The artists, set builders, puppet makers and animators of the late 80's Gumby series added a new rich look to this clay animation classic. While many have also gone on to work with computer animation features such as "Toy Story" and "Antz", others have stayed and developed stop motion into an even more amazing art, especially with the advent of frame grabber technology in the '90's.