PBS hopes to attract the growing Hispanic demographic with the new bilingual series, The Misadventures of Maya and Miguel. © Scholastic Entertainment.

With the PBS Kids 2004 schedule essentially locked in place, Simensky is looking ahead to 2005 and a possible new series that, like Postcards from Buster, would be a live-action/animation combination. As for the overall programming mix, “there are certain shows that I really like and some that may not be as strong as the others. My goal is to find a quiet, unobtrusive home for the weaker ones and emphasize the ones I feel are the strongest.” Simensky sums up her mission by observing, “PBS has always had the goal of developing iconic characters for kids and to find the next kids’ icon – the next Arthur, or the next Big Bird.” Or perhaps, the next Powerpuff Girls.

From his vantage point, Seibert sees another big Pokémon-style breakout hit somewhere just over the horizon. “It’s been a few years. SpongeBob was the last real one. He’s really the first superstar character of the modern generation, which is really interesting; in 10 years of unbelievable successes, only one superstar has emerged from the pack. Yu-Gi-Oh! tried, it did really well, but didn’t really break out in a permanent way.”

Technology-wise, Seibert predicts, “we’re going to see a lot more CGI and CGI-influenced stuff on TV. It’s getting easier and easier for traditionally trained people to make their way in the CGI world. Clearly costs are going down in CGI production. You’re able to do more CGI stuff on a TV budget.

“I also think we’re close to the end of The Simpsons. How that’s going to shake out in terms of replacements, we’ll see. More and more cable people are coming on in primetime animation next year. It’ll be interesting to see what the role of cable will be, but it’s clear that there’s still a lot of adult primetime animation to come.”

Joe Strike is a NYC-based writer/producer with a background in TV promotion and a lifelong interest in animation. He is writing a children’s novel.