The PJs. © Touchstone.

FOX
Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, Jerry Springer, Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ed McMahon, Mark Hamill, George Carlin, Martin Mull, Fred Willard, the musical group the Moody Blues and sports casters John Madden and Pat Summerall are among the guest voices on the 10th season of The Simpsons. The season premiere is scheduled for Sunday, September 20 at 8:00 p.m.. Fox moved King of the Hill to Tuesday nights in July hoping to use it to anchor the evening. Since the end of last season Fox has been ending each show with a "The Hills are moving to Hollywood" teaser. Some fans thinking it is real have been outraged. Will the Hills really move to Hollywood or is it just a publicity stunt? I'm not telling. Both The Simpsons and King of the Hill are some of the best written and acted animation on TV today.

Fox is adding three prime-time animated shows to its mid-season, early 1999 schedule. The first of these is The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening's Futurama, which has been picked up for 13 episodes. The comedy series will be produced by Twentieth Century Fox in association with Groening's Curiosity Company. Groening will be executive producer. Rough Draft Animation, a studio based in Los Angeles and Korea, which does Simpsons production work has been selected as the sole production company.

Newcomer Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy, is a surprise entry into the marketplace. While Futurama and The PJs were planned and in production, Family Guy is a relatively unplanned pilot by MacFarlane, a 24-year-old graduate of Rhode Island School of Design who was recently discovered by Fox executives. MacFarlane's student film first brought him to Hanna-Barbera's attention where he made Larry and Steve, a What A Cartoon! short for Cartoon Network in 1995. Then what was started as a short for MAD TV blossomed into a 13-episode, prime-time pick-up. David Zuckerman has been hired as an executive producer along with MacFarlane. Zuckerman was previously an executive producer on King of the Hill. Roy Smith, formerly of Saban, and Peter Shin, formerly of Klasky Csupo, will be co-animation producers, and John Bush, formerly of Hyperion, will be line producer.

Another new show is The PJs (time TBA) with Eddie Murphy as the voice of the super of the Projects (the PJs.) The show is a satirical look at urban family values in a big-city housing project that will attempt to skewer "cultural stereotypes, sacred cows and notions of political correctness." The PJs is the first prime-time series to be created in "foamation"--the technique used by Will Vinton Studios (California Raisins, Nissan commercials). Murphy is producing the series, with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer as executive producers. Let's hope all three of these new series live up to Fox's tradition of prime-time success.

Mr. Potato Head. © 1998 Hasbro, Inc.

Fox Kids Network, which runs weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings on Fox, has a vamped-up 1998-99 schedule which includes eight new animated series starting in the fall. New to the Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup will be Mr. Potato Head (Film Roman/Chiodo Bros.) which combines computer generated imagery (CGI), puppetry and live-action production technology; Godzilla: The Series (Columbia TriStar) which picks up where the blockbuster movie ended; Woody Woodpecker (a new remake from Universal), Mad Jack (Saban), Silver Surfer (Saban) and Captain America (Saban). New to weekday afternoons will be Scholastic's The Magic School Bus (Scholastic/Nelvana), Spy Dogs (Saban) and Oggy and the Cockroaches (Gaumont) which will be combined with Space Goofs (also Gaumont) as The Space Goofs and Oggy Show. Current shows being renewed for 1998-99 include Steven Spielberg Presents Toonsylvania (DreamWorks), Life With Louie (Hyperion), Spider-Man (Saban), Ned's Newt (Nelvana) and Sam & Max (Nelvana).

NBC
Testing out this prime-time fad, NBC began airing the animated series Stressed Eric in their Wednesday night prime time line-up starting on August 12. This is the first time NBC has aired a regular prime-time animated series since The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo aired on Saturday nights during the 1965/65 TV season. Stressed Eric, a co-production of Absolutely Productions, the BBC and Klasky Csupo, stars a British main character with a strong accent, so NBC has re-dubbed the track with an American voice actor (Hank Azaria) to make the dialogue more comprehensible to its American viewers.