Baby Blues has been added to Cartoon Network's line up as part of its "Adult Swim" block of programming. Aimed at adults ages 18-34, the animated block airs Sunday and Thursday nights from 10 pm-1 am (ET/PT). Adult Swim's rotating line-up includes SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST, THE BRAK SHOW, HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW, AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE and SEALAB 2021, as well as the animé series COWBOY BEBOP.

RTV Family Entertainment has recently signed licensing deals with German broadcasters Super RTL and ORF. ORF will be picking up THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE ADVENTURES, the second season of Rolf Kauka’s FIX & FOXI AND FRIENDS as well as the series ROTTEN RALPH, which was successfully introduced to Germany in the branded block "Ravensburger TV" on Super RTL. Super RTL acquired the TV licenses for RTV’s new animation series GNARFS.

Toon Disney, ABC Cable Network Group's 24-hour all-animation network, will add DISNEY'S TEACHER'S PET to the channel's schedule. Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, the series, including 18 previously unaired episodes, will air on Toon Disney Monday - Friday at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET/PT beginning January 7, 2002. New episodes will premiere on Fridays. DISNEY'S TEACHER'S PET will continue to air as part of "Disney's One Saturday Morning" at 8:30 a.m. ET/7:30 a.m. PT on the ABC Television Network.

Gullane Entertainment has acquired a 50% interest in the popular S4C International property FIREMAN SAM. The joint venture between S4C International and Gullane Entertainment will see a new 26-part TV series co-produced, followed by a worldwide distribution, marketing and licensing program. Over the past decade, FIREMAN SAM has appeared in four animated television series as part of the BBC children's schedule and has sold one million videos and five million storybooks in the UK. The series is broadcast in Welsh on S4C and has been translated into forty other languages.

The Disney Channel has ordered additional episodes of two of its newest animated shows -- preschooler-oriented series Stanley and the NAACP Image Award-nominated series THE PROUD FAMILY. Both shows premiered in September 2001. Stanley, developed by Jim Jinkins and David Campbell (DISNEY'S DOUG, DISNEY'S PB&J OTTER) and based on characters from the popular book series of the same name, is currently Disney Channel's highest rated series with two to five year olds.

There is still time to catch Bill Plympton’s original holiday special 12 TINY CHRISTMAS TALES. Cartoon Network is airing the special, which features stories based on Bill Plympton's hand-drawn Christmas cards, on December 21, 2001 at 9:30 pm and again on December 24th at 7:00 pm as part of Cartoon Network’s 24-Hour Christmas Party.

SANTA, BABY!, a new animated holiday special, will premiere Monday, December 17 at 8:00 pm on FOX. The one hour special is produced by Rankin/Bass and sponsored by Coca-Cola. Featuring the voices of Gregory Hines, Eartha Kitt, Patti LaBelle and Vanessa Williams, SANTA BABY! tells the story of Noel, a once successful songwriter who becomes a sidewalk Santa in the hope of breaking his writer's block. With the help of his wife, daughter, a Christmas partridge named Melody Songbird and a cat named Emerald, Noel discovers his hit song and the true meaning of Christmas.

Monster Distributes has just completed a deal with Discovery Kids UK to broadcast its educational animated series WHY? The series, which is scheduled to begin airing January 1, 2002, was also recently sold to Mediapark for Pay TV in Spain. A Pay TV deal in Brazil is currently in negotiation. The 24 x 2 minute pre-school series was animated by Irish animation company Brown Bag Films, and explains how things work.

Hollywood-based animation studio Toonshoppe has delivered the first of many interstitial episodes of CISCO AND RIPPLE for Urban Entertainment and Encore Media Group's Black Starz! cable network. The 3:30 interstitial features two animated hosts, Cisco and Ripple, who review the movies airing on Black Starz! Toonshoppe recreated the show for television based on character designs by creators A.J. Jamal and Spencer, who also voice the characters. The show originally appeared on Urban Entertainment's Website, and was animated for the Internet by Flip Your Lid Animation.

Although ranking slightly higher than last week, FAMILY GUY is still drawing poor ratings. Its Thursday night at 8:00 pm time slot is a tough one, and the show only managed 86th place this week with a 2.8 rating/7 share. FUTURAMA is not doing much better. In its regular time slot on FOX, Sunday at 7:00 pm, the show is not finding viewers. In 83rd place, FUTURAMA drew a 3.1 rating/5 share. KING OF THE HILL, which follows FUTURAMA, ranked slightly higher, with a 4.6 rating/7 share. Once again, THE SIMPSONS reigned supreme, landing in 35th place with a 7.1 rating/11 share.