The long forgotten work by CURIOUS GEORGE-creators Margret Rey and Hans Augusto Rey -- WHITEBLACK THE PENGUIN – is becoming a TV series. Publisher Houghton Mifflin has enlisted Vancouver-based animation house Mainframe Entertainment to create the show. The book centers on Whiteback, who journeys out into the world to discover new stories for his North Pole radio show. The story was originally created in 1937 when the Reys lived in Paris, but was only published for the first time this past year.

The Disney Channel has announced that it will produce its first animated sitcom entitled THE PROUD FAMILY. The series will chronicle the experiences of a 14-year-old African-American girl named Penny and her family. Co-executive producer Bruce Smith (SPACE JAM) created the series. Ralph Farquhar, co-creator of the UPN live-action comedy MOESHA, will serve as the other executive producer. The voice cast will include Kyla Pratt (LOVE & BASKETBALL) as Penny, Paula Jai Parker (THE WAYANS BROS.) as Trudy Proud and Tommy Davidson (IN LIVING COLOR) as Oscar Proud.

Nickelodeon is set to premiere two new cartoon series, INVADER ZIM and THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS, in March. Debuting on Friday, March 30 at 8:30 pm, THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS follows the adventures of 10-year-old Timmy Turner (Tara Strong) and his newly arrived fairy godparents -- Cosmo (Daran Norris) and Wanda (Susan Blakeslee), who grant him wishes in an attempt to fix his problems. The series is created by OH YEAH! CARTOONS! veteran Butch Hartman.

Toon Disney, the all-Disney cartoon channel, has announced their first original series, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN. The series will bow on the cable network in fall 2001. In the show, Tarzan (Michael T. Weiss, THE PRETENDER) will be reunited with his animal family and must defend the jungle from the encroachment of man. Other characters in the series will be Jane (Olivia d' Abo, THE WONDER YEARS), Professor Porter (Jeff Glen Bennett, THE WEEKENDERS), the well-meaning ape Terk (April Winchell, RECESS, PEPPER ANN) and Tantor the elephant (Jim Cummings, THE TIGGER MOVIE).

THE SIMPSONS yet again claimed the primetime TV toon crown scoring an 8.6 rating/13 share in 38th place. KING OF THE HILL notched in a four-way tie for #68, garnering a 5.8 rating/9 share. Not preempted by NFL football, FUTURAMA took the 84th slot with a 4.3 rating/7 share. The premiere of GARY & MIKE placed high for its fledgling network, UPN. With extreme help as a follow-up to WWF SMACKDOWN on Thursday, the new stop-motion cartoon kicked off with a 3.6 rating/5 share in 86th place.

DIC Entertainment has signed on to create 26 half-hour episodes of EVOLUTION, based on Ivan Reitman's forthcoming summer live-action feature. This project re-teams DIC's president and CEO Andy Heyward with Reitman, who collaborated on REAL GHOSTBUSTERS and MUMMIES ALIVE. Producing the series along with DIC will be Reitman's The Montecito Picture Co. (TMPC) in conjunction with DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures. Heyward, Reitman and TMPC's co-founder Tom Pollack will executive produce the traditionally animated show.

Nickelodeon Latin America and TV Globo have signed a deal that will send Nicktoons to Brazilian airwaves. The two-year deal gives Globo the rights to air Nicktoons on Saturday mornings. Nick has similar deals with Mexico's Televisa and Venezuela's Radio Caracas Television. The cartoons that will air from 7 – 8 am will be dubbed versions of CATDOG, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS and THE WILD THORNBERRYS.

Toronto broadcaster CTV has gained the Canadian TV rights for the STAR WARS franchise. The three-year deal gives CTV broadcast rights to EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE and the original STAR WARS trilogy. In addition, the network has purchased the documentaries FROM STAR WARS TO STAR WARS: THE STORY OF INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC, A LONG TIME AGO: THE STORY OF STAR WARS and THE MYTHOLOGY OF STAR WARS. PHANTOM MENACE will debut on April 29, 2001 on the same day that the film premiere's in the States on Fox.

UPN may be backing out of its plans to produce DOOMSDAY, a new animated series produced by talk radio host Howard Stern. The show would have chronicled the Bradley family who travel in a motor-home across a post-apocalyptic United States in search of a new home and traditional family values. UPN head Dean Valentine told the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS that the first drafts of the show were "decent, but it wasn't great and if you do this kind of show, a show about the aftermath of nuclear war, it has got to be great.

After a decade on the air, THE SIMPSONS continues to do well with a top 20 finish this past week. At #19, the longest running U.S. sitcom scored a 10 rating/15 share. KING OF THE HILL tied for 41st place with a 7.2 rating/11 share. A 10-minute bonus installment of HILL ranked #101 with a 1.7 rating/3 share. Also at #101 was THE PJS, pulling down the same rating and share. These ratings and shares represent primetime TV in the U.S. on broadcast networks for the week starting Monday, January 1 through Sunday, January 7, 2000.