North Hollywood, California-based Film Roman has begun production on THE OBLONGS, a television series that will be distributed by Warner Bros. Television on The WB Network for the 2000 season. THE OBLONGS is the second animated prime-time series, after Howard Stern's DOOMSDAY for UPN, that Film Roman has added for the 2000 television season.

The WB has already removed its new primetime animated
series MISSION HILL from its Friday night line-up due to poor ratings. (Its
premiere episode finished 115th in the ratings for the week of October 4 -
10.) It's expected to return as a midseason replacement. New episodes of SOUTH
PARK return beginning next Wednesday, October 27 at 10 pm on COMEDY
CENTRAL, with an all-new Halloween special, KORN'S GROOVY PIRATE GHOST
MYSTERY, guest starring the band, KORN. . . MTV is developing an animated

Fox has removed FAMILY GUY from its Thursday night line-up due to poor
ratings. (Apparently UPN's new WWF SMACKDOWN! is creating stiff
competition.) According to a Fox spokesperson, the network remains
committed to the show, and its return date will be known in about two
weeks. The show did well last spring when it launched in a Sunday night
timeslot and Fox committed to another season. Therefore, it seems likely
the show will return as part of the Sunday night lineup when one of the

Kids' WB! has ordered 13 episodes of MAX STEEL, a new 3D CGI animated action-adventure half-hour series from Sony
Pictures Family Entertainment (SPFE) which is set to debut in January 2000.
Set in the fictitious suburban city of Del Oro Bay, it centers around Max
Steel, a young international secret agent who was the product of a
bio-technical accident which infused him with nano-technology giving him
bionic abilities. The teenage hi-tech hero is dedicated to protecting the
Earth by fighting the most dangerous and sinister mercenary organization,

To celebrate Scooby-Doo's 30th anniversary, Cartoon Network will present a 24-hour
SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? marathon beginning Saturday, October 23 at noon,
a 10-hour marathon of Scooby-Doo movies on Saturday, October 30, and an
eight-hour SCOOBY & SCRAPPY-DOO marathon on October 31. Immediately before
each of the marathons, as well as during them, Cartoon Network will air
live-action footage which will be called THE SCOOBY-DOO PROJECT, in which
the real Scooby Gang heads out into the woods for a documentary in a spoof

United Kingdom's ITV Network Centre has commissioned a second series of 13
episodes of the animated series THE STORYKEEPERS from Dublin, Ireland-based
Monster Productions, an animation studio and distribution company formed in
1995 by former management and artists from the Don Bluth studios. The new
series, produced by Shepherd Films, and distributed by Monster Distributes,
will be delivered in Spring 2001 for broadcast on Sunday mornings. The new
series, which is a prequel to the existing series, is set in AD 8, and

Whoever wants to know how the cliffhanger ending of the October 15, 1999 episode of SPACE GHOST:
COAST TO COAST is resolved will have to win the auction that the Cartoon
Network is holding Friday, October 15 to Monday, October 18. Cartoon
Network is auctioning off the last page of that episode's script, which
will not be part of the broadcast episode, to benefit Clowns Without
Borders. The auction will be held at www.ebay.com. At the end of Friday's
episode, which guest stars comedian Steve Wright, Space Ghost and cast find

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of Comedy Central's SOUTH PARK, have received permission to
sample copyrighted Monty Python work for use in IT'S THE MONTY PYTHON
STORY. The animated special will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the BBC
comedy series MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS, which was created by Graham
Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry
Gilliam (the lone American in the group, who did the animation). The
special will include a spoof of the famous "Dead Parrot Sketch" entitled

NIGHT OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN, an hour-long animated special, will air on
Fox on Thursday, October 28, at 8 pm. Featuring the voices of Luke Perry
(BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), William H. Macy (FARGO), and Tia Carrere
(WAYNE'S WORLD), the special was produced by Dallas, Texas-based Computed
Animation Technology (CAT) and Wimberley, Texas-based Locomotion Studios
using performance (motion-capture) 3D animation. It was written by John
Shirley (THE CROW). The special, like the upcoming Tim Burton film, SLEEPY

HESTON, animation director J.J. Sedelmaier's final TV FUNHOUSE segment for
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, aired Saturday, October 2 on the comedy show's season
premier, which was hosted by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Sedelmaier's final
vignette, which concludes his three-year collaboration with writer Robert
Smigel, lampooned the NRA's pro-gun position by using real audio of NRA
president, actor Charlton Heston, addressing Congress combined with
dialogue from his PLANET OF THE APES movies and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, in