Walt Disney has added a new series, featuring Mickey Mouse and Disney’s full roster of characters, entitled DISNEY'S HOUSE OF MOUSE to its 2001 ABC "Disney’s One Saturday Morning" lineup. Roberts Gannaway and Tony Craig will executive produce DISNEY'S HOUSE OF MOUSE. The writer-animator team was responsible for returning Mickey Mouse to cartoon shorts with the 1999 premiere of DISNEY’S MICKEY MOUSEWORKS, whose crew will mostly make up the talent on the new series.

Harvey Entertainment and Hartbreak Films are teaming up to develop a new live-action TV series for the WB based on the cartoon character Richie Rich. The show, however, will place a grown up Richie in college adapting to his new life as "the richest kid in the world" in a more normal environment. The project is a plan to strengthen WB's Friday night line-up, which currently is anchored by Hartbreak Films' SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH. This move adds another toon based live-action adaptation to the WB's fall 2001 line-up. The WB has already ordered 13-episodes of the Warner Bros.

West Virginia 3D animation house Destiny Images has wrapped on two 3D animated educational series entitled LETTER TV and MATH MONSTERS. Twenty-six 5-minute episodes of LETTER TV were produced for The Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT). Destiny wrote, directed and produced each episode, which is based on a separate letter in the English alphabet. The second season of LETTER TV is in production and will include letter combinations like "sh" and "th." For Math Monsters Inc., Destiny animated and designed 13 episodes of MATH MONSTERS.

Disney has ordered 21 episodes of a new toon series entitled, LLOYD IN SPACE, to air as part of the "Disney's One Saturday Morning" line-up on ABC. From the creators of DISNEY'S RECESS and RUGRATS, the series is the coming of age tale of Lloyd, a space station-bound alien teenager. Set to debut in 2001, the show features the voices of Courtland Mead (NYPD BLUE), Diedrich Bader (THE DREW CAREY SHOW), Ben Stein (WIN BEN STEIN'S MONEY) and John O'Hurley (Mr. Peterman on SEINFELD).

Tiger Aspect, the producers of the international hit live-action series MR. BEAN, have awarded Varga Holdings the job of animating the new MR. BEAN cartoon series. Varga will create 52 eleven-minute episodes with London-based Richard Purdum Studios handling the design. Robin Driscoll, who served as the original writer on the live-action series, will be scribing the new toon version and Rowan Atkinson, who plays the live-action Bean, is involved closely with the production and will voice the animated character. The series is scheduled to air on ITB.

Released on October 3, 2000, the direct-to-video SCOOBY-DOO AND THE ALIEN INVADERS will make its television debut after less than two months on video. Cartoon Network will air THE ALIEN INVADERS on November 25, 2000 at 7-9 pm in the U.S. This time around the Mystery, Inc. gang get stranded in a desert town and have a run in with less than friendly extra-terrestrials. This Thanksgiving weekend airing could help put the direct-to-video on Christmas lists around America.

SciFi Channel has signed writer/director John Harrison to create a sequel to his forthcoming miniseries, FRANK HERBERT'S DUNE. The sequel will be adapted from Herbert's novel DUNE MESSIAH. Harrison has hopes to adapt all of Herbert's six DUNE novels into several additional miniseries. "What I've been able to achieve with this one gives us real hope we can carry this on as a highly unusual and groundbreaking series of miniseries," said Harrison. "The DUNE epic is really a wonderful tapestry, and it would be great to see the whole thing play out. The first one turned out terrifically.

The popular syndicated series, XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, will finish its six-season long run on television at the end of this season. Producer Studios USA made the announcement on Monday, October 16, 2000 that they were pulling the plug on the series after it finishes its summer run. The reasoning behind the show's cancellation was its declining ratings, which were due to the series being pulled from primetime slots on the WB and UPN. XENA's ratings for the 1999-2000 season were 3.4 down from its peak in the 1996-1997 season when it averaged a 5.7.

PBS will air a 90-minute documentary on the life and work of Chuck Jones entitled CHUCK JONES: EXTREMES AND IN-BETWEENS, A LIFE IN ANIMATION. Scheduled to air Wednesday, November 22nd at 8 pm, the special includes animated clips, archival footage and new interviews with Jones and a range of celebrity experts including Steven Spielberg, John Lassiter, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Ken Burns, Joe Dante, Roger Ebert, Stan Freberg, Ron Howard, Leonard Maltin, Lorne Michaels and Andre Previn. The film is a co-production of CAMI Spectrum, RM Associates and Thirteen/WNET New York.

The WB Network's Kids' WB! has ordered 13 additional episodes of its new cartoon series JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES from Sony Pictures Family Entertainment. Since its debut on September 9, 2000 the toon has led its time slot among the major networks in the kids 2-11 demographic. In addition, the series is the second ranked Kids' WB! series only behind POKEMON. Kids’ WB! senior VP Donna Friedman said, "We are thrilled that JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES has proven to be a breakout hit we knew it would be.

Upon the success of the TNT original movie, a new TV series based on the WITCHBLADE comic book will go into production. TNT has ordered 11 episodes from Warner Bros. to be broadcast next summer. The WITCHBLADE telepic was seen in 3.5 million households and was the most watch telepic for the week of August 21-27.

One-time L.A. Laker cheerleader/singer/choreographer Paula Abdul and her Planet Paula Productions have signed a deal with Fox Kids Network to develop a new live-action/animated children series. The untitled show will follow a garage band's climb to success. Abdul is set to produce, choreograph and perform an animated character's voice or play a live-action character. The series idea was inspired by Abdul's work on her "Opposites Attract" music video, in which she interacted with an animated character named M.C. Scat Kat.

The hit British comedy program, MR. BEAN, is about to be transformed into an animated series. The live-action series’ production company, Tiger Aspect, will be producing the US$15 million animated television series, which will air on ITB. Rowan Atkinson, who plays the live-action Bean, will voice the animated character. In addition, Robin Driscoll, who served as the original writer on the live-action series, will be scribing the new toon version. Currently, Tiger Aspect is looking for an animation company to perform the physical production.

The chairman of Jim Henson Co., Brian Henson, has signed on to direct CBS' four-hour miniseries JACK AND THE BEANSTALK: THE REAL STORY. The production will start within the next two months in London with the Creature Shop handling the job of bringing the land of giants to the small screen. Henson and Bill Haber will executive produce the program with writer James V. Hart. Martin G. Baker and Tom Smith are producing and Alex Rockwell co-producing.

Dotcomix online hit SISTER RANDY will make her TV debut on BBC America, Saturday, October 21, 2000. SISTER is the second Webtoon to be licensed for TV broadcast on BBC America. Earlier this year the cable network began airing Mondo Media’s THUGS ON FILM. Like THUGS, SISTER will serve as interstitials between programming. As part of the deal, the Webtoons will also air on bbcamerica.com. "Sister Randy is sure to be habit-forming television.

CBS’ Saturday morning ratings have been sky rocketing since beginning airing the Nick Jr. block, with shows such as BLUE’S CLUES and LITTLE BILL. On September 30, 2000, the Nick Jr. programming on CBS averaged a 3.8 rating/18 share among kids 2-5. The ratings were up 58% from the previous week and up 388% from last year. WB ran second in the same demographic with a 2 rating/9 share, followed by ABC with 1.9/10 and Fox .9/4.

For the third quarter, Cartoon Network has reported ratings 25% higher than a year ago. The toon channel drew an average of 1.26 million households, compared with just over a million in the third quarter of 1999. "Our original animated shows like POWERPUFF GIRLS and DEXTER’S LABORATORY have been doing very well, with POWERPUFF GIRLS giving us the highest ratings ever," said Cartoon Network executive vice president Tim Hall.

At MIPCOM, Cosgrove Hall Films has launched their new pre-school series FETCH THE VET. Based on an original concept by children’s author Stephen Thraves, FETCH THE VET tells the story of the day-to-day life of veterinarian Tom Fetch. The series was commissioned by CITV and is co-produced by Flextech Rights Ltd. and ITEL. Currently, 26 11-minute installments have been completed. In promotion of the series, Cosgrove Hall Digital has created a FETCH Website at www.fetchthevet.com.

Barcelona-based Neptuno Films has signed a deal to co-produce, with Planeta 2010, a children’s series entitled PUSS IN BOOTS. Based on the classic tale of Perrault, the story is being adapted by Neptuno director Josep Lluis Viciana. Neptuno also produces THE UGLY DUCKLING, THE THREE BEARS, THE GRAVEDIGGERS SQUAD and BANDOLERO. This production will be the first in what both companies hope to be a long-term co-production relationship.

London-based rights holder Chorion is launching a new 3D animated children’s series entitled MAKE WAY FOR NODDY. Based on author Enid Blyton’s books, NODDY follows the Toyland gang as they try to teach children social values and simple life lessons. The NODDY books have sold over 200 million copies in forty languages worldwide. Chorion has commissioned Los Angeles-based SD Entertainment to produce the series, which will combine 2D and 3D animation. SD Entertainment is the animation house formed by former MGM Animation executives Paul Sabella and Jonathan Dern.