People
Loesch Bids Farewell To Fox. It has been confirmed that Margaret Loesch, founding president
of Fox Kids Network, is leaving the company that she was instrumental in
building. Loesch's resignation was expected, as she has reportedly been
negotiating an exit agreement for several months. This past summer, after
seven years with the company, her role at Fox Kids was changed from president
to vice chairman, after the company joined forces with Saban Entertainment
to form Fox Kids Worldwide, a joint venture cable television operation.
Haim Saban has since started overseeing operations as chairman and CEO
of Fox Kids Worldwide, and former president of Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite
TV Land, Rich Cronin, has been hired as president of Fox Kids Network and
their recently acquired cable network, The Family Channel, effectively
filling Loesch's former role.
The exit agreement is said to have a non-compete clause which will prevent
Loesch from working for any competing company for a set amount of time.
Speculations as to where the executive could be headed next are varied,
but possible avenues include Universal Television (taken over last month
by HSN and USA Networks' owner Barry Diller), Disney/ABC (headed by former
Nickelodeon helmer, Geraldine Laybourne) and Warner Bros. Television Animation,
where Loesch's longtime friend and colleague Jean MacCurdy is currently
president of Warner Bros. Television Animation and Kids WB! Programming.
In a statement issued by Fox, Loesch said, "This has been a very difficult decision for mebut I've decided that it's time to move on, and I'm eagerly looking forward to new challenges and opportunities." News Corp. president and CEO Peter Chernin said the company remains, "grateful to Margaret, as she oversaw the initial expansion of what was a nascent broadcast network into an important new service for children." Before joining Fox Kids in 1990, Loesch was president and CEO of Marvel Comics, and prior to that, she held executive posts at Hanna-Barbera and NBC. Upon being selected as one of the top women in showbiz, the strong-minded Loesch was recently quoted in Daily Variety (11/7/97) as having said, "Whatever I do, I'm sure it will be whatever people tell me not to do."
Sander Schwartz, head of Columbia
TriStar Television Children's
Programming. Photo by and
© Lester Cohen. All Rights Reserved.
Musical Chairs
Sander Schwartz has been upped from senior
vice president to executive vice president and general manager of the Children's
Programming and Animation wing at Columbia Tristar Television. He
was instrumental in founding the division in 1995, which has produced and
independently distributed seven kids shows, including animated series based
on Sony Pictures franchises such as Men in Black, Extreme Ghostbusters
and Jumanji, and is currently in development for 1998, on Godzilla,
Dream of Jeannie, and Dragon Tales.. . . . Toper Taylor has
been promoted to president of NELVANA Communications, the Los Angeles-based
programming and merchandise licensing subsidiary of Canadian animation
studio, NELVANA Limited. Taylor, who was previously executive vice president,
has signed a three-year contract for this new position. He joined NELVANA
in 1991, following a term as a television packaging agent with the William
Morris Agency . . . Stacy Lifton has been promoted to vice president
of business and legal affairs for Fox Kids Worldwide. . . . Susan
Alston has resigned as executive director of the Comic Book Legal
Defense Fund (CBLDF), but has been elected to the non-profit
organization's Board of Directors, and has been appointed treasurer. .
. . Sam Cornell has joined Playhouse Pictures as director
of animation. He has been a partner in the Los Angeles-based animation
studio Cornell/Abood, with Cheryl Abood. . . . Lorri Bond has been
promoted to vice president of Warner Bros. Classic Animation, where
she has been director since 1995. In the expanded role, she will oversee
preservation and continued use of Warner's classic animation properties,
and will also continue to be associate producer for Bugs `n' Daffy (Kids
WB!) and The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show (ABC). Prior to joining
Warner Bros. in 1995, Bond worked at The Disney Channel. . . .
Lily Snowden Fine, the latest
addition to Snowden
Fine Productions! Photo courtesy of and © David
Fine and Alison Snowden.
Greg Daniels, co-creator (with Mike Judge) and executive producer of Fox's prime-time series King of the Hill, has signed a four-year, U.S. $16 million contract with Fox. King of the Hill which premiered in January 1997, is now the number two series on Fox. Before co-creating the show with Mike Judge, Daniels was an executive producer on The Simpsons. . . . Tad Stones has signed a new five-year contract with Walt Disney Television Animation, where he will be an executive producer. He is currently working in this capacity on Disney's Hercules animated series, slated for fall 1998. Stones has worked with The Walt Disney Company since 1974, most recently in the Television Animation division as producer of the series Darkwing Duck and Chip `n' Dale's Rescue Rangers and the two Aladdin direct-to-video titles. . . . Dea Connick Perez has been named program director at Cartoon Network. She was formerly director of acquisitions at Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite TV Land. . . .Curious Pictures has brought on Lisa Eve Huberman as development director, thereby launching a division to develop long form television programming and features. Until now, the bicoastal studio has mainly focused on commercials and short-form commissioned works. Huberman was most recently involved in development of branding programs for Disney Educational Publishing and Nickelodeon. . . . Mainframe Entertainment has restructured its executive management, to "improve operating efficiency, control costs and streamline production." The round of internal promotions includes the appointment of Christopher Brough to vice chairman of the board (formerly CEO), Ian Pearson to president and CEO (formerly executive vice president), Mark Ralston to senior vice president of production (formerly chief financial officer) and Brett Gannon to chief financial officer. . . . Marc-Antione D'Halluin has been named managing director of Fox Kids France, which recently launched a channel through CanalSatellite. D'Halluin was previously director of corporate development, Europe, for Sony Pictures Entertainment. . . . Henry Selick, director of stop-motion animated features "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and "James and the Giant Peach," will start directing his first live-action feature in February. The TriStar Pictures project is a teen horror film called "Idle Hands," slated for a Halloween 1998 release. . . .Matt Ohnemus has joined LoConte Goldman Design as senior designer. He was station art director at NBC affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston. . . . Alison Snowden and David Fine (Bob's Birthday and The Bob and Margaret Show) are pleased to announce the birth of their first child. Their daughter, Lily Snowden-Fine was born on Monday, November 17 at 12:11 p.m. London time. "We are very happy with her and hope to get her to write a script if there is a second series of Bob & Margaret," the happy parents told AWN. . . .
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