|
|
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.1 - April 1999
Television
 |
| Futurama. & ©1999 Fox Broadcasting Company. |
8:00 p.m. -- King of the Hill
8:30 p.m. -- Futurama
9:00 p.m. -- The PJs
9:30 p.m. -- Alternating repeats of The Simpsons and King of the Hill
God, the Devil and Bob. The Carsey-Werner Co., a dominant live-action
TV production company having produced shows like Cosby and Roseanne,
is developing their first animated show. The primetime cartoon, God, the
Devil and Bob, is in the early development stages, and will reportedly
be picked up by NBC. The show is created by Matthew Carlson (an executive
story editor on Wonder Years, and creator of the U.S. version of Men
Behaving Badly and Townies). A Carsey-Werner spokesman said that
the voice cast will be comprised of James Garner (God), Robert Downey Jr.
(the Devil), Third Rock From The Sun's French Stewart (Bob) and Roseanne's
Laurie Metcalf (Bob's wife).
More Primetime `Toons For ABC, Fox and NBC. Major U.S. networks have
been bitten by an animation bug and have recently announced a slew of primetime
animated series. ABC has worked out a deal with Miramax and Touchstone TV
for six episodes of Clerks, based on director Kevin Smith's 1994 indie
film of the same name. Slated for a midseason or fall 2000 launch, the show
will be executive-produced by Smith and former Seinfeld supervising
producer, Dave Mandel. Like the film, the TV series, only the second ever
produced by Miramax, focuses on two young slackers who keep minimum-wage jobs
in New Jersey. This is ABC's first primetime animated series since Hanna-Barbara's
Capitol Critters bombed in 1992. Meanwhile, Fox, which seems to already
have enough primetime animated series, has greenlit Big Ticket TV's Gary
And Mike, a claymation comedy about two teens on a cross-country road
trip. Created and executive produced by Fox Bahr and Adam Small (MAD TV),
Fox has ordered eight episodes for a tentative midseason debut in 2000. NBC
has also leaped into animation programming announcing God, The Devil And
Bob and Sammy, a new animated series from former Saturday Night
Live castmember and Just Shoot Me star David Spade. NBC has ordered
13 episodes of Sammy, originally titled Peewee [AF 9/15/98],
which is loosely based on Spade's real-life relationship with his flaky father.
Slated for a midseason launch in early 2000, the show is being co-produced
by Brillstein-Grey Entertainment and NBC Studios. Spade and Drake Sather (The
Larry Sanders Show, Newsradio) are co-creators, and are joined
by Brad Grey to executive produce. Sony Pictures is producing the show's computer
animation. The two NBC shows represent the first original primetime animated
series made specifically for the Peacock since Mr. Magoo (1964-1965).
 |
 |
| Spider-Man Unlimited. & NASCAR
Superchargers. ©1999 Fox Kids All Rights Reserved. |
|
Fox Kids Announces Fall Lineup. Fox Kids Network is adding seven new
animated series (146 new episodes) and nine returning series (121 new episodes)
to its fall '99 slate of weekday afternoon and Saturday morning programming.
The new shows for Fox are NASCAR Superchargers (13 episodes/Saban),
which features the adventures of four young NASCAR racecar drivers; 13 episodes
of Spider-Man Unlimited (13 episodes/Saban), with the famed web-slinger;
The Avengers (13 episodes/Saban in association with Marvel), based
on the classic Marvel comic series and not the recent box office flop; Big
Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (26 episodes/Columbia Tri-Star Children's
Programming), based on the Dark Horse series about an unlikely robotic duo
who protect the Earth; Beast Hunters (13 episodes/Mainframe), a Beast
Wars spin-off; Cyber 9 (13 episodes/Saban Entertainment), a futuristic
journey of a young man's quest to become king of a brave new world; and Beast
Wars (52 episodes/Mainframe), the popular CG-show which joins the network
from syndication. Returning series are Godzilla: The Series, The
Secret Files Of The Spydogs, Mad Jack The Pirate, Woody Woodpecker,
The Magician and Spider-Man.
 |
| MouseWorks brings back Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy in all their classic glory. © Disney. All rights reserved. |
MouseWorks Debuts In May. The highly anticipated Disney's Mickey MouseWorks will join the ABC Saturday morning children's lineup on May 1, 1999 at 12:00 noon (ET/PT). The new half-hour series features cartoons of varying lengths (12, 7-1/2, 6, and 1-1/2 minutes) featuring Disney's classic stable of stars such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Minnie Mouse. The series is executive produced by the writer-animator team of Roberts Gannaway and Tony Craig (The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa, Disney's 101 Dalmations: The Series). In addition to the series, the shorts have been produced for a variety of other venues, like accompanying feature film (Mighty Joe Young) and home video (101 Dalmations) releases, as well as theme park screenings. Concurrent with the premiere date, ABC has also announced several time period changes to the Saturday lineup effective May 1. The new schedule is as follows:
8:00 a.m. Disney's 101 Dalmations: The Series
8:30 a.m. Disney's One Saturday Morning featuring:
- Disney's Doug
- Disney's Recess
- Disney's Pepper Ann
10:30 a.m. The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show
11:30 a.m. The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh
12:00 p.m. Disney's Mickey MouseWorks
12:30 p.m. Squigglevision
Read MouseWorks executive producer Tony Craig's article about the
lost art of animating to music in this month's issue of Animation World
Magazine. In addition, see Tony Craig and Roberts Gannaway's top ten Desert
Island picks in our September
1998 issue.
Fox Family's Animated Fall Lineup. The fledgling Fox Family Channel
has added ten new animated series to its kid and teen-targeted daytime lineup
for the 1999-2000 season. The lineup represents a major investment from Fox
Family in creating original and entertaining animated programming. Animation
World Network spoke to Joel Andryc, Senior Vice President, Programming &
Development about this lineup and how they're working to create a unique identity
in the already overcrowded world of cable. "We're looking to have a good
mix of animation in the daytime kids lineup along with reality-based game
shows (Great Pretenders) and live-action programming (Fox Family
Countdown, I Was a Sixth-Grade Alien, The Adventures of Shirley
Holmes, Detective). This broader palette of programming is what is helping
differentiate ourselves from Cartoon Network which is just all cartoons. Another
thing is if you look at our shows, each has a unique style, whether it's CGI,
stop-motion, etc. So as kids are surfing through the hundred channels, they
might stop and take a look at what we have to offer." Fox Family Channel
is relying on animated product from studios in Canada, France, Germany and
the UK among others to supply this varied, and hopefully eye-catching, look.
Andryc noted that the shows were found at numerous markets such as MIP, MIPCOM
and NATPE. "One of the things that helped grow our company was that ten
years ago, Haim Saban was really into the global marketplace while most of
the people were just looking at the home market and didn't think about international.
The trend is moving in that direction as it's become so much more of a worldwide
marketplace and economy."
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Rotten Ralph., Mega Babies, Room 402. & Weird-Ohs. © Fox Family Worldwide. | |||
The 1999-2000 lineup is comprised of:
- Rotten Ralph (26 episodes/Italtoons), a stop motion clay-animated series based on the Harper Collins book series about a rule-breaking cat with a "Bart Simpson attitude." Andryc says, "At first glance, it looks a little young, but once you get into the program, it's a lot more complex. Hopefully it'll appeal to the same crowds that watch The Simpsons."
- Mega Babies (26 episodes/Sony Wonderworks and Lionsgate/Cinegroupe), the adventures of three messy babies who protect the Earth. "It has a Rugrats spin with a little gross-out humor," Andryc explained.
- Weird Ohs (13 episodes/Weird Ohs Production), a "squash and stretch" CG-animated comedy about hot-rod car lovers Digger and Eddie.
- Angela Anaconda (26 episodes/Angela Production), a cutout-style animated series created by Pepper Ann creator Sue Rose.
- Freaky Stories (13 episodes/Decode Entertainment and Vujade Entertainment), an anthology of spooky shorts and urban legends in a variety of animation styles.
- Room 402 (13 episodes/Cinegroupe), focusing on a classroom of 10-year-old eccentrics where even the smallest event is blown out of proportion.
- Jellabies (13 episodes/produced by Optical Image Broadcast Company and distributed by Winchester Television), a 3D animated show about six lovable, bounceable and stretchable characters living in the land of Jelly.
- Ripley's Believe It or Not! The Series (26 episodes/Cinar Films), following a trio of heroic youngsters as they discover the world of the bizarre and unexplained.
- Wildlife (13 episodes/Hahn Film), a series of five-minute animated shorts created by Ted Sieger that explain the ways of Mother Nature in an amusing manner.
- Billy the Cat (52 episodes/EVA Entertainment), about a bad-mannered, 10-year-old boy who is transformed into a cat after harassing Ali Kazam, a cat-loving magician.
In addition, Fox Family has ordered new episodes of these returning shows:
Thomas The Tank Engine (The Britt Allcroft Company), Enigma
(Millesime Productions), Donkey Kong Country (NELVANA), BAD DOG (Cinegroupe),
and Three Friends And Jerry (Happy Life Productions). Regarding the
latter, Andryc said, "Three Friends And Jerry was a real success
in the first year, and has been picked up for 52 11-minute segments in addition
to the 13 original half-hours. We thought we could get better stories and
characters with the longer format." These acquisitions and renewals are
a clear sign of Fox Family Channel's major commitment to children's entertainment
and animation plays a big role in their overall gameplan. "We're very
excited about this year's lineup," Andryc comments. "We have the
shows; now it's just patience. It's going to take time to get kids to sample
us instead of always tuning in to Nick. It took Nickelodeon fifteen years
to reach where they are and we'll eventually get there."
Encore For Anime. Encore Media Group's five-year-old Action Channel
has established a new late-night Saturday programming block devoted to adult
Japanese animation called Anime. Encore has acquired ten Japanese animation
titles, and will launch the show with anime distributor A.D. Vision's Tekken:
The Motion Picture on April 3. In addition to Tekken, five additional
titles are from A.D. Vision: Battle Angel, Blood Reign: Curse Of
Yoma, GSC Gunsmith Cats, Sol Bianca and the cult series
Blue Seed. In addition, Urban Vision Entertainment provides four titles:
Bio Hunter, Psycho Driver, Twilight Of The Dark Master
and Tekkman Blade II.
 |
 |
| Headbone's distinctive style
is apparent in Hugo Takes A Detour (left) and Fidgetmore. © Headbone Interactive. |
|
Headbone Heads Into The TV World. Headbone Interactive has signed
two deals to deliver animated series to cable outlets Discovery Channel and
Fox Family Channel. Hugo Takes A Detour is a series of one-minute interstitials
that will start airing on the Discovery Channel in spring '99. Not only is
this Headbone's first foray into animated programming for television but it
is also the first animated program to air on the Discovery Channel. In addition
to watching the series starring the inquisitive 11-year-old boy, Hugo, and
his ghost cat, Zeke, viewers can interact online (www.discoverykids.com) with
the characters through activities designed to extend the storylines of the
show. Discovery Channel Senior VP, children's programming and products, Marjorie
Kaplan, said, "We share a common goal to integrate kids' television with
online programming, and with Headbone's all-digital production process, I
believe this is the first step toward that end." Headbone's other deal
is to produce 13, 3-minute episodes of Fidgetmore for Fox Family Channel's
1999-2000 season. The short-form series is about the trials and tribulations
of five 9th-grade girls who attend Fidgetmore - a run down, all-girls boarding
school. "There's nothing like Fidgetmore on TV today, with its
outlandish ensemble of strong female characters, the real-world social issues
it deals with in humorous ways, and the fresh animated look Headbone has created.
These announcements are clearly making headway for Headbone's foray into becoming
a "cross-media" provider, and is a big step in popularizing their
properties in a broad range of media including books, merchandise, television
and online.
In Detention With Kids' WB! The Kids' WB! has announced two new shows
for their 1999-2000 fall lineup. The first is On the Ropes, a live-action
high school wrestling series, from the producing/directing team of Mike Tollin
and Brian Robbins (Kenan & Kel, All That, Varsity Blues).
The second freshman show, Detention, is an animated entry from Warner
Bros. Television Animation, a comedy about eight mismatched preteens who regularly
end up in afterschool detention. The show features the voice talents of twin
sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry (Sister, Sister), Tara Charendoff (Batman,
The Rugrats Movie), Billy West (Ren & Stimpy) and Carlos
Alazraqui (CatDog). "We think these shows represent the chance
to merge classic Warner Bros. attitude with subjects that occupy the minds
of today's kids," commented Donna Friedman, Senior VP, Kids' WB! In addition,
the network has ordered 52 new episodes of their red-hot midseason replacements
Batman Beyond and Pokémon (produced by 4Kids Entertainment).
The results of Warner Bros. TV Animation's massive 100+ artist layoff [AF
11/17/98] are clearly obvious this season. The studio is not currently producing
any new episodes of Histeria!, Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain,
Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries or Animaniacs. Their fall schedule
is as follows (all times ET/PT):
Monday-Friday
Morning
8:00 a.m. The Kids' WB! Cat-And-Birdy-Warneroonie-Pinky-Brainy-
Big-Cartoonie-Show
(a compilation of Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, Steven
Spielberg Presents Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain, Steven Spielberg
Presents Pinky & The Brain and Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries).
8:30 a.m. Warner Bros.' Histeria!
Afternoon
3:00 p.m. The Kids' WB!...Big-Cartoonie-Show
3:30 p.m. Pokémon
4:00 -5:00 p.m. The New Batman/Superman Adventures/ Batman Beyond
Saturday
8:00 a.m. The New Batman/Superman Adventures
8:30 a.m. Men In Black: The Series (Columbia TriStar)
9:00 a.m. Batman Beyond
9:30 a.m. On the Ropes (new live-action show)
10:00 a.m. Pokémon
10:30 a.m. Detention (new animated show)
11:00 a.m. The Kids' WB!...Big-Cartoonie-Show (one hour)
The Greatest Cartoon Countdown. Cartoon Network U.S. aired an eight-hour
marathon program called Cartoon Network's Greatest Cartoon Countdown
on March 20 starting at 2:00 p.m. and a two-hour encore presentation on March
21 at 12:00 p.m. The lineup of the program was a little different from the
similar program which ran last year, The 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time.
The selections came predominantly from the network's Time-Warner library of
8,500 titles, as well as from other studios which contributed cartoons exclusively
for the marathon. Among the acquisitions were three animated shorts from the
first incarnation of The Simpsons featured on The Tracy Ullman Show.
"We feel very passionate about our selections," said Mike Lazzo,
senior VP of programming and production for Cartoon Network. "We spent
the better part of an hour arguing over who makes for a better cartoon: a
giant canary, a singing owl or a pig with no pants." A complete list
follows: Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), One Froggy Evening
(Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), The Simpsons including The Pagans,
Bart's Little Fantasy and World War III (Matt Groening), Feed
The Kitty (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), The Cat Came Back (Cordell
Barker/National Film Board of Canada), Gerald McBoing Boing (Robert
Cannon/UPA), Rabbit Seasoning (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), I Love
To Singa (Tex Avery/Warner Bros.), Pest In The House (Chuck Jones/Warner
Bros.), The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (Bob Clampett/Warner Bros.), What's
Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), Draftee Daffy (Bob Clampett/Warner
Bros.), King Size Canary (Tex Avery/MGM), Red Hot Riding Hood (Tex
Avery/MGM), Bad Luck Blackie (Tex Avery/MGM), Porky In Wackyland
(Bob Clampett/Warner Bros.), The Big Snooze (Bob Clampett/Warner Bros.),
A Dream Walking (Dave Fleischer/Paramount), Ventriloquist Cat
(Tex Avery/MGM), Rabbit of Seville (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), Little
Red Riding Rabbit (Friz Freleng/Warner Bros.), Little Rural Riding
Hood (Tex Avery/MGM), The Cat Concerto (W. Hanna and J. Barbera/MGM),
A Wild Hare (Tex Avery/Warner Bros.), Quackor (Genndy Tartakovsky/Hanna
Barbera), Wotsamatta U. (Jay Ward), Northwest Hounded Police
(Tex Avery/MGM), Gee Whizz (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), The Cat That
Hated People (Tex Avery/MGM), Duck Dodgers In The 24th 1/2 Century
(Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), Popeye The Sailor Meets Sinbad The Sailor
(Dave Fleischer/Paramount), Corny Concerto (Bob Clampett/Warner Bros.),
The Dot And The Line (Chuck Jones/Warner Bros.), Deputy Droopy
(Tex Avery/MGM), Puss Gets The Boot (W. Hanna and J. Barbara/MGM),
Swooner Crooner (Frank Tashlin/Warner Bros.), Screwball Squirrel
(Tex Avery/MGM), Little Johnny Jet (Tex Avery/MGM), Betty In
Blunderland (Dave Fleischer/Paramount), Superman (Dave Fleischer/Paramount),
Spud Dud (W. Hanna and J. Barbara/Hanna Barbera), Walky Talky Hawky
(Robert McKimson/Warner Bros.), Tweetie Pie (Friz Freleng/Warner
Bros.), Two Mouseketeers (W. Hanna and J. Barbera/MGM), The Pink
Phink (Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt/United Artists), Ghost With The
Most (W. Hanna and J. Barbera/Hanna Barbera), Goonland (Dave Fleischer/Paramount),
Dragalong Droopy (Tex Avery/MGM), The Chicken From Outer Space
(John Dilworth/Hanna Barbera), and Billy Boy (Tex Avery/MGM).
 |
| Hillary Firestone, Teletoon's VP, Network Marketing and Promotions, and Ted Jarvis, Hostess Frito-Lay Marketing Manager, pose with an ecstatic Chester Cheetah. |
TV Tidbits.
World Events Productions has licensed the 3D animated series, Voltron:
The Third Dimension to Teletoon, Canada's all-animation network. The show
made its Teletoon Canadian premiere on Wednesday, March 3. Voltron, based
on the popular `80s cartoon, is produced for World Events by Mike Young Productions
(The Secret Garden) and Netter Digital Entertainment (Babylon 5).
. . . A recent deal between Canada's Teletoon and Hostess Frito-Lay will result
in Chester Cheetah hosting Cinetoon, an animated feature-length movie
which airs on Teletoon the first Saturday of every month, starting
March 6. The promotion will celebrate the March launch of the new Chee.tos
Shockwaves snack food, and a Cinetoon Trivia Challenge will enable
viewers to win Sony Playstations and other prizes. . . . Cartoon Network
hosted an eight-hour Boy Girl, Boy Girl marathon on Sunday, March 7,
from 12-8 p.m. The event featured alternating 11-minute shorts from two of
their newest shows, Ed, Edd N Eddy and The Powerpuff Girls.
. . . Fox's new animated series, The PJs has been picked up
for a second season. Twenty-two additional episodes of the Imagine/Touchstone/Will
Vinton Studios series will start airing in fall `99. Season-to-date, The
PJs is averaging a 6.4 rating and 10 household share, which is a 12% jump
from its King of the Hill lead-in and a 45% increase over the timeslot
average last season. . . . The Game Show Network has signed a deal
with Interactive Television Entertainment (ITE-USA) to start airing the live,
real-time animated action game Throut And Neck in the U.S. Using technologies
developed by ITE-USA, home viewers are able to control the movement of the
animated characters using their telephone keypads to input commands. In the
game, Throut and Neck are two unruly beasts who somehow wind up in SheepHeaven,
a mind-numbing world of annoyingly cute and adorable sheep. The players at
home control their monsters to see which one can defeat the most sheep and
return home. The half-hour show, which will air Monday through Friday starting
May 3, originally started airing on MTV Brazil in 1997. . . . Fox Kids
will start airing Woody Woodpecker on May 8. The series, produced by
Universal Cartoon Studios, features new adventures of Woody, Wally Walrus
and Chilly Willy. It was originally scheduled to air during the fall '98 season.
The show's supervising director and producer is animation veteran Bob Jaques.
. . . Link Entertainment's Preston Pig has been commissioned
by Children's ITV. Twenty-six seven minute episodes of this children's series
will be produced by Varga tvc to air in September 2000. The show, based on
Colin McNaughton's popular books, follows the countless inept attempts by
Mr. Wolf to catch and eat the carefree Preston Pig. "We believe that
this series is set to be a classic, following in the grand tradition of such
double acts as Tom and Jerry, and Sylvester and Tweety," commented Genevieve
Dexter, Head of Sales & Acquisitions, Link Entertainment. . . . In a precedent-setting
deal, Chinese national broadcaster CCTV signed an agreement with Warner
Bros. Intl. TV to start airing a 15-minute block of Looney Tunes starting
this summer. The program, which will run 7 days a week, consists of two animated
shorts a day. This marks the first time Looney Tunes will be nationally broadcast
as a regularly scheduled program in China; and signals a significant development
in bringing U.S. TV programming to China, where it is virtually nonexistent
on CCTV, the country's main broadcaster.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
News Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Feedback?
Past Issues
|
Animation World Magazine Career Connections | School Database | Student Corner Animation World Store | Animation Village | Calendar of Events The AWN Gallery | The AWN Vault | Forums & Chats Home |
About | Help | Home | info@awn.com | Mail | Register
©1999 Animation World Network