Television

Simpsons' Scandal Set For Sweeps. Before airing the February 13th episode, Fox leaked the scoop that a central Simpsons character would be killed off of the decade old toon. Rumors circled that the grim reaper would be swinging his scythe at Maude Flanders, wife of Jesus freak neighbor Ned. In a bold move of honesty The Simpsons' executive producer Mike Scully fully admits the show was a shameless attempt at grabbing sweeps ratings. "We're in our 11th season and we're always looking for new ways to shake up the show a little and do something that might open up new story possibilities. We thought it would be interesting to show how the surviving characters cope with death and maybe take them in a new direction. Plus, it's sweeps." The rumor was further supported by the departure of Meggie Roswell, the voice behind the character. The epsiode confirmed all the rumors and Maude Flanders joined the tomb of several other Springfield-ites, including Bleeding Gums Murphy, Lisa's jazz idol; family therapist Dr. Marvin Monroe; Grandpa Simpson's girlfriend Beatrice Simmons; and Frank "Grimy" Grimes, an ill-fated nuclear power plant co-worker of Homer's. Scully said prior the airing that the show planned to deal with the serious subject matter in a somewhat responsible manner to avoid upsetting their viewers. "There was a lot of discussion about making sure we did deal with some of the emotional ramifications of death and not just make it all joke, joke, joke," he said. "But at the same time, we're a comedy, they're animated, they're not real." The Fox series recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a new Web site, action figures and PEZ dispensers.

Johnny Bravo Live On Cartoon Net. Johnny Bravo hosted a talk show and chat with callers live on Cartoon Network. The toon's flamboyant personality was brought to life with Alive Animation's Multi-Standard Instant Cartoon Images (MICI) system. Programmed to pose Johnny in hundreds of positions, the MICI system also instantly lip synched the voice actor to his alter-ego. The Big Bravo-Live! aired February 21 - 25, 2000. This historic event can be attributed to the success of Johnny Bravo's new weekday morning talk show The Big Bravo, which became the second highest rated series on Cartoon Network for the fourth quarter of 1999.

Nick Jr Comes To CBS Saturday Mornings. As a result of the pending merger between CBS and Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, some of Nick Jr.'s top preschool shows may air on CBS Saturday mornings. The shows would help breath life into CBS' low-rated block of Saturday morning children's programming according to executives from both companies who spoke on condition of anonymity. No final decision has been made on which shows will air on CBS, though the hits Blue's Clues and Little Bill are almost Eyeball Channel bound. The move is reminiscent of when ABC let parent company Walt Disney revamp its Saturday morning line-up. The impending new schedule on CBS wouldn't directly compete with Nick's older audience-oriented Saturday morning. Executives said the change would begin in Fall 2000.

TV Tidbits: Tom Snyder Productions' Home Movies has found a new home at Cartoon Network. The Atlanta-based toon channel has ordered 13 episodes for 2000. The order also includes five episodes, which originally aired on UPN last spring and eight new episodes, to be produced beginning in February. Home Movies is about Brendon Small, a restless, creative third-grader, who uses his video camera to deal with his problems. The cast includes Brendon Small, Melissa Bardin Galsky and H. Jon Benjamin. The show is very funny as it follows Brendon and his neuroses, however it failed to find an audience on UPN. Let's hope Cartoon Network allows viewers a chance to check it out. . . .FX's offbeat series, The Dick And Paula Celebrity Special, will return in March with seven new episodes. Produced by Tom Snyder Productions, the show follows Worcester, Massachusetts' favorite husband and wife talk show team. The series features interviews with real and fictionalized characters, including famous and even infamous historical figures. Some crazy moments coming up on the series include: the first sighting of The Blair Witch as she discusses her 10K Run for Testicular Cancer Awareness; Joan of Arc talks about hearing voices and what she looks for in a man; Roman emperor Nero reminisces about his wild days of partying and discusses his current job as a greeter at Caesar's Palace; Satan explains his side of the falling out with God and tries to possess someone in the audience; and ventriloquist Jim Stank argues with his wife, Rochelle, a ventriloquist dummy. . . . .Cartoon Network's Cartoon Campaign 2000 is electing the next president from a field of 50 cartoon candidates. Cartoon Network will provide the hopeful candidates with free airtime from 7-9 p.m. each night between Sunday, March 5, and Thursday, March 9, 2000 when they will screen their own personal cartoons for viewers. During each night's election coverage, viewers can vote for their favorite characters via an 800-number that will appear on screen. The votes will be tallied the following week, and the results will be unveiled during a 10-hour countdown of the top-50 vote-getters from 12-10 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, followed by a mini-marathon of the election winner on Sunday, March 19, from 7-9 p.m. These final election results will also include votes cast on-line at CartoonNetwork.com and via 800-numbers found within specially-marked packages of KRAFT Kids food products. Frankly, after the recent endorsement of former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, Bugs Bunny currently looks like the heads on leader. . . .Spumco's John Kricfalusi will be bringing his offbeat humor to a new Fox Kids Network series entitled, The Ripping Friends. Scheduled to hit the air Fall 2000, the show will follow the adventures of 4 wacked out superheros. Kricfalusi will provide at least one of the voices for the series. This show will be Kricfalusi's first television series since Nickelodeon booted him off of his brain child Ren And Stimpy. . . .On February 11, 2000, CBS aired a special celebrating the career of The Peanuts creator Charles Schultz. The hour-long Good Grief, Charlie Brown: A Tribute To Charles Schultz was hosted by CBS' former news legend Walter Cronkite. The special featured clips from the Peanuts series and specials, plus an interview with Charles Schultz. The legendary comic strip artist retired at the beginning of the year in order to concentrate on beating his newly diagnosed cancer. . . .Montreal-based CineGroupe and Saban International Paris will co-produce a new half-hour series entitled Wunschpunch. The show will be based on the novel by Michael Ende, whose previous novel, The Never Ending Story was made into a live-action feature. Radio Canada will broadcast the series in Canada and TF1 will air it in France. Hubert Gariepy and Bruno Bianchi will produce the series and Philippe Amador will direct. . . .The BBC, CINAR and HALO Productions will team up to brighten the world with the teenage angst of the new animated series Treasure. The show follows the teenage tribulations of Treasure, her ever-frantic mother and critical grandmother. The series will air on BBC prime time sometime in late 2000, early 2001. The show has also been sold to YTV in Canada. Treasure is based off a popular newspaper column by Michele Hanson. . . .In association with Children's Television Workshop and IF/X Productions, CineGroupe will be producing 40 half-hour episodes of Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat for PBS KIDS. The series is adapted from the award-winning children's book by Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club. Sagwa follows the title character's escapades through Ancient China. Each episode will include 11-minute segments and related interstitials woven together by music, folk stories and fairy tales. The executive producers of the project are Gemini Award winner Jacques Pettigrew and Emmy Award winner George Daugherty. Tan, and original illustrator for the Sagwa novel, Gretchen Schields, will served as creative consultants on the show. CineGroupe and CTW will distribute the series worldwide. . . .

NASCAR fans were treated to the premiere of a new animated TV show NASCAR Racers On Friday, February 5, 2000 at 3:30 pm, Fox Kids kicked off the new series with a re-broadcast of the 90-minute NASCAR Racers telepic. Following the next day at 9:30 am, the series premiered. The show follows the high-speed adventures of four young race car drivers. . . .Disney's The Weekenders premiered on ABC's "Disney's One Saturday Morning" line-up Saturday, February 26, 2000 at 8:30 am. Each episode follows a quartet of friends over one weekend from Friday after school to Sunday evening. The series is directed by Steve Lyons and is produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. . . .Vitoria, Spain-based Mb Producciones is reaping a huge success from its new animated series Mimi And Mr. Bobo. Since its debut on TVE, the average share the series has received is 25.8. The show airs Saturday at 9 am and re-runs at 8:30 am on Sundays. Mb Producciones is currently in negotiation to create merchandise for the program with several well-known Spanish toy and book companies. The company is also in the developing stage of a feature based on the characters of the Mimi And Mr. Bobo series. . . .On Sunday, February 20, 2000, everyone's favorite alien villain from Space Ghost's Cartoon Planet, Brak, presented his own half-hour musical variety show on Cartoon Network entitled Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak. Starting at 7 pm, the special featured 10 original songs and many comedy sketches. The dimwitted host got the chance to sing a heart-warming duet with R&B singer Monica, ride down a country road in an ol' pick-up truck singing the tune "Highway 40" with teen film star Freddie Prinze Jr. and even dance a jig with world famous Celtic folk band The Chieftains. Space Ghost Coast To Coast band leader, Zorak, will join in the hilarity. . . .Read more about Space Ghost Coast To Coast in Animation World Magazine. . . .

Patrick Warburton, best known for playing Elaine's mechanic boyfriend, Puddy, on Seinfeld, will don the blue superhero suit in the new live-action TV series The Tick. Barry Sonnenfeld will direct the half-hour pilot, and share executive producing credits with partner Barry Josephson and Tick creator Ben Edlund. Shooting is scheduled for the first two weeks in April... Read more about The Tick in Animation World Magazine. . . .

To celebrate the American holiday, President's Day, Fox Family hosted a seven hour marathon of Angela Anaconda on Monday, February 21, 2000. Fourteen episodes of the hit animated series aired back-to-back starting at 7:30 am. Fans caught all of Angela's misadventures with her friends and chief rival Nanette Manoir, her stuck-up blonde classmate. . . .Marathons took over Fox Family in the month of February as Digimon: Digital Monsters took over the airwaves for a seven hour marathon on Sunday, February 27, 2000. The "Digithon" featured 11 new episodes to Fox Family starting at 7 am. Fans followed the mysterious adventures of the series' seven young heroes as they discover the secrets of the "black gear" which threatens the existence of Digiworld. . . .The Krislin Company has gained the rights to produce an animated TV series based off of Los Kitos Entertainment's Los Kitos comic strip. Currently running in more than 200 newspapers worldwide, the strip, created by Colombian-born Martha Montoya, addresses the concerns of Hispanics and other immigrant groups and highlights cultural awareness. Walt Kubiak, president of the Krislin Company said, "We are very excited about our association with Los Kitos and look forward to introducing this fine product to the television market."