Television

Toy Story hero Buzz Lightyear will blast onto TV this Fall in his new series Disney/Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. © Disney/Pixar.

Toy Story's Buzz On TV. A new television series based on Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear character will be coming to ABC and UPN in October. Walt Disney Television Animation is producing 65 episodes of Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command -- 52 for UPN's "Disney's One Too" and 13 for ABC's Saturday morning lineup. Pixar will produce the CGI opening, but the series itself will be traditional 2D animation. Taking on voice duties as Buzz will be Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton, who's also starring in the live-action The Tick series. Another Seinfeld co-star, Wayne Knight (who provided a voice in Toy Story 2), will voice Buzz's enemy, Emperor Zurg. The new show will be based on the Space Rangers television series that spawned the Buzz action figure in the Toy Story films. Nicole Sullivan, Adam Carolla (of Loveline and The Man Show), Stephen Furst and Larry Miller will voice the other Space Rangers. In addition, French Stewart and Linda Hamilton will provide the voices of several recurring villains.

Snoopy Cursing Like The South Park Kids? "They'll end up being like South Park or something like that," said Charles Schulz's son Monte regarding the future of his father's Peanuts comic strip, in an Associated Press article by Mary Ann Lickteig. Before Schulz's death, he strictly left instructions that nobody else could draw The Peanuts strip and the animated shows must end. In regards to honoring their father's wishes, Schulz's children's concern centers around United Media, who holds the copyrights on the Peanuts characters. United Media earned 61% of its US$84.9 million in 1998 revenues from the Charlie Brown comics, TV shows and licensing deals. In 1950 when Schulz began drawing Peanuts, comics distributors called for the copyrights to protect their investments. Schulz never was able to regain the rights back. Commenting on the future of animated specials, Bill Melendez, 84, who served as chief animator on the Peanuts animated shows, said, "I've never seen a money-making machine like this [Peanuts] just let die, especially by the people who own it," he said. Schulz was involved in two more Peanuts shows that will appear this year, a home video called, It's The Pied Piper, Charlie Brown, and a 50th anniversary TV special scheduled to air on CBS in May. The TV special, Here's To You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years, features highlights from past shows, 10 minutes of new animation and interaction between real people and members of the Peanuts gang. Peanuts fans accustomed to the "wah-wah" speech of never-seen grownups might be surprised that adults make appearances in the Pied Piper video. Schulz personally signed off on this Melendez said: "We had to animate them. The city council and the mayor had to be adults. He said, 'Fine. Let's have adults, no problem.' But you never know how people will react." Just before he died, Schulz also sent Melendez an outline for another show -- a story involving a game of marbles. "I have a name for it, ‘It's only marbles, Charlie Brown’," Melendez said. "He gave me the notes. And I've been working on a storyboard. I was going to show it to him." Schulz's two closest collaborators on the TV shows were producer Lee Mendelson, 66, and Melendez. Along with Schulz's children, Melendez worries the company will hire other animators who never worked with Schulz. "As long as they want me to make these shows, I'll do them. And if they don't want me to do them, they're going to run into a real nest of hornets. Because I'm the only one that can do them," Melendez said. About the future of the show, Mendelson said, "It's not my decision; it's the decision of the children and United Media." Schulz's daughter, Amy Johnson, thinks her father's work -- which includes 62 animated shows and four feature-length movies -- should be left to stand on its own. "Certainly we can look at those things over and over. You read great books over and over. You look at great paintings over and over. And that's what you want to pass down to your children." At present, United Media hasn't met with the family or Schulz's collaborators to discuss the making of more shows, or elaborated on its plans.

Salt Lake No Promised Land For God The Devil & Bob. The promised land of prime time nirvana escaped God The Devil & Bob in Salt Lake City, Utah, whose NBC affiliate has refused to air the network's upcoming animated comedy. KSL-TV VP and general manager Al Henderson said the station decided to pre-empt the "not-so-heavenly" toon because it "was not very funny." "We didn't think it was written well," Henderson said. "We found some of the humor tasteless." The new series follows the misadventures of Detroit auto worker Bob Alman (voiced by French Stewart), who finds himself picked by the Devil (Alan Cumming) in a bet with God (James Garner), to see if humankind is really worth saving. Henderson stressed that the show wasn't pulled by KSL owner Bonneville Intl. -- which is owned by the Mormon church -- due to religious issues. In reply to the accusation of censorship, he declared: "We don't apologize for setting a standard in what we believe in." In the summer of 1999, KSL also refused to air animated show, Stressed Eric and hasn't run Saturday Night Live since becoming an NBC affiliate. NBC has signed with local WB affiliate KUWB to air God The Devil & Bob Saturdays at 10 p.m. KUWB already runs SNL. NBC is scheduled to preview the show on March 9 at 8:30 pm EST/PST.