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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.02 - MAY 2000
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TelevisionWendy The Witch Brews On The Boob Tube. The Harvey Entertainment Co. has entered into a deal with Vancouver-based Studio B to produce a new TV series based on their character Wendy the Witch. Studio B has acquired the rights to the popular children's series from Harvey and has partnered with Harvey in producing 26 half-hour episodes for the worldwide television and video marketplace. The series is expected to be available for delivery beginning in January 2001. Studio B also produces D'myna Leagues, What About Mimi and Yvon Of The Yukon. Rick Mischel, President of The Harvey Entertainment Company said, "We are proud to introduce an entire new generation to Wendy The Witch. Studio B has created a Wendy that is edgy and mischievous, with all of the humor and fun of our past children's cartoons. Their development and production talent will ensure that the series is hip, entertaining and talking the language of today's kids." Founder of Studio B, Chris Bartleman said, "We are very excited about starting production on Wendy the Witch. We are looking forward to working with Harvey Entertainment on this project. They bring a great deal to the production, not the least of which is a long history of producing quality animated series. We look forward to bringing Wendy into the homes of a whole new fan base." Boomerang Flies Into Homes. On May 27, 2000 in Europe, Turner Broadcasting will launch Boomerang, a brand new animation channel from the Cartoon Network stable. The new network will feature over 2,000 characters such as Top Cat, Wacky Races, Yogi Bear and the Hair Bear Bunch. The new channel will run from 6 am until midnight and will be available along with Cartoon Network and Cartoon Network Plus to all Sky Digital homes. Discussions with operators for digital cable and DTT carriage are also underway. "As our original programming continues to grow, we need to do justice to our great classic cartoon stars and series which represent some of the best rating kids shows on terrestrial TV. By launching Boomerang we can meet the demand for these much loved cartoons without repeating the same shows on Cartoon Network," said Lynne Frank Managing Director Entertainment Networks, TBS Europe. NBC’s God Excommunicated. Perhaps, Neitszche was correct because GOD is dead. At least NBC’s rendition of him is. The troubled toon God The Devil And Bob has been excommunicated from NBC’s line-up. The decision to pull the series out of the line-up came in response to the lowest ratings ever for a regularly scheduled program in the Tuesday 8:30 pm time slot. Nearly 5% of the country’s NBC affiliates had already pre-empted the show from their schedule for either religious concerns or they felt it just wasn’t funny. Recently, advertisers were even turning their attention away from the ify animation series. The network has decided to replace GOD with reruns of live-action sitcoms Just Shoot Me and Frasier. An NBC spokeswoman told the Daily Variety that the network was "very proud of this show and disappointed that it wasn’t able to garner a larger audience." The Carsey-Werner-produced toon only had 4 of the 13 finished episodes air before the grim reaper came knocking. The future for the remaining un-aired episodes has not been announced. Nelvana Lands Little Critter. Nelvana Limited has acquired the worldwide development, production, distribution and merchandising rights to Little Critter. The series will be based on the best-selling books by Mercer Mayer. Beginning in 1976, the 90-book Little Critter series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. The story follows the everyday life of Little Critter and his friends Tiger and Gator. As the oldest sibling of five, Critter has to balance his responsibilities with playing sports, going to the mall and reading comics. Michael Hirsh, Co-CEO of Nelvana said, "We are delighted to add Mercer Mayer’s highly popular Little Critter storybooks to our growing library of acclaimed book-based animated children’s properties. From grandparents to school-aged children, Little Critter is a highly recognizable character, and we expect the TV series will achieve the same extraordinary success as the books have." |
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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