Nickelodeon's CHALKZONE enters a second season May 30, 2003 (8:00 pm ET/PT), rejoining the channel's Friday primetime lineup, and moves from Saturdays into a regular Friday, 9:30 pm timeslot beginning June 6.
CHALKZONE chronicles the adventures of kid cartoonist-turned-action-hero Rudy Tabootie (Tabootie's (voice of E.G. Daily, RUGRATS' Tommy) who discovers that every chalk drawing ever erased reappears behind the blackboard in a magic world called ChalkZone. The series is produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California and was created by Larry Huber and Bill Burnett who also executive produce along with Fred Seibert.
This season a new villain will vex the shy cartoonist-cum-action hero who wields magical chalk and climbs through a portal in the blackboard to a realm filled with diabolical robots, mumbo-jumbo snakes and candy cane forests. The season opener "Hole in the Wall," introduces avaricious Vinnie Raton (voiced by Rob Paulsen), a developer who glimpses ChalkZone when Rudy and his best pal Penny (voiced by Hynden Walch) accidentally leave the portal open and resolves to turn it into a themepark.
Upcoming episodes feature guest voices including the Baha Men ("Who Let the Dogs Out?"), whose animated caricatures, the Haha Men, show Rudy around Hahama Island and perform The Coconut in "The Smooch." A new Halloween special, "Pumpkin Love," features the voice of Tim Curry as evil, pumpkin-head rock star Jacko. Rudy learns environmental values in "Waste Mountain" when he dumps real-world trash into ChalkZone, and he outwits a professional wrestler in "The Heist."
CHALKZONE joins the Nick Friday lineup of SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS.
The series chalked up Nick's highest ratings ever (8.6/27) among 2- to 11-year-olds fora series premiere when it debuted on Friday, March 22, 2002. As of April 28, 2003, the series has been earning a 5.21/24 (kids 2-11) rating and share while attracting an average of 1.6 million kid viewers during its Saturday 12:00 pm timeslot. It ranked among the Top 15 kid properties on all of broadcast and cable in first quarter of 2003. For more information visit www.nickelodeon.com.
