Nick Jr. and Teletoon have asked Nelvana Limited to start production on

MAGGIE AND THE FEROCIOUS BEAST, based on the mother and son team of

Betty and Michael Parakevas' storybooks. The adventures of 5-year-old

Maggie in Nowhere Land will hit Nick Jr. in Summer 2000 and Teletoon

next fall.

In a move much like a parent buying their child a toy and then receiving

money from their kids allowance for it, Warner Bros. Features has sold

THE IRON GIANT to Cartoon Network and TNT. Cartoon Network couldn't

handle the license fee of US$3 million, so sister Turner channel, TNT,

came in to help out on a six-month pre-Cartoon Network window. TNT will

get six runs of the critically acclaimed box-office disappointment

within that six month time period. Both networks plan to promote the

The Nickelodeon toon THE WILD THORNBERRYS will be coming to a town near

you beginning February 14, 2000. Starting at Toy Fair in New York City,

the Commvee recreational vehicle from the series is making its real

world debut. After Toy Fair, the Commvee will make appearances at Nick's

"All That Music and More" tour venues, "The Big Help" events, and

various "Lucky 10" markets across the U.S. So when picking up wild

berries at the local Lucky 10 don't miss out on meeting the wild

MEN IN BLACK: THE SERIES has been picking up steam on Kids WB! The Sony

Pictures Entertainment show has increased its ratings by 110% since its

second season last year. It has earned a 4.2 rating with kids 2-11 and a

5.0 rating with kids 6-11.

Salsa Distribution has put together a deal that will create a new Jim

Henson programming block entitled MUPPET TIME in Panama. FETV will air

MUPPET TIME starting January 3, 2000 in a deal that lasts 2 years. The

block will include the MUPPET SHOW, MUPPETS TONIGHT, MUPPET BABIES,

FRAGGLE ROCK and JIM HENSON'S ANIMAL SHOW.

ZDTV, a 24-hour cable television channel about computing, technology and the Internet, will have Atari founder Nolan Bushnell on BIG THINKERS. Hosted by Mark Eddo, BIG THINKERS features in-depth discussions with the most visionary and influential men and women working in the high-tech industry today. The episode with Bushnell, the creator of PONG, will air January 5, 2000 at 10:30 pm. These interviews, plus additional footage not shown on air, will be available in streaming video on the show's companion Web site.

PBS' NATURE recently received a new animated logo for its opening from digital animation and effects house, SimEx Digital Studios. The opening is a montage of snippets from nature. SimEx helped bring together the show's theme in the opening by illustrating how humans relate to nature everyday. Read more about SimEx Digital Studios and their work from Creative Director Allen Yamashita in Heather Kenyon's Animation World Magazine interview.

Boston-based animation house Fablevision is slated to create two new shows

for Noggin, the new 24-hour educational network for kids from Nickelodeon

and the Children's Television Workshop. Fablevision will produce CECIL AND

HER VERY OWN UNIVERSE and SWAMP DOG. CECIL will feature a 12-year-old girl

and her robot dog who live in a underground society in the future. Cecil

dreams of leaving her mole-like life to see what above ground has in store.

DARIA fans can start gearing up for a telefilm full of fun-filled teenaged

angst. IS IT FALL YET? will be based off the DARIA series and is slated to

hit MTV in the fall. Karen Disher and Guy Moore will direct, and Glenn

Eichler and Peggy Nicoll will script.

London-based Passion Pictures has recently finished stings, bumpers, and

indents to promote PBS KIDS. The interstitials were directed by Alyson

Hamilton, who received an Emmy nomination for her work on the title

sequence for U.S.-based TV channel CBS' THE PROMISED LAND.

Fox Family's newly picked up ANGELA ANACONDA rings in the New Year with a

14-episode marathon on January 1, 2000. The seven-hour event will start at

7 am and run 'til 2 pm on Fox Family. The show that TV Guide recently named

one of the top ten new kids shows of 1999 regular airs at 1 pm on Saturdays

and Sundays on Fox Family.

Recently, Europe has gotten a good old dose of American capitalism,

Japanese style. POKEMON has infested the European television market. The

children's mega-hit first debuted in the UK on Sky 1 in April and quickly

became the channel's #1 kids show. In October, the ITV Network and GMTV

secured UK terrestrial broadcast rights to the show. A month prior to the

ITV and GMTV deal, POKEMON started airing on Germany's RTL2, The

Netherlands' Fox Kids, Belgium's VT4 and RTL, Portugal's SIC and France's

Cult comic and TV franchise THE TICK is getting a new lease on life.
Producers Barry Sonnenfeld and Barry Josephson (FANTASY ISLAND, MAXIMUM
BOB), via their deal at Columbia TriStar Television, will bring a
live-action, primetime half-hour version of the clueless hero's show to Fox
Broadcasting. The series is scheduled for fall 2000.



Read more about THE TICK from creator Ben Edlund in the Animation World
Magazine article "Tick Fever Endures" by Deborah Reber.