files/pictures/picture-35.jpgPress Release from The Jim Henson Company
Hollywood, California, September 26, 2011: World-renowned family entertainment producer and distributor The Jim Henson Company has partnered with Chick-fil-A, the national restaurant chain specializing in chicken dishes, for a nationwide promotion in support of the preschool series, PAJANIMALS, debut on 24-hour preschool television channel Sprout in the U.S. this October.
Beginning October 1, 2011, over 1,500 Chick-fil-A locations in 39 states will be offering five different PAJANIMALS board books--Nighty Night, Let’s Stick to the Plan, Lights in the Dark, La-La-Lullaby and Sleeping Makes Me Feel All Right--with the purchase of any of Chick-fil-A’s nutritious kids meals for 3 year-olds and younger. The promotion will run through December 31, 2001 and marks the first promotional collaboration among the companies for the highly-anticipated animated preschool series
The Jim Henson Company, Sprout and Northern Ireland’s Sixteen South Television are currently in production in Northern Ireland (with funding assistance by Northern IrelandScreen) on the co-production of 26 half-hour episodes (52 x 11’) of PAJANIMALS, which is scheduled to debut in the U.S. in October exclusively on Sprout.
The innovative series featuring four cuddly musical puppets who venture out on amazing imaginary journeys of discovery will delight and entertain children around the world. The series is based on the popular PAJANIMALS original musicalinterstitials (10 x 2’) which are also being offered to the international marketplace at MIPCOM.
The PAJANIMALS will model the skills preschoolers need to take them through their day successfully. The characters—Sweetpea Sue the pony, the excitable duck Squacky, the creative cow CowBella and the optimistic puppy Apollo—were designed and built by the world-famous Oscar® and Emmy® Award-winning Jim Henson's Creature Shop™ from original concepts by Los Angeles-based toy and clothing designer, artist Jeff Muncy (Pet Alien).
About Chick-fil-A, Inc.
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, Inc. is the nation's second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain (based on sales), with more than 1,560 restaurants in 39 states. In 2010, Chick-fil-A produced record sales of $3.58 billion - an 11.37 percent overall increase and a 5.92 percent same-store sales gain that helped extend the chain's streak of consecutive sales gains over its entire history of 43 years.
About Sprout
Available in over 50 million homes, Sprout is the first 24-hour preschool destinationavailable on TV, on demand and online for children ages 2-5 and their parents and caregivers. The 24-hour digital channel, which launched in September 2005 along with the website (SproutOnline.com), is the only channel that follows the day of a preschooler from breakfast to bedtime with its distinctive, interactive programming and original hosted blocks. Sprout’s VOD offering is the #1 on demand service for younger children with over one billion views.
Sprout is a partnership among NBCUniversal, HIT Entertainment, PBS and Sesame Workshop. Its program lineup of gold-standard, curriculum-based preschool shows includes: Sesame Street, Bob the Builder, Barney & Friends, The Wiggles, Thomas & Friends, Caillou, The Berenstain Bears, Roary the Racing Car, dirtgirlworld and more.
About Sixteen South Limited
Based in Northern Ireland, Sixteen South Limited loves making children’s television that is worth watching. The company makes very high quality, compelling children’s programming for UK and international broadcasters and works in live action, puppetry and animation. The creators of Sesame Tree, a co-production with Sesame Workshop in New York, and BigCity Park, a co-production with BBC Scotland, Sixteen South hasproduced 66 episodes of the two series, both of which were commissioned by CBeebies for UK broadcast. Sixteen South continues to develop a slate of fresh properties for international markets.
About The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include the Emmy nominated Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, Wilson & Ditch: Digging America and Pajanimals. Features include The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, MirrorMask and Unstable Fables and television productions include Fraggle Rock and the sci-fi cult series Farscape.
With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and postproduction facilities. Independently owned and operated by the five adult children of founder Jim Henson, the Company is also home to Jim Henson’s Creature ShopTM, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry’s top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment.
The Company’s Henson Alternative brand recently launched the New York run of Stuffed and Unstrung, a live puppet improvisational show at theUnion Square Theatre. For more information, visit
http://www.henson.com .
