ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE
3.7 - October 1998
Television
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| Curious Pictures' series, A Little Curious will air on the new HBO Family Channel. © HBO. |
HBO Birthing Family Channel. HBO will launch its new 24-hour channel, HBO Family, in February 1999. The venture is being headed up by Sheila Nevins, senior vice president of original programming for HBO, and Dolores Morris, who left Children's Television Workshop (CTW) in June to become vice president of HBO Family. Nevins said, "With this new venture, HBO enters the family programming business on a full-time basis for the first time." The network's programming line-up will include several new programs, of which four are animated series aimed at pre-schoolers: A Little Curious is a mixed-media show that is being produced by New York-based Curious Pictures. It will feature CGI and puppet characters based on everyday objects, such as Bob the Ball, Mr. String, Doris the Door and the Shoe Family. George and Martha is a 2D-animated show based on James Marshall's children's books about two hippopotamuses. It will be produced by Nelvana with Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, as executive producer. Cinar Films will also deliver a 2D-animated series, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, based on Michael Bond's classic books, and from Hit Entertainment will be Anthony Ant, a 2D-animated story of an ant and his adventures in Antville. In addition, several animated series which have already aired on HBO will be moved to HBO Family: Nelvana's Pippi Longstocking, Babar, and Cinar's The Little Lulu Show and The Country Mouse and City Mouse Adventures. HBO Family will also serve as a testing ground for pilots before they air on the main HBO channel: The Sissy Duckling, an animated musical written and produced by Harvey Fierstein, will air in June 1999 and Goodnight Moon, a mixed-media special about bedtime stories that will include animated shorts, will debut in late 1999. Acquisitions include Animated Epics from S4C and Animated Odyssey, a mini-series from Poseidon Pictures. HBO is developing other new projects, and is actively seeking partnerships with outside producers. New programs will be announced as they are confirmed.
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| The debut of Nelvana's Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend has been postponed by production delays. © Nelvana. |
CBS Delays Cartoon Debut. CBS has made a last-minute programming decision to move the debut of its new, animated Saturday-morning line-up back to October 3, two weeks later than the previously announced date of September 19. The aim is to maximize on-air promotional opportunities, which would have been difficult during the sports programming scheduled on many of the network's local affiliates in the next few weeks. "We are very proud of our new Nelvana-produced shows," said Lucy Johnson, senior vice president of daytime/children's programming and special projects at CBS. "However," she added, "when it became clear that preemptions in early September would limit our promotion opportunities for our new line-up, we decided to wait two weeks and allow all of our stations to get a solid start on the same Saturday morning." The new line-up marks CBS' return to Saturday morning animated programming after poor ratings in the 1996/97 season caused the network to go with live-action programming in 1997/98. All six of the new animated shows-- Franklin, Anatole, Dumb Bunnies, Flying Rhino Junior High, Birdz and Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend-- are being produced by Canadian studio Nelvana, a deal that was announced in January. In addition to the entire line-up delay, CBS will delay the debut of one of the series, Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend, because of production delays attributed to "complicated animation techniques" being used for the show. It will be replaced with reruns of another Nelvana series, Tales From the Cryptkeeper until November 7.
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| Stressed Eric. Photo courtesy of Klasky Csupo. |
NBC'S Not Stressed: New Toon In Works. U.S.
network NBC aired only three episodes of the prime-time animated series Stressed
Eric before pulling it off the air due to disappointing ratings (Nielsen
average 4.8). The show, produced with British broadcaster BBC by Klasky Csupo
and Absolutely Productions, had been specially dubbed with a new voice track
for American viewers, and was slated to air for six episodes through the end
of the summer season. A spokesperson for NBC said that the network may air
Stressed Eric again in the future, and is "actively looking to
develop animation projects." While NBC's reaction to cancel Stressed
Eric may seem premature, the network is not giving up on the prime-time
game. In fact, NBC has ordered a fully-animated pilot of a new series created
by comedian David Spade (Just Shoot Me) and writer Drake Sather. Tentatively
titled Peewee, the show is being developed with Brillstein-Grey Entertainment
and animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks, for possible launch in January 2000.
The pilot should be ready by January 1999. If the show goes forward, it will
be the network's first original prime-time animated series, created for the
network, since Mr. Magoo (UPA, 1964/65).
August Nielsen Ratings. By special arrangement with Nielsen
Media Research, AWN publishes the Nielsen ratings for animated programs on
a monthly basis in the Animation
Flash. The ratings included herein are only
for U.S. national network television. The following list of animated national
network programs is ranked by Household Ratings. A Rating is the percent of
households that tuned into the program. This percentage can provide us with
the number of households that tuned into the program on average during the
month. The universe estimate for the 1997-98 television season in 98 million
TV homes. Each rating point represents one percent of that universe, or 980,000
TV homes. Translation: The Simpsons August 2 broadcast, with a 6.4
rating, was viewed in just over 6 million (6.4 x 980,000) households. The
below ranking is an average for the month of August 1998 (monthly cycle includes
the last five days in July).
Rating/Program (Network, Day, First Telecast, Time)
6.4 The Simpsons 2 (Fox, Sunday, 8/02, 8:30 p.m.)
5.9 The Simpsons (Fox, Sunday, 8/02, 8:00 p.m.)
5.1 King of the Hill 2 (Fox, Tuesday, 7/28, 8:30 p.m.)
5.0 The Simpsons repeated special (Fox, Thursday, 8/20, 8:30 p.m.)
4.8 Stressed Eric (NBC, Wednesday, 8/12, 9:30 p.m.)
4.5 King of the Hill 1 (Fox, Tuesday, 7/28, 8:00 p.m.)
4.3 The Simpsons repeated special (Fox, Thursday, 8/20, 8:00 p.m.)
2.1 Disney's Saturday Morning 4 (ABC, Saturday, 8/01, 10:00 a.m.)
2.0 Disney's Saturday Morning 3 (ABC, Saturday, 8/01, 9:30 a.m.)
1.9 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (ABC, Saturday, 8/08, 12:00 p.m.)
1.8 Bugs Bunny/Tweety Show 1 (ABC, Saturday, 8/08, 10:30 a.m.)
1.8 Bugs Bunny/Tweety Show 2 (ABC, Saturday, 8/08, 11:00 a.m.)
1.7 Disney's Saturday Morning 2 (ABC, Saturday, 8/01, 9:00 a.m.)
1.7 Spider-Man (Fox, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 4:00 p.m.)
1.6 Batman/Superman 2 (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 9:30 a.m.)
1.6 Disney's Jungle Cubs (ABC, Saturday, 8/01, 11:30 a.m.)
1.6 Science Court (ABC, Saturday, 8/08, 12:30 p.m.)
1.6 Toonsylvania (Fox, Saturday, 8/01, 9:30 a.m.)
1.5 Spider-Man (Fox, Saturday, 8/01, 9:00 a.m.)
1.4 Disney's Saturday Morning 1 (ABC, Saturday, 8/01, 8:30 a.m.)
1.4 Men in Black (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 10:00 a.m.)
1.3 Batman/Superman 1 (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 9:00 a.m.)
1.3 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 10:30 a.m.)
1.3 Sylvester/Tweety Mysteries 2 (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 11:30 a.m.)
1.3 Sylvester/Tweety Mysteries (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 11:00 a.m.)
1.2 Batman/Superman (WB, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 4:30 p.m.)
1.0 Bobby's World (Fox, Friday, 7/31, 7:00 a.m.)
1.0 Incredible Hulk (UPN, Sunday, 8/02, 9:30 a.m.)
1.0 Life With Louie (Fox, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 7:30 a.m.)
1.0 Sam & Max (Fox, Saturday, 8/01, 11:30 a.m.)
1.0 Superman (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 8:30 a.m.)
0.9 Animaniacs (WB, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 3:30 p.m.)
0.9 Jumanji (UPN, Sunday, 8/02, 9:00 a.m.)
0.9 Ned's Newt (Fox, Saturday, 8/01, 8:00 a.m.)
0.9 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 4:00 p.m.)
0.8 Batman (WB, Saturday, 8/08, 8:30 a.m.)
0.8 Disney's 101 Dalmatians (ABC, Saturday, 8/01, 8:00 a.m.)
0.6 Captain Planet (WB, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 8:30 a.m.)
0.5 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Saturday, 8/01, 8:00 a.m.)
0.4 Tiny Toons Adventures (WB, Monday-Friday, 7/27, 8:00 a.m.)
0.4 Umptee 3 TV (WB, Friday, 7/31, 8:00 a.m.)
AWN is interested in publishing additional ratings from cable television and
ratings systems outside the U.S. To contribute information, please contact
us at editor@awn.com.
TV Tidbits. As of September 20, The Simpsons became the
longest-running sitcom currently on television. Creator and executive producer
Matt Groening said he is surprised the show has gone on this long, but, he
added, "The real surprise is that this coming season is as good as any
we've ever done. The writers, led by executive producer Mike Scully, are fantastic.
They get the characters and they are creating original stories that don't
repeat what we've done or anything else I've seen on television." The
tenth season premiere of The Simpsons aired on Fox, on Sunday, September
20 at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT). The episode, titled "The Wizard Of Evergreen,"
depicted Homer, who, experiencing a mid-life crisis, is inspired by Thomas
Edison to become an inventor. . . . . . . Due to minor post-production delays,
Cartoon Network has moved the premiere of its newest animated half-hour
series, Ed, Edd `n' Eddy. The show, produced by Danny Antonucci's A.K.A.
Cartoons, will now debut on Monday January, 4, 1999, pushed back from its
original November launch date. . . . Nickelodeon aired the Kablam!
Life With Loopy Birthday Gala-bration on Friday, September 25 at 8:00
p.m. (ET/PT). Created by Steven Holman and his San Francisco-based production
company Wholesome Products, the special is a spin-off from the animated variety
show Kablam! mixed-media skit, Life With Loopy.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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