It's Show Time! The Fall
TV Preview
by Amid Amidi
It's
time to wash those pajamas and stock up on sugar-coated cereals because
the fall cartoon season is arriving, and it promises to be a dandy.
But it's not just Saturday mornings anymore. From new afternoon cartoon
blocks to primetime and late night television, TV cartoons are everywhere
you look. This selective rundown will take a look at some of the new
shows and highlights of the fall TV animation season. But before we
get started, here are a few interesting trends worth pointing out
that might help put the current state of TV animation into a clearer
perspective.
* Branding: Networks are starting to realize that to get ratings,
you have to do more than create a bunch of unrelated shows. Channels
need to have their own identities, and people need to know why they're
watching a particular network. By creating themed packages out of
their shows, a network's cartoon lineup becomes a destination rather
than just an assorted group of cartoons.
* Syndication: With the proliferation of niche cable networks popping
up, syndication has gone the way of the dinosaurs. It doesn't really
affect the amount of cartoons available, but rather the cartoons are
being aired through different distribution channels than before. While
there is still the odd syndicated cartoon floating around, expect
to see them completely disappear within the next few years.
* Reality-based Cartoons: Kids can't use their imaginations at school;
now they can't use them at home either. Suffering from the Doug-syndrome,
cartoons don't transport kids to fantasy places anymore; they're about
normal kids who do normal things and eat normal foods and have normal
friends and...well, you get the idea.
* Primetime Animation: Cable networks first realized the potential
of what a good primetime cartoon can do for their ratings. Now, broadcast
networks are jumping onto the bandwagon, and within the next few years,
cartoons are poised to become a regular staple of primetime television.
However, the biggest common factor, and potential hazard, among primetime
cartoons is the fact that nearly all of them rely too heavily on the
writing, without giving nearly the same regard to the visual aspects.
While no one doubts that the writing is what has made The Simpsons
a success for over a decade, it is only a matter of time before audiences
tire of the visually uninvolving animation and art that plagues so
many primetime animated efforts.
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Meme,
portrayed by Valerie Rae Miller, will continue to host "One
Saturday Morning," but expect to see expanded roles from
her co-hosts -- Jelly Roll, the 5,000-pound talking elephant,
and Derby, a geriatric, wise-cracking mouse. © The Walt
Disney Company.
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Broadcast
ABC
Why fix it, if it's not broke? No
dramatic changes are in the works for the Disney-owned network, just
some fine-tuning. The returning shows - Disney's Hercules,
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's MouseWorks,
the "One Saturday Morning" block (Disney's Doug,
Recess, Pepper Ann), Schoolhouse Rock and Squigglevision
- form nearly the exact same Saturday morning lineup from last season.
The only new arrival is DIC's Sabrina, the Animated Series,
which fills the empty slot caused by the shortening of The Bugs
Bunny & Tweety Show from one-hour to half-an-hour (for more
on Sabrina see the UPN section).
One of the most consistently enjoyable and
creative aspects of ABC's lineup is the series of interstitial shorts
that accompany the two-hour "One Saturday Morning" block.
Meme, portrayed by Valerie Rae Miller, will continue to host "One
Saturday Morning," but expect to see expanded roles from her
co-hosts - Jelly Roll, the 5,000-pound talking elephant, and Derby,
a geriatric, wise-cracking mouse. Another very promising freshman
interstitial series is Manny's America, a series of 3-minute
segments where Manny the Uncanny (actor/comedian/writer Paul Rugg)
sets off in his 30-foot motor home to discover the off-beat sights
around America. From the Bayou Swamp Tour in Louisiana to the Ventriloquist
Museum in Kentucky to the Glass Blowing Factory in West Virginia,
this mini-series promises to be very amusing and enlightening.
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