In a broadcasting first, SCI FI will launch its season online, with a five-week, 10-episode online-only prequel season called BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE RESISTANCE. Premiering today (Sept. 5, 2006) SCIFI.COM will begin airing two- to three-minute episodes every Tuesday and Thursday at midnight, at www.scifi.com/battlestar, leading up to the Oct. 6 season 3 premiere on television.
BBC Worldwide Americas has licensed a second season of DOCTOR WHO to SCI FI kicking off with a two-hour premiere on Sept. 29, 2006, that will include the Christmas Invasion special in which David Tennant (HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE) was introduced as the 10th Time Lord.
The Doctor returns with his feisty young companion, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), and together they will travel through time and space battling new and returning aliens and monsters.
FOX has set the fall premiere dates for its new and returning series, including its Sunday night animation block, which will air new episodes starting Sept. 10, 2006. Six new primetime shows and a new late-night entry join returning favorites on the fall schedule.
The premieres are listed below in chronological order. All times are ET/PT.
Monday, Aug. 218:00-9:00 pm, PRISON BREAK (Season premiere)9:00-10:00 pm, VANISHED (Series premiere)
Wednesday, Aug. 308:00-9:00 pm, BONES (Season premiere)
FIVEs Milkshake has ordered a second season of FUNKY VALLEY from British award-winning animation studio Honeycomb Animation.
The successful preschool show was first aired in May 2004 on FIVEs preschool strand Milkshake!, and has been sold to more than 30 territories worldwide, including Italy, South Africa, Canada and Australia. (A spin-off series, FUNKY TOWN, is currently in production.)
DINOSAURS: THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS (Disney Home Ent., $39.99) comes to DVD May 2, 2006. Jim Hensons animatronic nod to THE FLINTSTONES in 91 concerns a stone-age working-class family living in the modern world, and utilizes lots of wry social commentary (characters names are based on petroleum corporations). Created by Michael Jacobs and Bob Young; and directed by Bruce Bilson, and Jeff McCracken.
Ubisoft announced that the OPEN SEASON videogame, based on Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length 3D-animated movie (opening Sept. 29), will ship mid-September on all available videogame platforms. Developed by Ubisoft's award-winning Montreal studio, OPEN SEASON will allow gamers to relive the humor and adventure of the movie by creating a fun and immersive interactive world that conveys the same comedic storyline, zany characters and artistic images projected in the animated film.
PLAZA SÉSAMO has begun production on its tenth season. Shooting in Televisa's San Angel studios, the new season focuses on Healthy Habits and includes original segments such as "Plaza Olimpiadas," in which well-known Mexican and Latin American athletes Ana Guevara, KiKin Fonseca and Fernando Platas encourage children and their families to lead a safe and balanced lifestyle through exercise and healthy eating habits. In "Cantando por una fruta," actor Adal Ramones hosts an AMERICAN IDOL parody-a singing contest starring fruit Muppets.
South Park 7th Season Now on DVD
As SCI FI's hit series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA gears up for this Friday's 90-minute season 2 finale, the channel begins preparations for the October premiere of the show's eagerly anticipated third season. Production on season 3 begins in Vancouver in April.
Returning to its Friday night slot with a complete 20-episode order, season 3 of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will contain vfx by Zoic Studios.
Haydenfilms Online Film Festival Presents
Haydenfilms Season One Awards Ceremony
Place: Director's Guild of America Theater, NYC
Date: January 12, 2006
Tara DiLullo follows up last years report on Battlestar Galactica with a look at the uniquely creative and chaotic method to the madness surrounding the much-anticipated second season.
STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON recently bowed on DVD (Paramount Home Ent, $129.98), capping off the phenomenal sci-fi franchise. The final and undeniably best season (with terrific vfx from Eden FX and others) ties this prequel premise closer to the original series including the formation of The Federation and offers several nostalgic nods along the way, leading to the controversial segue to THE NEXT GENERATION in the final episode, These Are the Voyages
Disney's KIM POSSIBLE the animated hit comedy/action series from Walt Disney Television Animation, resumes production for a fourth season of 22 new episodes. KIM POSSIBLE airs in the U.S. on Disney Channel, Toon Disney and the ABC Television Network's "ABC Kids" daypart.
The international hit, KIM POSSIBLE, is from multiple Emmy-nominated creators/exec producers Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. Emmy nominee Steve Loter also returns as director and producer of the fourth season.
Kicking off January's highly anticipated Rose Bowl, ABC Sports has tapped Concrete Pictures to produce the open for the Bowl Championship Series' (BCS) National Championship game between University of Southern California and the University of Texas. The 1:40 spot, helmed by Tripp Dixon, will feature famed college football broadcaster Keith Jackson guiding fans through the thrilling tale of the 2005 college football season.
The first half of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's second season comes to DVD just in time for the holidays (Universal Studios Home Ent., $49.98). SEASON 2.0 further explores creator Ron Moore's (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and CARNIVALE) take on the nature of humanity and spirituality, but Sci Fi's hottest series is still about "the chase," as Moore likes to call it. The first 10 episodes are spread across three discs and Zoic serves as lead vfx house.
Bonus features include:* Deleted scenes, including 17 minutes from the premiere episode, "Scattered."
Mike Young Prods. begins production on a second season of its groundbreaking 3D, CGI animated character comedy, PET ALIEN. Taffy Ent. has ordered 26 new half-hour episodes (52x11) of the series aimed at kids 6-11 to feed the demand for new episodes now playing in more than 160 countries worldwide.
USA has greenlit a third season of its hit series, THE 4400, reports the trades. With a premiere set for summer 2006, the 13 new episodes will go into production the beginning of the new year.
The sci-fiers second season with the #1 summer cable series with adults 18-49, beating out THE CLOSER and THE SHIELD. The five-episode first season received an Emmy nomination for miniseries.
Kids' WB! new 2005-2006 broadcast season will be highlighted by the world premieres of three new series and four returning hits. Kids WB! kicks off its new schedule Sept. 17 (8:00 am-12 pm ET /7:00-11:00 am PT). On Monday, Sept. 19 (3-5:00 pm ET/PT), the new seasons Monday-Friday weekday lineup will debut, introducing the high-octane vehicles-turned-robots world of TRANSFORMERS: CYBERTRON, along with more exciting adventures of returning shows, five days a week.
Entity FX has begun production for SMALLVILLE after finishing last season with an exclamation point. The season premier, Arrival, which has more than130 high def vfx shots in the episode, airs Sept. 29 at 8:00 pm on WB. This will be the fourth season for which Entity FX produces all the visual effects, all in high def, for the hit series.
HBO has greenlit a second season of its new series ROME, reports the trades. The new 12 hourlong episodes will air in 2007.
The first episode, Aug. 28, harvested 8.9 million total viewers over the course of 11 plays on HBO and HBO2 spread across the entire week. The Sunday primetime broadcast scored a 9.1 household rating the best number for a new-season debut episode since the fourth-season premiere of SIX FEET UNDER in 2004.
Kids WB! gears up early for the new 2005-2006 season the exclusive U.S. premiere of YU-GI-OH! GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP, the fifth season of the hit anime series, beginning Aug. 27, 2005, at 8:00 am ET/7:00 am PT) and 11:00 am ET/10:00 am PT).
Matt Groenings four favorite episodes from the animated FUTURAMA TV series comprise the FUTURAMA MONSTER ROBOT MANIAC FUN DVD collection (Fox Home Ent., $14.98) that streets Aug. 23, 2005.
New and returning celebrity guest voices coming up for the 17th season of THE SIMPSONS are Alec Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, William H. Macy, Joe Mantegna, Michael York, Ricky Gervais, Terry Bradshaw, Lily Tomlin, Frances McDormand, Terry Bradshaw, boxer Joe Frazier, former basketball great Dennis Rodman and Yankee pitcher Randy Jackson. THE SIMPSONS airs Sundays 8:00 pm on FOX in the U.S.
From Paramount Home Ent. and MTV Networks comes THE REN & STIMPY SHOW SEASONS THREE AND A HALF-ISH on DVD, featuring 29 cartoons from season 3 and some from season 4. Creator John K. and the original animation team give commentary on 11 of the episodes. In addition, for the first time, Ren and Stimpy will comment on THE REN & STIMPY SHOW. The three-disk set is in Dolby Digital 2.0 and sells for $38.99.
Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) had plenty to crow about and celebrate at its recent Fifth Annual International Upfronts event to launch to the international TV market 21 new and returning network series for the 05-06 season, the highest-ever number in the companys history. This count includes 11 returning series plus eight new scripted series and two fresh reality series.
