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Category: Television

Headline News

Shill Rides in Helmer Seat on Knight Rider

Steve Shill, who has helmed episodes of ROME and DEXTER, will direct NBC's two-hour pilot for KNIGHT RIDER, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Exec producer Doug Liman was considering directing the project, but his feature commitments would not allow it.

Dave Andron, who wrote the pilot, is the supervising producer. Dave Bartis is also an exec producer for Universal Media Studios and Dutch Oven Prods.

Headline News

Tele Munchen Gruppe Dips into Cookie Jar

Cookie Jar Ent. has reached an all-rights agreement with Tele München Gruppe for the company's newest boys action-adventure series MAGI-NATION. Tele München's Licensing and Merchandising arm, CTM, will serve as the exclusive agent for the show in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Benelux.

Headline News

Takalani Sesame To Become First Fully Multilingual Program

In a groundbreaking move in support of the government's mother-tongue-based education policy, the award-winning South African children's program TAKALANI SESAME will soon be on air in almost all of South Africa's official languages. The "applied language" approach, begun with the launch of the show's fourth season and based on broadcaster SABC's language policy, calls for each TAKALANI SESAME episode to be produced in several official South African languages. SABC will dedicate a specific day of the week to a single language.

Kids Headline News

Corus Restructuring Continues

Canada's Corus Entertainment has put together a new children's team following a restructuring last month in which 53 employees were let go, reports C21 MEDIA. The kids division, which oversees YTV and Treehouse, was hardest hit by the shake-up.

In the new arrangement, veteran Nelvana exec Jocelyn Hamilton will move from her post as VP of creative development to be the new VP of content for Corus Kids Television, overseeing content for Nelvana Studios, as well as Treehouse, YTV and Discovery Kids Canada.

Headline News

SCI FI Starts a Revolution

SCI FI Channel has given the go-ahead on a two-hour sci-fi actioner titled REVOLUTION, reports VARIETY. The show was created by writers Ed Redlich and John Bellucci. Simon West is in talks to helm.

The CBS Paramount Network Television production will re-imagine the American Revolution as a battle between an Earth-like colony on a distant planet and the United States. The story will center on families torn apart by their loyalties to the government and to the growing rebellion.

Show Headline News

ZDF To Host Cookie Jar's Arthur and Mona

Cookie Jar Ent. has signed a deal with Germany's ZDF network to air 40 episodes of its Emmy award-winning series ARTHUR. The show will be broadcast on Saturday mornings on ZDF.

ZDF has also renewed Cookie Jar's MONA THE VAMPIRE, and will show sixty-five episodes on ZDF and ARD's children's channel KiKa. The series airs Monday through Friday during KiKa's afternoon slot.

Headline News

New Toons at Sesame

Sesame Workshop has two new animated series in the works, C21 MEDIA reports.

The CG animation TWIDDLEBUGS, which is now in development, features insect characters who live in a box at Bert and Ernie's residence. Intended to promote discovery and problem-solving, the show is aimed at three- to six-year-olds and is slated for delivery in September 2008. Sesame is currently seeking coproduction partners for the property.

Nickelodeon Headline News

Nick Arabia To Launch in 2008

MTV Networks International (MTVNI) and Arab Media Group (AMG), the largest media group in the United Arab Emirates, have announced the upcoming launch of Nickelodeon Arabia. The 24-hour Arabic-language free-to-air channel will broadcast via satellite to 36 million TV households, including key advertising markets Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

Series Headline News

DQ Bags Multiple Co-Pro Deals

Hyderabad-based DQ Ent. has struck major co-production deals with a number of international companies at this year's MIPCOM.

DQ, Classic Media, and MoonScoop have forged a partnership to produce a new 52x11 3D series called CASPER'S SCARE SCHOOL, based on Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo's classic character Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Series Headline News

Hit Ent. Signs Co-Dev, Distribution Deals

Hit Ent. has entered into a co-development deal with British production company Cocaban and Korean animation studio SAMG for T5, a new action series aimed at boys aged 6 to 8 years old, reports WORLDSCREEN. T5 features a group of household pets that takes part in racing championships. The races are boradcast via Pets Television Network (PTVN) while the pets' owners are out.

Series Headline News

EM Sells Enyo, Revives Vicky

EM.Ent. has signed broadcast deals for three of its series, ENYO, MASTER RAINDROP, and STAINES DOWN DRAINES, and is looking to its classics archive for properties to develop and promote in the future, reports C21 MEDIA.

ENYO (26x30), a 3D children's fantasy series, was picked up by broadcasters ZDF (Germany) and Denmark's TV2. ENYO follows a 12-year-old hunter who lives on a planet full of peculiar animals and extreme landscapes. The series is produced by EM.Entertainment in collaboration with Magma Films and Funkhauser Films.

Headline News

First Malaysian Animation Comes to Disney Channel

Animasia Studio's 26-episode FOOTBALL KIDS, the first Malaysian animated series to crack the international broadcast network, will begin airing in 16 countries on the Disney Channel in November 2007. Content distribution company peppermint played a major role in securing the agreement for the MSC Malaysia Status Company.

Disney Headline News

Interactive Agent Oso Coming to Playhouse Disney

Disney Channel has begun production on a new Playhouse Disney preschool series entitled SPECIAL AGENT OSO, starring Academy Award-nominated actor Sean Astin as the voice of Oso, an endearing, bumbling teddy bear who enlists the help of viewers at home to complete his missions.

Charlie Headline News

Charlie & Lola Third Season Debuts This Weekend

Disney Channel will debut the third season of CHARLIE AND LOLA, the preschool series about a pair of supportive siblings, on Saturday, Oct. 13 (11:30 am, ET/PT) during the learning-focused Playhouse Disney programming block. The new season consists of 14 episodes in which considerate seven-year-old big brother Charlie patiently helps his feisty yet endearing four-year-old sister Lola through preschool-age challenges, such as school, coping with change, fear of thunder, first sleepovers and going to the eye doctor.

Animation Headline News

RDF Kids To Get Animated

U.K.-based RDF Kids and Family will enlarge its offerings to include animation for the first time, reports C21 MEDIA.

The new strategy for the group's children's and family division is a significant departure from the original plan to concentrate on sitcoms, entertainment, preschool and drama. However, according to division head Nigel Pickard, the children's producer "can't really afford not to be in that market, so for the first time we're going to look at animation."

Headline News

Pigs To Live Again in New Series

A new series featuring animated versions of porcine puppets Pinky and Perky , who first appeared on the BBC in 1957, will be unveiled by Granada Int. next April at MIPTV, report KIDSCREEN and C21 MEDIA. THE PINKY AND PERKY SHOW (52x13), aimed at kids aged 6-11, was commissioned by CBBC and France 3 and co-produced by Pinky & Perky Enterprises, Method Films and DQ Entertainment. Granada has picked up worldwide distribution rights (excluding the U.K, and France) and subsidiary ITV DVD has secured the home entertainment rights. The debut DVD will be released in 2008.

Headline News

Portfolio Seeking Third-Party Content

Canada's Portfolio Ent. is hoping to vastly expand its catalogue, with its next properties likely coming from the gaming world, according to C21 MEDIA. The company's goal is to add as many as 700 episodes to its offerings in the next six to 12 months through acquisitions from producers. Portfolio currently distributes more than 1,000 episodes of primarily animated series, including CARL2 (65x30).

Series Headline News

Fox Eying Three New Animated Series

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 12:00am

20th Century Fox TV is in development on three new animated series, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The first is a retooled version of the 2003 live-action comedy THE PITTS, created by SIMPSONS vet Mike Scully. The second, RELATIVE INSANITY, will be exec produced by Jack Black. The third, MOTHBALLS, is from DRAWN TOGETHER creators Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser.

Headline News

Fatkat Gets Greenlight for Space Knights

Fatkat Inc.'s SPACE KNIGHTS, an animated parody of super hero cartoons of the late 1990s, will debut in fall 2008 as a part of The Detour on TELETOON Pilot Project. The Project is a recent initiative of TELETOON that invites producers to submit new, no-holds-barred comedy to be broadcast on the network's popular teen/adult-oriented programming block.

Cartoon Headline News

Ellen's Acreage Growing by Leaps and Bounds

ELLEN'S ACRES, Animation Collective's comedy series for young viewers, has been acquired by Cartoon Network Latin America, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (broadcast & video/DVD), Al Jazeera and TV Ontario. It currently broadcasts on Cartoon Network UK.

ELLEN'S ACRES is about a five-year-old girl named Ellen whose enormous imagination leads to a host of amazing adventures.

Cartoon Headline News

Cartoon Network Scares Up 3-D Treats

Cartoon Network and LucasArts will transport viewers into another dimension this October with Cartoon Network 3-D Halloween. The special presentation, to be aired Oct. 12 as part of the Friday Fried Dynamite block, will feature the popular series OUT OF JIMMY'S HEAD and FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS. In addition to these special 3-D episodes, viewers can also get a 3-D sneak peek at the LucasArts video game THRILLVILLE: OFF THE RAILS, where players create and experience the theme park of their dreams.

Headline News

Cuppa Coffee Launches Life's a Zoo.tv

Cuppa Coffee Studios' new stop-motion animated comedy series LIFE'S A ZOO.TV is being formally launched at MIPCOM. With thirteen half-hours aimed at the "teens and up" crowd slated for a spring 2008 delivery, LIFE'S A ZOO.TV promises to deliver a new spin on "reality" television alongside its own Web channel at lifesazoo.tv.

Kids Headline News

Taffy Ent. To Create Kids Block with Spain's VEO

Taffy Entertainment has signed a deal with VEO of Spain to create a two-hour Taffy-branded kids block called Taffy Kids. The programming block, targeted to kids 6-12, will air Saturdays and Sundays from 3:00-5:00 pm and will feature such Taffy shows as the animated detective comedy FUNKY COPS and WHEEL SQUAD.

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