The Fremantle Corp. has acquired the new combined 2D and 3D animated production, FRIENDS AND HEROES. The distribution company will showcase the animated series at MIPCOM along with a substantial list of previously announced programming. This series will also be made available at MIPCOM Jr.
The 10th season of SOUTH PARK is off to a game start with trouble in the online gaming world when a renegade player threaten to destroy Blizzard Ent.'s award-winning game, WORLD OF WARCRAFT. The future of the game lies in the hands of Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny, when all new episodes premiere Oct. 4 2006, at 10:00 pm on Comedy Central. This is followed the next night by DRAWN TOGETHER as it returns for a third season with more twists and turns from the animated group of dysfunctional misfits with seven new episodes, beginning on Oct. 5 at 10:30 pm.
Comedy Centrals FREAK SHOW, an animated half-hour narrative featuring a band of freak show performers who also happen to be second-rate superheroes, debuts on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006, at 10:30 pm. The seven-episode series is based on an idea by David Cross (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, MR. SHOW) and H. Jon Benjamin (DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST, HOME MOVIES). Encore presentations to air Wednesday at 12:30 am, Friday at 12:30 am and Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday at midnight.
On YTV, October is dedicated to Halloween. To get prepared for this spooky occasion, YTV premieres two new series, RUBY GLOOM and GROSSOLOGY, launches the second season of GHOST TRACKERS, airs brand new Halloween specials from EDGAR & ELLEN, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE, ROBOTBOY and ALL GROWN UP, and brings back a ton of classics including IT�S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, GARFIELD�S HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE and THE FLINTSTONES MEET COUNT ROCKULA & FRANKENSTONE.
Robert Smigel, creator of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and SNLs TV FUNHOUSE, and Adam Sandler are teaming up to produce a new primetime animated series, ANIMALS, for Fox. Sandler's Happy Madison and 20th Century Fox TV, have received a presentation order, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and confirmed by a Fox Broadcasting spokesperson.
ANIMALS centers on a group of human-like animals that are parodying human life in the suburbs, written by Smigel and Greg Cohen of KING OF THE HILL.
Barcelona-based entertainment production and distribution company Neptuno Films and the Spanish-based Portal Latino, a subsidiary of Sociedad Digital de Autores y Editores SDAE, have joined forces to greenlight a new IPTV kids channel in Spain named El Gato Feliz (Happy Cat).
The channel will be launched Sept. 28, 2006, and will reach subscribers of Orange for their telephony, Iternet and IPTV new television services in Spain.
Nickelodeon Germany and Jetix Netherlands just acquired CARL SQUARED (52x30), Portfolios tween targeted animated series.
CARL SQUARED takes traditional television further by integrating an interactive component with online gaming and character blogs.
The Kids WB! 2006-2007 programming slate kicks off on Sept. 23, 2006, on The CW Network, the new broadcast network launching this month. It features four new, original shows and the return of four established hit series on the Saturday morning schedule.
G4, which is now available in 59 million cable and satellite homes nationwide, has exclusively licensed the first run of SPACEBALLS THE ANIMATED SERIES for the U.S. market to premiere in fall 2007.Mel Brooks who created the comedy classic SPACEBALLS, is teaming, via his Brooksfilms Ltd., with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) Berliner Film Companie GmbH and the G4 television network, on the animated series.
9 Story Ent. is starting up production on its new action/comedy, FUTZ!, for TELETOON, in December 2006. The series will be produced for television, web and mobile.
Cardiff-based Calon, will be launching its new new animated series for preschoolers, IG! at Cartoon Forum this week in France.
The 26x10 stop-motion animated comedy stars cave girl Ig. This junior terror has a curiosity and adventurous spirit that should appeal to every energetic pre-schooler. Her sidekicks are Doggy (Igs dinosaur pet), Monkey Boy, Triple Tog (her saber-tooth tiger duvet) and Birdie (the friendly pterodactyl), while Big Daddy, the titanic T.Rex, is the authoritative character whose roar is the final say.
Xilam will be pitching its epic comedy/adventure series, RAHAN, set in a pre-historic world at Cartoon Forum, Sept. 20-23, 2006.
RAHAN (26x30), aimed at kids 7-13, is based on a famous French comic, created by Roger Lecureux, which was first published in the 1960s. The successful comic led to 180 stories published, in some 10 different languages, creating a vast European fan base that is still active today.
SOUTH PARK is celebrating its 10th anniversary in an epic way. Remember the episode when televised cussing almost brought about the apocalypse? How about the time Chef was brainwashed by an adventure-seeking cult? Nobody can forget the episode, "Trapped In The Closet," where Tom Cruise and John Travolta locked themselves in Stans closet. Heres a chance to see all of these world-changing episodes in one fell swoop. Starting Sunday, Sept.
Just as Nickelodeon's hit animated comedy/adventure series, AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, premieres in an all-new epic adventure titled, "Avatar: Secret of the Fire Nation" on Sept, 15, 2006, from 8:00-9:00 pm, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER reveals that Nick will air the show weeknights at 6:30 pm, starting Sept. 25. An expanded online initiative will also be launched for the show.
Corner Stone Animation announced that PBS KIDS has committed to airing 26 half-hour episodes of BETSYS KINDERGARTEN ADVENTURES, the animated educational preschool television series. The series features a dream team of voice-over talent, composed of Daveigh Chase (LILO & STITCH), Nancy Cartwright (THE SIMPSONS), Fred Willard (CHICKEN LITTLE), Vicki Lewis (FINDING NEMO), Bess Armstrong (MY SO-CALLED LIFE), Sally Struthers (ALL IN THE FAMILY), Cree Summer (X-MEN LEGENDS), Richard Horvitz (POWER RANGER) and Tom Bosley (HAPPY DAYS).
FUNimation Ent., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corp, has doubled the content on its syndicated anime block to four hours. CoLours TV Network, available nationwide as part of DISH Network's basic satellite TV package, is the first broadcaster to pick up the extended block. The new block covers key primetime programming slots and launched on Sept. 11, 2006.
The ninth season of the popular POKÉMON series POKÉMON: BATTLE FRONTIER will air exclusively on Cartoon Network, part of Cartoon Networks Saturday morning lineup of comedic and action-adventure programming. The new season kicks off on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 9:00 am (ET, PT) with a special one-hour episode. The series will air regularly on Saturday mornings at 9:30 am (ET, PT).
For the new fall season, Discovery Kids has a new animated series, GROWING UP CREEPIE, about a girl who was raised by bugs, plus new seasons of FLIGHT 29 DOWN, ENDURANCE, TUTENSTEIN and SERIOUS as well as two specials with a social conscience, SAVING A SPECIES: THE GREAT PENGUIN RESCUE (hosted by Elijah Wood) and A YEAR ON EARTH, that examine how kids can play a role in protecting the environment.
Anime Network has reached a new distribution milestone. Americas #1 anime channel is now available to 40 million homes across the U.S. and Canada a 233% increase and more than three times its reach in less than two years.
We are obviously pleased to have made such significant progress, said Kevin McFeeley, Anime Networks vp of affiliate sales. Yet, we are even more encouraged by the possibilities for even further growth as we seek out new and exciting platforms on which to deliver content to our fans.
Celebrating its fifth season on Fox, 4Kids TV 4Kids Ent.'s four-hour Saturday morning programming block presents its most action-packed slate of original programming to date on affiliates nationwide, adding four new series to its already successful lineup of popular returning shows. VIVA PINATA and YU-GI-OH! CAPSULE MONSTERS premiere on Sept. 9, 2006 (check local listings for time). TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: FAST FORWARD got a jumpstart on July 29 at while Chaotic starts airing on Sept. 30.
Pierre Berton's THE SECRET WORLD OF OG premieres as an animated series on CBC Television in Canada, Saturday, Sept. 9 at 9:30 am. The series of nine episodes will continue to air weekly on Saturday mornings.
Imagine Ent., WGBH Boston and Universal Studios Family Prods., with the support of CURIOUS GEORGE publisher Houghton Mifflin, are bringing the insatiably curious monkey to PBS KIDS daily, beginning Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4, 2006. The series will debut as part of PBS KIDS new hosted preschool destination.
"Enough with the lecture villain... it's time for some Feedback!" is the catch phrase of the winning contestant on SCI FI Channels WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO?
Last night (Aug. 31, 2006) on the series finale, Stan Lee chose Feedback, a.k.a. 33 year-old Matthew Atherton of Rancho Cucamonga, California, as champion. Athertons alter ego will come to life in the pages of a Dark Horse comicbook written by Lee and released later this year. The character will also be featured in a future SCI FI Channel original movie.
YTV cant extend summer, but it plans to extend its programming this Labor Day. On Monday, Sept. 4 from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm, YTV is going to air seven extended 45-minute episodes of viewers favorite YTV series, including: HEY ARNOLD, CATSCRATCH, THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENUIS, DANNY PHANTOM and MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT. Viewers can catch sneak peeks of new fall programs as well as new episodes from returning YTV series in between each extended episode.
The all-new FANTASTIC FOUR animated series will premiere Saturday, Sept. 2, 2006, at 8:00 pm during Toonami on Cartoon Network in the U.S. Cartoon Network has exclusive domestic rights to the 26-episode, half-hour FANTASTIC FOUR series produced in France by Moonscoop (formerly Antefilms, the creators of CODE LYOKO) with Marvel Studios Cartoon Network and M6.
