SCI FI Channel has renewed BATTLESTAR GALACTICA for a second season. The critically-acclaimed show has been a ratings powerhouse catapulting SCI FI to the top spot in cable among P25-54 for five consecutive Fridays. With an order for 20 episodes, BATTLESTAR will begin production in Vancouver in March for a summer premiere, returning as the anchor of the channel's SCI FI Friday block of primetime original series.
Planit, the Baltimore-based integrated brand communications agency, has been tapped by two high-profile organizations to design and produce 3D animation for a range of projects. The work is being produced by Planit's in-house broadcast design and animation studio.
Nickelodeons new Asian-inspired Nicktoons series, AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, premieres with a one-hour special on Feb. 21, 2005 at 7:00 pm, featuring Aang (Zachery Tyler), a fun-loving 12-year-old who must forgo a normal life as the Avatar in order to master his latent powers over the four elements to restore world order. Following the special broadcast, the Avatar series will air in its regular time period, Fridays at 8:00 pm.
Get ready for ROBOT CHICKEN, an ambitious sketch comedy series done completely in stop-motion, debuting Feb. 20, 2005, at 11:30 pm on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim. Creators actor/producer Seth Green and Matthew Senreich spare no one and run through many toys as they bring slightly mean-spirited pop-culture parodies to life in the 15-minute weekly series.
They were transformed into babies, now they are futuristic heroes as Kids' WB! leads off its upcoming season with LOONATICS, featuring descendants of legendary Looney Tunes characters upholding justice and hopefully the networks high ratings. The new fall schedule for the 2005-2006 television season featuring three new series and four returning hits, striving to broaden audience appeal with dual-gender programs was announced today (Feb.
Cartoon Network will air five new animated series, new episodes of returning original series and new acquisitions, adding up to more than 400 new half-hours in 2005, it was announced Feb. 16, at Cartoon Networks Upfront presentation to advertising executives and the media in New York City. The new series are TICKLE U, KRYPTO THE SUPERDOG, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUNIPER LEEM, CAMP LAZLO, IGPX and MY GYM PARTNER IS A MONKEY.
Bandai Ent. Inc. has joined with several companies in Japan to produce a new original television animation series, EUREKA SEVEN, set to air Sundays at 7:00 am on Japans MBS/TBS national network beginning April 17, 2005.
Sci Fi Channel has ordered a second season of its hit series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, with the number of episodes to be produced, timing for the new season and which cast members will return, to be announced.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has been a ratings winner for Sci Fi since its Jan. 14, 2005 premiere.
Love is on the air with TELETOON, Canadas 24/7 animation broadcaster, airing especially romantic episodes for viewers to watch on Feb. 14, 2005 their favorite characters get struck by Cupid.
The network aired a special Valentines Day episode of JOHNNY BRAVO on Feb. 12 at 7:30 pm with rebroadcasts on Feb. 14 at 7:30 am and 6:00 pm. In it, Mama sets Johnny up on a blind date where Johnny finally meets the girl of his dreams and it turns out to be a night shed soon forget.
Toronto-based Nelvana Ltd. has completed a series of broadcast and home entertainment deals for its popular library series CARE BEARS in Scandinavia, Greece, Israel, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania.
Nelvanas Scandinavian agent Kidz Entertainment has completed deals for the first 49 episodes in Sweden (Channel 5), Denmark (TV Danmarks) and Norway (TV2), while Greece-based Alter Channel and Kazakhstans Channel 1 & 2 have also picked up the same 49. Meanwhile, EUROCOM TV in Romania has acquired episodes 1-26 of the 1980s 2D series.
Ohm:tv has been licensed its latest animation series, BJORN BEAR, to U.K.-based Discovery Kids.
The 7x39 series, produced by Swedish Animation House Happy Life, is co-produced with WDR, which holds the rights for German-speaking territories and Swedish SVT, which holds the Scandinavian rights.
Boomerang, Cartoon Networks commercial-free classic animation network, will present a Valentines Day mock-celebration Love Stinks! featuring that odiferous lover with a French accent, Pepe Le Pew, in a 24-hour marathon beginning at 6:00 on Feb. 14, 2005. Looney Tunes ardently amorous skunk earnestly tries to win the tender affections of unwitting females never quite succeed, he remains loves greatest champion through his enduring optimism and never-say-die commitment to the pursuit of lamore.
Ed, Edd and Eddy take a big whiff of Valentine love in HANKY PANKY HULLABALOO, a new 30-minute special makes its debut Feb. 11, 2005, airing at 7:00 pm, 9:00 pm and 11:30 pm with a replay on Valentines Day, Feb. 14, at 7:30 pm.
On Valentines Day at Peach Creek High, lanky Ed is bracing himself for the inevitable assault of kisses from May Kanker. Eddy wants to turn the days romantic yearnings into cold, hard cash. Double-D sees the day as a chance to let that special someone know you care.
Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner's Hazy Mills Prods. has optioned the comic strip POOCH CAFé to develop as a half-hour animated comedy series, it was reported in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
POOCH CAFé, created by cartoonist/animator Paul Gilligan, features a mutt named Poncho who frequents the local watering hole called Pooch Café, where he discusses with his doggie friends such issues as tail-chasing, cat surveillance and the embarrassment of toilet bowl water breath.
The Scooby Gang returns to The WB for some heartly laughs and adventures in the half-hour special A SCOOBY-DOO VALENTINE, Feb. 11, 2005, at 8:30 pm. The primetime special also will have an encore presentation during The WBs EASY VIEW on Feb. 13 at 5:00 pm. This brand new program, produced by Warner Bros. Animation, features JC Chasez, from mega-group NSYNC, making a special animated appearance as himself and the star-studded love interest of Shaggys ex-girlfriend.
Nicktoons will feature 24 episodes, back-to-back, of YAKKITY YAK on Feb. 5 & 6, 2005, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm during Super Bowl Weekend in the U.S. Viewers will see Yakkity, the class clown of Onion Falls High School, on his rocky road to stardom as he strives to become a standup comic.
The 13th season of the incredible Power Rangers franchise gets underway n a special two-part one-hour premiere, POWER RANGERS: SPACE PATROL DELTA on Feb. 5 at 8:30 a.m. ET/PT as part of the Jetix programming block. It also will air on Toon Disney February 7 at 7:30 pm.
UPN and Paramount Network Television have jointly announced that this will be the final season of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE on UPN. Production will continue until the end of this season, which will finish shooting in March. The series finale will air on May 13, 2005.
On March 1, 2005, Turner Broadcasting, the creators of Cartoon Network, will launch Boomerang, the home of classic shows and stars from the Hanna-Barbera library in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho and Southern Angola. Boomerang will offer MultiChoices DStv channel 81subscribers a channel dedicated to shows such as WACKY RACES, CAPTAIN CAVEMAN, THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH, DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY and INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE.
SPAWN creator Todd McFarlane has partnered with AngryFilms to develop TWISTED TALES, a half-hour anthology series, for FOX. Fox TV Studios' alternative division is producing in association with McFarlane and Angry Films (THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN). Trey Callaway (I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) will serve as exec producer/showrunner. McFarlane, Terry Fitzgerald, Rick Benattar, Susan Montford and Don Murphy will also exec produce.
Stan Lee's POW! Ent. has forged a joint venture partnership with Ringo Starr to create and launch an original entertainment franchise. Financed, produced and distributed by IDT Ent., the new animation will transform Starr into an evil-battling, earth-saving (though reluctant) superhero with a great sense of rhythm.
Taffy Ent. announced that it has entered into a representation agreement with Hola Ent. to support Taffys distribution efforts in Latin America. Taffy already has a strong presence in the Latin American market with recent deals that include PET ALIEN for Cartoon Network Latin America, and TODDWORLD and JAKERS! THE ADVENTURES OF PIGGLEY WINKS for Discovery Kids Latin America.
MTV Networks announced its first-ever global program acquisition, securing the worldwide broadcast rights to Animation Collective's property KAPPA MIKEY, for Nicktoons in the U.S. and Nickelodeon's international channels. The deal comprises 26 half-hour episodes of the animated action comedy that will premiere on the channels in 2006. Also part of the agreement, MTV Networks International secures international distribution rights for third-party broadcast sales.
TOKYOPOP has recruited two of the animation worlds most celebrated scribesCraig Bartlett and Mark Seidenbergto develop television scripts inspired by two of its hot youth properties, STRAY SHEEP and KARMA CLUB.
First on deck, veteran screenwriter Bartlett, creator and writer of HEY ARNOLD! and JOHNNY BRAVO, has just wrapped development on a kids comedy series based on the beloved characters in Tatsutoshi Nomuras international sensation STRAY SHEEP. The series debuted in 1994 as a series of animated shorts on Japanese television.
Breakthrough Animation has appointed HOLA Ent. as the agent selected to represent the companys animated comedy-adventure series ATOMIC BETTY in Latin America. Following on the heels of the Cartoon Network Latin America deal, HOLA will concentrate on the broadcast rights for Free Television for the animated series.
