Category: Television

Disney's THE WEEKENDERS is set to premiere on ABC's "Disney's One Saturday

Morning" line-up Saturday, February 26, 2000 at 8:30 am. Each episode

follows a quartet of friends over one weekend from Friday after school to

Sunday evening. The series will be directed by Steve Lyons and is produced

by Walt Disney Television Animation.

Spumco's John Kricfalusi will be bringing his offbeat humor to a new Fox

Kids Network series entitled, THE RIPPING FRIENDS. Scheduled to hit the air

Fall 2000, the show will follow the adventures of 4 wacked out superheros.

Kricfalusi will provide at least one of the voices for the series. This

show will be Kricfalusi's first television series since Nickelodeon booted

him off of his brain child REN AND STIMPY.

The BBC, CINAR and HALO Productions will team up to brighten the world with

the teenage angst of the new animated series TREASURE. The show follows the

teenage tribulations of Treasure, her ever-frantic mother and critical

grandmother. The series will air on BBC prime time sometime in late 2000,

early 2001. The show has also been sold to YTV in Canada. TREASURE is based

off a popular newspaper column by Michele Hanson.

NASCAR fans will soon be treated to the premiere of a new animated TV show

NASCAR RACERS. On Friday, February 5, 2000 at 3:30 pm, Fox Kids will kick

off the new series with a re-broadcast of the 90-minute NASCAR RACERS

telepic. Following the next day at 9:30 am, the series will premiere. The

show will follow the high-speed adventures of four young race car drivers.

Cartoon Network's Cartoon Campaign 2000 is electing the next president from

a field of 50 cartoon candidates. Cartoon Network will provide the hopeful

candidates with free airtime from 7-9 p.m. each night between Sunday, March

5, and Thursday, March 9, 2000 when they will screen their own personal

cartoons for viewers. During each night's election coverage, viewers can

vote for their favorite characters via an 800-number that will appear on

FX's offbeat series, THE DICK AND PAULA CELEBRITY SPECIAL, will return in

March with seven new episodes. Produced by Tom Snyder Productions, the show

follows Worcester, Massachusetts' favorite husband and wife talk show team.

The series features interviews with real and fictionalized characters,

including famous and even infamous historical figures. Some crazy moments

coming up on the series include: the first sighting of The Blair Witch as

she discusses her 10K Run for Testicular Cancer Awareness; Joan of Arc

Tom Snyder Productions, the creators of DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST,

have been assigned to create a new animated comedy series for Oxygen,

Geraldine Laybourne's new network to launch February 2, 2000 to accompany

the Web site of the same name. The comedy series titled HEY MONIE is based

on the life and longings of a single African-American professional woman in

big city America. This is the first network animated series based on an

African-American woman and her friends. The show is scheduled to air on

South Africa-based Triggerfish Animation, a leading stop-frame animation

company in South Africa, is currently shooting animation sequences for the

South African SESAME STREET, using an assortment of different materials

including local contemporary art work, creating a unique African feel to

the production. In addition, Triggerfish is shooting a 30-second commercial

using 7 plasticine characters for a new product being launched in South

Africa and Australia called Slo Jo -- a fruit smoothie.

Bender will be back next year for more adventures on FUTURAMA. The animated

series from producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen has been picked up

for the 2000-01 season by Fox. A decision has not been made yet on whether

the number of episodes ordered will be 13, 22 or some number in-between.

On December 2, 1999, USA Networks' Live Telecast of IMPROV-ICE, debuted

graphics done by Pinnacle Systems' Rocket for FXDeko. Rocket for FXDeko is

a template-based tool that allows the generation of real-time 3D elements

which can be automatically updated by live data streams. Rocket integrates

with Pinnacle's award-winning FXDeko character generators and adds further

dimension to live broadcasts including textured, reflective and transparent

Nick Jr. and Teletoon have asked Nelvana Limited to start production on

MAGGIE AND THE FEROCIOUS BEAST, based on the mother and son team of

Betty and Michael Parakevas' storybooks. The adventures of 5-year-old

Maggie in Nowhere Land will hit Nick Jr. in Summer 2000 and Teletoon

next fall.

In a move much like a parent buying their child a toy and then receiving

money from their kids allowance for it, Warner Bros. Features has sold

THE IRON GIANT to Cartoon Network and TNT. Cartoon Network couldn't

handle the license fee of US$3 million, so sister Turner channel, TNT,

came in to help out on a six-month pre-Cartoon Network window. TNT will

get six runs of the critically acclaimed box-office disappointment

within that six month time period. Both networks plan to promote the