Category: Television

ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT INC., a leading worldwide interactive entertainment

company, announced that NIGEL COOK has been promoted to vice president,

studio head of Acclaim Studio Austin. Cook will oversee the management of

the Austin facility, including product releases, personnel development and

process improvement. Previously, Cook was VP of product development and

design at Acclaim. In this position, he oversaw creative development and

design at all Acclaim Studios. Cook was responsible for developing many of

Nickelodeon has announced plans for a new animated series featuring

Hispanic leads. DORA THE EXPLORER will follow the crusades of a 7-year-old

Hispanic girl who lives inside a computer. The show will encourage viewers

to participate in the adventure. The new show is "a rounding out of our

efforts to reflect the world of kids," said Cyma Zarghami, Nickelodeon's

executive vice president. Other new toons include: INVADER ZIM, about an

alien who spies on Earth by masquerading as a kid and attending elementary

On Sunday, February 20, 2000, everyone's favorite alien villain from Space

Ghost's CARTOON PLANET, Brak, will present his own half-hour musical

variety show on Cartoon Network entitled BRAK PRESENTS THE BRAK SHOW

STARRING BRAK. Starting at 7 pm, the special will feature 10 original songs

and many comedy sketches. The dimwitted host gets the chance to sing a

heart-warming duet with R&B singer Monica, ride down a country road in an

ol' pick-up truck singing the tune "Highway 40" with teen film star Freddie

To celebrate the American holiday, President's Day, Fox Family will be

hosting a seven hour marathon of ANGELA ANACONDA on Monday, February 21,

2000. Fourteen episodes of the hit animated series will air back-to-back

starting at 7:30 am. Catch all of Angela's misadventures with her friends

and chief rival Nanette Manoir, her stuck-up blonde classmate.

The Krislin Company has gained the rights to produce an animated TV series

based off of Los Kitos Entertainment's LOS KITOS comic strip. Currently

running in more than 200 newspapers worldwide, the strip, created by

Colombian-born Martha Montoya, addresses the concerns of Hispanics and

other immigrant groups and highlights cultural awareness. Walt Kubiak,

president of the Krislin Company said, "We are very excited about our

association with LOS KITOS and look forward to introducing this fine

In association with Children's Television Workshop and IF/X Productions,

CineGroupe will be producing 40 half-hour episodes of SAGWA, THE CHINESE

SIAMESE CAT for PBS KIDS. The series is adapted from the award-winning

children's book by Amy Tan, author of THE JOY LUCK CLUB. SAGWA follows the

title character's escapades through Ancient China. Each episode will

include 11-minute segments and related interstitials woven together by

music, folk stories and fairy tales. The executive producers of the project

Vitoria, Spain-based Mb Producciones is reaping a huge success from its new

animated series MIMI AND MR. BOBO. Since its debut on TVE, the average

share the series has received is 25.8. The show airs Saturday at 9 am and

re-runs at 8:30 am on Sundays. Mb Producciones is currently in negotiation

to create merchandise for the program with several well-known Spanish toy

and book companies. The company is also in the developing stage of a

feature based on the characters of the MIMI AND MR. BOBO series.

Montreal-based CineGroupe and Saban International Paris will co-produce a

new half-hour series entitled WUNSCHPUNCH. The show will be based on the

novel by Michael Ende, whose previous novel, THE NEVER ENDING STORY was

made into a live-action feature. Radio Canada will broadcast the series in

Canada and TF1 will air it in France. Hubert Gariepy and Bruno Bianchi will

produce the series and Philippe Amador will direct.

On February 11, 2000, CBS will air a special celebrating the career of THE

PEANUTS creator Charles Schultz. The hour-long GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN: A

TRIBUTE TO CHARLES SCHULTZ will be hosted by CBS' former news legend Walter

Cronkite. The special will feature clips from the PEANUTS series and

specials, plus an interview with Charles Schultz. The legendary comic strip

artist retired at the beginning of the year in order to concentrate on

beating his newly diagnosed cancer.

Fox has leaked the scoop that a central Simpsons character will be killed

off on the February 13 episode of the decade old toon. Rumors have been

circling that the grim reaper will be swinging his scythe at Maude

Flanders, wife of Jesus freak neighbor Ned. In a bold move of honesty THE

SIMPSONS' executive producer Mike Scully fully admits the show is a

shameless attempt at grabbing sweeps ratings. "We're in our 11th season and

we're always looking for new ways to shake up the show a little and do

Tom Snyder Productions' HOME MOVIES has found a new home at Cartoon

Network. The Atlanta-based toon channel has ordered 13 episodes for 2000.

The order also includes five episodes, which originally aired on UPN last

spring and eight new episodes, to be produced beginning in February. HOME

MOVIES is about Brendon Small, a restless, creative third-grader, who uses

his video camera to deal with his problems. The cast includes Brendon

Small, Melissa Bardin Galsky and H. Jon Benjamin. The show is very funny as

Three new Scandinavian markets surrendered their airwaves to Pokemania.

Worldwide sensation POKEMON was recently sold to TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in

Denmark and TV2 in Norway. The show will hit the new territories in January

and February 2000. Lacey Entertainment, the international distributors of

the series, also announced the sale of the Pikachu-vehicle to ATV in Turkey

and Noga Communications' Children's Channel in Israel. In Europe, POKEMON

began broadcasting in September 1999 on Germany's RTL2, The Netherlands'