Kids' WB! Unveils All-New Saturday Morning **LONG**
Rex Wheeler
Stolen from: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/980112/kids_warne_1.html
Monday January 12, 9:34 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Kids' WB! Unveils All-New Saturday Morning With Returning Favorites And
Exciting New Series From Steven Spielberg And The Jim Henson Company For
1998-99 Season
NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Jan. 12, 1998--Four all-new series, one
from Steven Spielberg (tentatively titled ``Steven Spielberg Presents the
Further Adventures of Pinky & The Brain''), another from The Jim Henson
Company (``BRATS of the Dark Nebula), a futuristic Batman (''Batman
Tomorrow``), and the previously announced, historically hysterical
''Warner Bros.' Histeria!`` will join new and favorite episodes of seven
returning series for the fourth season of Kids' WB! this fall.
The new schedule, coming on the heels of unprecedented ratings growth
(+29% this season vs. last season with Kids 2-11), was announced today at
the annual advertisers' upfront presentation in New York by Jean
MacCurdy, President, Warner Bros. Television Animation and President of
Programming for Kids' WB!, and Jamie Kellner, CEO of The WB Television
Network.
The new programs are: ``Steven Spielberg Presents the Further Adventures
of Pinky & The Brain'' (tentative title), an animated comedy from Steven
Spielberg which takes a fresh approach to popular favorites as Pinky and
The Brain move from ACME Labs to America's suburbs when they are adopted
by the extremely excitable Elmyra (from ``Tiny Toon Adventures'' fame);
``BRATS of the Dark Nebula,'' an amazing Sci-Fi adventure series from The
Jim Henson Company, combining ``got-to-see-it-to-believe-it'' puppetry
and computer-generated imagery, which follows the adventures of five
orphans from different war-torn planets thrown together and forced to
survive by their own wits in a galaxy under attack; ``Warner Bros.'
Histeria!'', a fast-paced animated comedy that looks at world history
through quick comedy sketches, informational bits and songs highlighting
great moments from every era of history, interviews with historical
figures and re-enactments of well-known and not-so-well-known stories
from the past; and, an all-new futuristic chapter in the legend of the
dark knight, ``Batman Tomorrow,'' brings the DC Comic superhero into the
21st Century.
Kids' WB! brings back seven popular series: ``Steven Spielberg Presents
Tiny Toon Adventures,'' ``Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs,''
``Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky & The Brain,'' ``Batman,''
``Superman,'' ``Men in Black: The Series'' and ``The Sylvester & Tweety
Mysteries.''
``Our expanded nineteen hours of viewing time this season, a diverse
slate and effective cross-promotion through four dayparts translated to
our strongest season ever and set the stage for what promises to be the
premiere children's programming destination,'' said Kellner. ``With our
distribution capabilities increasing this month and the addition of The
WeB network this fall, our kids' ratings outlook is extraordinary.''
``Kids' WB!'s diversity in both genre and style has become extremely
important as we've grown into a full-fledged children's broadcast
network,'' said MacCurdy. ``With the heart of our schedule
action-adventure, bookended by comedy, we feel that we provide a
programming menu that all young people can enjoy. It is our goal to
continue creating fabulous stories chock full of action, fun, and comedy
that are fresh and innovative to viewers year after year.''
The new saturday morning line-up includes four new series and four
returning series, all of which will have all-new episodes.
The line-up begins with ``Warner Bros.' Histeria!'' at 8:00 AM Saturdays
(also airing at 3:00 PM Monday through Friday), an animated
comedy-adventure series presenting historical subject matter in an
original and hysterically amusing way. The series, from twelve-time Emmy
Award-winner Tom Ruegger, Warner Bros. Television Animation's creative
genius behind ``Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures,''
``Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs'' and many other Warner Bros.
animated favorites, is designed to educate as well as entertain. The show
takes a look at world history through quick comedy sketches,
informational bits and songs which include great moments from every era
of history, interviews with historical figures and re-enactments of
well-known and not-so-well-known stories of the past. Joining animated
versions of famous historical figures are a host of new cartoon creations
who will take the audience on a tour through history. They are: Big Fat
Baby, Father Time, Mr. Smartypants, Miss Information, Aka Pella and many
others. ``Warner Bros.' Histeria!'' is being produced and animated by
Warner Bros. Television Animation. (This six-times-weekly series will
fulfill the mandatory FCC educational programming requirement.)
``Steven Spielberg Presents the Further Adventures of Pinky & The Brain''
(tentative title), at 8:30 AM, reunites the talents of Steven Spielberg
with Warner Bros. to create an animated comedy which takes a fresh
approach to popular favorites as Pinky & The Brain move from ACME Labs to
America's suburbs when they are adopted by the extremely excitable Elmyra
(from ``Tiny Toon Adventures'' fame). It's a whole new world: a domestic
domicile in which the gene-spliced mice actually may take over the world.
This project is the fifth collaborative effort between Spielberg and
Warner Bros. Television Animation (``Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon
Adventures,'' ``Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs,'' ``Steven
Spielberg Presents Pinky & The Brain'' and ``Steven Spielberg Presents
Freakazoid!'') and will be spearheaded by Tom Ruegger and the same
award-winning creative team that brought life to Spielberg's other
animated Warner Bros.' productions. ``Steven Spielberg Presents the
Further Adventures of Pinky & The Brain'' (tentative title), executive
produced by Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment, is being produced
and animated by Warner Bros. Television Animation.
At 9:00 AM, an all-new futuristic chapter in the legend of the dark
knight, ``Batman Tomorrow,'' will make its home on Kids' WB!, putting the
world-renowned DC Comic's superhero smack into the 21st Century. This
high-tech superhero will have a red-winged supersuit (complete with
jet-gliding capabilities) and embody a boldness and determination that
belie his years. Mentored by Bruce Wayne, alter-ego of the legendary
Batman himself, The Tomorrow Knight (as he's known among Gotham's vast
population) will strive to protect the sleekly futuristic Gotham City.
The series will be created by the same ingenious team that shepherded the
original contemporary ``Batman'' animated series (a four-time Emmy
Award-winner) as well as the current ``Superman'' animated series.
``Batman Tomorrow'' is being produced and animated by Warner Bros.
Television Animation.
``Men in Black: The Series,'' which returns to Kids' WB! after a
spectacular first season, will air with all-new episodes at 9:30 AM
Saturday mornings. The series continues to entertain the notion that
aliens live among us, and we don't even know it. These foreign beings
have been around for so long that the government secretly formed a team
of men, the MiB, whose sole purpose is to ensure that they follow our
rules and regulations. In other words they protect us, from the aliens
that we don't know exist. ``Men in Black: The Series,'' executive
produced by Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Richard Raynis, is
produced and animated by Columbia TriStar Television.
At 10:00 AM and 10:30 AM, all-new episodes of ``Batman'' and ``Superman''
will air, respectively. ``Batman'' a richly produced film noir style
animated adventure series, follows the high adventures and gripping drama
of the famous Dynamic Duo who tirelessly protect Gotham City from evil
villains. ``Superman,'' the art deco-esque animated series, chronicles
the adventures of America's legendary superhero as he battles villainy in
his continuous quest for ``Truth, Justice and the American Way.'' These
extraordinarily powerful franchises will continue to air weekday
afternoons. ``Batman'' and ``Superman'' are produced and animated by
Warner Bros. Television Animation and both scored the highest ratings of
the season for Kids' WB! (garnering a 2.9 rating/11 share with Kids
2-11).
From The Jim Henson Company comes ``BRATS of the Dark Nebula'' at 11:00
AM, a totally new ``edge-of-your-seat'' Sci-Fi action-adventure,
combining ``got-to-see-it-to-believe-it'' puppetry and computer-generated
imagery, which follows the adventures of five orphans, ``BRATS'' (whose
families have mysteriously disappeared), from different war-torn planets
thrown together and forced to survive by their wits in a galaxy under
attack. Traveling in intergalactic spaceships and equipped with exotic
technologies, this motley tribe searches the stars for any surviving
family members while battling the evil and mysterious ``Shock'' warriors,
invaders who are out to destroy them. The series utilizes innovative
puppetry to bring life to the dynamic characters and combines it with
state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery to create rich alien
environments and exciting action scenes. ``BRATS of the Dark Nebula,''
produced by The Jim Henson Company in association with Wandering Monkey
Entertainment and Decode Entertainment Inc., is being executive produced
by Brian Henson (``Muppets Tonight,'' ``The Wubbulous World of Dr.
Seuss,'' ``Dinosaurs'' and ``Gulliver's Travels'') and Dan Clark
(``Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'').
``The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries,'' at 11:30 AM, returns with all-new
episodes of the hilarious half-hour starring legendary favorites Granny,
Sylvester and Tweety as they unravel exciting and adventurous mysteries
all over the world in two animated shorts per episode. ``The Sylvester &
Tweety Mysteries'' is produced and animated by Warner Bros. Television
Animation.
Monday through Friday features one new series plus five popular returning
series: airing at 7:00 AM is the seven-time Emmy Award-winning ``Steven
Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures,'' which features an engaging
cast of teenage characters with the same irascibility and irreverence of
their classic forbears; at 7:30 AM is the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning
``Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs,'' featuring the studios most
famous contemporary ``toon-stars'' -- the Warner brothers Yakko, Wakko
and their sister Dot; airing at 3:00 PM (also airing at 8:00 AM
Saturdays) is the historically hysterical ``Warner Bros.' Histeria!'';
the Emmy Award-winning ``Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky & The Brain,''
in which the two famous laboratory mice (Pinky & The Brain) might
actually take over the world, airs at 3:30 PM; and, the ``Batman'' series
airs at 4:00 PM followed by ``Superman'' animated series at 4:30 PM.
-0-
KIDS' WB! FALL 1998-99 SCHEDULE
Weekday morning's:
7:00 AM "Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures"
7:30 AM "Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs" (1)
Weekday afternoon's:
3:00 PM "Warner Bros.' Histeria!" (new)
3:30 PM "Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky & The Brain" (1)
4:00 PM "Batman" (1)
4:30 PM "Superman" (1)
Saturday morning:
8:00 AM "Warner Bros.' Histeria!" (new)
8:30 AM "Steven Spielberg Presents the Further Adventures
of Pinky & The Brain" (tentative title) (new)
9:00 AM "Batman Tomorrow" (new)
9:30 AM "Men in Black: The Series" (1)
10:00 AM "Batman" (1)
10:30 AM "Superman" (1)
11:00 AM "BRATS of the Dark Nebula" (new)
11:30 AM "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries"
(1) New Time Slot
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Jaime J. Weinman
Several things we learn from this press release (thanks for posting it,
Rex):
1. Animaniacs is off the Saturday morning schedule and exiled to
weekdays, aka Eternal Rerun Hell. So we can safely presume that except for
the DTV and barring a sudden revival in the future, we're getting no more new
Animaniacs, c'est fini, bye-bye, aloha.
2. The revamping of P&tB clearly goes beyond our wildest nightmares
(mine, anyway--that is, the nightmares that don't involve tornados, vampires,
or deconstructionist literature professors). It's not even the same show;
it'll have a different title. What we're witnessing here, of course, is the
birth of a "retooled" Pinky and the Brain, like the one that was planned for
prime-time last year but abandoned. The retooling may take a different form
than the previous attempt, but the result is the same: take funny characters
and try to win a broader audience for them by placing them in a new format,
only to discover that without their natural format they're not as funny
anymore. Forgive my pessimism, but this is just disgusting, all of it.
3. Geez, wha' hop' to "Calamity Jane?" Couldn't they have at least showed
more than two episodes before deciding that they didn't want it anymore?
"Umptee-3" is gone too, not that I'm shedding any major tears over it, but
neither of these shows got a fair shake from the network.
4. "Futuristic Batman?" "Batman Tomorrow?" What's WITH all these
re-vampings, re-toolings, re-workings, re-formattings? Are you sure that
Kellner isn't Fred Silverman in disguise? When is somebody going to explain
to him that "shaking up" a familiar show by changing the format and dumbing
down the content just DOESN'T WORK?
You know, I'm all for the profit motive. I think that networks should be
out for big money and big ratings. It's only natural. The frustrating thing
is that network executives clearly have no idea how to get big money and big
ratings, because that requires a certain amount of intelligence or at least
shrewdness and savvy, so instead they concentrate on looking busy. These
constant re-toolings and cancellations and shufflings are nothing more than
an attempt on the part of Kellner and co. to LOOK like they're doing
something to help, when really they're doing nothing. None of Kellner's
idiotic moves have been helping, or if they are helping, it's not reflected
in the ratings, and refusing to make new episodes of some of their most
popular shows (TTA, Animaniacs) can only hurt. But at least he looks busy.
And he's still got his job. A lesson to all of us, in How To Succeed In the
Network Business Without Really Trying.
Jaime J.
Weinman
Jessica Wolfman
OK. Elmyra buys the Pinky and the Brain (sorry about my goof in the last
post, EOC), and no new Animaniacs. Once again:
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Jessica Wolfman
loup...@webtv.net
"I always want to be someone, but I guess I should have been more
specific."
--Lily Tomlin
Alsis30
On 1/12/98, Jaime J. Weinman <beavers...@hotmail.com> wrote:
<snip. Rant on, my Northern brethren ;) :>
>A lesson to all of us, in How To Succeed In the
>Network Business Without Really Trying.
Or is it, How To Succeed In The Network Business By *Being* Really Trying ?
Look at it this way: Could the retooled PatB *really* be any worse than
*Van-Pires*? Oh,--wait,-- no. Could a brick through the set be worse than
*Van-Pires*? Just forget I said anything...
Alsis "It's A Bitter Pancake To Swallow Indeed" 3...@aol.com
LuckyMunki
Jessica Wolfman wrote:
>
> NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Wow, the exact embodiement of my thoughts... put so well, also.
<start unintelligble rant>
no non no nono How could that bastard Kellner do this? He should die...
die... sdfa;gmlkdmg... How could he do this to me? To you? All US???
Don't those jackasses READ this newsgroup, and if they DON'T, WHY THE
HELL NOT???? Gosh, Kane has probably supplied about 50% of their
profits in T-Shirt sales... sheesh! We ARE the viewers... Futuristic
Batman? What crap is that? And whats with retooling PatB? Are they
COMPLETELY crazy? I HATE ELMYRA DIEDIEDIE ELMYRA!!!! Brats of the Dark
Nebula? It sounds interesting, but what is with this whole thing their
gonna try to replace A! with? Histeria? Can't they just keep going with
A!? What kind of idiot executive gets rid of a big cashcow like that???
Everybody, this is what you have to do: Write
Jamie Kellner
c/o Warner Bros. Studios
BurBank CA 75832 (If this address is wrong, someone correct me, because
I just made up that zip code)
and in really big red letters (preferably blood...)
write BRING BACK ANIMANIACS NOW!!!!!!
Love and kisses,
<insert your name here>
OK? DO IT! DO IT NOW!!!!
<end unintelligble rant>
--
"Gratuitous violence is beneath me." | A!JW23 YK+++ir |
"Then why are you alwasy BOPPING me on the HEAD?" | DT+++ir WK+++i
|
"That's not gratuitous, that's involuntary."________| PI+++^ir BR++ |
In Memorial: | SB+ S&S+R&R- GDF- MI+++iBU- CO+|
"GrrrrOOVY!" | CB+ MS+ SN+ HN- RL+HIP---KBF---|
"Don't Forget to Freak Out!" | MD++Freakazoid++++^ir P+I++ E70|
"To the Power of the Pack! Arooooo!" | V{g} PonSadMeal/PonStupid A14 F|
Kane Leung
On Tue, 13 Jan 1998 17:51:33 -0500, LuckyMunki wrote:
<...>
Warner Bros. Television
c/o Jamie Kellner
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522
(first two lines kinda reversed, Burbank one word, definitely wrong zip
code. :)
<...>
>and in really big red letters (preferably blood...)
>write BRING BACK ANIMANIACS NOW!!!!!!
>Love and kisses,
><insert your name here>
>
>OK? DO IT! DO IT NOW!!!!
-- NC
--
Richard Nathan
Rex Wheeler <re...@udp.com> wrote:
(snip)
>At 9:00 AM, an all-new futuristic chapter in the legend of the dark
>knight, ``Batman Tomorrow,'' will make its home on Kids' WB!, putting the
>world-renowned DC Comic's superhero smack into the 21st Century. This
>high-tech superhero will have a red-winged supersuit (complete with
>jet-gliding capabilities) and embody a boldness and determination that
>belie his years. Mentored by Bruce Wayne, alter-ego of the legendary
>Batman himself, The Tomorrow Knight (as he's known among Gotham's vast
>population) will strive to protect the sleekly futuristic Gotham City.
>The series will be created by the same ingenious team that shepherded the
>original contemporary ``Batman'' animated series (a four-time Emmy
>Award-winner) as well as the current ``Superman'' animated series.
>``Batman Tomorrow'' is being produced and animated by Warner Bros.
>Television Animation.
Why would the citizens of Gotham City in the 21st Century call the new
Batman "the Tomorrow Knight." They'd be living in the 21st Century, so
they wouldn't be thinking of it as Tomorrow, they'd be thinking of it as
Today.
Is the new Batman going to have a sidekick? If so, I suggest they call
him "Later On This Afternoon."
LuckyMunki
Richard Nathan wrote:
<lovingly snipped that brilliant quoting job>
> Why would the citizens of Gotham City in the 21st Century call the new
> Batman "the Tomorrow Knight." They'd be living in the 21st Century, so
> they wouldn't be thinking of it as Tomorrow, they'd be thinking of it as
> Today.
>
> Is the new Batman going to have a sidekick? If so, I suggest they call
> him "Later On This Afternoon."
LOL. Good one...