Daily Variety Article
rhia...@inferno.com
Taken from Daily Variety (an LA publication) July 22, 1994.
Please excuse the bad formatting as I typed this offline while at work
and don't have time to mess with it. (I can only get away with so
much..heh)
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Warner Brothers WB Television Network is staking out its turf in
children's
programming.
WB said it will launch a three hour Saturday morning kids block starting
in
Fall 1995. Kid's WB will include a new series from Steven Spielberg,
the first
new "Sylvester & Tweety" episodes in more than 30 years and new episodes
of
"Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs". "Animaniacs" currently airs on
Fox
Children's Network. That contract runs through the 1994-1995 season.
FCN had
been in negotiations with Warner Brothers but time ran out on their
option and
WB picked up the show.
WB plans to expand its kids block to four hours with three additional
half hour
shows on Saturdays starting in 1996. By then, the bulk of the studio's
commitments to the Fox Children's Network will have expired or be near
expiration.
WB also will introduce a two hour afternoon kids programming block in
either
1995 or 1996, depending on when affiliates can take all the programming.
Additionally, the new network will offer its affiliates two half-hour
animated
strips for weekday mornings from the Warner Bothers animation library in
Spetember 1995.
"Warner Brothers animation was the creative foudnation of the Fox
Children's
Network. We're fortunate we can call upon these same talents and assets
to
build Kids' WB", said WB cheif exec. Jamie Kellner in a statement.
WB has ordered 65 episodes of Spielberg's latest action-adventure show
"Freakazoid!"; 65 episodes of "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries"; and 13
new
episodes of "Animaniacs". All are from WB animation.
Spielberg's "Freakazoid!" and "Sylvester & Tweety" also will find thier
way
into the weekday afternoon block no later than 1997. The shows are
being
produced as strip series.
Kellner said the launch of the weekday afternoon block will be finalized
after
affiliates wrap their commitments to Disney and other sydnicators of
children's
programming, which should be in 1995-96.
Another potential product for WB is Spielberg's "Tiny Toons". Warner
Bros. and
Nickelodeon last week inked a $25 million syndication deal for several
of the
studio's animated shows, including "Tiny Toons but the contract allows
WB to
reclaim the show in year two of the contract.
"The strategy to get this up and running and then expand it is probably
a good
one" said Bill Carroll, VP/director of programming at Katz TV.
"Certainly
they come to the table with product that the audience and stations have
to take
seriously.
The WB Television Network is launching in January. It currently has
confirmed
two of its primtime series - "Unhappily Ever After", from
Married.....With
Children" cocreator Ron leavitt and producer Arthur Silver, and a Warner
Bros.
TV comedy featuring Shawn and Marlon Wayans.
"We have a staff of 25 and a commitment toprograms. It's the beginning
of a
real network" Kellner said.
J. Woodward
possibly a new TTA series... Have I died and gone to heaven, or what?
If only I didn't have to wait a year...
-JW
wood...@ftp.com