Everything about Children’s Programming, eh?

Children's Programming

Come to Writers Talking TV: The Next Step

From the Writers Guild of Canada:

Writers Talking TV focuses on writing TV for a young generation, with Frank van Keeken, creator of the popular show, The Next Step. The evening begins with a screening of an episode, followed by an interview, and an audience Q&A.

Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox
When: June 30, 7:30 p.m.
Free, and open to the public.
Please RSVP to Elaine Jacob e.jacob@wgc.ca to reserve your seat.

Audience members will also be treated to a sneak preview of an excerpt from Frank van Keeken’s upcoming show, The Music Room, currently in production. If you’re interested in writing television for children and youth, make sure to come out to Writers Talking TV: The Next Step.

The Next Step, show description from Temple Street Productions:

The Next Step follows the lives of a group of elite dancers at The Next Step Dance Studio as they strive to win the regional dance competition. The tightly knit team of dancers train, rehearse and hang out together within a well-established social order led by star dancer Emily and the E-Girls, her band of dancers that are currently used to running the studio. When talented new girl, Michelle, joins the school, the alliances and social balance of the studio are threatened as secrets, emotions and cliques are exposed and challenged. With the regional championships fast approaching, the A-Troupe needs to come together and resolve their issues and work as a team if they want to win and qualify for the national title.

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Children's Programming, Featured

Think outside the pink toy box, Nelvana

When the Nelvana and Topps Company television series Mysticons was first announced in 2013, the head of Topps’ parent company – ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner — said in a media release: “Nelvana has a strong history of success in building and launching hit boys action properties and the partnership with Topps sets the stage for Mysticons to be the next big global boys action franchise.”

Yesterday, Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana sent another media release about the reworked series, still in partnership with Topps, calling it an “epic animated series for girls 6+” and using the phrase “Girls Action series” throughout.

I have some questions.

Why the proper noun for Girls Action? But more importantly, why is it necessary to specify in a media release that the show is for girls, any more than it was necessary to specify in a media release the show was for boys?

I guess the answer to both questions is in a tab on Nelvana’s website called Boys Action. They are going for broke in putting a gender to their action shows, at a time when corporations like Eisner’s former employer Disney and Toys R Us are removing gender labels in response to consumer demand.

Of course demographics are everything when selling a show to advertisers. Demographics will tell you where you’ll get the most bang for your marketing buck. All of that is important to advertisers and marketers … behind the scenes. Not to media. And by specifying before you’ve even produced the show that your marketing and advertising will target girls, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when boys shy away from it.

If it’s truly self-evident that a show with girl characters is more appealing to girls, let it be self-evident and therefore unstated publicly, especially in a time when that casual normalizing of this kind of gender division is under siege by the very people affected by it: kids.

There are rules about how you can advertise to children because they’re impressionable, not yet formed. And it shouldn’t be up to Nelvana to form kids along an unnecessary gender line. There should be in-house rules for production companies and broadcasters on how to publicly discuss a show without excluding boys from Dora the Explorer and Doc McStuffins and girls from Beyblade and Di-Gata Defenders.

We’re talking an age where companies like Lego and Disney are being reminded, loudly, that not all girls like pink and some boys like to play with dolls. Some girls want to dress up like Darth Vader and some boys like Elsa from Frozen. The kids themselves will let you know when you fail them.

Nelvana, you’re failing them.

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Children's Programming

Corus reboots Reboot with The Guardian Code

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From a media release:

Corus Entertainment has given the greenlight to Mainframe Entertainment—the television division of the multifaceted Vancouver-based animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment (TSX VENTURE:RNK)—to produce 26 half-hour episodes of a reimagined version of the classic and first-of-its-kind CG-animated television series ReBoot.  Reboot: The Guardian Code, a hybrid live-action/CG-animated series to be distributed globally by TWC/Dimension Television (excluding Canada) commences production on the heels of the series’ 20th anniversary featuring cutting-edge technology that will reboot the ReBoot universe to create a groundbreaking multi-platform experience. The announcement was made today at Banff World Media Festival by Jamie Piekarz, Director of Content, Corus Kids, and Michael Hefferon, President and Chief Creative Officer, Rainmaker Entertainment. The series originally premiered on Corus’ kids channel YTV in 1994 and aired until 2001.

Created by Michael Hefferon, Reboot: The Guardian Code is based on the original ReBoot created by Gavin Blair, John Grace, Phil Mitchell and Ian Pearson. The YTV series was the first of its kind–a fully CG animated television series. Ahead of its time, the original series electrified viewers with its groundbreaking animation style and stories of heroic Guardians who battled viruses inside computer systems. Twenty years later, ReBoot: the Guardian Code upgrades that original concept for today’s tech savvy kids.

Transcending age groups with appeal to kids, tweens and teens, ReBoot: the Guardian Code is an adventure-comedy series about four teens (Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra) who discover that they’re next-gen Guardians with a mission to save the world, by defending it in cyberspace. The Internet revolutionized the world, but it also left it vulnerable to attack. With the help of VERA, the last surviving cyberbeing from the original Guardian Program, our heroes stream into cyberspace where they use their awesome code-based powers to battle viruses that have been unleashed by a ruthless hacker. Known only as the Sourcerer, he seeks to rule the world by controlling cyberspace. Original fans of the show will be happy to hear that Megabyte will be back and he’s getting a major upgrade. ReBoot will showcase leading edge technologies and bring coding into the mainstream for kids.

When Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra are not trying to stop viruses from overloading a nuclear power station, or remotely opening a dam to flood a city, or playing Criss Cross Crash Hour with a city’s transportation grid, our heroes are being typical teens: arguing with their parents over curfews; dealing with crushes; or trying to avoid getting suspended for skipping class when they’re really on a cyber mission to save the world!

Over the course of its four seasons in the 1990s, 48 x 22 minute episodes of ReBoot were sold to 84 counties (YTV in Canada and ABC Network and Cartoon Network in the US), with the last new episodes airing in 2001. Complementing the television series was a ReBoot toy line produced by Irwin Toys along with a video game produced by Electronic Arts.

 

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Children's Programming

Martin Sheen to star in new Anne of Green Gables TV movie

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From a media release:

Breakthrough Entertainment announced today that renowned actor Martin Sheen will play the role of Matthew Cuthbert in the highly anticipated original television movie Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, to debut on Corus Entertainment’s YTV in early 2016. Sheen will portray the shy brother of straight-laced Marilla Cuthbert in the two-hour movie. Together the brother and sister who live in the P.E.I. estate Green Gables, take in young Anne Shirley from an orphanage to serve in their household – and forge a bond that will change their lives forever.

Now in production in several locations throughout Canada, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, based on the classic Anne series of novels, is beautifully reimagined by Breakthrough in association with the author’s granddaughter, Kate MacDonald Butler who serves as an Executive Producer. The movie is directed by John Kent Harrison based on a script by Susan Coyne.

Taking the starring role of Anne Shirley is 13-year-old actress Ella Ballentine (Baby’s First Christmas, The Calling, Standoff, Reign) and playing Marilla will be Sara Botsford (E.N.G., As the World Turns, Trudeau). Additional cast includes Julia Lalonde, Kate Honig, Stefani Kimber, Drew Haytaoglu, Kyle Gatehouse and Linda Kash.

First published in 1908, Anne of Green Gables remains an iconic work of Canadian literature, which has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. The eight classic Anne of Green Gables novels set in P.E.I. have attracted generations of readers inspired by the adventures of the spirited redhead Anne Shirley, who comes to stay at Green Gables and wins the hearts of everyone she meets.

About Breakthrough Entertainment:  Headquartered in Toronto, Breakthrough Entertainment Inc. (BEI) is a world class studio, being a leading global producer and distributor of acclaimed primetime comedy and drama series, as well as factual entertainment, documentaries, television movies, feature films, family entertainment and children’s animation. As one of Canada’s largest television production and distribution companies, BEI has licensed programs to major broadcasters worldwide.  A vertically-integrated entertainment studio, Breakthrough is involved in worldwide distribution as well as pre-sales, co-productions and third-party acquisitions.  In addition, Breakthrough’s digital media division ranks among one of the industry’s most respected producers of high quality digital entertainment including ebooks, webisodes and online and mobile games.  www.breakthroughentertainment.com.

 

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Children's Programming, Degrassi

It’s not over! Degrassi: Next Class debuts on Family Channel in January 2016

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From a media release:

Whatever it takes. That’s what Family Channel is willing to do for fans and the network proves it by announcing Degrassi: Next Class, the newest version of the popular global franchise, will debut on Family in January 2016. After Thursday’s news sent shockwaves through the Internet, fans and media showed an outpouring of love for the highly celebrated Canadian teen series. Reassuring fans that Degrassi as they know it is alive and well, DHX Media’s Epitome Pictures will create 20 x 30-minute episodes of the series for Family.

Degrassi: Next Class is a pull-no-punches dramatic series that tackles the real-life issues of high school students. Telling the stories of “Generation Z,” the series focuses on a group of teens as they begin their journey into adulthood. Pushing their own limits and testing the bonds of family and friends, the students each find their own way to deal with a range of issues: from homophobia, racism, substance abuse and violence to burgeoning sexuality, body issues, heartbreak and the complications of dating in the social media age. The series strives to entertain its post-millennial audience while always reinforcing its core principle: You are not alone.

Keeping true to the spirit of Degrassi that generations have known and loved since 1980, Degrassi: Next Classtakes the 485 episode franchise into its next iteration and remains the longest running dramatic television series in Canadian history. The new installment will see popular cast members reprise their roles including: Amanda Arcuri as Lola Pacini; Reiya Downs as Shay Powers; Ana Golja as Zoe Rivas; Nikki Gould as Grace Cardinal; Ricardo Hoyos as Zig Novak; Ehren Kassam as Jonah Haak; Andre Kim as Winston Chu; Lyle Lettau as Tristan Milligan; Spencer Macpherson as Hunter Hollingsworth; Eric Osborne as Miles Hollingsworth III; Olivia Scrivenas Maya Matlin; Sara Waisglass as Frankie Hollingsworth; and Richard Walters as Deon “Tiny” Bell.

The Degrassi franchise is currently celebrating the 35th anniversary. Degrassi: Next Class is produced by DHX Media’s Epitome Pictures, in association with Family Channel and Netflix. The series was co-created by Linda Schuyler who is also Executive Producer with Stephen Stohn, Sarah Glinski and Matt Huether.

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