The Red Green Show was building momentum at NATPE, the syndication market held Jan. 24-27 in Miami. The sketch comedy series, which is currently shown in 25 markets in the U.S., may be picked up by five new stations, according to executive producer William Johnston. Red Green, which was initially sold to wtvs, Channel 56, a PBS station in Detroit, did brisk business in NATPE. Hearst Entertainment is handling distribution in the u.s.

The other hot show in syndication is Atlantis’ TekWar series. ‘TekWar was plugging itself,’ says Ted Riley of Atlantis Releasing, who says it was nice to walk into the market with a hit. The national average ratings for the premiere of TekWar were 50% higher than shows aired in the same time period during the November 1993 sweeps. The show is currently airing in 16 markets.

In addition to plugging TekWar, Riley says Atlantis was completing sales of its series Destiny Ridge and film Heads to Latin American markets. The company, which has made inroads into the u.s. cable market, was also pitching a lot of new product to syndicators, says Riley.

The Latin American contingent was important for Nelvana, according to Michael Hirsh. The company made some multi-series deals to the Spanish-speaking world.

Louis Fournier, vice-president of distribution at Montreal’s Cinar, was pushing The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Are You Afraid of the Dark? in Latin markets and South East Asia. Fournier says he is focusing more on developing Cinar’s market for ancillary rights – music, video, etc. – whereas Theresa Holst is handling television sales for the company.

Derek McGillivray of Ironstar Communications says cable networks expressed interest in the series House Calls and u.s. syndicators were looking at the series Wonder Why. If some of the pending deals are signed, ‘this could be one of my best NATPE’s ever,’ he says.

Isme Bennie of Paragon International says her company was double-booked most of the time with buyers from Spain, the U.K., Latin America and Southeast Asia as well as u.s. cable video and public television buyers. Sales at the market included Paragon’s Celine Dion – The Colour of My Love and the series Beyond Reality, as well as Lacewood’s Katie and Orbie and Skyvision’s Heart of Courage.

Dean Oros, director of international sales at The Multimedia Group of Canada, says his company will be producing an additional 200 new episodes of Just Kidding, the Candid Camera clone. On top of sales, the company recently signed a coproduction deal for 50 episodes of the series with Beyond International in Australia and John de Mol Productions in the Netherlands.

At the market, the company was busy talking to other companies about coproductions. Oros says Multimedia also introduced Devine Videoworks’ new composer series. The company, which produced the award-winning Beethoven Lives Upstairs, is securing presales for six more one-hour dramatic specials featuring famous composers tied into a story which includes a child.

Jill Keenleyside, director of program distribution for Catalyst Entertainment, says she made a major documentary package sale to Imagen, a South American satellite service, and signed a deal to supply four hours of programming to a Philippine station. FashionTelevision was sold to a Middle East broadcaster and offers were taken from Russia and the Middle East on the soap Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, Catalyst was pushing F.R.O.G. and Kideo to the U.S. market. ‘NATPE is such an international market now,’ says Keenleyside.

Montreal’s Filmoption Internationale participated for the first time in two years. Like other sellers, the company saw a lot of traffic from Latin American buyers.

The Science Show attracted interest from Spain, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, while The Human Race, a four-part documentary hosted by military historian Gwynn Dyer, attracted interest from Spain, Japan and Mexico.

Filmoption concluded sales for its filler series Off to Work and The Little Zoo with Argentina. u.s. buyers showed interest in The Montreal International Jazz Festival and the miniseries Bombardier attracted buyers from Colombia, the u.s. and Brazil, according to Muriel Rosilio, international sales executive.