In this report, Playback looks at the people and forces involved in the development of three new Canadian kids’ programs and the marketing and merchandising thrusts behind those and some other kids’ properties.

Inside:

Development diaries:

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza p. 24

Zoboomafoo p. 27

Mr. Men p. 29

Treehouse TV p. 26

Wimzie update p. 30

ACT awards approach p. 30

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Colorful and cute, Mr. Men characters have been the stars of a British series of children’s books for almost 30 years and are being brought to life for the first time in North America by Mr. Showbiz Productions in a live-action/animated kids’ tv series.

The final budget to produce the 40 half-hours, incorporating the animated segments with the live action, was just under $2 million. The animated segments, which currently air on Nickelodeon in the u.k., were produced in France by Marina Productions at a cost of more than $5 million.

Since their birth in 1971, over 120 million Mr. Men books, written by the late Robert Hargreaves, have been sold in more than 20 countries including Canada, and starting this fall over 200 licensed products will accompany them.

Playmates Toys, the Canadian toy licensee, plans to have a dozen Mr. Men Beanaie Babies in stores by Christmas, followed by other merchandise such as figurines in spring of ’98 and some back-to-school items in September.

cfp will be handling a series of videos, each incorporating a few episodes of the Mr. Men show. cfp director of marketing David Frattini says while final marketing plans for the videos have not been approved, they will be putting substantial support behind the titles, which will be ready for January 1998.

Licensing revenues will be divided between Mr. Showbiz partners Telegenic Programs and Breakthrough Films and Television of Toronto, and Marina.

Telegenic executive vp and coo Michael Taylor says they are in the last stages of finalizing a deal with an undisclosed Canadian licensing agent.

The series began to take shape in the summer of 1996 when Telegenic caught word that Marina had 104, four-minute animated segments based on the different Mr. Men characters and was curious about how viable they would be in Canada.

After screening samples of the animation, Telegenic suggested bridging the animated portions with live action to create a series aimed at a broad young audience – from preschoolers to viewers in their early 20s – which would combine the appeal of Pee Wee’s Playhouse and The Simpsons with the style of ’70s favorite Laugh-In and the slapstick humor of The Three Stooges.

Meanwhile, Breakthrough, known for its children’s programming such as The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon, had been in discussions with Marina and in the fall of ’96 acquired the rights to produce the Mr. Men show.

Following a chance meeting at mipcom that year, Telegenic and Breakthrough decided to pool their resources and form Mr. Showbiz to produce the live-action/animated Mr. Men series.

‘We decided that Telegenic’s strong distribution background mixed with our strong production background would be an excellent partnership to produce something new for Canadian tv,’ says Breakthrough’s Ira Levy, who is executive producing the show with Peter Williamson and Telegenic’s Taylor and Lawrence Fein.

Like the books, each animated segment of the show deals with a different human characteristic such as greed, being silly or not sharing. The show takes on a different shape every few minutes, with live performers offering up jokes, sight gags and the like to introduce the new animated segments.

The show began airing in September on The New vr in Ontario, cfcf in Montreal, the A channel in Alberta, mtn in Manitoba and cjon-tv in Newfoundland. It is also airing in first-run syndication in the u.s. where it will reach more than 90% of households.

Telegenic is coordinating all international distribution.

While not all of the famous Mr. Men and Little Miss characters made it into the new series, the plan is to produce another 25 episodes next year.

Craft credits go to directors Steve Wright and Andrew Ainsworth and cameramen Ted Hart, Alfie Kemp and Steve Cruickshank. Paula Smith is supervising producer.

The live performers are Catherine Fitch (Road To Avonlea), Peter Keleghan (The Newsroom), Marguerite Pigott, Cliff Saunders (Beauty and the Beast) and Sean Sullivan.