Halifax Film of This Hour Has 22 Minutes fame is producing a sketch comedy series for YTV that targets a footloose tween demo about to bolt to The Hills and The After Show.

‘We’re trying to hold onto the [YTV] audience a little longer, before they go to MTV,’ says Jeff Copeland, executive producer on That’s So Weird!, the weekly sketch comedy series now shooting in Toronto ahead of a September 2009 launch on YTV.

Copeland says non-traditional kids show writers from This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Kids in the Hall and Corner Gas penned the scripts for the 13 x 30 live-action series, so YTV can bring kids and their parents together for family viewing.

‘It’s safe for all ages,’ he adds.

Jocelyn Hamilton, VP of content at YTV parent Corus Kids Television, says commissioning That’s So Weird is part of an ongoing strategy to deliver Canadian audiences smart, high-quality humor.

The series features seven young sketch comedy players who operate their own tiny cable TV network, So Weird TV, in a high school setting.

Each episode feature sketches, a newsmagazine, fauxmercials, mock trailers and PSAs to target eight- to 12 year-olds who are no longer little kids, and not yet teens.

The comedy also parodies existing teen shows with short 90-second spoofs that include Depressi High, Really Smallville and Are You Smarter Than Darth Vader?.

Halifax Film will also shoot fresh episodes for the series’ web-based component, which aims to extend the appeal of the TV show.

Decode Enterprises will handle worldwide sales.

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This story has been corrected. That’s So Weird is a 13 x 30, not a 13 x 60, series. Jeff Copeland is executive producer, not showrunner, and Decode Enterprises is distributing.