Toronto: Jack Lenz is hoping a new series of shorts will catch on with CBC’s after-school viewers, but is taking his preschooler hit Nanalan’ elsewhere, now that the network has passed on a possible third season. Lenz says he is in the final stages of a deal that will move the Gemini-winning puppet show to PBS.

‘We hope to make more,’ he says.

Lenz’s distribution wing also released the first in a series of Nanalan’ DVDs in December. The series’ original 39 eps continue to rerun on CBC’s morning block.

Thirty-nine is ‘enough to strip it for now,’ says Kim Wilson, the creative head of kids programming. ‘Somewhere along the line we might want to add on more.’

And yet, the Ceeb has been keeping Lenz busy. The composer/producer rewrote the signature tune for the net’s news programming, unveiled on Jan. 10, and is partway through writing new music for its 30-odd news shows.

His Lenz Entertainment and its puppeteer partners Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley will next roll out two new shows, starting next month with Mr. Meaty, a series of three-minute segments for CBC’s new after-school programming block.

It follows two boys – both wannabe horror filmmakers – who work at the titular food stand at a local mall. Their shifts at work often go horribly wrong, morphing into the stuff of horror movies.

CBC wanted something edgy, says Lenz, ‘but when they saw it I think they got a little bit nervous.’ The network passed on the four riskiest of its 17 segments, though the entire run has been picked up and is already running as a half-hour series on Nickelodeon. Shannon and Hopley coproduce, with Lenz as exec producer.

The new CBC block debuts Feb. 6 and also includes the 26 x 3 toon Naughty Naughty Pets from Decode Entertainment, the Japanese-flavored Yam Roll and Yam Mini Roll (39 x 22 and 39 x 3, respectively) from March Entertainment, and the in-house comedy/interview series The Morgan Waters Show.

Waters is exec produced by Martin Markle, the net’s new production exec for kids programming, who previously worked with its host on the after-schooler The X.

‘We hope to identify the entire hour from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. as smart comedy for teens and tweens,’ says Markle. ‘You don’t see a lot of that for teen comedy.

‘This is really is the strongest, smartest after-school block we’ve had in a long time.’

CBC will also add 13 new half-hours of the animated Chilly Beach, also by March, in April. New eps of Dragon Booster continue to roll in, about one a month, from Vancouver-based Nerd Corps Productions.

Lenz Entertainment’s second new show, Weird Years, is set to air on YTV. The 26 x 30 cartoon is a copro with the Ottawa studio of Mercury Filmworks and follows the adventures of a newly arrived and disillusioned family (the ‘Dorcovitches’) from eastern Europe. Peter Moss is creative producer, working with story editor Larry Mirkin (Fraggle Rock) and directors Clint Eland and Jerry Popowich from Mercury. Writing and voice casting are underway.

This is Lenz’s first foray into animation, though Shannon and Hopley, who work together under the nom-de-puppet The Grogs, are again contributing material. He’s quick to praise their knack for improv comedy.

‘So we’re hoping to get as much of that spirit again.’