– TVO kids launches 14 new shows

A series about a beloved toy shop heads up 14 new children’s and youth series on tvontario this fall.

Noddy (Catalyst Entertainment/BBC Worldwide/The Enid Blyton Company), based on the books written by Enid Blyton through the 1940s and 1960s, is set in Grandpa Noah’s curiosity shop Notions, Oddities, Doodads & Delights of Yesterday.

tvo has scheduled the 40 half-hour live-action/animation series debut for Sept. 7 at 7 a.m. and will also run it at 4:30 p.m. weekdays, 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. Sundays.

Noddy will also air in cbc’s children’s block on Fridays at 9:15 a.m., when the season launches at the end of September.

The MAXimum Dimension (Owl/SDA Productions), a live-action/animation, dramatic comedy series, is produced for seven- to 11-year-olds, combining traditional storylines with interactive tricks and brain teasers. The 11 half-hours are slotted for Saturdays at 5:30 p.m., starting Sept. 12.

Space Cases (Cinar Films, in association with Nickelodeon), is a live-action comedy with a team of ragtag intergalactic misfits. The 26 half-hours will air weekdays at 6:30 p.m., starting Sept. 7. It also airs on Nickelodeon.

British, Australian and other international acquisitions are also on board for the fall.

In other news, tvo/tfo and unicef have partnered on the 13-part, half-hour joint venture To Tell A Story, a hard-hitting series tackling such children’s issues as homelessness, violence, sexual exploitation and health.

Specifics for the projects are still being hammered out, including the source for footage. The budget will be about us$120,000 per half-hour if original footage is used, but will drop to approximately us$30,000 if stock is used instead.

Canal Vie in Canada, Swedish Educational Television and Argentina’s Programas Santa Clara are coproduction partners. The English- and French-track versions of the series will be available midsummer, with a Spanish version by fall.

– What’s up with Emily?

So, we see Emily of New Moon’s lovely face each week on cbc and there she was in wic’s sales launch video presentation. Does that mean she’s finally going to air on wic? We’re not sure.

Ruth Boyd, OnTv’s publicist, confirms that it will not air this season on OnTv at all, ‘but that could change today, tomorrow or next year,’ she says. On the other hand, Dale Andrews, vp/gm of WIC Entertainment in Vancouver, says wic will air it in January 1999 but wouldn’t answer any specific questions.

Stay tuned.

– Teletoon releases fall sked

Three Canadian-produced series and four specials highlight Teletoon’s fall slate.

Animania, a collection of animated shorts from the nfb library, will have 13 half-hours of two to four shorts each. Pascale Guillotte, Teletoon’s director of communications, says these nfb shorts have never been aired on the network as a compilation. Available for both the English and French networks, some shorts include When the Dust Settles (Louise Johnson, Barrie McLean), The Garden of Ecos (Co Hoedeman, Therese Descary) and The Cruise (John and Faith Hubley, Joseph Koenig).

Blake and Mortimer, based on the Belgian comic book series, will make its English Canada debut with 26 half-hours. The animated series, which first aired on Reseaux Premiers Choix in Quebec last year, is produced by Ellipse Animation, Cactus Animation, MFTV-Dargaud Films, France 3, Canal+ and M6. The program follows the adventures of the two friends who outwit their old enemy, Olrik, a trafficker and thief.

Making its Canadian debut is Nanook, a 26 half-hour coproduction from Elma Animation and Medver International, in association with TFI. The story takes place in Canada’s high Arctic in the early ’30s as Nanook searches for his missing father.

Teletoon’s specials include The Snow Cat (nfb/Snow Cat), a half-hour show directed by Academy Award-winning Sheldon Cohen (The Sweater). For the English version, Maureen Stapleton is cast as the voice of a woman who finds then loses her cat. French casting is underway.

The True Meaning of Crumbfest (Catalyst Entertainment/Cellar Door Productions) is a half-hour animated holiday special, which has been featured on CBC Radio for three years. Catalyst’s operating partner Phoenix Animation Studios will animate the program, Gretha Rose and Kevin Gillis (Robocop: The Series) will executive produce, and Laura Shepherd (Babar, Tales of the Crypt) will direct.

Something for Nothing (Portfolio Entertainment/FunBag Animation Studios), based on Toronto author Phoebe Gilman’s book and adapted from a Jewish folk tale, tells the story of Joseph’s favorite blanket, and how with a few passes of his needle, Grandpa and his grandson can make something out of nothing. Voice-over casting is underway for this summer.

Mordillo is a collection of one-minute cgi shorts which pay homage to Argentinean Guillermo Mordillo’s body of work. Teletoon will present the animation minutes as intervals and as a 50-minute special.

The fall schedule launches Tuesday, Sept. 1. Dates and times are yet to be confirmed.

– Isn’t it romantic?

Harlequin Enterprise’s bodice-ripping movie adaptations have begun revealing themselves on ctv this month.

Produced in association with Alliance Communications, At the Midnight Hour (July 5), The Awakening (July 12), Hard to Forget (July 19) and Diamond Girl (July 26) air Sundays at 9 a.m. (est).

Two of the movies are making their Canadian broadcast debut.

Hard to Forget, a round-the-globe murder mystery, stars Polly Shannon, Tim Dutton and Chad Everett. It first aired on Showtime in April.

Diamond Girl, which appeared on Showtime in June, is a lustful Cinderella story starring Joely Collins, Jonathan Cake and Dyan Cannon.

Both movies are Alliance/Film Afrika Worldwide coproductions.

Over one million viewers saw each of the other two films when they aired in 1995.

At the Midnight Hour, a contemporary murder mystery about a beautiful nanny, a widowed scientist and his gifted but estranged son, first aired on ctv and cbs in October 1995 and repeated in 1997. It stars Patsy Kensit, Simon MacCorkindale and Cynthia Dale.

The Awakening is a romantic adventure involving international espionage and love with Cynthia Geary, David Beecroft and Sheila McCarthy. It was also repeated in 1997 on ctv and aired on Showtime in May 1998.

Both movies are produced in association with ctv and are scheduled to air on Showtime in October.

– Sum- Sum- Summertime

As @discovery.ca is on summer hiatus, The Discovery Channel’s half-hour version of the hour-long program kicked in on Monday, July 6 and runs through Friday, Aug. 28.

summer@discovery will air at 7 p.m. (est) weekdays with Discovery’s resident astronomy expert Ivan Seminiuk, who will host in July. Jane Gilbert, filling in for Gillian Deacon who’s taking a maternity leave, will host the summer edition starting Aug. 3.

‘We’re going to give [Gilbert] a month head start to get comfortable,’ says Discovery publicist Mike Costentino. @discovery.ca’s next season starts on Aug. 31 with Jay Ingram and Gilbert. Deacon will return in January.

summer@discovery will cover science, nature and technology news. ‘We take some of the more interesting and newsworthy items that have appeared over the last year on the hour-long show, repackage them into this half-hour show and augment that with what’s new with that day in science,’ says Discovery publicist Mike Costentino.

To fill in the open 7:30 p.m. slot, Discovery has programmed repeats of Movie Magic (Discovery u.s.), a special-effects/behind-the-scenes show.

– Meeting of the minds

Politicians, journalists, academics and pundits will take their seats at the Mount Stephen Club in Montreal when The Editors joins the CBC Newsworld fall schedule.

Produced by Montreal’s World Affairs Television, in association with wnvc and Central Virginia Public Broadcasting, The Editors will air Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

The weekly half-hour debate and commentary program, which has aired on pbs for 12 years, is moderated by Keith Morrison (Dateline nbc, cbc, ctv and the occasional Seinfeld episode) and David Johnston, president of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the chair of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

– Don’t be fooled

WTN will air Scams (Deveaux/ Babin Productions), a three-part, half-hour series on Sundays at 10 p.m. (repeats at 3 a.m.) starting Aug. 9. Hosted by Detective Phil Glavin of the Metro Toronto Police, the show will examine telemarketing scams, frauds against the elderly and financial scams.