Just six months after opening its doors, new Toronto-based production company Sargent York Entertainment has cracked the kids’ market. Its first tv project is airing on Nickelodeon and two tv series and a feature, ringing in at a total of $15.4 million, are on the table for an upcoming week-long pitch session at Nickelodeon.

The $80,000 short The Adventures of Sam Digital in the 21st Century, the company’s first project, was a commissioned job for Nickelodeon’s Short Films By Short People series. Nickelodeon owns the Sam Digital property so Sargent York doesn’t stand to generate any revenue from worldwide distribution via the network’s satellite outlets and potentially as a trailer for a Nickelodeon theatrical release this summer.

But Sargent York partners – Cuppa Coffee animation house president Adam Shaheen, Dorothy Engelman, Richard Quinlan and Jeff Rockburn – say they aren’t too concerned about the lost revenue. The relationship with Nickelodeon has spawned serious potential for a number of coproductions, and the round of meetings beginning March 18 at Nickelodeon headquarters could be the clincher.

Sargent York is pitching a five-minute 26-episode coproduction based on the Sam Digital character. Cuppa Coffee will animate the combined pixilation/stop-motion/ live-action series that’s toting a us$2.4 million price tag.

The company’s development contract with Nickelodeon stipulates that for one year after signing Sargent York can only work with the network to serialize or turn Sam into any other product, after which they have a four-month right to counter-negotiate if another broadcaster makes a bid. Basically, Sam Digital is no longer a Nickelodeon property as of this October, says producer Engelman, but the kids’ network is their top choice for a partner.

Nickelodeon is interested in a Canadian broadcaster to partner up for the series, says Engelman, and talks are in the initial stages with ytv, teletoon’s Carole Bonneau, Adrian Mills at tvontario, and Family Channel’s Kevin Wright. But she says a Canadian window will hinge on how the deal unfolds with Nickelodeon.

The new company is also shopping a preschool series, Dougie the Dozer, at Nick Kids. Playing to the tune of us$7 million, the 26 half-hours will be cel animated and follow the adventures of a young bulldozer finding his place in a world of adult tractor trailers and all sorts of large vehicles.

Sargent York is looking for a coproduction with Nick Jr. and will work on a Canadian window once the American deal is nailed down, says Shaheen. Production is slated for September for airing in January.

A book deal is also in the works and he says it’s come down to negotiating the best fee among a number of Canadian and American publishers who are vying for the deal.

First draft of a feature, scripted by Quinlan, will also be on the table at Nickelodeon. After giving its feature division first dibs, Shaheen says the 90-minute, us$5 million to us$7 million live-action/animated project will be shopped at l.a. studios and then the major American networks who see tv special potential in the script.

‘It’s an Alice Through the Looking Glass meets The Wizard of Oz,’ says Engelman of the story of four kids who fall into weird and wacky worlds with lots of stop-motion and animation/live-action compositing. But the hook, says Shaheen, is the six leading international avant garde animators he hopes to bring to the film, each offering a unique style for the different worlds.

Cut, a half-hour tv series showcasing new Canadian writers, actors and directors, is also in development. More ‘dramatic, quirky, cutting-edge’ scripts from first-time writers are needed, says Engelman, before she can go to a broadcaster.