James Harvey
01-15-2002, 11:00 AM
Thanks to <a href="http://www.mediaweek.com">Mediaweek</a> for the heads up:
Kids' WB this week will announce production of the first new series in more than a decade featuring 1970s cartoon hero Scooby Doo. The new show, with the working title All New Scooby Doo! The Animated Series, will be the centerpiece of the network's Saturday-morning lineup this fall. It's part of the Scooby mania that AOL Time Warner is unleashing this year in support of its live-action Scooby Doo feature film, set to open June 14 and starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Another new fall series, Ozzie & Drix, based on characters from last year's underperforming feature film Osmosis Jones, will also be unveiled this week by Kids' WB.
The new Scooby series -- the 14th since the 1969 launch via Hanna-Barbera of Scooby Doo, Where Are You? -- will "stay very loyal to the original's roots," said Donna Friedman, Kids' WB executive vp.
"You don't want to mess with something that's golden. We'll update it to a world where kids have computers and cell phones, and there's internal debate on whether the costumes should stay the same. But you don't change the core relationships." With more than 150 hours in the Scooby library, why make a new series? "You've got to raise the bar, or it will look dated," Friedman said. "We want to heighten the humor and suspense, and the quality of the animation will be much higher."
If the Scooby movie is a winner in theaters this summer, All New Scooby Doo! could help bolster a Kids' WB lineup that is now the leader among the broadcast networks, most of which have scaled back their kids programming efforts.
In the fourth quarter, Kids' WB's kids 2-11 rating of 3.0 was down 3 percent from a year earlier. The fading Pokemon fell 19 percent at 10 a.m., but X-Men: Evolution, The Mummy and Jackie Chan Adventures picked up most of the slack. In its target demo of boys 6-11, WB even topped mighty Nick on Saturday mornings in the fourth quarter. On weekdays, the net is flat this season in kids 2-11 and is down about 10 percent in key kids demos.
All New Scooby Doo! will be produced by Warner Bros. Animation with a standard first-season order of 13 episodes, each costing an estimated $400,000-plus.
"The bad news is I've got to make it as good as the first time," said studio president Sander Schwartz. "With all due respect to the creators, the animation wasn't the high point of the original. It was the characters, the writing, the combination of mystery and comedy. We'll put the animation up to today's standards and ratchet up the writing."
The creative team will include some Hanna-Barbera old guard, as well as "people who come in with a fresh eye and a fresh pencil," said Schwartz. Much of the original voice team is expected to reconvene, including Casey Kasem as Shaggy (Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby, died in 1997). Also looking in will be Joe Barbera, 91, who still comes to the office almost every day.
The 33-year-old Scooby is still a top dog in the licensing pantheon, with a reported $800 million in sales. Dan Romanelli, president of Warner Consumer Products, would not discuss figures but said that new apparel and toys introduced over the past five years have pumped up revenue strongly.
"The property resonates with all ages," Romanelli said. A touring Scooby production, Stagefright, is reportedly doing solid business around the country.
The idea for a new Scooby series has been in the works for some time but was delayed by tension between AOL TW siblings the WB and Cartoon Network. Now Scooby could become a poster boy for a new spirit of cooperation in an organization known for its fractious fiefdoms. "You need all the pieces of the puzzle these days," said WB president Jed Petrick.
Kids' WB this week will announce production of the first new series in more than a decade featuring 1970s cartoon hero Scooby Doo. The new show, with the working title All New Scooby Doo! The Animated Series, will be the centerpiece of the network's Saturday-morning lineup this fall. It's part of the Scooby mania that AOL Time Warner is unleashing this year in support of its live-action Scooby Doo feature film, set to open June 14 and starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Another new fall series, Ozzie & Drix, based on characters from last year's underperforming feature film Osmosis Jones, will also be unveiled this week by Kids' WB.
The new Scooby series -- the 14th since the 1969 launch via Hanna-Barbera of Scooby Doo, Where Are You? -- will "stay very loyal to the original's roots," said Donna Friedman, Kids' WB executive vp.
"You don't want to mess with something that's golden. We'll update it to a world where kids have computers and cell phones, and there's internal debate on whether the costumes should stay the same. But you don't change the core relationships." With more than 150 hours in the Scooby library, why make a new series? "You've got to raise the bar, or it will look dated," Friedman said. "We want to heighten the humor and suspense, and the quality of the animation will be much higher."
If the Scooby movie is a winner in theaters this summer, All New Scooby Doo! could help bolster a Kids' WB lineup that is now the leader among the broadcast networks, most of which have scaled back their kids programming efforts.
In the fourth quarter, Kids' WB's kids 2-11 rating of 3.0 was down 3 percent from a year earlier. The fading Pokemon fell 19 percent at 10 a.m., but X-Men: Evolution, The Mummy and Jackie Chan Adventures picked up most of the slack. In its target demo of boys 6-11, WB even topped mighty Nick on Saturday mornings in the fourth quarter. On weekdays, the net is flat this season in kids 2-11 and is down about 10 percent in key kids demos.
All New Scooby Doo! will be produced by Warner Bros. Animation with a standard first-season order of 13 episodes, each costing an estimated $400,000-plus.
"The bad news is I've got to make it as good as the first time," said studio president Sander Schwartz. "With all due respect to the creators, the animation wasn't the high point of the original. It was the characters, the writing, the combination of mystery and comedy. We'll put the animation up to today's standards and ratchet up the writing."
The creative team will include some Hanna-Barbera old guard, as well as "people who come in with a fresh eye and a fresh pencil," said Schwartz. Much of the original voice team is expected to reconvene, including Casey Kasem as Shaggy (Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby, died in 1997). Also looking in will be Joe Barbera, 91, who still comes to the office almost every day.
The 33-year-old Scooby is still a top dog in the licensing pantheon, with a reported $800 million in sales. Dan Romanelli, president of Warner Consumer Products, would not discuss figures but said that new apparel and toys introduced over the past five years have pumped up revenue strongly.
"The property resonates with all ages," Romanelli said. A touring Scooby production, Stagefright, is reportedly doing solid business around the country.
The idea for a new Scooby series has been in the works for some time but was delayed by tension between AOL TW siblings the WB and Cartoon Network. Now Scooby could become a poster boy for a new spirit of cooperation in an organization known for its fractious fiefdoms. "You need all the pieces of the puzzle these days," said WB president Jed Petrick.