February
24, 1999
- This week's
Histeria, "Histeria Around the World",
features the following segments: "People
Wanted Pepper On Their Food" by Randy Rogel,
Big Fat Baby interviews Indira Gandhi, a look at
the history of Poland in "Poor Poland,"
a visit with the Statue of Liberty during her
first day on the job in "Libby", and
visits to Krakatoa, New Zealand, Greenland, and
Antarctica.
- Take a look at the
cover to the upcoming Batman Beyond video tape at Brian's
Batman Page [no longer available].
- How has Pokémon
helped WB's ratings? The regular Saturday morning
lineup actually finished in second place for the
first time ever. Click
here [no longer available] for more details.
- Last night a chat
was held at the Home
Theater Forum with some WB executives
regarding DVD. When John Powers (VP DVD Market
Development Worldwide) was asked about animated
Batman movies on DVD, his response was "Yes,
no date determined yet". When asked about
Looney Tunes, his response was "We will issue
cartoon compilations next year and beyond, pending
mastering issues". He also gave an address
for making DVD requests (writing a few polite
letters couldn't hurt):
DVD Programming
Warner Home Video
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank Ca 91522
Image Entertainment has already announced a DVD of
Bosko Video's "The Complete Uncensored
Private Snafu". Click
here [no longer available] for details.
Thanks to TR, Dick
Grayson, Batboy, Lman, Vincent, and Augie for today's
news.
February 18,
1999
- Despite the fact
that 98% of children gave it a rating of good,
very good, or excellent in test screenings, Warner
Bros. has decided not to release the Animaniacs
movie Wakko's Wacko Wish to theaters. WB
is not ready to give it the financial support
necessary for a theatrical run (10 to 15 million
dollars for prints and advertising). A fall
release date is likely for the video. Thanks to TR
for this info.
February 17,
1999
- This weekend's
Histeria episode is titled "Writers of the
Purple Prose". It includes "A Word from
the Wise" with Big Fat Baby, "The
Dog Ate My Homework" with Fetch and John
Steinbeck, and a Randy Rogel song titled
"That is the Story That is Told by The
Bard", along with other segments. New
Histeria episodes will only be seen on weekends,
taking the episode numbers to the mid-forties by
the end of the season. The rest of the episodes
will air in the fall.
- Some interesting
Batman Beyond info can be found in this
post [no longer available] from the old
message board by Craig "Gookie"
Crumpton.
- From Looney
Tunes Crash Course comes word that Warner
Bros. Studio Stores will begin carrying
merchandise for the often over-looked characters
Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn, and Road Runner.
Thanks to TR and Gookie
for today's news.
February 16,
1999
- A company called Ubi
Soft will be making an Adventures Batman &
Robin video game for all the major gaming systems.
Click
here for the story from IGN.
- The Batman Beyond
premiere episodes "Rebirth" Parts 1
& 2 will be coming to video in May. I won't
hold my breath for a DVD release.
- Pictures and
descriptions of Subway's Histeria toys can be
found at this
page [no longer available] from Subway.com.
The toys include a Miss Information clip and
notebook, a Loud Kiddington/Aka Pella compass, a
hexagonal character twisty block, and a
viewfinder. This promotion ends on March 14th.
- YTV in Canada, which
is currently airing Brats of the Lost Nebula, has
renewed the show for another season of 13 episodes
according to this
article from the rec.arts.henson+muppets
newsgroup.
- The information from
the last news update regarding Batman: The
Animated Newsletter was meant to refer to this
upcoming weekend's edition, not this past weekend.
Sorry for confusion. The newsletter's weekly
status will likely continue until the end of the
current season.
Thanks to BatboyM,
Bryan Chaney, Jon Cooke, Tim "Two-Face", and
Carol Alfonso for much of today's news.
February 12,
1999
- Beginning this
weekend The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries will
be restored to its 30-minute, self-contained
format, now at 11:30am (Histeria is moving back a
half-hour). This, along with the addition of
Pokémon, has shrunk the "Big Cartoonie
Show" to 30 minutes. Here's the lineup:
8:00am: Batman/Superman Adventures
9:00am: Men In Black: The Series
9:30am: Batman Beyond
10:00am: Pokémon
10:30am: The Big Cartoonie Show
11:00am: Histeria!
11:30am: The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
- Recent test
screenings of the Animaniacs movie "Wakko's
Wacko Wish" reveal that 97% of kids and
parents gave it a review of "highly
positive". While these numbers are quite
impressive, they do not guarantee a theatrical
release (but they sure don't hurt!). The next step
is test screenings for teenagers...
- Starting this week,
you can get Histeria toys at Subway restaurants.
The original press release is no longer available,
so I can't check which figures are available, but
I do recall that they only came with the kids
meal.
- There will be a
special Q&A with Superman writer Mark Evanier
("Fathers Day","Tools of the
Trade") in this week's edition of
"Batman: The Animated Newsletter" Also,
the newsletter is changing from bi-weekly to
weekly distribution starting this week.
- According to Animation
Blast, episodes of Men in Black will soon be
available on video tape. Three tapes of two
episodes each are planned.
- Find out what WB's
competition is up to; click
here to read about the 1999-2000 season of Fox
Kids, from The
Comic Book Continuum.
Thanks to Vincent,
Gerard, TR, Jon, and Dick Grayson for much of today's
news.
February 3,
1999
- As you might already
know, Pokémon is currently airing in
syndication. If you're interested in
watching Pokémon before it premieres on Kids' WB,
check your local listings for the channel and time
in your area. Michael Friedman has given me the
instructions for finding Pokémon syndication
schedules. Go to www.wb55.com,
and click on "schedules". You will now
be on a calendar page, where you can click on any
date and find the episode number of the Pokémon
episode airing that day. I've added a list of the
57 Pokémon episodes to my episode
lists page, so you can easily figure out what
episode will be on. Thanks to Michael Friedman for
the episode list as well.
February 1,
1999
- Read a little more
about the addition of Pokémon to the Kids' WB
lineup in this
press release [no longer available].
- Kids' WB got its
best ratings of the season on the weekend of
January 23rd; a 2.7 overall rating and an 8%
share. More info can be found in this
press release [no longer available]. Here's how Kids WB did compared
to the other networks (listings reflect kids aged
2-11 only unless otherwise noted). The first
number is the rating, the second is the share:
1. ABC 3.9 / 17
2. Fox 3.1 / 13
3. NBC 3.0 / 19
4. WB 2.2 / 9
5. UPN 1.6 / 7
6. CBS 1.1 / 5
Note: UPN kids programming typically runs Sunday.
The rating demographic for NBC is for teens 12-17.
Each ratings point equals about 1,000,000 homes. A
share is the percentage of TVs tuned into that
particular station.
- According to an item
from Cinescape
(listed under January 29th), WGN will be dropping
WB programming this fall. My understanding of the
situation is this: WGN had agreed to carry WB
programming until nearly every city in the U.S.
could get WB Network programming on a local
station. This has been a slow process, so WB has
now created a cable channel called the
"WeB", which provides WB Network
programming (plus some syndicated shows) to local
cable companies, just like a local affiliate
would. For a list of WeB stations (unfortunately
about 2 months old), take a look at my stations
page.
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