Friday, August 27, 2010

"Mad" Cartoon Series Debuts


The new cartoon series based on Mad Magazine, Mad debuts on the Cartoon Network on Monday September 6th at 8:30 pm (ET, PT). The usual gang of idiots takes their parody-heavy satire to TV with features like “Avaturds,” “CSICarly,” and “Toys4Brats,” plus such Mad Magazine staples as “Spy vs. Spy,” Alfred E. Neuman, and cartoons by Don Martin and Sergio Aragones brought to life.

The Mad animated series was one of three new series (including the DC Comics-based Young Justice) announced by the Cartoon Network last spring.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

SYFY Developing 7 New Shows


With the exception of a teenage vampire romance (and maybe pimply bloodsuckers are already passé) the list of Syfy Channel projects under development covers most of the current trendy subjects including superheroes, zombies, and aliens. The cable channel announced this week that it is developing seven new scripted series including Ball & Chain, the story of 2 ex-lovers who are given superpowers when they narrowly escape a meter impact. The twist is they only have the powers when they are in close proximity with each other.

Another new series Me and Lee stars former Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors in a show that echoes the adventures of TV’s original bionic man. Three other science fiction-inflected series include Orion, a swashbuckling space opera about a female relic hunter that is described as “National Treasure meets Firefly,” Sherwood, a Robin Hood saga set in the 23rd Century, and Human Relations, which focuses on an office temp in a high tech ad agency who discovers that his boss and co-workers are all aliens scheming to conquer the world.

Legendary is a half-hour mockumentary featuring Kevin Sorbo as an exaggerated version of himself, a former syndicated TV star who uses his knowledge of the myths of Hercules to defeat an assortment of modern day monsters.

If AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead is a hit, Syfy will be ready with its half-hour series about the ZEROS (Zombie Extermination and Removal Operations) squad charged with defending Marshall City from a constant stream of zombie invasions.