TV Squad

• Disney Channel gets top marks across multiple media
  

  Filed under: Industry, Programming, Animation, Children, Ratings, Reality-Free

  I'm just full of Disney news (or full of something) this week, aren't I? On Monday I asked the question of what happened to the Playhouse Disney schedule. This time around I'm going to talk about the entire Disney Channel. Not just the cable network, but the website as well. For both are tops in their respective outlets.

  Well, tops when it comes to kids programming -- an area of entertainment that continues to grow on a daily basis. For 2008, Disney Channel...
  




• What happened to Playhouse Disney this morning?
  

  Filed under: Programming, Animation, Children, Reality-Free

  The following item is for those of you parents out there with young children. Those of you who watch soft-core porn in the morning can disregard this post.

  Did any of you notice something weird with the Playhouse Disney schedule this morning? Starting at 6 a.m. EST you get JoJo's Circus, Johnny and the Sprites and The Wiggles, and those mini-episodes that the network imports from Canada. That wasn't the case this morning. Instead we got Phineas and Ferb, Imagination Movers and Handy Manny. In addition, Ooh and Ahh, and...
  




• Disney wants your sons and grandsons for its new cable channel
  

  Filed under: Programming, Animation, Children, Reality-Free

  Don't worry, Disney isn't recruiting them for some kind of army that will, dare I say it, rule the world. No, the mega-media conglomerate wants them, especially the 'them' that are between the ages of 6-14, to tune into their new cable network. Well, not 'new' in the sense that there's currently a blank space where the network will be. More like 'new' in the sense that they are re-branding one of their current properties.

  Beginning in February, Toon Disney will morph into the newly named Disney XD. There won't be any High School Musical...
  




• Seven of the worst TV Christmas specials - VIDEOS
  

  Filed under: Animation, Music and Variety, Festivus, Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free

  Where would we be without the hallowed television Christmas special? We would be engaged in enthralling conversations with relatives who like to give the backstory about the gall bladder operation pictures they still carry in their wallet. We would be playing defense against every breakable item in the house while the neighbor's kids get enough sugar in their systems to power the Space Shuttle. We would not only have to muster the courage to taste Grandma's homemade rum and Kahula fruitcake, but also to pretend that we like it without our...
  



• Saturday Morning: Filmation - VIDEOS (Part 1)
  

  Filed under: Animation, Children, Retro Squad, Reality-Free, Saturday Morning

  In the glory days of the Saturday morning cartoon, translated to be from about 1966 to sometime in the 80s, a handful of studios dominated the network schedules from year to year. Eventually, names like Hanna-Barbera, Sid & Marty Kroftt, DePatie-Freeleng and Rankin-Bass became as common to see on the screen as the characters they created. Add to that list an animation and live-action studio that presented two faces: one of quality storytelling, characters and imagination, and another of mass-produced, limited animation.

  I speak of Filmation Studios. From...
  




• Disney Channel and Handy Manny recognize...National Flashlight Day?
  

  Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Animation, Children, Reality-Free

  We have now reached our official limit on the special 'Days' that the government puts on the calendar. I mean 'Take a Shower Day' is a good one and 'Touch Someone Else Day' sounds both pleasant and creepy, but 'National Flashlight Day'? I really have to put my foot down on this one. Especially when it's being honored by a television show, for Pete's sake!

  No, NBC is not airing a 3-hour primetime special on the day (though, it certainly would help their bottom line). Disney...
  




• The Flintstones (and the Rubbles) are headed for Broadway
  

  Filed under: Animation, Reality-Free

  This news has part of me saying "great, this should be fun!" and the other part of me saying, "oh God, please don't have Mr. Slate making a sex tape with Wilma."
  
  Marco Pennette is writing a Broadway musical version of The Flintstones, and this version is supposed to involve modern-day topics such as marriage problems, adoption, and the environment. Now, this could be good, in a Brady Bunch Movie sort of way, if they really play it for laughs. It could be horrible if they don't.

  Continue reading The Flintstones (and the Rubbles) are headed for Broadway

  OpEd, Animation, South Park, Reality-Free

  Thanksgiving isn't just about completing your Seven Deadly Sins check list before the year runs out. Thanksgiving is about family; learning where they've been, where you are, and where everyone in your life is going. Food and football are just gravy ... sweet, delicious, artery-clogging gravy.
  
  This year, my brother and I flew home with my old man - who hates it when I call him "my old man" - the day before Thanksgiving. That's when a shocker of "Who shot J.R."-esque proportions dropped on the table.
  
  My Dad officially announced that he watches...
  



• What's your favorite Christmas special?
  

  Filed under: Animation, Festivus, Reality-Free

  
  Hey, it's December!
  
  That means that the Christmas specials are about to start, if they haven't started already. Tonight we have How The Grinch Stole Christmas (8:30pm on ABC) and on Wednesday we have Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (8pm on CBS). And still to come, of course, areIt's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and many more. Not to mention all of those Lifetime Christmas movies where someone falls in love around the holidays, plus all of the Christmas episodes of our favorite TV shows. I think Heroes is going to...
  



• All I want for Christmas is 50 hours with The Real Ghostbusters - VIDEO
  

  Filed under: TV on DVD, Video, Animation, Reality-Free

  Finally. Time Life has released the long-awaited The Real Ghostbusters: The Complete Collection on DVD. And it's frackin' loaded. The mammoth $179.99 set features all 147 eps of The Real Ghostbusters, plus more than twelve hours of extras, all packed in a box with hologram panels that resembles the firehouse from the show. Looks like I'm gonna have to sell my car. For $179.99.
  
  I won't go on about how this animated spinoff of the Ghostbusters movie was the best thing on Saturday morning in the late 80s and...