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Press Release: Teletoon greenlights Fugget About It, renews it’s commitment to mediocrity

That’s all I’m going to say about it for now.  Here’s the press release.  Feel free to discuss.

The TELETOON At Night Pilot Project finalist Fugget About It to be commissioned into a 13-episode comedy series

(Toronto, ON, December 20, 2010) – TELETOON Canada inc. is pleased to announce that Fugget About It, an animated comedy originally developed for the TELETOON at Night Pilot Project, has been greenlit for production into a 13-part series in English and French. Produced by Toronto-based 9 Story Entertainment, Fugget About It follows the misadventures of 16-year-old Petey Falcone, the son of a former New York mob boss who now lives in a witness protection program with his family in Canada.

“The TELETOON At Night Pilot Project was a unique initiative by TELETOON to tap into the rich store of talent within the Canadian animation industry,” said Alan Gregg, Director, Original Content, TELETOON Canada inc. “TELETOON received some great projects through this initiative and we’re thrilled to be able to take the Fugget About It pilot and develop it into a series with the humour and broad appeal we look for in our comedy programming.”

Originally launched in fall 2007, ten projects, including Fugget About It, were selected as finalists from over 200 submissions. TELETOON invested $1.5 million dollars into creating the pilots which straddle a wide range of topics, animation styles and comedy sensibilities. The TELETOON at Night pilots premiered online and have been featured on-air since September 2010 as part of TELETOON at Night’s popular Sunday night hosted block “Fred at Night.”

“The TELETOON at Night Pilot Project afforded us an incredible opportunity to get the Fugget About It pilot made and we couldn’t be more excited to see it go to series,” said Vince Commisso, President and CEO, 9 Story Entertainment. “We have a stellar creative team led by show runner Jeff Abugov (Two and a Half Men, Roseanne, Cheers) and TELETOON is the perfect home for this production.”

About Fugget About It

Teenager Petey Falcone’s father, Jimmy Falcone, was once the head of a large crime syndicate. But when Jimmy refused to whack his good ol’ Uncle Cheech, the Falcones were forced into witness protection in Canada. Petey, who was finally starting to figure out life in New York, now lives as Petey “MacDougall” in Regina, Saskatchewan. In their new life, the Falcones must come to terms with the fact that they are no longer respected neighbourhood big-shots – they’re just regular shmucks.

Fugget About It is a 13-part half-hour series slated to air on TELETOON English and TELETOON French in fall 2012.

TELETOON is where cartoons live – all day, every day. Watched in over 7.9 million homes, TELETOON features heroic action shows, hilarious comedies along with hit blockbuster movies. Available in both English and French, TELETOON Canada inc. brings kids, youth and adults the best in animated and animation-related entertainment with four nationwide specialty television channels – TELETOON, TÉLÉTOON, TELETOON Retro and TÉLÉTOON Rétro – and select programming is also available On Demand, Mobile TV, iTunes and teletoon.com. Founded in 1997, TELETOON Canada inc. is owned by Astral (50%) and Corus Entertainment (50%). For more information, please visit www.teletoon.com < http://www.teletoon.com> .

11 Comments

  1. Daniel Tynan Daniel Tynan December 20, 2010

    Congratulations to the folks at 9 Story Entertainment! This will keep them busy.

  2. Mike. Mike. December 20, 2010

    I’m not really getting the whole “commitment to mediocrity” jab. (I’m assuming it IS a jab). I haven’t seen the pilot for this show, is there a reason that nothing else was being said? or was there actually nothing more to say than what the press release had to offer?

  3. Cameron A. Cameron A. December 20, 2010

    I have seen the pilot for the show. Fugget About It isn’t the worst pilot Teletoon could have greenlit, but I don’t remember it doing especially well online. It’s essentially a placeholder.

    Also, fall 2012?!

  4. Charlie Charlie December 20, 2010

    I heard Teletoon was made an offer they couldn’t refuse;)

  5. Rob Anderson Rob Anderson December 21, 2010

    My mind is in conflict.

    I wish the crew at 9 Story a happy time on this project.
    It will be great to be gainfully employed on a series such as this for a year or so. Looks like they have hired a solid show runner as well.
    There isn’t enough comedy being done in Animation right now so this will be a great experience for all involved. The art of comedic timing versus the art of animation timing. When it gets done right it is great to see.

    On the other side:

    It is by far the “safest” pilot Teletoon could have chosen because that is what Canadian TV is all about. Playing it safe.
    By safe I mean it is funny without being crass.
    It makes fun of traditional stereotypes,ones we are used to seeing on mainstream TV from the last decade.
    It is about a family unit so it can be developed to be more like a Sitcom which is what I suspect Teletoon really wanted anyway.
    So it will most likely live in the realm of all the “safe” shows that have come before and exist for one season.

    I predict that despite the fact this pilot was part of the Teletoon at Night Project, we will see it being aired earlier in the evening. It really isn’t edgy enough to stand up to the late night crowd.

    PS
    Are they still making the Sopranos?

  6. Mark C. Mark C. December 21, 2010

    Congratulations to 9Story and their crew. Congrats to the creative team, I’m sure they worked hard on it.

    If it wasn’t for the fact that this series’ pilot was part of the ‘Teletoon at night’ Pilot Project we would have no means of comparison to determine it’s overall ‘place’ amongst the other pilots. The voting indicates that this was clearly not one of the most popular pilots, and it seems to be less original and less funny than some of the others. After watching the pilot I have no interest in watching the series, but that is personal opinion only, and my mind can be changed if it turns out to be a quality show.

    I believe this decision underlines the way things work in our industry and illustrates that it’s more important to be connected and ‘known’ if you want to make things happen. This is not the first time or the last time that the Canadian industry will operate in a fashion that puts relationships ahead of content. It’s entirely predictable.

    That being said, congrats again to 9Story, I hope they make an excellent series.

  7. Cameron A. Cameron A. December 22, 2010

    Well, why even have a public vote, if it boils down to connections and prior experience? Teletoon could have just aired the pilots, online and on television, without the web votes and comments.

    I don’t begrudge a company for staying in business, and I wish 9 Story success with Fugget About It. At the same time, you have the writer/producer of shows like That’s So Raven and Two and a Half Men. Teletoon pretty much wants a middle-of-the-road animated sitcom run by Someone Who’s Made It in America®. I’m generally not a fan of shows in this vein.

    That Fugget About It was greenlit makes me realize that Teletoon used the web as a giant focus group, nothing else. At the same time, this might be the first in a few greenlights. If it wasn’t, Teletoon wouldn’t put the word “first” in the press release’s headline.

  8. Rob Anderson Rob Anderson December 22, 2010

    I don’t think that Teletoon could have used public voting alone to green-light a show? I know that voting online was very suspect for this project to begin with. There was no real system put in place to avoid cheating and one could vote as many times as one wanted to.

    “Teletoon pretty much wants a middle-of-the-road animated sitcom run by Someone Who’s Made It in America®. I’m generally not a fan of shows in this vein.”

    Amen.

    We shall see how this all works out.

  9. Gene Fowler Gene Fowler December 23, 2010

    Online voting couldn’t be counted anyway. You could vote as many times as you wanted and if you click real fast on the vote button you would get 3 votes at a time.

    How do you think my little show did so well with the online voting..well I hired a team of elementary schools to click all day of course, as fast as they’re bloody little fingers could go.

    Fugget about it is safe and by being safe, they have more options of when they can air it. This could be a 8pm show, but it could be a 10pm show. No one likes to have their eggs all in one basket, or timeslot for that matter.

    I guess what would have been nice would be better instructions from the get go. I thought they wanted nasty, adult stuff. I’m sure other producers did too. If I knew they wanted a safer show that they could air up and down the slotboard from say 7pm on. I would have probably pitched a different show to them.

    Oh well, we had fun on this project and I enjoyed everyone I worked with except for Robbie Anderson.

    tee-hee.

    gene

  10. Steve Steve December 23, 2010

    Defenitely not the “worst” of the bunch (*i couldn’t sit thru most of them) but not the most “innovating” either. Like someone said earlier, “safe”.

    Typical stereotypes, bland design, ect. TV series defenitely arent the place for adult animation fans to look at for fun, original entertainment. We look at commercials and short(*and feature) films for that. But there are some innovating series out there. Just not many.

    That said, it’ll bring work to some people. And in today’s economy, that good.

    Good luck 9Story.

  11. Dude Dude January 2, 2011

    If you think networks would let a flawed onling voting system decide what gets on the air, then you have no understanding of the television business.

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