Hell month begins... now!
Teletoon, Canada’s premiere animation channel has announced its Fall 2011 programming highlights. While anime fans won’t exactly be getting a feast from the cable channel, there’s certainly some programming to be excited over. Especially, the premiere of the long awaited Cartoon Network original, Young Justice, as well as a certain anime-influenced My Life Me.
Young Justice follows Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis as teenage super heroes trying to prove themselves worthy of the mantle they’ve been granted. The series has reached universal acclaim, and high ratings since its debut on Cartoon Network in the US, and will premiere on Teletoon Friday, September 9 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
My Life Me is a story about teenagers fitting in, or rather trying hard not too. Meet Birch, an inspiring manga artist who’s dealing with the ins and outs of everyday highschool. You know, boy problems, homework, and well, homework. The series has its characters designs by none other than Dramacon creator Svetlana Chmakova, the comedic slice of life series will premiere Saturday, September 10 at 2:30 p.m. ET/PT.
Please don't be animated like Three Delivery, please don't be animated like Three Delivery...
Detentionaire tells the tale of Grade 10 student Lee Ping, who is sent to a year of detention after having an inexcusable prank blamed on him. Follow his journey as he attempts to escape detention, clear his name, and find out who the real prankster is as this Nelvana series premieres Monday, September 12 to Friday, September 16 at 5 p.m. ET/PT in a five episode sneak peak event.
Those are the major standouts for me on Teletoon’s Fall 2011 schedule. However, they’ve picked up more, such as The Looney Tunes Show, Best Ed, and new episodes of Ben 10, Adventure Time, Johnny Test, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Jimmy Two-Shoes, and more. The truly bizarre things are the acquisitions of Cartoon Network’s less than popular game show series Hole In The Wall, and a green light to an live action adventure series Beyond Human. This along with the recently green lit for season 2, My Babysitter is a Vampire is giving a rather decent portion of the schedule to live action programming. This is a concern for viewers who’d much rather the channel stick by its “animation station” moniker. There’s no real reason these series couldn’t air on half-sister channels like YTV, or Family Channel. What’s really bizarre is that Teletoon reports that they’ve picked up Meta-Jets. That’s not a bizarre pickup given they created the show, but it’s a bizarre pickup in that they aired the show last year in an unadvertised sent to die manner…
But that’s enough talk about Teleton’s day time schedule, after all, we still have Teletoon at Night, and Teletoon Retro to go through, and let me tell you something, it’ll be short.
Teletoon at Night’s new programming pick ups exist in only one show – the “sure doesn’t look like a ripoff of Family Guy’s art style” Crash Canyon. Thankfully, that wasn’t the only thing the channel picked up for the block, as they’ve picked up season seven, and eight of Futurama, and season two of Archer. Like I said, kind of a light pull, though obviously perennial series like Robot Chicken, and Family Guy will remain on the channel.
Now, the digital cable channel Teletoon Retro on the other hand picked up a tonne of new programming. So much so that rather than giving any sort of summary, I’m just going to list series – Batman (1960′s live action), Felix The Cat, For Better or For Worse, Garfield and Friends, Jem, King of the Hill, Looney Tunes shorts, My Pet Monster, Ned’s Newt, and Tom and Jerry Friends. While this list is certainly large, it makes me feel a bit old given I was around when Ned’s Newt, For Better or For Worse, King of the Hill, etc. premiered…
As an overall schedule for Teletoon, the network and its sister played it safe. All of the series I highlighted were all expected series. Young Justice, being a Cartoon Network, DC Comics creation was guaranteed to air on the channel eventually, and we’ve known about My Life Me, and Detentionaire for ages. That’s kind of the problem here, outside of Beyond Human, and maybe Hole In The Wall, these were all series one would expect to air on this channel. They didn’t make any jumps for new and unique programming, but rather more of what fits within their standard conventions. Sure, it’s exciting that Futurama, and Archer are coming back with new seasons, but that’s expected. Better yet, where are the new episodes of the rest of Adult Swim’s programs? Why is it the first original Teletoon at Night production we see in ages is just a clone of other highly successful shows? Where are the Marvel anime series? They’re airing on G4 in the US right now, and Teletoon’s Marvel exclusivity agreement doesn’t expire until next year. I don’t know, and despite my very negative outlook on this skid, it isn’t bad by any means. It’s just expected, and something tells me that’s what I’ll be saying about Family’s, and YTV’s in the upcoming weeks.
If you’d like to make your own mind on Teletoon’s Fall 2011 programming, check out their Media Site.
