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Mike Reynolds
Stepping up its series and original film production, Disney Channel has taken the wraps off several new projects.
Aimed at the kids aged 9-11, Disney Channel soon will begin production on three new series. On the movie front, the network continues to fill the pipeline in preparation for its new strategy of premiering an original telefilm per month, beginning in April.
"We're aggressively going after the 9-11-year-olds who are home after school and turning to us in growing numbers," said SVP-programming Rich Ross, who notes these kids enjoy reality-based series programming.
To that end, the network has ordered 15 episodes of Circus Kids (working title), a documentary series following Circus Smirkus, an international youth troupe of performers ages 9-19. The show, which will premiere during spring 2000, follows their day-to-day experiences learning and performing their crafts, doing their chores and interacting as a traveling community.
Disney Channel will also take a second look at the real-life stories of kids 12-15 at summer camp with a second season of Bug Juice. Production on a new set of 20 episodes, airing in the first quarter of 2000, starts this summer.
Pleased with the success of the film of the same name starring San Francisco 49ers stars Steve Young and Jerry Rice that premiered in January, Disney Channel, with the help of Lynch Entertainment, will turn The Magic Jersey into a series in which two youngsters jump into the lives of sports heroes. Ross said that the network is "talking to all the leagues" and the tennis world about ideas and talent. Production on the 25 episodes begins in June, with the series slated to bow in the fall.
Disney also recently ordered 26 new episodes apiece of series So Weird and The Famous Jett Jackson and will bow Z Games, a sport show celebrating kids own backyard and playground games, on April 11.
As for the films, Ross said Disney Channel has been producing four to six originals per year, and they have been consistent ratings producers among the kids/family group. The enhanced slate of originals is an integral part of Disney Channel's long-standing game plan that has seen it offer movies aimed at this audience group during prime time.
"We've been effectively going after that family audience for a little under two years now with movies six nights a week in (our) prime time. And our originals deliver every time. Kids like to watch these films multiple times,"said Ross, noting these movies produce significant cume numbers.
Disney's monthly original movies lineup kicks off on April 10 with Can of Worms, followed by Thirteenth Team on May 15, and Smart House on June 19. Johnny Tsumani and Genius will be showcased July and August, respectively.
From there, the new films will bow, beginning in September with P.U.N.K.S in which a group of 13-year-olds evade a corrupt scientist when they steal and attempt to return a gadget possessing supernatural strength to its dying inventor, a father of one of the boys.
Don't Look Under the Bed (working title) is Disney Channel's latest Halloween original in which a young girl uses her imagination to conquer the Boogeyman threatening her town. Production on Wild Horses, starring Joey Lawrence (Blossom and Disney's Brotherly Love) begins in Los Angeles in May for a November debut.
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