Tag The Hub

What the Hub?!

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THIS JUST IN: Disney Channel and Disney X-D Networks executive Nikki Reed has been named Senior Vice President, Programming & Development for The Hub Network, the fastest growing children’s cable network, it was announced today by Margaret Loesch, President & CEO of The Hub, to whom she will report. The Hub Network is a joint venture of Discovery Communications and Hasbro, Inc. 

Ms. Reed succeeds Donna Ebbs who served as The Hub’s first programming chief and helped launch the network in October 2010. Ms. Ebbs has transitioned to a new role as a consultant and an executive producer for The Hub and is responsible for pursuing and developing several new properties and securing unique production opportunities for the network.

“Nikki Reed’s background as both a producer and an executive at top-level entertainment companies like Disney, NBC Universal, and Touchstone Television makes her the perfect person to lead our development and programming during this unprecedented time of growth for The Hub,” said Ms. Loesch. “Donna Ebbs built an incredible creative team that helped shape The Hub in its first two years on the air. Moving forward, Nikki’s experience and creativity is the right blend to lead this team as we grow The Hub into the primary destination for programming that children and their parents watch together.”


“The Hub is in a period of tremendous growth as it becomes a leader in the kids and family space,” said Ms. Reed. “Our goal is to utilize my relationships with writers, producers and talent to grow The Hub’s existing slate of programming and enhance it with more live-action series. I am excited to work with Margaret and The Hub team to carry out the creative vision to make smart, entertaining shows that appeal to both children and their parents.”

Ms. Reed is responsible for planning, directing and executing the network’s programming strategy, as well as working with Ms. Loesch and the network’s senior management team on creative development and overall strategic planning and direction.


Ms. Reed has more than 15 years of experience developing feature films and television series, including live-action series geared towards kids, tweens and families on Disney Channel and Disney X-D, as well as numerous platforms around the world. Among the series she developed at Disney are “Jessie,” “Austin and Ally,” “Dog with a Blog,” “Lab Rats,” and “Crash and Bernstein.”

Prior to joining Disney, Ms. Reed was the Vice President of Current and Development at Universal Cable Productions. She also spent five years as a development executive for executive producer Barry Kemp’s Bungalow 78 Productions while it was based at Touchstone Television. Previously, she served as Vice President of Development for director Jon Turteltaub’s Junction Entertainment for Disney Studios. There she spearheaded the development of the feature films “National Treasure” starring Nicholas Cage and “The Kid” starring Bruce Willis. In 2005, Ms. Reed served as an executive producer on the feature film “Invincible” starring Mark Wahlberg.

Naturally, upon hearing this news, people on the interwebz are having a hissy-fit because they’re afraid that a former Disney Channel exec taking the reins of The Hub’s programming will mean that the channel’s entire lineup, animated hits and all, will be nerfed in favor of live-action teencoms like Dog with a Blog and Good Luck Charlie. Personally, I’m taking a cautious “wait and see” approach to this. Why? Here’s my take:

While it is a potentially off-putting truism that Ms. Reed’s history is predominantly in live-action and she’s coming to The Hub, a channel largely dominated by animation currently, I honestly don’t think that the toy-based animated shows are in any danger. As I pointed out in “A Failure to Communicate…and See the Truth”, The Hub is first and foremost a toy company. The whole reason Hasbro launched this whole venture with Discovery Communications in the first place was so they could have a launchpad for shows and movies based on their cadre of toy and game franchises, so the likes of My Little Pony, Pound Puppies, Littlest Pet Shop, Transformers Prime, Transformers Rescue Bots and the like aren’t going anywhere. Those shows are the main reason why The Hub exists; they earn great ratings, and more importantly in Hasbro’s eyes, they drive toy sales. My guess is that the reasoning behind this move is that The Hub is trying to bring in more viewers and is trying to find some more solid rating grabbers to increase their audience, but they’re not likely to alienate their current audience since they are still dedicated to toys. This could, mind you, could mean that the channel may be relying less on acquired 3rd party reruns like Animaniacs and The Super Hero Squad Show, which wouldn’t really be such a bad thing, at least not to me; I already own the A! DVDs and SHS has looped all of its’ episodes a few times already. As for the prospect of  “focusing on live-action series”, well that depends on the type of shows Ms. Reed has in mind and where and how much of them she plans to implement; while it’s true that I consider shows such as Good Luck Charlie, Dog with a Blog and Shake it Up to be twaddle and an entire schedule of those kinds of sitcoms would indeed be terrible for a good network, a smattering of a few of them here and there around the schedule wouldn’t be that bad, provided The Hub’s original vision isn’t lost and these live-action shows (whatever they end up being) don’t take over the channel. It would be a heck of a lot better than just looping the same 5 movies over and over again every month. While I personally can’t stomach most of Disney Channel’s live-action ventures, the sad truth is that they do put butts into seats, and if the addition of such shows were to bring more permanent viewers to The Hub, that would mean higher ratings and more money, money which could conceivably be used to produce more original series for the channel, both animated as well as live-action, hopefully.

Also keep in mind that it’s not a given that Ms. Reed will simply try to copy the sort of shows that got made under her watch at Disney here, as that may not prove to be the best strategy. Hasbro undoubtedly wants The Hub wants to carve out its’ own niche, not be thought of as Disney Channel 2.

What I really hope this means is that The Hub will finally be spicing up their nighttime lineup. I’ve mentioned this a few times already here, but The Hub’s PM schedule sucks noodles. I never watch The Hub at night because absolutely nothing that The Hub runs at night interests me in the slightest. Shortly before this announcement, The Hub released the news that they would be acquiring reruns of Who’s the Boss? in April. My reaction: “Another old fluffy family sitcom from 20+ years ago. Yay.” The Hub could be doing so much more than just trying to ape early 90’s Nick @ Nite. On this someone remarked: The Hub is trying to follow in the footsteps of Nick at Nite and have their prime time line-up consist of type of programming that their adult viewers remembered watching when they were kids/teens (be it live action shows on syndication or hit cartoons of the 1980’s and 1990’s).” Yeah, here’s the thing about that: animated shows aside, I never watched this crap when I was a teen. I thought shows like The Facts of Life, Family Ties and Who’s the Boss? were trite when they were new. You know what I watched as a teenager? The Young Ones, Red Dwarf, SCTV, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Black Adder, French & Saunders. The only network sitcoms I watched during that time were Newhart and Night Court. I see so much wasted potential on the PM Hub; Hasbro could be offering so much of a variety: not just my idea of alternative comedy (though I still think that’s a great idea), but also new game shows, new action/adventure shows, sketch/variety, etc. I’m not saying that The Hub should abandon the old sitcoms if they’re pulling in ratings, but why should that be the only thing they run at night? Like I mentioned in “Point and Laugh at Retro-Snobbery”, classic TV is nice and all, but it doesn’t equal huge ratings, and The Hub knows this, hence whey they’re mking this move in the first place. If Ms. Reed can inject some much needed life in The Hub’s nighttime schedule, then I welcome our new overlord.

Basically, I have to see what’s to come before I start playing Taps for this channel just yet. I really need to see what sort of shows get ordered and the pilots which get greenlit before I can say conclusively whether this is a regrettable move or not. As long as the likes of The Aquabats Super Show! and Littlest Pet Shop remain intact, I’m fine with it.

LPS Progress Report (Plus Other Assorted Hub Ramblings)

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We’ve been doing a lot of Hub entries lately, haven’t we? Guess the network’s climbing up there.

Just thought I’d blow off a little steam about some of The Hub’s recent doings as of late. First, a little follow-up to my earlier entry on Littlest Pet Shop.

LPS Title Card

I still contend that so far I’m enjoying LPS’s debut season more than the 3rd season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (and on a side note, I’m getting a wee bit tired of folks putting MLP on a pedestal; it’s a decent show, undoubtedly the first time there’s ever really been anything Pony related worth giving a frak about, but really, the show just won the lottery, there are other decent shows on the shows on the network which are just as good as MLP, if not better, so it’s really time for folks to stop acting like MLP: FiM is the single greatest show on The Hub and the best thing to happen since Jiffy-Pop), but for all of its’ strengths, the show still seems unable to escape MLP’s shadow, which is unfortunate. Maybe some tweaks need to be made to LPS in order to give it more breakout potential. If I may make a few suggestions:

Perhaps every show need not consist of a single 22-minute episode like MLP does. People tend to overlook the fact that LPS is actually a mash-up of 2 separate franchises, Blythe and Littlest Pet Shop; perhaps the show’s stories should reflect this. Maybe instead of a single half-hour story each week, they could do two 10-minute shorts or three 7-minute shorts: say, 1 short which focuses on both Blythe and the Pets in tandem, 1 short which focuses squarely on the Pets with little or no participation from Blythe or the humans and 1 short which focuses largely if not exclusively on Blythe and her human co-stars. Sort of like the old Linus the Lionhearted show for those of you who are fossils like me and are old enough to remember (or even know of) that.

Another thing regarding LPS: the characters need to be strengthened and given more to do generally. I realize this is no easy task, since the show’s cast is relatively large, which is one reason why I feel the show should at least consider breaking the stories into segments as opposed to a single half-hour episode each week. The Pets’ characters are fine, they just need more to do and more air time to do it in. (Another side-note: it’s obvious that the recent addition of the Sweet Shop next door and the new characters attached to that are clearly a marketing tool to have another wave of toys to sell, but since LPS is a toy-driven show, it’s to be expected.) The human characters are the ones which really need more polishing and fleshing out. Out of the human characters, Youngmee has probably flourished the most, though that’s not saying much. She’s gotten more camera time than any of Blythe’s other friends, and she’s tied to the Sweet Shop, which gives her more opportunities to stand out than anyone else. She still needs some more defining traits other than being cute and a good friend to Blythe; she’s on the Mathletes team, so we can assume she’s smart, why not expand on that? Sue hasn’t had any standout roles since “Russel Up Some Fun”, and so far Jasper hasn’t had any real plots or subplots devoted to him. If I can make a suggestion, writers, whatever you decide to do with Jasper, please DON’T ship him with one of the girls. I like that he’s a boy and one of Blythe’s friends, but not a boyfriend to any of them, I say keep it that way. (Sue hit Jasper twice in “Topped with Buttercream”, and the 2 of them entered the story together, so I’m sure somewhere in cyberspace some shippertard is already typing fanfics pairing those 2 characters off, but I really hope nothing like that ever actually happens on the show.)

Speaking of relationships, please, please, PLEASE, writers, hook Blythe’s dad Roger up with somebody! Reveal Blythe’s mother or give her a stepmother. Something. Anything! I have no problem with dumb dads generally, they’re OK in small doses, but the recent episode “Helicopter Dad” proves that a little Roger goes a LONG way, and I think one reason why he’s so unbearable is that he has no one to counterbalance his goofiness. It’s like having the Odd Couple with only Oscar. the fact that Blythe’s mom is MIA is indeed one of the things I hate most about this show, especially since there doesn’t seem to be any reason for it, and I’d really like to see that rectified. Here’s a crazy suggestion: why not have Roger and Youngmee’s aunt Christie hook up? Not only would Roger get a romantic partner and Blythe get a much-needed mother figure, but that would technically make Blythe and Youngmee cousins, which could make for some interesting story ideas. Just a thought.

Another recent event on The Hub is the addition of Huckleberry Pie to Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bitty Adventures. As has been the case since the 5th TV special back in the ancient 1980’s, Huck is the only major male character in a predominantly girl-populated franchise, so as such there was a lot of hulabaloo surrounding his debut, not to mention his Justin Bieber-inspired look, viz:

huckleberry-pie

Oh, you were expecting a “Bieber sucks!” joke here, right? Sorry, not gonna happen. I’ve personally never heard any of Bieber’s music and couldn’t tell you the name of a single one of his songs, so while some folks tear their hair out at the very mention of the kid’s name, I can go about my life unaffected by Biebermania, so I honestly don’t care about the Biebs-inspired design. From an artistic standpoint, it’s an OK design, so no complaints from me about that. Whatever works. No, my issue with this version of Huckleberry Pie isn’t that he’s got the Bieb’s hairstyle or even that he’s a boy on a girls’ show, it’s that he’s, well…kind of boring. Huck here has no standout traits or attributes other than possessing a Y chromosome and being a nice kid who’s eager to please (assuming he is a kid; age-wise, it’s hard to know what to make of the Berry Bitty Gang: they look like children yet they have jobs, operate vehicles and live on their own without adults. Perhaps they just stop aging physically after a certain age, like the elves in Lord of the Rings), but to be fair, the girls are equally kind of dull and interchangeable. I actually prefer the 2003 version of Huck, pictured here:
…’cause he had an actual character, not to mention a boss board.
Finally, the Hub recently announced a “big event” coming to Thursday nights said to tie in with the recent Oscars. It turned out to be a fake awards show devoted to their old broadcasting sitcom showings: Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Family Ties, et al, and kicking off something called “You Rule Thursdays”, in which viewers get to choose shows they watch on the network during the Thursday primetime hours of 9 p.m. – midnight ET. This week, following a special programming block featuring past Academy Awards® winners in popular Hub sitcoms, viewers will go to http://hubworld.com/YouRule to vote on the shows that will air Thursday, March 7. Each week will be themed with a different common element that links Hub shows, including “Mork and Mindy,” “Happy Days,” “The Facts of Life,” and “Family Ties.”
Oh, joy.
Well, I have to say, that’s disappointing. Here I was hoping that The Hub was finally going to spread their chops and expand their nighttime schedule beyond this sitcom rerun stuff. Before I get ambushed by Retro fans, I have nothing against Retro (though I’ve never been a nostalgic person and only about 10% of the old shows I grew up watching have any replay value to me, especially the stuff from the broadcast networks), but I don’t think I’m out of line for thinking that the Hub could be doing so much more at night than just airing reruns of old broadcast TV shows from the 70’s and 80’s. If this is working for The Hub, I can’t argue with success, but if you’re really going to try and be early 90’s Nick at Nite during the prime time hours, can’t we at least get some better shows? Just offer something a little more off the beaten path besides generic family sitcoms. The Adam West Batman show was a good start, why not expand upon that? How about showing The Monkees, Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, The Super Mario Brothers Super Show!, H.R. Pufenstuf, Lidsville, The Bugaloos, Land of the Lost, The Krofft Supershow, Far Out Space Nuts, Saved by the Bell, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, The Muppet Show/MuppeTelevision/Muppets Tonight, The Tick, Get Smart!, Weird Science, Police Squad!, My Hero, Fawlty Towers, Fernwood 2-Nite, The Best of Saturday Night Live, SCTV, The Red Green Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, WKRP in Cincinnati, Night Court, heck, even Candid Camera, Carol Burnett and Friends or TV’s Blooper and Practical Jokes would be a nice alternative to the nonstop domcoms. If The Hub’s PM schedule really must consist of old shows, can’t they at least be good, eclectic old shows?
And I know some people will disagree with me, but I still contend that Mystery Science Theater 3000 would be a great fit for The Hub’s nighttime lineup.

 

Hub Hopes and Predictions ver. 2

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Image converted using ifftoany

This is yet another Hub post.

With a new year comes new hopes and predictions for fledgling family network The Hub. Lots of people have them, including myself. Recently I was lurking at Toon Zone forums and came across a thread for this very subject, and I’d like to share my own thought on some of these predictions and hopes.

-First, however, I’d like to blow off a little steam: I feel like I’m the only person on Earth who’s not having a fan-gasm about The Hub’s acquiring Animaniacs. Yeah, it’s nice to see the show on TV again, but I don’t get why so many people on the internet are treating The Hub’s acquisition of this show like the Second Coming. OK, it’s a nice comeback, but come on; it’s not like they’re new episodes. Not that a new A! series stands a snowball’s chance of happening, nor would it be a good thing if it did: An Animaniacs revival would likely have different producers and directors, a different composer (obviously, since Richard Stone has been gone a while), cheaper animation with a 21st century kid’s cartoon design aesthetic (forget TMS, and Startoons is long gone), probably a different tone entirely for that very reason would very likely be made without Spielberg’s backing. Who in the world would want something like that? But yeah, sorry Animaniacs fans, but I just can’t get that excited about something returning to TV that I can watch anytime on DVD for free. And of course, with The Hub’s acquisition of A! comes the inevitable fan-wanking for Hasbro to acquire other Silver Age WB shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Pinky & the Brain for The Hub. Personally, I’d rather see The Hub carve its’ own niche rather than see it become Kids’ WB! 2.0. While I wouldn’t mind some more shows done in the vein or spirit of A! or TTA and the like, I’d much rather get new shows as opposed to The Hub just acquiring more and more canceled reruns. Again, if I want to relive any of these shows, I can just buy the DVDs.

There, I said it. I feel better. Now, on to the hopes and predictions. Poster’s hopes will be types in italics, my text will be normal.

I would like to see the Hub get Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes who would do better job than X-D, And Justice League/JLU to their network.

Ah, no. That’s not happening. All of the Marvel cartoons are property of Disney now, so you won’t be seeing any of them on a non-Disney owned station. The ONLY reason The Super Hero Squad Show airs on The Hub is because Hasbro produces the toy line. That is the only reason, BTW; anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. Yes, with a new Avengers series, Avengers Assemble, which is said to basically be the blockbuster movie in animated series form, coming down the pike, it’s become crystal clear that A:EMH is done, but that doesn’t mean that it’s up for grabs; the show will likely just go into the vaults. Disney would rather sit on a show than let a rival network get rich off of it. The Mouse House killed A:EMH to make room for AA, so they obviously have no plans of letting it run somewhere else.

Justice League/Unlimited is a possibility, though I believe that’s already airing on Vortexx. Whether The Hub or anyone else would be interested in acquiring it likely depends on whether the Justice League movie happens and how well it does if it does manifest. (Warner Brothers has made it clear that the possibility of a JL movie hinges almost totally on how well the upcoming Man of Steel movie performs; if MoS tanks, then there won’t be a JL movie, it’s as simple as that.) Comedy has always been a higher priority for The Hub than action, and personally I’m of the train of thought that The Hub should be acquiring less action cartoons, not more.

Wouldn’t it be great if The Hub got The Kids from Room 402?

Why? Why would that be great? Why would The Hub even want to acquire The Kids from Room 402? What would be their incentive to do that? What would they possibly gain from acquiring that? The Kids from Room 402 hasn’t been seen anywhere since its’ initial run on Fox Family in 1999-2000. Who besides a few internet geeks like us even remembers that show? Let me explain something once again: cable/satellite channels like The Hub don’t acquire shows ‘just because’; there has to be a demand for them and some kind of incentive for said network to acquire them, i.e. a guarantee that they’ll make back the money they spend on such acquisitions. There’s no profit to made in The Hub’s acquiring some also ran cartoon which hardly anyone remembers and hasn’t resurfaced anywhere in 14 years, and no profit = no need or desire on Hasbro’s part to acquire it. Channels picking up shows just to be nice and to make viewers happy may be how it works in Happy Lollipop Land, but here in the real world TV is a business, and like all businesses it revolves around profit. It’s all about the Benjamins, folks; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Rule of Thumb: if you can’t think of another reason for The Hub (or any channel for that matter) to acquire a show besides “I like it” or “I haven’t seen it in a while” or “It existed”, then chances are it’s not in the network’s best interests to acquire it.

How does anyone feel about The Ripping Friends, Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island, Bro ‘Town, Mr. Bean: The Animated Series and Sgt. Frog join the Hub family?

How we feel about these shows joining The Hub is irrelevant, since none of them will be joining the Hub. Allow me address each of these pics individually:

The Ripping Friends: while it did live its’ brief lifetime on Fox Kids, the fact remains that it didn’t resonate with its’ kid audience. Fox had hoped that the fact that Ripping Friends was created by the man who gave us Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi, would be enough to generate interest in the show, but that didn’t happen. Kids just weren’t into Ripping Friends, and at bottom, like Ren & Stimpy before it, the show really wasn’t for kids. When RF finally did resurface, it was on Adult Swim, so it would be severely out of place during the kid-vid hours. There’d be no reason for Hasbro to acquire Ripping Friends unless the network was planning to launch an adult cartoon block, which I actually think it a good idea; there would be finally be a suitable place to put Dan VS.

Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island: Really? REALLY? Are you serious??? Why in the flaming heck would The Hub, or any channel, for that matter, want to acquire Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island?!? Even the average 2-year-old saw this show for what it was: a remarkably weak knockoff of SpongeBob Squarepants which shamelessly ripped off everything from the concept to the setting to the characters to the lead’s buck teeth to the use of voice actor Bill Fagerbakke, and just above public access production values. Why would Hasbro want to acquire a show so painfully lame and heinously unpopular that even Kids’ WB! opted to bury it forever and The Hub would be made fun of for even airing it? You might as well suggest that The Hub start airing Loonatics Unleashed.

Mr. Bean: The Animated Series: Sorry to be the crusher of dreams, but The Hub will not be acquiring Mr. Bean: TAS. Cartoon Network US will not be acquiring Mr. Bean: TAS. Nickelodeon US will not be acquiring Mr. Bean: TAS. NO American cable channel will be acquiring Mr. Bean: TAS. Why not? Because nobody in America besides you is Jonesing for Mr. Bean, that’s why. It’s not for lack of trying, mind you: there were no less than 3 attempts to bring Mr. Bean to the States, a live-action series on HBO and 2 US movie releases: Bean (1997) and Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007), but none of them set America on fire; the 2 movies were box office bombs (in the US, anyway), and hardly anyone watched the HBO show. Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Supermans 3 and 4 and Batman and Robin sucked too, but they’re still all based on popular franchises in high demand with viewers; by contrast, The Mr. Bean phenomenon just never caught on here for whatever reason, and again no demand= no chance of profit and no chance of profit = no chance of an acquisition. Personally, when it comes to Rowan Atkinson I’ve always preferred Black Adder anyway.

Bro’ Town: Congrats, you picked a show with even less of a US following than Mr. Bean. Bro’ Town is a cartoon from New Zealand which to be fair, is pretty successful in its’ native country (5 seasons) but the fact remains that most Americans have never heard of it; heck, I didn’t know this show existed before this guy mentioned it, and then I had to look it up on Wikipedia. If you have to inform your viewing audience that a show exists, chances are a network isn’t going to go out of their way to acquire it. Also, based on what I’ve read, Bro’ Town targets a young adult male audience, and The Hub doesn’t really specialize in that sort of thing. Again, not going to happen unless Hub decides to launch an adult cartoon block.

Sgt. Frog: A lot of people have been requesting that this show come to the US, but so far no one’s been biting, and if the big channels like CN and Nick aren’t trying to acquire Sgt. Frog, then I don’t see The Hub making a play for it. It costs money to import shows, and dubbing them costs even more money. Right now The Hub doesn’t have the lettuce to acquire and dub an anime.

Yeah….seein as how action has been given a swift kick on other networks, I say bring on the action. More room for comedy. I disagree. Reminds me of the awesomeness of Jetix/Toon Disney. Now we have Disney X-D. A great blend of “diversity”. Where comedies and action shows thrive. Oh wait. X out that last part…

Two things: First, Jetix basically killed Toon Disney and started the Mouse House on their current idee fixee that their classic shorts library and all things related to it have no place on their channels beyond bumpers between teencoms and edutainment shows for tiny tots, so you’ll understand if I don’t have the same fondness for Jetix that you do. Second, it’s not The Hub’s job to pick up the slack of other networks, let alone cater to one viewer’s personal whims.

You prefer action, fine. But why should comedy get the boot because of that? I don’t want to see The Hub go all-action any more than I’d want to see it go all retro. Why does The Hub have to be all action and no comedy or all comedy and no action? Why can’t it show both? I don’t see the 2 as mutually exclusive; if action is working on The Hub, I welcome that, ride that rocket, baby, but I’d rather not see it take over the channel like what happened with Jetix; and given that 3 of The Hub’s biggest hits right now, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dan VS and the recently acquired and heavily promoted Animaniacs, are comedy, not action, cartoons, I’d say the chances of The Hub abandoning comedy altogether are close to nil. Again, comedy is and always has been higher on The Hub’s priority list than action. Hub already has an action block, so why not a comedy block? Nothing wrong with the channel expanding its’ comedy roster, I say, especially with more comedies geared towards slightly older viewers than the Strawberry Shortcake crowd. Dan VS can’t and shouldn’t be the only older-skewing comedy on the network. There’s plenty of room on a 24-hour channel to accommodate multiple genres.

-Personally, my hopes for The Hub in the coming year(s) are simply that as the channel grows and viewership increases, they’ll show other genres besides Action and Retro some love. (Calm down, Action and Retro fans; I’m not saying that there should be none of those shows on The Hub, just that I’d like to see more shows outside of those genres. Variety is the spice of life, after all.) Hopefully they’ll be able to rely less on older shows and movies and defunct franchises so people will finally stop referring to The Hub as an oldies’ channel. I’d like to see The Hub launch and obtain more comedies, more girl-centric shows and more original series and first-run acquisitions, particularly at night.

Pets Over Ponies (You Heard Me Right)

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Brace yourselves, Bronies, I have an announcement that may just shake the very foundation of the world you live on. Here it is:

I think there’s another show on The Hub that I like more than My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

T’is true.
Of course, anybody who regularly follows this blog or my posts on either if the 2 message boards I’m currently on already knows that MLP: FiM wasn’t my favorite Hub show to start with–The Aquabats! Super Show! currently holds that title (it’s supposed to be starting its’ 2nd season sometime this spring–can’t wait!) and I also enjoy Dan VS. to a point, though I think it tends to get a little Pinky & The Brain repetitive and the characters aren’t especially likable (and don’t get me started on the horrible scheduling). The Ponies’ show used to be a close third, but recently another show has risen to challenge MLP for its’ bronze medal. The show in question? Littlest Pet Shop.
First, a brief history lesson (a.k.a., the boring stuff you need to know):
Hasbro manages the intellectual properties of both Blythe (a fashion doll originally released in 1972) and the Littlest Pet Shop toy line (introduced in 1992). Originally held by Kenner Products, both were transferred to Hasbro, years after acquiring most of Kenner’s assets.
As of November 2012, two modern incarnations of Blythe are on sale: One, introduced in 2001 as a standalone toy line, is managed by Tomy (after merging with the original licensee Takara in 2006) and CWC (both companies licensed from Hasbro), sold in parts of Asia, and marketed towards collectors. The other, marketed towards children that was released in 2010, is managed by Hasbro as a part of their 2004 incarnation of Littlest Pet Shop, known as Blythe Loves Littlest Pet Shop.
The series was first green-lit in 2011. During production, Blythe Loves the Littlest Pet Shop was also used by Hasbro as the working title of the TV series. The production staff of the series includes developers Timothy Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill of My Gym Partner’s a Monkey fame, along with Dallas Parker and Joel Dickie. Writers M. A. Larson and Cindy Morrow, who previously wrote episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, also wrote the scripts for the episodes of this series. The songs and music of the entire series were composed by Daniel Ingram and Steffan Andrews.
-OK, with that out of the way, here’s an overview of the show.
Blythe Baxter is a teen/tweenage (her exact age has yet to be revealed, but I presume she’s somewhere around 12 to 14) aspiring fashion designer (you can tell she’s a little fashionista because she sports a different hairstyle and outfit in each show, she is a fashion doll, after all) who’s cheerful, loyal, always tries her best, is cute, sweet and always willing to help others, though she’s a little mishap and comical misadventure-prone. Blythe and her requisite oblivious and embarrassing goofball father, airline pilot Roger Baxter (Blythe’s mother is MIA, but more on that later) move from their home in the suburbs to an apartment in Downtown City, a fictionalized version of New York City, only much cozier and without the crime, poverty, graffiti, gang violence and urban blight. Said apartment just happens to be located above a small pet shop, called appropriately enough, Littlest Pet Shop, a day camp for pets of all kinds. After hitting her head after riding down a dumbwaiter in one of those aforementioned wacky escapades, Blythe discovers she has somehow broken the communication barrier between man and animal, meaning that she can now communicate with animals and when the pets talk to her, it comes out as perfectly understandable English instead of unintelligible critter-speak which is how it sounds to everyone else. Blythe gets a part-time job working in the shop and assisting the shop’s owner, the delightfully dotty Mrs.Twombly. This newly forged alliance leads to all sorts of crazy fun. The pets themselves are a unique and colorful (as in not always typically found in nature) bunch; each one has their own quirk, talent, passion or obsession that he/she specializes in:
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  • Zoe Trent is a purple Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (of course she’s no mere dog) whose passions are singing and looking fabulous. She’s a full-tilt diva (she even wears a hat).
  • Vinnie Terrio is a deep-voiced and somewhat thick Northland Green Gecko whose passion is dancing. He’s got some moves, though his routines often end with him flat on his face. (Give yourself a gold star if you noticed how Vinnie shares a surname with 70’s Dance Fever host Denny Terrio, the man who supposedly taught John Travolta how to dance.
  • Penny Ling is a small, super-cute, somewhat shy and very girly female white and purple Giant Panda who is a rhythmic gymnast. She is talented with twirling ribbons but is hyper-sensitive, falling to pieces so fast that onlookers risk getting hit by the shrapnel.
  • Minka Mark is a hyper and somewhat spazzy pink Spider Monkey talented in abstract art, which mainly involves splattering paint all over the canvas (hey, it worked for Jackson Pollock). She’s easily distracted by shiny objects, food and pretty much anything else.
  • Pepper Clark is a fast talking and shtick loving grey-and-white skunk whose passion is comedy, largely of the custard pie and floppy shoe variety. She also has the unique ability to alter her scents from pleasant to repugnant, depending on what the situation calls for and/or how funny it is.
  • Sunil Nevla is a timid and neurotic Indian accented teal-blue colored banded mongoose whose aspirations are parlor magic and psychic abilities, which he practices with more enthusiasm than polish. (He reminds me a bit of Raj from The Big Bang Theory, only Sunil’s able to talk to girls).
  • Russel Ferguson is an intelligent and organized orange-brown hedgehog (no, he’s not the fastest thing alive!) who’s the brains of the group. He’s a little uptight and overly meticulous, but lets loose once in a while.
In addition to her adventures with the Pets, Blythe also has her own stories revolving around her trio of friends from her new school: Sue Patterson, the jock, Youngmee Song, the brain, and Jasper Jones, the boy. She also has to contend with the requisite snooty rivals, twin sisters Whitney and Britney Biskit, your garden variety rich shallow preps obsessed with fashion and who punctuate their sentences with “like”s, whose dad own the city’s rival pet store, Largest Ever Pet Shop. The Biskits are easily the most cliched and tiresome characters on the show, but thankfully, they don’t appear every week.
Each episode typically consists of an A plot and a B plot running simultaneously, and the 2 plots occasionally intersect. The designs on both the pet and human characters alike are big on cute, with all of the characters sporting huge eyeballs and large heads, and the show is also peppered with pop songs.
OK, I know what you’re thinking: you like THIS more than the Ponies? Well, I have to say yes, I do. Why? For one thing, LPS actually has people in it. I know that’s superficial, but I tend to gravitate more towards shows with human protagonists and all or mostly human casts. On that note, another reason I like LPS is because the animals act like and are treated like, well, animals. The Pets talk (to Blythe, anyway) and occasionally walk like humans, but for the most part they remain close to the real animals they supposedly represent. The Pets occasionally don scraps of clothing and the like, but the anthropomorphism is never carried to the creepy extremes like it is on shows like Arthur. This works for someone like me, who’s not a huge fan of anthropomorphism, at least not when it’s overdone. Another reason why I favor  LPS is because it has no pretense or delusions of grandeur; it doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a cute little toyetic comedy cartoon. It never tries to do anything grand or epic like MLP frequently does, particularly at the beginning and ending of each season. There are no magic kingdoms on LPS, but there’s plenty of slapstick to be had. For anyone who wonders or wants there to be some deep analysis behind Blythe’s newfound power or some major ramifications thereof, I would refer you to the last verse of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 theme song: “Just repeat to yourself ‘It’s just a show, I should really just relax’.”
While most of the characters on LPS are appealing and the stories cute and entertaining (and Mrs. Twombly gives the performance of a lifetime), it’s not all gravy. I do have some gripes with the show. For one thing, the Pets flit around the screen so rapidly that it’s hard to keep track of them all at times, though this is becoming less of a problem as episodes progress. Also, I’d like to see Blythe’s friends do a little more; as things stand currently they’re little more than props for the most part. And it’s clear to me that the writers don’t really know what to do with the Biskit Twins. Aside from how their characters generally don’t make any sense (they’re more super-rich kids who slum it with the ‘regulars’ in public school for no logical reason), they don’t work as antagonists for the simple reason that they have no reason to antagonize Blythe other than they’ve been designated as the show’s villains. Yeah, their dad owns the rival shop, but this is barely touched upon in the show and since the Twins don’t give a wet slap about work anyway, it makes no difference. Since they’re ineffective as baddies and it’s clear that the writers don’t want them to be buds with Blythe and company, they just have these characters around but really don’t know what do with them. I know it’ll never happen, but I’d like to see them transfer to a private school or otherwise pull a Houdini at the end of the season.
But by far my biggest complaint about the show concerns Blythe’s mother, namely she has none. Is she alive? Is she dead? Divorced? Where is she? There’s absolutely no reason for Blythe’s mom to be a no-show. While I hate that they also employ the Missing Mom trope on Transformers Rescue Bots, I at least understand why they do it on that show: because it’s aimed primarily at young boys, and few boys would willing buy a Transformers toy piloted by a mom; they probably only have girls on TRB because they’d get in trouble with feminist groups if they didn’t. (It’s also worth mentioning that Cody’s friend Frankie on the show doesn’t have a mother either. So what’s your beef with moms anyway, Hub, you mother-hating pricks?!)
But those little nitpicks aside, I can still enjoy Littlest Pet Shop. It is my hope that the show will thrive, find its’ own audience and finally break out of My Little Pony‘s shadow. Just let it do what it does, and wash over you like a warm mist. It won’t change your life, but it’ll keep you entertained for a half-hour.

New Block Ideas for The Hub

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This is a follow-up entry to “What’s All the Hub-Bub, Bub?”.

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Over at Toon Zone there’s a thread called ‘Orphan Shows The Hub Should Adopt’, in which people discuss what shows they’d like to see The Hub acquire down the line. Inspired by this, I came up with some programming ideas for The Hub that I think would be pretty cool.

1. Comedy Cartoon Block

As I mentioned back in the previous Hub post, one of the Hub’s biggest draws right now is HuBoom!, their action cartoon block. This is fine and dandy, but while I have no problem with Hasbro having happy slacks for action cartoons, my first love is and always has been comedy, and I hope that won’t be forgotten by The Hub. In response, I propose a comedy cartoon block to counterbalance HuBoom!: call it Ha-Ha-Hub or Hub Laff or something similar (I’m still playing around with names). The best place to air this block would be on weekday afternoons; weekday mornings are devoted to Hub-Bub and it wouldn’t make much sense airing  this block during a time when The Hub’s target audience of school-aged kids wouldn’t be home to see it, and I have other plans for The Hub’s nightly schedule, which I’ll go into later. I’d put Hub Laff on weekday afternoons just before HuBoom!, I’d just push HuBoom! back an hour or so, say, put Hub Laff on at 3 PM to 4 or 5 PM (EST) and HuBoom! would start after that. What sort of shows would be featured on this block? Well, Pound Puppies and encores of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are obvious choices. Some other possible entries are/could be: Cosmic Quantum Ray, The Twisted Whiskers Show, Dennis and Gnasher, Eek! The Cat/Eek!Stravaganza, Space Goofs, Inspector Gadget, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Samurai Pizza Cats and Saban’s Monster Farm.*

*Note that I’m just using these titles as examples; many of these shows couldn’t or wouldn’t actually air on The Hub for various reasons. We must keep in mind that Hasbro is first and foremost a toy company. They’re not going to acquire a show just because; it would most likely have to be an original or active franchise (preferably one with an active toy line which Hasbro produces or can profit from). The shows actually eligible to air will vary, but I’m just giving you the general idea of what to expect with these blocks.

2. Girl-Centric Saturday Morning Block

Another block The Hub could try is a Saturday morning block targeting young female viewers. I’d call it The Hub’s Super Slumber Party or something similar. The beauty of this block is that The Hub already has the shows they need for it: Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bitty Adventures, Care Bears: Welcome to Care-A-Lot, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and The Littlest Pet Shop. (The upcoming new Sabrina, the Teenage Witch cartoon produced by Moonscoop could also premiere here.) These would all be premiere episodes; encores could air variously throughout the week, but the new episodes would premiere here. When a show goes into periodic reruns, it could be temporairly replaced by another show with a female lead such as Jem or Atomic Betty. To spice things up, there could also be shorts and filler segments airing between the shows, say animated shorts based on Hasbro’s various girl-centric toy properties and pop music videos. Heck, you could even throw in some girl hostesses like the Slumber Party Girls, Ally & A.J. or some other girl band for host segments and bits of business between the shows.

3. Weekend Prime Time Premiere Block

This block would air on either Friday or Saturday nights from 8 to 10 PM (EST). No prizes for guessing, this block is inspired by the likes of ABC’s T.G.I.F. or Nickelodeon’s SNICK. It would consist of 2-hours of premiere Hub shows, sort of treat for kids on the weekend. A sample schedule could go as follows:

  • 8 PM – The Aquabats! Super Show!
  • 8: 30 PM – Dan VS.
  • 9 PM – Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters
  • 9: 30 PM – R.L. Stine’s The Nightmare Room

-Of course, this schedule could be rotated if/when new premieres come along. If there were ever too many premiere shows to run on a single night, this block could be spread across the weekend, with a Friday night version and a Saturday night version.

4. Nightly Comedy Block

As I mentioned in the previous Hub entry, it is my not-so-humble opinion that The Hub’s nightly schedule is easily the weakest part of the network. I simply don’t watch The Hub at night since I’m not a nostalgia person, and nothing the channel airs at night holds my interest. Look, I don’t have a problem with network TV reruns, but nostalgia has a limited shelf life and The Hub isn’t ever going to rank up there with the likes of Cartoon Network and Nick by running nothing but 30 to 40 year old reruns all night. Most people aren’t going to switch off a new episode of The Big Bang Theory or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for a 40-year-old rerun of Happy Days and  I personally didn’t enjoy The Facts of Life or ALF when they were first-run.

My solution is to have The Hub switch formats at around, say 8 or 9 PM (sort of, I don’t think an entirely new face and branding is necessary) to an alternative comedy block called either Hub After Dark or Hub PM or Hub Funny Stuff. (Thanks goes out to Jason for that last title.) As this block would be aimed specifically towards adults, the programming here would be just a littler spicier than The Hub’s daily fare, but nowhere near the extremes of Adult Swim. some sample show ideas for this block include: Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter, SCTV, On the Television, Turkey Television, Mad Movies with the LA Connection, Mystery Science Theater 3000/Rifftrax, Far Out Space Nuts, The Ghost Busters (not the movie franchise with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but the 1975 series starring Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker), Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Cinematech, MAD, Batman (the 60’s show starring Adam West), The Monkees, Clone High, Undergrads, Daria, Remote Control, Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp, Weird Science, My Hero, The Red Green Show, Sifl & Olly, TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Not Necessarily the News,The Best of Saturday Night Live, JonTron Show, Assist Me!, Demo Reel, and the like.*

*Again, I realize that not all of these shows are eligible candidates to air on The Hub; for example MST3K may not be able to air there due to ownership rights and its’ 2-hour episode length, and some of these shows are quite old. Again, this is just an overview of what sort of shows to expect on this block. they could easily be new shows done in the manner and spirit of the shows listed above.

Don’t worry, nostalgia lovers. The classic TV shows wouldn’t be gone from The Hub; they would just air in a separate block during non-peak nightly hours, in an old-school block. The game shows like Family Game Night wouldn’t be gone either; they would air either on weekend afternoons and/or Sunday nights right before Funny Stuff.

Of course, these are merely suggestions. I’m not saying that my ideas are the best way to go, or even the only way, but they are A way. I’m certainly not expecting everyone to agree with my suggestions; I’m sure many people have their own suggestions or even objections to my little schemes, and not only do I respect that, but I even welcome criticism, as long as it’s valid.