Byebye Retro, Hello CN Canada.

I've never watched Teletoon Retro, their channel for old cartoons, much.  So I was surprised to see it listed as "Off Air" on my Shaw cable box this morning.  But programming was running when I turned to the channel.  It turns out that Corus, the owner of Teletoon Retro, has folded the channel in favour of Cartoon Network Canada. CN Canada hadn't been previously available from some major Canadian providers, such as Shaw and Rogers, for reasons known only to them.  Teletoon Retro had wider carriage, so replacing it with CN Canada instantly increased the latter's coverage.  So if you've been waiting for CN Canada to appear on your cable package check out your local listings.  It should be noted that some systems have had Teletoon Retro replaced with Corus's new Disney Channel Canada.

Clone High On Shaw VOD.

Clone High was a 2002 co-production by MTV and Canada's Teletoon.  The cartoon series revolved around a high school whose students were clones of various historical figures, created for purposes the series never got a chance to reveal.  The main characters were JFK, Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, and Gandhi, along with crazed principal Cinnamon J. Scudworth and his robotic butler Mr. Butlertron.  Apparently the last 5 of the 13 episodes made weren't aired in the US,  The show's demise has sometimes been blamed on Indian complaints about the portrayal of Gandhi, who was portrayed as a  horny teen with little sign of the original's intellect, although poor ratings are a much more likely explanation.

If you were a fan of the series, or if it sounds interesting, and are a Shaw Cable customer, you can currently watch the complete series via Shaw Video on Demand.   Click on Other TV  then Kids TV, then Shaw Kids Club, then Teen.   The episodes are located after the 6teen episodes, and are free.

Not A Sibling Act.

When Jeopardy started tonight I couldn't help but smile when I saw that two of the contestants were Carl and Chloe, and were beside each other.  This was because siblings Carl and Chloe Crashman were characters in the Canadian cartoon Carl Squared, which aired on Teletoon.  Too bad neither of the Jeopardy contestants had the last name Crashman, which would have been even cooler.  And of course neither were related, as relatives can't play against each other.  Not that the animated siblings would be happy to be on the same show anyways.

A Request For Teletoon.

If by chance someone from Teletoon's programming staff passes through I'd like to make a request:  Please give Delta State another run through sometime this year.  If you can do it for Undergrads you can do it for Delta State.  I'd like to get the second half of it recorded, since I doubt we're going to see a "season 2" DVD set.  And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I sent some of my money the DVD company's way by buying the "Complete First Season" set.

It Will Not Die.

By all reason it should be gone.  Undergrads is a cartoon series that ran fo a single season of 13 episodes.  While in college Pete Williams submitted a short pilot animation clip of an idea he had, The Click, to an MTV contest.  MTV decided they liked the concept, and with some development it became Undergrads.  MTV teamed up with Canada's Teletoon to produce the series.  But while Teletoon apparently did well with the series and wanted more, MTV didn't.  Teletoon never managed to find a new financial partner, but they sure got their money's worth out of the series, playing it multiple times over the years despite its short length.  After its last runthrough a few years ago I had assumed it wasn't coming back, so when I saw it listed on the January schedule Teletoon put out in late December I assumed this was just a mistake.

But nope, when I checked the PVR Tuesday morning the first episode, "Party," was there.  Coming up on ten years after its debut the show is once more getting a runthrough on Teletoon.  It's amazing that it just won't stay dead.  No, no new episodes are likely, and like many fans I've got the DVD.  But it's still satisfying to have it back, and hopefully it will pick up some new fans.

The Galleria Mall Closes.

No, it's not the one in Regina, or anyplace else.  Rather this is a heads up to any 6teen fans who didn't already know that your last chance to see the series on Teletoon is here.  Tonight will be the final Thursday airing at 8:30 PM ET/PT, with tonight's episode "Bye Bye Nikki? Part 2" being repeated Sunday at the same time.  After than 6teen will leave Teletoon after 6 years.  It's all but certainly not gone for good, but for now its run has ended. 

The Box Disappoints.

Lately I've been trying to get a look at Teletoon's September schedule so I can see which shows are going and which are returning. It still hadn't been posted yesterday, so I went to the program guide on my digital cable box and advanced it ahead to next week. Some surprising programs came up, such as the sci fi series Delta State that aired on Teletoon before. Alas, today Teletoon's September schedule finally appeared on their website, and this and several other supposedly scheduled programs weren't to be found. This makes me wonder where the schedule presented by the program guide came from given its inaccuracy. I have no idea how far in advance these things are prepared, but presumably Teletoon had a pretty good idea of their Fall lineup a good while ago. At the very least you'd think it would simply state "To be announced" for various time slots. It also makes me wonder how inaccurate data for other channels might be.

In With The New.

Okay, Teletoon, since 6teen is done isn't it time you guys finally get around to playing new episodes of Stoked?  Seriously, you're playing the opening episode yet again tonight.  I'm not even sure when you last played a new episode.  So it's about time we saw a new episode.

Finale. (6teen Spoilers)

Don't worry, it's not the finale of this blog.  Rather I thought I'd make a couple of comments on the series finale of 6teen.  This contains spoiler material, so if you haven't seen the final episodes of 6teen yet now is the time to stop reading this.   Especially those of you who have been watching the series on Cartoon Network in the US, as who knows when they might air these episodes.








Still here?  Then don't say I didn't warn you.

The titles of what were assumed to be the final 13 episodes were revealed way back in September of 2008, and given the copyright on the end of that last batch it's not unreasonable to assume they may have been completed by then.  If so Teletoon decided to sit on them for a year or more for some reason.  My guess is that it had something to do with the possibility Cartoon Network in the US would buy the series, but that's only a guess.  In any case we knew the series finale would be a two part episode, called "Bye Bye Nikki?"  And given that title it wasn't hard to guess what the plot would be, that Nikki would somehow leaving the rest of the cast behind.

Sure enough that did turn out to be the plot.  Nikki's father is up for a job with Ruts, a clothing company obviously intended to make the viewer think of the highly popular Canadian clothing company Roots.  But taking the job involves moving to Iqaluit in Nunavut.  As expected the gang try and stop this in humurous fashion, they of course fail, and we get to see a nice going away party sequence, including clips from throughout the series.

But to I'm sure the surprise of most viewers, including me, the show didn't go for the expected cop-out.  Most were probably expected that somehow the status quo would be maintained, that the job would fall through, or that Mr. Wong would change his mind, or some other way would be found to have Nikki stay.  Instead when he actually suggests not taking the job Nikki quickly decides she can't let him give up the opportunity of a lifetime just for her, and Nikki and her family actually do leave, off on a new adventure without her 5 other friends.

I'm sure a lot of people will not be happy with this ending, but I have to say that I'm impressed with it.  The series didn't take the easy way out.  Instead it ended on a realistic note, as one of the things that everyone faces in life is having to part with friends as they find themselves on a different path.  Not that the ending is a completely down one, as the writers left it open for our heroes, especially Nikki and her love interest Jonesy, to reconnect again sometime in the future.   But even with that out series creators Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch must have known the ending would upset some viewers, and one assumes must have considered taking the easy way out.  They didn't, and I give them a thumbs up for that.  I think it shows faith in their audience.  It also makes for a nice "closing of the circle" with the beginning of the series, which revolved around Caitlin joining what had been a group of five friends and making it six.

Of course I can't help but wonder if this is the last we've seen of new 6teen material.  The ending of the series did leave an opening for a followup special at some point, along the lines of the one hour special "Snow Job" that ended what is commonly seen as the second season of the series.(And which I can't help but wonder might not have been intended as a series finale had the series not continued.)  Whatever the future fate of the franchise it will continue to air on Teletoon for the foreseeable future given its popularity and the fact it has 91 episodes.

It will be interesting to see if the last batch of episodes airs on American TV, as Cartoon Network hasn't exactly been committed to giving 6teen a consistent and regular slot in its schedule.  Especially the episode "Role Reversal," in which a temporary co-worker of Nikki's, a girl named Jean, not only openly states she is gay, but is also seen going to a Sadie Hawkins dance in the company of Connie, who first appeared in "Snow Job" as the drummer in Wyatt's band.  The couple can also be briefly seen together amongst the party guests in  "Bye Bye Nikki? Part 2."  It would have been interesting, had the series run longer, to see if they would have turned up again.

In closing thanks to everyone who worked on the series and provided me with a lot of entertainment over the last six years, even if I wasn't the intended audience. 

A 6teen Reminder.

Tonights the night.  Teletoon will be airing the final episodes of 6teen this evening, including the two part series finale "Bye Bye Nikki?"  Check your local listings for the starting time in your area.  Fortunately if you miss it they'll be airing them again on Sunday, and of course Teletoon will pretty much certainly continue airing the series in reruns for the foreseeable future.

Almost Time To Say Goodbye.

If you're a fan of Teletoon's long running cartoon 6teen be sure to mark your calenders for February 11th. According to a post on the Unofficial Fresh TV Forums the final episode of the series will air on that date. The series has had a good long run on Teletoon, originally debuting in the fall of 2004. Too bad it won't make the 100 episode mark, but it has outlasted much of what Teletoon debuted at the same time, and its success led to Fresh TV's hit Total Drama franchise and their current surf resort comedy series Stoked. It's also too bad it didn't have better luck on US TV. Nickelodeon played it briefly in 2006, and Cartoon Network's success with TDI and TDA led to their picking it up last year, although their airings have ended up being spotty. Even with the final episode airing 6teen will all but certainly be airing on Teletoon in reruns for a long time given how well it did for them, and given that less successful shows have been replayed multiple times by the network.

He's Not The Voice You're Looking For.

I had a hit on the blog today from the search phrase "Robert Norman Smith Teletoon." Smith is a Toronto actor who gained some notoriety when he appeared in a series of ads for Alexander Keith's beer. He played a muttonchopped Scotsman who went around berating hapless beer drinkers for not treating their Keith's properly. Unfortunately for Smith his career as product spokescharacter crashed to the ground when he was arrested in 2006 on child pornography charges.

I assume the person who ran that search thought Smith is the current promo voice for the Canadian cartoon channel Teletoon. This is not the case. It's Dan Petronijevic's enthusiastic tones you hear. Amusingly Petronijevic can be heard as a voice actor in several Teletoon cartoons, including Di Gata Defenders and Total Drama Island, so he is frequently doing promos for shows he appears in.

Congratulations, Chris MacClean

If blog hits are any indication it looks like another winner for Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch. My previous post about their new Teletoon series Total Drama Island has generated quite a few hits already. Hopefully they'll be able to sell the series to foreign markets just as they did with 6teen. And hopefully they'll be able to get the series on an American network that will actually make a commitment to giving it a fair shot, unlike what happened with Nickleodeon's abortive airing of 6teen last year.

"You're off the island."

Tonight saw the debut of the series Total Drama Island on Teletoon, with the first two episodes being aired. Created by 6teen creators Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch the series is a spoof of reality shows like Survivor. A group of 22 teens are divided into two groups who compete in various challenges, with the losing group having to choose one of its members to leave the island. But its not just the dangerous challenges they'll have to face, but the horrors of a run down, vermin infested summer camp on an isolated island in Northern Ontario instead of the luxury resort they were promised. The art style used is very reminiscent of Clone High, which isn't a surprise given the involvement of Elliot Animation, who worked on that series. The voices will also sound familiar to anyone who watches much Canadian made animation and include 6teen regulars Christian Potenza and Megan Fahlenbock as well as the almost ubiquitous Dan Petronijevic. My verdict? Not bad so far. We'll see how they do over the course of 26 episodes, and there's the obvious question of how they might continue the series if it does well enough for Teletoon to spring for a second batch of episodes.

"Go Delta."

Here's a heads up if you're a fan of Teletoon's science fiction cartoon series Delta State. The first 13 episodes are now available on DVD in Canada as Delta State: The Complete First Season. So far I've found the 2 DVD set at Musicworld and Walmart in the 20 buck range. Of course if you bought the previously issued 3 episode packages of the first 6 episodes you might not be so happy. Hopefully this will sell well enough that we'll see the subsequent 13 episodes in the same format at the same price. Unfortunately it seems exceedingly unlikely we'll be seeing any new episodes of the series.

Not On The Other Team.

Today I received another one of those kind of search engine hits that make me shake my head. The query was "nikki wong from 6teen is a lesbian." Nikki is one of the characters on Teletoon's series 6TEEN, the charming young lady in the picture at left. I can only wonder at why the searcher used that phrase. If they've seen much of the series they'd know that Nikki is not portrayed as a lesbian. Even if we ignore the fact she dates Jonesy, one of the other main characters, for several episodes, we know she has a crush on a member of Dawgtoy, a fictitious boy band. So I find myself wondering if this person figured Nikki might be a lesbian because of how she dresses. Oh yeah, wearing cargo pants and having dyed hair are both well known signs of lesbianism. Well, I suppose in someone's world they are.

If someone had asked something along the lines of "jonesy from 6teen is gay" I would have found that somewhat more convincing given that the show has actually had a couple of bits of what could be seen as gay subtext between Jonesy and Jude, another one of the main characters. Given what Teletoon allows the show to get away with I would imagine if the writers and producers wanted one of the main characters to be openly gay or lesbian they would have written him or her as such already.

With the fall tv season rapidly approaching Teletoon in Canada has been giving us "sneak previews" of some its new programming Sunday nights. Last week's preview was for Carl Squared. Carl Crashman is your typical teenage boy until he accidentally acquires a clone of himself. Now Carl finds much of his time is taken up with trying to keep the existence of his clone secret, and dealing with the strange situations the other him causes. Unfortunately some of the family dog's DNA got mixed in, so C2, as Carl names his clone, isn't an exact duplicate personality wise of the original. Not surprisingly C2 is the innocent and uninhibited side of Carl, that part of him, like any typical teenage boy, he tries to keep suppressed because those qualities aren't "cool." And of course Carl learns "important lessons" from the misadventures C2 leads him into.

In other words there's really not that much original here other than the clone. I can't say I'm a big fan of series that revolve around the whole hero has to cope with humurous misunderstandings concept. Ideas like that can work in individual episodes, but get frustrating when used all the time. So can the innocent who needs protection from his naivete idea, which is another concept that will see a lot of play in this series if the episode guide at Teletoon is anything to go on.(Some of the episode descriptions are kind of spoilerish, so beware if that kind of thing bugs you.)

Tonight's preview was for Delilah and Julius. Yet another entry into the teen spy/adventurer genre the title characters are a pair of teenage spies studying at a spy academy located just outside of Halifax. Children of spies themselves, both were orphaned at a young age. Now they find themselves following in their parent's footsteps, travelling the world to stop the forces of evil while hoping to find out more about the fate of their respective parents.

The obvious question is whether the world of cartoons, and Teletoon specifically, needs another teen spy/adventurer series right now. Teletoon has Totally Spies and Codename: Kids Next Door in its lineup. Kim Possible, although ended by parent network Disney, will continue in reruns for some time to come. And there's some overlap with series like Martin Mystery and some of the anime currently airing on various channels. I can't help but suspect Delilah and Julius will just be going over the same ground as other recent series, and a peek at the Teletoon episode guide shows at least a couple of episodes that sound very much like storylines that have appeared on other shows. On the other hand D&J deserves credit for coming up with a distinctive art style. Visually it has its own thing, and doesn't copy an existing series, or go for the "pseudo-anime" style of Totally Spies. And hopefully they'll go into a bit of background why the hippyish Big Al is the boss of a spy organisation.

Next week's preview is for The Life and Times of Juniper Lee. I'll be giving this one a pass, based on the ads.

While we're on the subject of cartoons I was disappointed to find out belatedly today that Cartoon Network has passed on a 3rd season of Megas XLR. Too bad. Its been a fun show to watch, especially when you get the inside jokes and cartoon references, such as the episode that parodied Leiji Matsumoto's classic Captain Harlock character. Although the ratings were good Cartoon Network decided two seasons of the series were sufficient. Given the plot of season ending two parter its reasonable to assume the Megas production crew weren't expecting it to get cancelled. Yet another one of those decisions that leaves you scratching your head, although its not unreasonable to assume that internal politics at CN we aren't privy to had something to do with it.

How peculiar. It seems the writing staff of the cartoon 6TEEN have a strong interest in vomit. So far they've had two episodes in which barfing was a major plot point. In "The Sushi Connection" everyone's favourite shopaholic Caitlin blows chunks all over a car of rollercoaster riders, and the dress she's "borrowing" from a department store, after eating sushi and wasabi. In last night's episode "The Khaki Girl" Jonesy's new job giving out meat "chunklets" leads to massive barfing by just about everyone when they go bad. So what's up with these guys? One barf scene a season is probably enough, unless you're talking about South Park, which incidently last night's regurgitation made me think of. Or could it be they associate slighty ditzy blondes with vomit? After all both episodes focus on Caitlin. I bet that in some markets those two episodes may not end up being shown due to nervous nellies worried about offending someone.

Seeing as I get regular hits regarding the cartoon series Delta State I'll pass along a couple of links that will be of interest. First is TV Tome's Delta State bulletin board. A lot of discussion of the series has been going on there of late. There's also a new Delta State live journal that has just become active.

Teletoon played the final episode of the 1st season last night. If the current schedule holds true that likely means the first episode of the series will be broadcast next Sunday night, so if you've missed it and would like to check out, or came in part ways through and would like to get the full scoop tune in then. If I find out to the contrary I'll make sure to mention it here.

Caught an episode tonight of Teletoon's new series 6teen, so I decided to enter the term into Google and see what came up. It seems the series creators are hardly the first ones to use it. There are quite a few folks using it, including the inevitable porn merchants. Is there a word that some porn merchant doesn't use in association with a website? Interestingly this is another series where Teletoon has fronted for 26 episodes as with Delta State(heh, another Delta State ref to generate hits here). Too bad they didn't have the cash a couple years ago to produce some more Undergrads episodes. Even a one hour special of some sort would have been nice.

And speaking of cartoons, if you were a fan of MTV's short lived series Downtown you might want to check out Cartoon Network's current giant robot action-adventure/parody series Megas XLR. One of the secondary characters on Megas is Goat, and may very well be the same Goat who was on Downtown. Not only are the character designs near identical, both Goats are voiced by voice actor Scot Rienecker. This may have something to do with the fact that series creators Jody Schaeffer and George Crstic were part of the writing staff for Downtown. In the Megas world there's a tv video station called Pop, and its MTV-ish logo has been smashed in various episodes. Are these blokes perhaps a little pissed at their former employer? Canadian viewers can catch Megas XLR on Teletoon Saturday and Sunday.