The Hub's Summer Schedule

Memorial Day right around the corner and that means it's time to get ready for summer. The Hub is ready to take on summer with some extra special events to the schedule, including Saturday Mashup, some great family movies and marathon sessions on their favorite kids TV shows (with new episodes, I might add).

The Hub of the Brave


The Hub kicks off summer on Memorial Day with a whole day of special programming of episodes themes around heroic acts with series GI joe: A Real American Hero, GI Joe Renegades, Transformers Generation 1 and Transformers Prime.


The Saturday Mashup

What's a mashup, you ask? It's brand new, original episodes of the Hub's popular kids TV shows for the, like My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Pound Puppies and Family Game night in specially themed in kid-friendly blocks, like The Dog Days of Summers (where's it's all dogs, all day). Look for the new Saturday morning schedule to start May 28 when The Hub will run two back-to-back episodes of the three series, plus six episode marathon of Jem and the Hologram.


The Hub Family Movie

The Hub has lots of family movies planned for the summer including The Iron Giant, Cats & Dogs, 102 Dalmatians and The Gremlins. Most exciting of all is the world TV premiere of Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove staring Beau Bridges and Bindi Irwin.

New Games Shows and More


This summer also marks the premier of two new game shows on The Hub: The Game of Life and Scrabble Showdown. And late summer brings the premiere of new episodes of the Pound Puppies

And the winner is...

Well, we'll have to waiting until June 19th for the actually winners for the 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, but the nominees are in. Some of my favorites are also in the running for Outstanding Childen's Animated Program, too!

Outstanding Children's Animated Program

• Backyardigans (Nickelodeon)
• Curious George (PBS)
• Dinosaur Train (PBS)
• Penguins of Madagascar (Nickelodeon)
• Sid the Science Kid (PBS)

Like it's big-brother, the Prime-time Emmy Awards, Daytime Emmys are a big deal. Kids TV shows haven't always been included. In the early days, the awards focused on soap operas or game shows. Not so in today's world. Kids TV is holding it's own and more areas deserving of recognition.

Outstanding Children's Series

• The Electric Company (PBS)
• FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman (PBS)
• Jack Hanna's Into the Wild (Syndicated)
• SciGirls (PBS)

 New Approaches -  Children's

• Fizzy's Lunch Lab (PBS)
• Nickelodeon Presents History and Heritage (Nickelodeon)
• SciGirls (PBS)

Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series

• Between the Lions (PBS)
• Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Disney Channel)
• Sesame Street (PBS)
• Yo Gabba Gabba! (Nickelodeon)

Outstanding Special Class Animated Program

• Back at the Barnyard (Nickelodeon)
• Fanboy and Chum Chum (Nickelodeon)

 Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series

• Kevin Clash - Elmo - Sesame Street (PBS)
• Caroll Spinney - Oscar the Grouch - Sesame Street (PBS)
• Leslie Carrara-Rudolph - Abby Cadabby - Sesame Street (PBS)
• Eric Jocobson - Grover and Iron Monster - Sesame Street (PBS)

Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program

• Bill Farmer - Goofy - Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Disney Channel)
• Danny Jacobs - King Julien - Penguins of Madagascar (Nickelodeon)
• Tom McGrath - Skipper (Nickelodeon)
• Martin Short - The Cat in the Hat - The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (PBS)
• Petter Cullen - Optimus Prime - Transformers Prime (The Hub)
• Steven Tyler - The Mad Hatter - The Wonder Pets! (Nickelodeon)

 Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program

• Disney Kick Buttowsky - Chris Savino & Sherm Cohen (DisneyXD)
• Fanboy and Chum Chum - Brian Sheesley, Jim Schumann & Russell Calabrese for animations direction and Ginny McSwain for voice direction (Nickelodeon)
• Martha Speaks - Dallas Parker for animation directions and Terry Klassen for voice direction (PBS)
•  Penguins of Madagascar - Nick Filipp, Supervising Director, Christo Stamboliev & Dave Knott for animation directions and Lisa Schaffer for voice direction (Nickelodeon)
• Toot & Puddle - Christian Larocque, director, Graham MacDonald & Emmanuelle Gignac, animation directions and Dee Shipley for voice direction
• Transformers Prime - David Hartman, supervision director, Shaunt Nigoghossian, Todd Waterman & Vinton Heuck, animation direction and Sue Blu, voice direction

 Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series

• Biz Kid$ - Erren Gottieb & James McKenna (PBS)
• The Electric Company - Ryan McFaul - (PBS)
• Sesame Street - Matt Vogel, Kevin Clash, Nadine Zylstra, Scott Preston, Ken Diego, Joey Mazzarino & Lisa Simom (PBS)

Outstanding Original Song - Children's and Animation

• Imagination Movers - "Seven Days a Week" - Dave Poche, Scott Durbin, Scott Smith & Rich Collins, composers & lyricists (Disney Channel)
• Sesame Street - "What I Am" - Bill Serman, composer and Chris Jackson, lyricist (PBS)
• Sesame Street - "I Wonder" - Adam Schlesinger, composer and Molly Boylan, lyricist (PBS)
• Sesame Street - "Rakhi Road" - Chris Jackson, composer and lyricist (PBS)
• The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! - "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Opening Theme" - David Schweitzer, composer (PBS)

Outstanding Writing in Animation

• Arthur - Peter Hirsch, executive story editor and Gentry Menzel, David Steven Cohen, P. Kevin Strader & Jonathan Greenbert, writers (PBS)
• Back at the Barnyard - Gene Grillo, Tom Sheppard, Dan Serafin, writers (Nickenlodeon)
• Dinosaur Train - Craig Bartlett, Joe Purdy & Elise Allen, writers (PBS)
• Penguins of Madagascar - Brandon Sawyer, Bill Motz & Bob Roth, writers (Nickelodeon)
• Transformers Prime - Duane Capizzi, writer/producer and Steven Melching, Nicole Dubucm Joseph Kuhr & Marsha Griffin (The Hub)
• WordGirl - Tom Martin, head writer and Eric Ledgin, Jack Ferraicolo, John Huss, Ryan Raddatz & Carla Filsha (PBS)

 Outstanding Writing in a Childen's Series

• The Electric Company - Willie Reale, head writer and Adam Peltzman & Deirdre O'Connor, writers (PBS)
• Sesame Street - Joey Mazzarino, head writer and John Weidman, Christine Ferraro, Kmily Kingsley, Molly Boylan, Belinda Ward, Judy Freudberg, Luis Santeiro & Annie Evans (PBS)

Outstanding Casing for an Animated Series

• Disney Kick Buttowski - Aaron Drown (DisneyXD)
• Fanboy and Chum Chum - Meredith Layne (Nickelodeon)
• Penguins of Madagascar - Meredith Layne (Nickelodeon)

 Kids TV shows scored a few other nominations in technical and graphic areas.

Be sure to check back for the WINNERS after June 19th. 

Phineas and Ferb at the Movies

Often you'll hear about new kids tv show that's spawned from a movie. Well, here's a story that proves it not a one-way street. Disney has announced Phineas and Ferb is headed for the big screen. P&F is the hit Disney Channel kids TV show that's attracted all kind of special guests like Jack Black, Seath Rogen, Taylor Swift and Neil Patrick Harris. And the show has attracted even more fans, including celebs like Mark Wahlberg.

The tv-show-to-movie is in the early, early stages of development, but it's already off to a good start.  Sean Bailey is already attached. He was the producer of TRON: Legacy. (and a couple of very cool upcoming movies). And if the movie actually makes it to the big screen (you never know with movie deals), it's sure to be a mix of live-action, animation and music. In the meantime, you can get your P&F long-form fix with a feature-length TV movie scheduled to air this summer.

Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension

Everyone else has been on on the platypus' secret agent  intrigues, but in the upcoming TV moive, F&P finally catch on. In true F&P style, they set out on a grand adventure that takes them to a parallel universe wehre they have to stop... an even eviler Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Make sure you mark your calendars for the Phineas and Ferb TV-movie premier on the Disney Channel.

Image courtesy Disney Channel - all rights reserved

Bubble Guppies Splash onto Kids TV

One of my favorite preschool series these last few years has been the Backyardigans. For me it's always been about the music with their mini-musicals in a variety of musical styles. But, alas, he Backyardigan's run has come to an end. So, imagine, my delight when I read a recent Nickelodian press release and learned the creative team behind my favorite show is behind a new show. Yeah, I was doing the Happy Dance. The Bubble Guppies looks like it will be a delightful new addition to

Nickelodeon; This new interactive, CG-animated preschool series is going to make a "splash, " at least according to the press release.

I think they may be right. From the artwork I've seen, Bubble Guppies looks bright and playful. The episodes are bill as musical comedies that take place in a under-the-sea enviornoment. The characters range from little mermaid (and merboy) types to a variety of "fishy" characters -- and all are super, super cute. 

At the core Bubble Guppies ia preschool show tha intends to focus on kindergarten readiness including: math, literacy, the arts, science and socio-emotional development.

“Bubble Guppies’ unique mix of comedy, music, adventure and important lessons exemplify Nickelodeon’s ongoing commitment to creating entertaining and educational preschool programming,” said Brown Johnson, President, Animation, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group. “Kids will love singing, dancing, playing and interacting with these adorable characters as they go on exciting underwater adventures.”

The creative team behind the new Bubble Guppies includes creators and exectuive producers Jonny Belt and Robert Scull and co-executive producer Janice Burgess, the Emmy Award-winning team behind the hit Nickelodeon series’ The Backyardigans and Little Bill.

In addition to fun story lines and catchy pop-inspired music, this new kids TV show from Nick will be backed up by a companion website filled with lots of activites around the Bubble Guppies cast of characters.

Bubble Guppies premieres on January 24, 2011.

Image curiosity of Nickelodeon 

Disney Junior Launch

Mark this date on your calendars -- February 14th! The day Disney rebrands it's preschool block from Playhouse Disney to Disney Junior and in it's own basic cable channel. Disney is talking many of it's favorite pre-school kids tv shows, like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Mandy and throwing in a bunch of great news series and short-form tiles:

• Jake and the Never Land Pirates
• Barbar and the Adventures of Badou
• Tinga Tinga Tales
• Mickey Mousekersize
• Special Agent Osco
• Three Healthy Steps 
• A Poem Is...

Like it's predecessor, Disney Junior is first and foremost a pre-school channel. "Disney Junior will be an entry point into the world of Disney for young kids, creating a world -- online and on-air -- that captures the magic of Disney and its classic heartfelt storytelling and timeless characters beloved by generations." said Gary Marsh, the president of entertainment and chief creative officer at Disney Channels. 

Disney Junior will provide it's content across multi-platform venues, including an integrated website, VOD, mobile, paid download platforms and available on basic cable to over 99 million U.S. homes, on 25 Disney Junior channels and free-to-air broadcast partners around the world.

Image courtesy Disney, all rights reserved