kylewebs

I just saw that Fox is getting a Napoleon Dynamite animated tv show and thought it was brilliant. Although I most likely won’t be a fan of the show, I think it’s a good move.

The franchise is built off an already successful product: the movie, which made around $70 million since it’s release. Bring something with a cult following into the mainstream? No brainer. It will be on Sunday between other shows on Fox’s Animation Domination block. And it’s lead in? The Simpsons and Family Guy. Fox obviously likes what they see, moving American Dad of the schedule momentarily to let viewers see Dynamite.

Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess, the co-creators/executive producters of the show along with Mike Scully - a longtime producer of The Simpsons will be the creative guys behind the show - showing experience from Futurama, various MTV Films projects, and Seinfeld. It looks like they have a rare team that knows what their audience expects from characters, but they aren’t so jaded to take situational humor to a new aspect. Freakin smart.

Fox is sort of a dying network. Other networks have picked up both both America’s Most Wanted and Futurama, after viewers complained that Fox decided to drop them over monetary issues. The network has previously stated that the current season of The Simpsons will be the last - also due to monetary issues.

Fox has stated that they currently intend to stop production of The Simpsons with the current season.

The voice actors of The Simpsons are locked in a bitter contract negotiation with 20th Century Fox, with the studio threatening to end production if the talent does not take a 45% pay cut. The actors are countering with an agreement that gives them a 30% reduction but a small slice of the show’s back-end earnings, which include the billion dollar syndication and merchandising empire that the studio has built over the past two plus decades.

20th Century Fox TV has released a statement about the negotiation, indicating great fear:

23 seasons in, The Simpsons is as creatively vibrant as ever and beloved by millions around the world. We believe this brilliant series can and should continue, but we cannot produce further seasons under its current financial model. We are hopeful that we can reach an agreement with the voice cast that allows The Simpsons to go on entertaining audiences with original episodes for many years to come.

According to reports, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has just finalized a deal with 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers Television to reboot The Flintstones as both a TV and film property. Yabba-Dabba-Do!!

Apparently this has been Seth’s “dream project,” and it took years for the negotiations between the studios to reach their conclusions, as the rightholders to the sitcom were extreemely concerned if Fred would get drunk and make racial jokes with how he’d reinterpret the series.

Let’s just hope that ridiculously stupid Bed Rock tune isn’t the new theme song.