It’s the 30th anniversary of the short-lived Simpsons rival Capitol Critters! To commemorate the occasion, we decided to check in on the titular critters and see what they’ve been up to.
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TOON BEAT
SHOCKER: Disney Cancels Beloved Animated Series
Boo-hoo-oo! Disney XD has officially announced the 2017 DuckTales reboot will be coming to an end next year, confirming a Tweet from Collider reporter Drew Tailor.
In a letter to fans posted on Twitter, series co-developers Frank Angones and Matt Youngberg said they “were prepared for this season to be our last.” Nevertheless, the news has some Scrooge stans calling fowl over Disney’s daffy Duck decision.
Based on the popular Uncle Scrooge comics from overground cartoonist Carl Barks, the original DuckTales began over 30 years ago in the late 1980s. Featuring an eccentric family, an immensely rich old guy, and the vocal talents of Russi Taylor, the series was seen as a gamble for the fledging Walt Disney Television Animation division. Its success spawned a feature film and a couple beloved video games.
Who knows which popular animated franchise could be next on Disney’s chopping block?
[Collider]
Seth MacFarlane’s Enabler Leaving Fox
Holy crap, Lois! According to Deadline, Fox network executive and Seth MacFarlane enabler Kevin Reilly has announced he is resigning as Chairman of Entertainment, “amid a major ratings downside for the network.”
Back in 2010, Reilly stubbornly insisted the network’s strategy “is not all Seth, all the time” at the same time they were planning to give him a fourth goddamn show (presumably the abandoned Flintstones reboot, which mercifully didn’t come to fruition).
Seth MacFarlane is Making A Cartoon About Mexican People
With The Cleveland Show cancelled and American Dad heading for TBS, it was looking like Fox might be down to just three Seth MacFarlane-produced shows on their schedule: Family Guy, Dads, and the upcoming Cosmos reboot. Luckily, Fox immediately sprang into action and greenlit his latest cartoon (his fourth for the network), thus maintaining their quota:
Fox has given a 13-episode order to Bordertown, from MacFarlane and Family Guy‘s Mark Hentemann. Set in a fictitious desert town near the U.S.-Mexico border, Bordertown centers on the intertwining daily lives of neighbors Bud Buckwald and Ernesto Gonzales. Bud, a married father of three, is a Border Patrol agent who feels threatened by the cultural changes that have transformed his neighborhood. Living next door is Ernesto, an industrious Mexican immigrant and father of four, who is proud to be making it in America. As Bud and Ernesto’s paths begin to cross, their families become bound by friendship, romance and conflict.
Bob’s Burgers Getting Comic Book, Coloring Book
Bob’s Burgers, the only good show on Fox’s Animation Domination block, is getting its own comic book from some indie company called Dynamite Entertainment. Not only that, but attendees of the Bob’s Burgers panel at an event called the “San Diego Comic Convention” will get a special coloring book! As Bob Burger would say, “Freaking sweet!”
Everyone Lost At The Oscars
Well, the Maggie Simpson short lost in its bid for an Academy Award, and the world was robbed of the opportunity to see director David Silverman’s majestic beard. Here’s a photopic of Silverman, Matt Groening, and writer Michael Price looking dapper on the red carpet (apparently Silverman and Groening didn’t get the memo to wear this Maggie button):
On the red carpet with @tubatron and some guy. twitter.com/mikepriceinla/…
— Michael Price (@mikepriceinla) February 24, 2013
War is Over! Simpsons, Family Guy Writers Band Together To Stop Community From Winning An Emmy
Can critically-‘cclaimed cult college comedy caper Community compete in cartoon and comedy categories? No, according to a bunch of incensed cartoon writers – including all 537 Simpsons writers as well as the Family Guy manatees – who wrote a strongly-worded letter to the esteemed representatives of television to protest Community stepping on their turf (their turf being the Emmy categories Best Animated Program and Short-Form Animated Program). See, once again Community is eligible for an Emmy or two in animated categories thanks to a special animated episode – last year it was the stop-motion “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” (which won Individual Achievement in Animation, the show’s only Emmy so far), this year it’s “Digital Estate Planning,” an excellent video game-based episode. But since Community is normally a live-action show, it’s also eligible for the usual live-action categories that animated shows are apparently ineligible for, including Outstanding Writing in a Comedy.
Seth MacFarlane Branches Out
Seth MacFarlane, beloved by millions around the globe as the voice of Stewie The Talking Baby Who Says Naughty Things and Brian The Talking Dog Who Says Naughty Things, is ready to branch out and tackle the next big challenge of his artistic career: directing, writing, producing and starring in a live-action movie about a Talking Teddy Bear Who Says Naughty Things.
Fox Developing Their Own Adult Swim
Fox hired a guy from Adult Swim to find out how to better compete with Adult Swim and his solution was for Fox to make their own Adult Swim. Brilliant! The two hour programming block will air on Saturdays at 11pm starting next year.
Basically, they’re grabbing up all the “edgy” cartoons they don’t have room for on Sunday nights (which I will henceforth refer to as “Animation Domination Prime”) and dumping them on Saturday nights, formerly the home of MADtv, Wanda Sykes’s late-night talk show, and the remaining episodes of Sit Down, Shut Up they were contractually obligated to air. Nobody knows what’s on there now. The audience for this thing will primarily consist of Adult Swim viewers who forgot Saturdays are when Adult Swim airs The Animes.
They’re Finally Arresting Family Guy Writers
Holy crap, Lois! Remember the time when Family Guy writer Patrick Meighan got sent to the slammer for the heinous crime of occupying Los Angeles? What the deuce??? He set up a blog to share his ordeal.
I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.
With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.
I guess you could say it was the opposite of “freakin’ sweet.” Giggity giggity goo, damn you vile woman, etc.