Indeed, the series, which debuts this fall worldwide (and which will have a major sendoff at Buena Vista Intl.’s annual blowout at Mipcom), comes with an impressive toon pedigree, including the involvement of Avery’s daughter, Nancy Arkley, and directors Eddie Fitzgerald and Michael Fontinelli, both of whom are Avery aficionados. What’s more, the lion’s share of production is being carried out in France, where Avery and his work is, well, lionized.
“We’ve got people that we wouldn’t normally be able to get to work in Saturday-morning television,” notes Heyward. “When we said the name Tex Avery, that was a magnet for absolutely incredible talent.” In the case of Fitzgerald and Fontinelli, both left their home studios of DreamWorks and Disney, respectively, to work on the shorts.
“The Wacky World of Tex Avery,” which is syndicated in the U.S. through Program Exchange, features new (non-derivative) characters, such as Freddy the Fly, Pompeii Pete, Genghis and Connie, and Power Pooch, as well as a toon version of Avery himself, who is teamed with the Jessica Rabbitish Chastity Knott to re-create Avery’s special brand of hormonal humor.
“The idea was to do something with maybe the spirit of a Looney Tunes for the ’90s,” Heyward explains.
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