NEW YORK A gimpy but game Michael Eisner helped kick off the springtime upfront ritual on Thursday morning, as the former Disney CEO took the stage at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom to talk up a series he’s developed for Mouse rival Nickelodeon.
Supporting his weight on crutches, his left ankle encased in a plaster cast -- he later joked that he had injured himself while "fighting with Sumner Redstone over a parking space at Bank of America" -- Eisner pitched the assembled throng of media buyers on the concept behind Glenn Martin, DDS, a new animated series that will bow this summer on Nick-at-Nite.
"The idea of a comedy in which a family goes out on the road to see America really appealed to me," said Eisner, who is launching the stop-motion strip under his Tornante Animation banner. ("Tornante" is an Italian word that is used on road signs to warn alpine cyclists of approaching hairpin turns.)
In an oblique reference to the 1973 Paramount road picture Paper Moon, Eisner said that the germ of the idea for Glenn Martin, DDS, could be found in his early work with the movie studio. But it was a visit to the dentist that brought the storyline into focus: "I was thinking of the kind of job you’d want to leave to travel the country with your family," Eisner said.
Glenn Martin, DDS, marks the first TV series from Tornante, which Eisner formed after he left Disney in 2005. Nickelodeon has ordered 20 episodes.
Eisner told his audience that he was "having fun" with the series, adding that the project has allowed him to focus on something other than the cratering economy. "I’m not worried about the meltdown ... I’m worried about this show," he said. Eisner went on to note the irony of his association with Nickelodeon, which he characterized as "a once distant rival that is now in [Disney’s] face."
Another upcoming Nick project that bears a Disney pedigree is Penguins of Madagascar, a Saturday-morning animated series featuring characters from DreamWorks’ Madagascar theatricals. Former Disney Studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg brought the TV spin-off to Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami in early 2007; a pilot episode originally aired on Nicktoons last November.
Penguins will move from Nicktoons to the flagship net when the series returns for its full-season run on March 28. Nickelodeon has ordered 26 episodes of the animated strip.
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