Worldwide Nick

I spent the morning at Nickelodeon Cartoon's Burbank studio. Although there are empty cubicles here and there, the place has a lot of projects going. A lot of older shows (Sponge Bob, Fairly Odd Parents) and the pre-school cartoons have staffs going on new half-hours (Supervising Producer Jeff DeGrandis ricochets from one office to another as he works on Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go and Mi Hao Kai Lan) ...

Next door in the condo annex, work continues apace on Madagascar Penguins with a sizable crew that fills a lot of the building. (This is a CGI show starring DreamWorks' black-and-white bird maniacs, in case people are wondering). Nickelodeon, unlike some of its sister L.A.-based cartoon studios, has a pretty robust slate of product. But then, Nick is expanding globally:

Nickelodeon UK is extending its animation offerings with the launch of a new channel, NickToonsters, on August 18 on Sky.

NickToonsters will target the 5-to-7 set ... It joins the Nickelodeon family of channels already on air in the U.K. that includes Nick Jr. and NickToons.

When you've got to feed a hungry global distribution network, it's kind of mandatory to create fresh product on a regular basis. The kids won't sit there and watch test patterns or static, after all.