The Mighty B

A couple of friends of mine in L.A. have a cartoon starting on TV this weekend, on Nickelodeon. "The Mighty B!" premieres Saturday morning, April 26th, at 10:30 a.m. Two other new episodes will appear on Sunday morning. There is an article on Wikipedia with more details than I can possibly provide.

Cynthia True (who wrote for Fairly Odd Parents and does lot of print work, not to mention her great (if somewhat handcuffed by overly-protective copyright holders) biography of Bill Hicks) and her husband, Erik Wiese (who wrote and storyboarded Sponge Bob and other cartoons), co-created the show with Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live. It's been over three years in the making and it is finally hitting the air. It's a very charming show and I probably can't tell you how I know that, but we all--or a subset of us--will know tomorrow.

The cartoon is hand-drawn 2D, which doesn't happen much anymore [1]. Is that cool, or what?

According to my friend Daryle Conners, it is also the first Nick show "(and one of the only cartoons I can think of) that features a little girl in the lead, let alone a little girl who is goofy, crazy, ambitious and a little homely - typically the girls in children's animation normally act as reflectors for the male characters or play "the straight-man" role. "

Amy Poehler voice acts the lead Bessie Higgenbottom, and Andy Richter plays her little brother, Ben. Tune in and give Cindy and Eric a Nielson bump!
___________________________________________

[1] I remember when Disney sold all their animation tables a few years ago...it was kind of a big deal in the videogame and movie industries. We threw in the towel and it wasn't long before those who couldn't or wouldn't make the leap to 3D were left behind--tossed off the side of the prairie schooner to bolster the surviviors' chances.
---o0o---