Nick to Spin Off Rugrats

New York -- A Rugrats spinoff featuring two of its female characters
and the series debut of a popular Nickelodeon movie are two of five new animated
series Nickelodeon will roll out during the 2002-03 season.

Nick will also revamp its Saturday-morning lineup on broadcast network CBS to
better reach pre-tweens, representatives said at the network's upfront
presentation here Tuesday.

The network has commissioned 13 episodes of Angelica and Susie's School
Daze
, a spinoff of its popular Rugrats series featuring animated
characters Angelica Pickles and Susie Carmichael, executive vice president and
general manager Cyma Zarghami said.

Other new series set to premiere in the fall are The Adventures of Jimmy
Neutron
, based on the Nick film of the same name; Danny Phantom, an
animated series about a kid superhero; My Neighbor Is a Teenage Robot, an
animated spinoff of Nick's Oh Yeah! Cartoons;and Max and
Ruby
, an animated series for the network's 'Nick Jr.' preschool block.

Also new to the schedule is the off-broadcast-network ABC series
Clueless, set to premiere this fall.

And Nick will debut a kids-friendly version of sister network TNN: The
National Network's Robot Wars -- part of the network's revamped
Sunday-afternoon programming block targeted toward boys.

On its CBS Saturday-morning kids' block, Nick will replace several of its
preschool shows with older-skewing titles such as As Told by Ginger and
The Wild Thornberrys to attract six- to 11-year-olds, Zarghami
said.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.