PBS Kids Go, Cartoon One, Sundance Channel, TV One

PBS Kids Go unveils plans at TCA to launch the new series Wilson & Ditch: Digging America exclusively online at www.pbskidsgo.org this fall. Produced by The Jim Henson Company and targeted to K6-10 the series follows two humorous gopher brothers learning about American culture, history and geography make their way to famous and less so destinations across the country in their green-powered van. The series also features interactive games, original comics as well as blogs and podcasts featuring Wilson and Ditch. Created by Joe Purdy (story editor/Dinosaur Train, Sid The Science Kid) and Craig Bartlett (creator/Dinosaur Train, Hey Arnold), Purdy will pen the website content, with Bartlett directing the animated segments creating the site's comic strip material.


Cartoon One, a Rome-based indie animation studio, is completing production on the series Red Caps (26x26), a co-production with Epidem ZOT Finland. Targeted to K6-9, the action/comedy is designed to encourage kids to stand up for their rights and take responsibility for the planet and environment as the Red Caps set out on a different adventure in each episode. The series, which will be screened at MIPJunior, has been pre-sold to RTL 2 (Germany) and will also be broadcast in 2other countries across Turkey and the Middle East from September. A Red Caps 3D feature film, The Magic Crystal, will be completed next year. Additionally, a series of Red Caps books, online games and community as well as board games are slated for next year too.

Lands' End launches Packland an online world for kids where they can explore in four different environments, jungle, ocean, fantasy world or a spy lab where they can create their own virtual backpack. In each of the four environments, kids can Pack Art to add to their backpack (e.g. gear and gadgets) as well as changing the backpack's color, giving it a name and sharing their creations with friends or printing from the site too.


Sundance Channel premieres season three of the network's original eco-series Big Ideas for a Small Planet tomorrow at 8p. The 13-episode series airs within The Green, the network's weekly primetime block focused on environmental programming. The new season will provide further revelations and discussion surrounding green design, inventions and inventors and processes affecting our communities and everyday lives. This season several celebrities such as Jackson Browne, Thom Filicia, Cindy Crawford, Soleil Moon Frye and members of the Philadelphia Eagles will be profiled.

Continuing with the green theme, TV One introduces viewers to a new 30m eco-reality series starring actor/director/writer Mario Van Peebles and his family. Mario's Green House opens September 27 at 6p with eight new episodes airing weekly followed each Sunday at 630p by an encore presentation of the previous week's episode. Mario's Green House follows Mario, his wife Chitra and their five children as they begin a major eco-renovation of their existing home and embark on a green lifestyle makeover. The series is produced in collaboration with Equator HD by Hour One LLC.