Development Alert: Childhood Favourite Arthur Returns To South African Screens For It's Final Rounds Thanks To PBS Kids

The much-loved cartoon Aardvark is returning to South African screens with Season 17 premiering Monday 3 July on DSTV channel 313 at 4pm.

The premier will be a nostalgic moment for many parents who grew up watching ARTHUR and his many friends, and will now be able to introduce the adored character to their own children, continuing the legacy.

The animated series is aimed at viewers aged four to eight, helping foster an interest in reading and writing, encouraging positive social skills, and models age-appropriate strategies problem-solving strategies.

The show chronicles the adventures of ARTHUR (an eight-year-old aardvark) through engaging, emotional stories that explore real issues kids face. The comedy-like series tells stories from a kid's point of view without moralising or talking down. Situations on ARTHUR develop in realistic ways and don't always turn out as Arthur or his friends might expect.

It has also been honoured with numerous awards, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and three Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Children's Animated Program.

Since its premiere, the series has been accessible through closed-captioning to viewers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. In addition, ARTHUR made history in 1997 when the series became the first daily program to be described for viewers who are blind or visually impaired.

Magnum Pi Cancelled On NBC

The Jay Hernandez-led reboot of the 1980s procedural will wrap its run with its upcoming 10 episodes on NBC. The news comes as the options on the cast were due to expire June 30, forcing NBC — whose studio sibling Universal TV co-produces the series alongside CBS Studios — to make a decision on either extending those deals or wrapping up the show. The network, which has recently passed on a number of pilots and canceled nearly all of its bubble shows, opted to let the show conclude with its remaining 10 episodes rather than to spend the money to extend the show’s stars as it’s unclear when production will resume amid the ongoing Writers Guild strike.

Magnum P.I. was canceled in May 2022 after four seasons on CBS. The series ranked as one of the highest shows on broadcast television at the time of its cancellation, prompting NBC to step in and save the show from cancellation with a two-season, 20-episode pickup less than two months later.

NBC is calling the 20-episode order a split season, a loophole that allows networks, studios and streamers to avoid giving cast, creators and crew annual salary increases in a practice that has been widely used by basic cable networks and streamers.

Eric Guggenheim serves as showrunner and exec produces alongside Justin Lin, John Davis and John Fox. Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, Tim Kang and Amy Hill round out the cast of the series, which streams in-season on Showmax and otherwise on Paramount+.

The Tale Of Gargoyles: The Abandoned Project From The Walt Disney Company

Gargoyles has, over the years, developed a cult following, one that has only grown with all episodes from the 1994-1997 series available to stream on Disney+. Rumors of a new animated series featuring the heroes have come up consistently since the series ended, and the seeds of a live-action take goes as far back as 1995, going so far as to have a screenplay drawn up. The initial success of the series had even spawned the idea of a Disney action universe, a more mature set of fare along the lines of what DC and Marvel had. Only Disney kept the series at arm's length, distributing the syndicated series through its Buena Vista Television arm. They really wouldn't attach the Disney name to it until changes were made for its third season. The series was popular, and toys and other related merchandise was flying off the shelves, so why wasn't it embraced wholeheartedly from the beginning?

Gargoyles begins in 1994, where gargoyles - winged creatures who awaken at night - assist the guards of a medieval Scottish castle from attack by the Vikings. Their leader, Goliath (Keith David), is caught outside the castle walls when daybreak hits, turning him into stone. The captain of the guards (Ed Gilbert) is behind the ruse that led Goliath outside and betrays the clan by letting the Vikings inside. All but a few of the gargoyles are smashed while in their daytime stone form, and the castle is destroyed. Believing the princess of the castle was killed in the attack, the court magician curses the remaining gargoyles in their stone sleep "until the castle rises above the clouds." Only the princess was saved by Goliath, who reunites her with the Magus (Jeff Bennett). Sadly, the curse can't be undone, so Goliath asks to be put under the same curse as his clan.

The Gargoyles are awakened when their castle is reconstructed atop a New York skyscraper by industrialist David Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes), whose intentions are villainous. Befriended by detective Elisa Maza (Salli Richardson), Goliath and his Gargoyle clan, who have taken on very New York names - Bronx (Frank Welker), Brooklyn (Bennett), Broadway (Bill Fagerbakke), and Lexington (Thom Adcox-Hernandez) - learn the truth about Xanatos and spend the nights fighting Xanatos' threats and all manner of evil.

'Gargoyles' Wasn't Like the Other Disney Fare

Goliath (Keith David) and Elisa (Salli Richardson) stand side by side in Disney's 'Gargoyles'Image via Walt Disney Television Animation

Gargoyles was unlike anything else in the mid-1990s, especially in comparison to Disney's other animated fare like Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin. It had far more in common with shows like Batman: The Animated Series as a darker, more mature offering, including a controversial episode, "Deadly Force", that spoke to the gun control debate. The mythology of the series, as well as its story arcs, ran deep, even incorporating Shakespearean themes throughout its run. The one truly unique aspect of the show for its time was its serialized storytelling, especially for syndication. Most series in syndication had self-contained episodes that could be viewed in any order, but Gargoyles had a sequential, overarching narrative that couldn't be aired haphazardly without sacrificing the storyline.

An in-depth interview with creator Greg Weisman with Polygon brings forward two other differences that set the series apart from its animated kin, and arguably live-action television series as well. The character of Detective Elisa Maza was a rarity. As Weisman points out, she was never a damsel in distress, saving Goliath's life just as often as he saved hers. She was half African-American and half-Native American, and the actress who voiced the role, Salli Richardson, is a woman of color, another rarity in the industry back then. Weisman also talks about how Lexington, one of the gargoyles, was gay. At the time, that trait couldn't be acknowledged without consequences, especially for a studio like Disney, so he was written as a gay character without explicitly stating such.

'Gargoyles' Season 3 Changed Everything

Goliath (Keith David) and Elisa (Salli Richardson) in a scene from Season 3 of Disney's 'Gargoyles'Image via ABC

When the time came for a third season, a number of circumstances spelled the end for Weisman's Gargoyles. Almost everyone at Disney that had championed the series was no longer around (Disney president and CEO Frank Wells tragically died in a helicopter crash, and other executives had bolted to DreamWorks), or had effectively been neutered (Michael Eisner was forced to give up being the final word on animated series). News from the O.J. Simpson trial was constantly preempting TV shows and the syndicated stations that were running Gargoyles cut to the trial coverage in lieu of airing the show, meaning episodes were being missed by the public, impacting the narrative, and changing the afternoon appointment viewing habits of the public.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers blasted onto the scene, knocking Gargoyles off its perch atop its afternoon slot. Finally, when Disney bought ABC, they moved the series to the network's Saturday morning lineup, calling it The Goliath Chronicles to separate it from the first two seasons. Standards were significantly different from syndication for network television, especially when it came to Saturday morning fare The darker, more mature edge that made Gargoyles unique was dropped, the creative team had largely jumped ship, and the third season was shipped out to Nelvana Enterprises, a cheaper alternative that saw a marked difference in the quality of the animation... and not a good one at that.

Gargoyles was a show that was well ahead of its time and a gamble that, for a while, paid off. By making the series safe, unchallenging, Saturday morning fare in its third season, it fell into an undefined sameness where each show blended into the next. Now, the series can - and should - be enjoyed as it was meant to be seen on Disney+, a world-building narrative where each episode plays into the next. From its beginnings in medieval Scotland to the boroughs of New York in the present day, Gargoyles' nocturnal protagonists stand unparalleled, with ground-breaking elements that, even now, are unlike anything else in the entertainment industry.

Credit: Llyod Farley

Development Alert: Ginx eSports TV Ends It's Run As A Linear Channel In The United Kingdom, TV Channel To Remain Through On Demand Streaming Services With More Markets Rumoured To Follow

Ginx eSports TV is a UK based gaming channel operated by ITV PLC that promotes all things gaming in the form of news, guidelines and even tournaments. Some of the content viewed on the channel include Top 10, Games Set To Music, Origins and The First Hour.

As reported by Sky this past week, Ginx eSports TV falls out of their offering by the end of June. Although, it would continue to broadcast on Sky Glass which is set to rollout as DStv Glass in South Africa within the next 24 months.

During the year, Sky alongside various pay-tv outlets across the world have been removing non-performing channels. Similar to MultiChoice, they're streamlining their offering and Ginx eSports TV happens to be one of those channels that fall under that criteria.

MultiChoice added the channel in South Africa by 2017 and haven't said much about its viewership or promote it as much as ESPN, WWE and SuperSport. So we only assume that the current scenario seen in the UK is a reflection of what's to come in South Africa at some point.

Ginx eSports TV is kind of niche and considering this is a mid tier channel the viewership has to be below average if not less than M-Net's 8K viewers. Not that the channel is bad but most gaming brands work better as generalists then lifestyle channels.

Prior to its demise in the UK, it's had been long speculated that MultiChoice was looking to scrap the esports channel at some point. But with SuperSportBET also catering to esports gearing up for a fall 2023 rollout we assume something e-sports will be on there.

Maybe this will be one way to retire Ginx eSports TV or give consumers other means to it's offering.

Could Nurses Be Making A Comeback To Telemundo Africa, Here's Why?

During the month, Telemundo's primetime had been phased out or in this case Nurses as it wrapped up early leaving the door open to more rebroadcasts as the channel is adhering to regulations seen in Uganda and Cameroon which prohibit the promotion of homosexual content.

This still comes as a bit of a shocker to most consumers as the channel incorporates a lot of diversity into 90% of their content and also confusion with the reentry of For Love And Justice so we assume that they don't want shows strictly centred in those fields.

For which Nurses had plenty of another could be that Telemundo only opts to air For Love And Justice as it is a rebroadcast and not a primetime series as seen with Nurses.

Despite its removal from the schedule, Nurses is allocated in next month's schedule alongside Law Of The Heart which was initially slated in the timeslot of Almost Yours. This was on the channel's official Passionistas Group after a user had spotted both shows in their initial slots.

Following the possible comeback to the medical drama, DStv was asked on whether Nurses would be added to Telemundo and only responded to say further episodes were available on the Box Set through the DStv app.

As for the section where Nurses is viewed, DStv issued statement apologising to consumers for the schedule changes below that are the episodes consumers were meant to see Telemundo before local regulations had those removed from the channel.

Onto the schedule, it's possible that the programme guide may have not been updated yet. These changes came in the last minute and they probably didn't have time or are still trying to rectify most of their offering. I mean it would be shocking if otherwise considering the episode number.

It would make more sense if the channel continued from where they stopped as opposed advancing