Roundups #104: Insidus Games Presents Panic Restaurant, Adom TV To Air The Silent Thief And A Look At November's Lineup For WildEarth

Panic Restaurant is now available to download on Insidus Games

Panic Restaurant is a platform game that stars a chef named Cookie who must navigate through his own restaurant, which has been cursed by a rival chef named Ohdove. Cookie has to battle evil food monsters with kitchen utensil weapons in six levels before taking on Ohdove in a final battle.

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The Silent Thief coming soon to Adom TV

Jessie’s perfect life becomes a nightmare when her only son, Ethan is kidnapped by unknown persons. No contact is made by the kidnappers, making the police conclude that the kidnapping was an act of revenge. Jessie has no clue as to who holds a grudge against her or her husband, Brylle, since they live a relatively quiet life. Brylle is a hard working doctor while Jessie is a devoted housewife. However, Brylle suspects Amado, the father of a patient he failed to save, and Reign, a lover he is keeping from Jessie.

Jessie spends her time searching for Ethan. She gains an ally in Larry, the lead investigator of the case who has hidden feelings for her. She meets Marie, who is actually Reign pretending to be a friend and who is plotting to ruin her marriage and steal Brylle.

In Jessie’s quest to find her son, she uncovers secrets that will point to unlikely suspects and will push her to the limit. Will she get back everything that was taken from her?

The series airs from 31 October on Adom TV.

What to expect on WildEarth in November 2022?

WILD Babies
10-13th November

WildEarth CAT GMT CET ET Wild Babies 3.30pm - 7.30pm 1.30pm - 5.30pm 2.30pm -6.30pm 8.30am - 12.30pm
Like humans, baby animals must all learn to thrive on this planet. Watching them develop their own characters as they face their first days, weeks and months in the wild is fascinating.
For four days WildEarth will be celebrating wild babies and finding as many as we can on SafariLIVE. November is the time when many of the herbivore babies are born at the same time so as to have safety in numbers form the predators. Also a plethora of baby chicks will hatch in our birds' nests. Prepare for many hours of cuteness overload.

On The Hunt
26-27th October 2022
WildEarth CAT GMT CET ET On the Hunt 5.30am - 7.30pm 3.30am - 5.30pm 4.30am -6.30pm 10.30am - 12.30pm

On the Hunt is a detailed look at the remarkable strategies employed by hunters to catch their prey and the hunted to escape. Rather than simply concentrating on 'the blood and guts' of predatory behaviours we will focus more upon the diverse strategies predators use to catch their food, and also the various evasive techniques prospective prey use to escape death by predator.

Paramount Africa's Future Is Up In The Air As Several Of Their Websites Have Shut Down

For several months, Nicktoons has become a waste featuring mostly SpongeBob SquarePants and The Casagrandes with the Nick Jr. block adopting to a similar format with Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol. Basically, it appears as if Paramount is ready to call it quits.

But that's not the only thing that seems bizarre about Paramount as several brands ranging from Comedy Central, MTV, BET and Nickelodeon all once operated a regional site which gives you details about some of the content seen on the channel and was usually a place fans would engage.

Now just like Nicktoons, Paramount Africa's websites appears to have been discontinued as several consumers are redirected to a European based website.

Sure Paramount in Africa is managed by the folks in those regions but there is so much of a variation on which the company seems to have cut down with MTV and Nick Jr. But the brands in question had a lot of variation during their run.

Comedy Central, MTV Base and Nickelodeon have all been redirected to the Netherlands. Take into account, there's a slight variation aside from content there's the matter of language of which not a lot of viewers are very much familiar with.

Even the media sales website had been listed as spam or a rejected website which could be another indicator that Paramount is distancing their focus away from their linear channels and more to Paramount+.

Interesting to note, My5 a UK based streaming service is managing the once available BET Africa website. This is the brand that took away the linear feed to the channel within that region which kind of raises questions over Paramount's linear offering.

Although there's no definite release date, several Nickelodeon feeds (including Nicktoons and Nick Jr.) had been renewed through at least 2027 which is likely where Paramount MIGHT start pulling the cord on some if not all their linear channels.

I mean Asia did lose a Nickelodeon while as Latin America lost a Nicktoons perhaps a couple of feeds could join before that time but with the recent developments I wouldn't be all that shocked if Paramount followed their competitors in moving their content to streaming.

Links

Comedy Central: click here

Nickelodeon: click here
MTV and MTV Base: click here

BET: click here

Nickelodeon To Likely Remain On Air Until At Least 2027

For several months, Paramount has begun reducing the amount of focus invested onto their linear offering. Nicktoons is a prime example as the channel has been overflowing their lineup with SpongeBob SquarePants and a spinoff to The Loud House, The Casagrandes.

The Loud House was getting the same amount of attention as abovementioned shows but no one knows at this point why it fell off the schedule more turn to its censorship at Nickelodeon while others turn to the current offering on Nicktoons mostly scrapped content.

NickMusic which has been more of a hit miss or hit run is the only thing giving Nicktoons life at this point. But with the amount of local music flooding the airwaves I'm sure MTV Base will do a better job pampering the existing lineup in the show.

As mentioned, Paramount seems to be cutting back on their linear channels. It's not only Nicktoons that has been affected but MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Nickelodeon appear to be tagging along as their websites had been wiped off the face of the earth.

Paramount had been gaining more exclusivity to Nickelodeon as the brand shuttered in Asia and watered down in Canada with Nicktoons suffering a similar fate in Latin America. As for Africa, Nicktoons is being treated like MTV Hits - non existent.

As much as the evidence of a potential closure keeps piling up. The sad part to all of that is the channel's licence in some parts of Europe primarily Scandinavia, Poland and Netherlands had been extended for another 5 long and boring years.

As seen on Paramount Africa's websites, most of their feeds had been redirected to these regions primarily Netherlands hinting at the possibility that Nicktoons even sister channels Nickelodeon and Nick Jr could remain on air for another 5 years although their duration is yet to be confirmed.

MultiChoice has halted a lot of channels during the year and this is me hoping that Nicktoons doesn't make it through 2027 unscathed as Da Vinci a channel which is more productive was almost crucified for the JimJam and Baby TV inspired Moonbug Kids.

Could BET Africa Be Taking The Digital Plunge As My5 Is All That Is Left Of Former Website?

Last year, it was reported Paramount will be closing the black skewed entertainment channel BET in the UK as part of a digital approach set by the company in question and at the time questions amounted to the digital endeavours for audiences in Africa.

BET has been active in the African market through DStv since 2014 serving up shows like My Wife And Kids, Real Husbands Of Hollywood, Love And Hip-Hop, Black Ink Crew, All Of Us and Mary Mary.

Over the years, the channel had become a victim of a dry spell often struggling to source out fresher entertainment and relied solely on content already viewed on Paramount's other brands Comedy Central and MTV.

As seen in the UK, My5 (aka Channel 5) a black based streaming service happens to be the distributor of BET and appears to have taken possession of the African feed although the brand shows no signs of rolling out in the region.

Although the linear version of the brand is defunct in the UK the one in Africa seems unlikely to be shuttered for the foreseeable future or for as long as the upcoming streamer Paramount+ has yet to rollout in the region.

Paramount+ is set to leverage a lot of existing content from their linear counterparts and as seen with Nickelodeon it has practically become a graveyard to their programming which is where the current local offering on BET might as well sit.

The Mystery Of Mess O' Blues (Unreleased Johnny Bravo Pilot)

Mess O' Blues is a 1993 senior thesis project short film by Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible. The short film stars an Elvis Presley impersonator, who was the prototype version of what would later become the Johnny Bravo character. The title itself is a reference to an Elvis Presley song, A Mess of Blues.

While plot details of the short film are unknown, fifteen seconds of footage was shown in the "Bringing Up Johnny Bravo" look-back documentary, which was a bonus feature on the Season 1 DVD. In a video uploaded by Loyola Marymount University, four animation cels from Mess O' Blues were shown. These depicted the Elvis impersonator holding a mirror, holding a microphone, holding up a sheep with a bow on its head, and sitting on a bench across from an irritated woman. According to Partible, he owns the only VHS tape copy of the film.

As a guest on the What's In My Head Podcast, Van Partible confirmed that he has no plans to release Mess O' Blues. He wishes to preserve the novelty of sharing it with others as a "fun little thing" in private viewings, rather than publicly on the internet for all to see. Partible also reassured that the short film "isn't going anywhere" and that he saved a re-digitalized copy to his hard drive.

History
While Van Partible was a student at Loyola Marymount University, he decided to persue animation, and soon enough began to develop a short film for his senior thesis project. He originally wanted it to star a trio of Elvis impersonators ("Elvi") who fought crime, but settled on just one to lighten his one-man workload. This sole impersonator was described as an "over-the-hill aging rock star who thinks he's Elvis." The project originally had no soundtrack and was presented with a live-reading out of necessity, some friends of Partible's providing the voices and music, with Partible himself providing the sound effects. Due to Mess O' Blues being silent, he was unable to enter the piece in any film festivals.

When Partible learned that the short film was going to be shown to Hanna-Barbera, he added an audio track of himself doing all the voices. His animation professor, Dan McLaughlin, presented the completed short film (alongside student films by others) to Buzz Potamkin, a friend of his at the studio. Soon after, Partible was asked by Ellen Cockrill, one of the heads of development, if he was interested in pitching a 7-minute cartoon based on Mess O' Blues for their shorts program What A Cartoon! on Cartoon Network. When Partible pitched his polished idea of Johnny Bravo, it was met with some hesitancy until Cockrill and two other women fought to get the project made.

Credits: Wiki and YoshiKiller2S