Modern animation in the United States from the late 1980s to 2004 is frequently referred to as the renaissance age of American animation. During this period, many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments, following the dark age, and the United States had an influence on global and worldwide animation.
The Proud Family is an American animated television series created by Bruce W. Smith that aired on Disney Channel for two seasons from September 15, 2001, to August 19, 2005. The series centers on the life of the titular family, including the show’s main protagonist, Penny Proud, a 14-year-old African American teenager who navigates her adolescence while dealing with her friends and family. Episodes deal with Penny discovering her boundaries and struggling with family relationships and peer pressure. Penny Proud has strong relationships with her entrepreneurial father Oscar Proud and her veterinarian mother Trudy Proud, as well as her friends Dijonay Jones, LaCienega Boulevardez, Zoey Howzer, and Sticky Webb.
Static Shock is an American superhero animated television series based on the Milestone Media/DC Comics superhero Static. It premiered on September 23, 2000, on the WB Television Network's Kids' WB programming block. Static Shock ran for four seasons, with 52 half-hour episodes in total. The show revolves around Virgil Hawkins, a 14-year-old boy who uses the secret identity of "Static" after exposure to a mutagen gas during a gang fight which gave him electromagnetic powers. It was the first time that an African-American superhero was the titular character of their own broadcast animation series.
Round the Twist is an Australian children's comedy drama television series which follows the supernatural adventures of the Twist family, who leave their conventional residence to live in a lighthouse, in the fictional coastal town of Port Niranda.
Alfred Gough is an American screenwriter, producer, writer, director, showrunner and creator.
Sydney Margaret Penny is an American actress. She began her career as a child performer appearing in made-for-television movies. She made her big screen debut in the Western film Pale Rider directed by Clint Eastwood. She received total six Young Artist Awards nominations, winning two for playing Young Meggie Cleary in the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983), and for Pale Rider. Penny also starred in the sitcom The New Gidget (1986–1988), and played Bernadette Soubirous in the French drama film Bernadette (1988) and its sequel The Passion of Bernadette (1990) both directed by Jean Delannoy.
Damien Bodie is an Australian television actor from Melbourne. Bodie began his career securing roles in children's television roles such as his three-year stint as Ram Foley in Crash Zone. He later secured the regular role of Dylan Timmins in the soap opera Neighbours. In 2011, he took the role of Jonathan Kurtiss in the drama series Winners & Losers and remained until 2014.
Sky Trackers is a 26-part science-based Australian children's television adventure series, and a stand-alone children's television movie of the same name, which feature the adventures of children who live at space-tracking stations in Australia. Both series and telemovie were created by Jeff Peck and Tony Morphett, and executive-produced by Patricia Edgar on behalf of the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF).
Cassandra Magrath is an Australian actress. She played Miranda Gibson in the Australian ABC 1998–2000 television series SeaChange and Liz Hunter in the 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek.
Noah and Saskia is a 13-episode TV program initiated, developed and produced by Patricia Edgar for the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) and the BBC as she stepped down after 20 years as Founding Director of the ACTF. The 13 x 24-minute drama series involves an Australian teenage girl, Saskia, and her internet-based relationship with Noah, a teenage boy living in the United Kingdom. The two characters project their ideal selves to each other in a virtual world, and in the process get a little closer to reaching their ideals in the real one. The show is about the power of someone's essence and how someone can touch you from 10,000 miles away, and change your whole life. Noah & Saskia speaks directly to today's young people about the technologies which are changing the way we communicate.
"I wanted one more crack at producing the type of television I had always believed in; not a formulaic soap-style series; not a co-produced mid-Pacific blancmange, but something that really spoke to adolescents about the issues that were on their minds," Patricia Edgar, Bloodbath: a memoir of Australian Television, pg.399. "The Internet was the place to set much of the action as this allowed for a modern, contemporary story, which would be new territory for drama. The other appeal of online chat spaces was that they give the characters opportunities to express themselves in multiple ways. The Net is a space where young people are much more at home than their parents and increasingly it will be their world", Patricia Edgar.
The Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) is a national non-profit children's media production and policy hub. The ACTF helps develop children's television policy; distributes and pays for Australian children's television series; supports new children's media; and develops screen resources for the education sector. The ACTF provides funding and support to independent Australian producers and writers of children's programs.
The Genie from Down Under is a British-Australian children's comedy television series. It was a co-production between the ACTF, the BBC and the ABC from 1996 to 1998. The Genie from Down Under is based on an idea from Steve J Spears which was developed into a series concept with a 'Round The Twist' flavour. Esben Storm, Steve Spears and a team of writers work-shopped the storylines. Patricia Edgar was looking for a new idea for a comedy series which would capture the debate about Australia becoming a Republic - a significant issue in Australia at the time. She invited a few writers to submit original ideas then chose the concept submitted by Steve Spears to workshop its potential. She asked Esben Storm, who had been the co-author and Director of the successful Round the Twist series to lead the development workshop.
Patricia May Edgar AM is an Australian author, television producer, educator and media scholar, best known as the founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation.
Nikolai Nikolaeff is an Australian actor who is best known for his roles in the television series Sea Patrol, Power Rangers Jungle Fury and Daredevil.
Heidi Valkenburg is an Australian actress, artist and writer.
Crash & Bernstein is an American sitcom on Disney XD, which premiered on October 8, 2012, and ended on August 11, 2014. Created by Eric Friedman, the series centered on a boy with three sisters who wishes to have a brother. His wishes come true when he builds his own brother. Production for the series began in April 2012.
Christopher Hugh Neal is an Australian musician, songwriter, record producer and television and film music composer. His scores include Buddies, Bodyline, The Shiralee, Turtle Beach and Farscape.
Kaboodle is a 13-part anthology television series which includes animation, puppetry, and live action and was produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) that ran on ABC Television from 1987 to 1990. Kaboodle 2 was a follow-on series which provided another six half-hour episodes of innovative television drama for the under-tens. Kaboodle 2, however, was fully animated and instead of being an ‘anthology’ series of many short dramas, all of which are different, this season had regular characters in every episode. The show commenced screening on the Seven Network across Australia in April 1990.
Garth Davis is an Australian television, advertising and film director, best known for directing the film Lion (2016), and the film Mary Magdalene, written by Helen Edmundson. He earlier directed episodes of the series Top of the Lake (2013).
The Fox Entertainment Group (FEG) was an American entertainment company specialized in filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were dispersed to various Disney units. The film studios 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios were transferred to Walt Disney Studios, while Fox Star Studios transferred to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International.
