News

In today’s TV news roundup, Mike Epps has been cast as a guest star in an upcoming episode of “Stumptown,” and Freeform set a premiere date for its upcoming film, “The Thing About Harry.”

Castings

Comedian Mike Epps has been cast in a guest role on “Stumptown,” Variety has learned exclusively. Epps will portray Judge Antonio Price, the star of “Black Justice,” which is a fictional highly-rated court TV show within the universe of the ABC drama. Theatrical and charismatic, Epps’ Price entertains the room while passing down judgement. When not on the bench, he has a more serious side and hires Dex to handle a situation concerning his brother. His episode will air Jan. 8 on ABC. See a first look at Epps in the role above.

Victor Cruz will join E! Network’s “Pop of the Morning” as the third co-host with Lilliana Vazquez and Scott Tweedie. The former football player,...

By now, chances are you've heard about Black Mirror's new offering: a standalone "choose your own adventure" film called Bandersnatch. Yep, it's exactly what it sounds like: you're not just a passive viewer when it comes to our hero, Stefan. Instead, you must make choices along the way that inevitably affect his fate, as well as the ending you get to witness. The finished product is surely unlike anything ever before seen in the entertainment world, and it's so much more than that, too. It runs smoothly, it's an incredible story, and there are reportedly something to the tune of one trillion different permutations based on the varying choices you can make and paths you can take.

If that all sounds very complicated, it's because it is. To pull off Bandersnatch, Netflix had to develop new tools and programs, and they had to double the budget and the production...

Ellation, At&T’s subsidiary for online video subscription services, is expanding into the original content space: The company has launched two studios in Burbank and Tokyo to produce shows for its Crunchyroll anime subscription service as well as its Vrv video subscription bundle.

The newly-created Ellation Studios unit is being led by Margaret Dean, who until recently was the general manager of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the studio behind such animation hits like “Robot Chicken” and “Buddy Thunderstruck.” The first original production to come out of Ellation Studios is “High Guardian Spice” (pictured above), which will premiere on Crunchyroll in 2019.

The company has had some of its upcoming original projects in development for more than a year, said Crunchyroll founder and general manager Kun Gao during a recent conversation with Variety in the company’s San Francisco headquarter office. He said that the move into originals was very much a continuation of Crunchyroll’s existing business.

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the studio founded by Seth Green, John Harvatine IV, Matthew Senreich and Eric Towner, which is best known for its stop-motion animated series, is making a push into live-action with the hire of Spencer Griffin as Head of Live-Action Development. Additionally, the company has promoted Chris Waters to Head of Animation Development.

“Spencer and Chris are extremely talented executives with a wealth of creative experience that line up perfectly with the Stoopid Buddy Stoodios mindset. We couldn’t be more excited to have them lead our development team,” said Stoopid Buddy Stoodios Co-Founder Matthew Senreich.

Griffin joins Stoopid Buddy Stoodios from Big Breakfast, where he served as Svp and Executive Producer. His credits include Adam Ruins Everything for TruTV, Hot Date for PopTV, and The Middle of the Night Show for MTV. While at Big Breakfast, he was credited with helping the CollegeHumor brand...

The concept of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure storytelling isn’t a new one; just ask any ’80s kid who grew up reading the classic book series, where you jumped from section to section based on your own decisions. But Netflix has now evolved the experience off the page and on the screen — taking advantage of the streaming model in new ways for TV storytelling.

The animated young adult series “Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters” recently debuted a special episode titled “The Breakout,” in which the three heroes at the core of the series have to track down a number of escaped villains causing chaos in their city.

“The Breakout” features an impressive voice cast, including Clancy Brown, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gary Cole, Keith David, Will Friedle, Kelly Hu, Walter Koenig, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, and Steven Yeun, but more importantly there’s a twist to the action — watch it on your computer or via select devices,...

Get ready for some films by the Robot Chicken crew, because that's exactly what you're about to get. Stoopid Buddy Studios, who is currently in post-production for its first live-action feature Changeland, has signed a "first-look" two-year deal with 20th Century Fox that includes animated films and family films according to Variety.

The latter sounds weird if you're one of those people who only watches Robot Chicken, but the studio also makes the children's show Buddy Thunderstruck for Netflix, and it's pretty great as well. Currently, the studio is getting ready to make its first project for Fox, which currently is simply called "Sword". 

I'm excited for a future of Stoopid Buddy making movies, what about you?...

Sam Glover May 25, 2017

Stuck for an alternative to the usual viewing for young kids? Then these streaming recommendations may be of use...

The wonderful world wide web (including this very site) has looked in detail at Netflix; the hits, the misses, the hidden gems, the ones to miss and so on. This said, Netflix Originals has another area where it operates. And this is where my three-year-old son comes in.

See related American Gods episode 4 review: Git Gone American Gods episode 3 review: Head Full Of Snow American Gods episode 2 review: The Secret Of Spoons

Thanks to Nick Jnr and Channel 5’s Milkshake, we’re generally okay in our house should children’s television (Aka award-winning parenting) be required. Netflix takes it to another level. There are the well-known shows (Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol etc.), the slightly lesser-known programmes (Pocoyo being my personal favourite) and then there are Netflix’s own productions.