Emmy-winning kids’ entertainment service Kabillion has acquired the classic 1960s animated TV series Underdog to join its VOD and online platforms on Aug. 7. The premiere also kicks off Kabillion’s series of Olympics-themed programming for August, featuring special episodes of the Taffy Ent. shows Bobby’s World, Code Lyoko, Pet Alien, Mix Master and I Got a Rocket.
Underdog first aired in 1964, introducing audiences to mild-mannered dog named Shoeshine Boy. Whenever there is a call for help, he turns into Underdog, a costumed canine crime fighter who speaks in rhyme. The property was made into a live-action feature film starring the voice of Jason Lee from NBC’s My Name Is Earl. Released last August, the pic grossed a modest $65 million worldwide.
The first episode to debut on Kabillion is ‘Drawn By the Magnet Men,’ in which Olympic athletes begin mysteriously disappearing. When scientists discover the athletes are being pulled away from Earth by a strange planet, Underdog and TV reporter Sweet Polly Purebread visit the planet and are captured by the Magnet Men.
The other themed programs Kabillion has scheduled for the month of August include a Bobby’s World episode in which young Bobby competes in his neighborhood Olympics, a Code Lyoko installment where the evil X.A.N.A. creates a zero-gravity zone on the field just as Ulrich is about to compete in the soccer finals, a Pet Alien adventure in which Tommy and the aliens concoct a plan to help him with the DeSpray Bay MathOlympics, an episode of Mix Master that has the humans and Hench come together for the first time for a Sports Day, and an I Got a Rocket story in which Vinnie decides to purposely lose the interschool genius quiz for fear of looking like a geek.
Now in its second year, Kabillion is part of The MoonScoop Group, a worldwide production, distribution, brand management and entertainment company. The service is owned in part by Taffy Ent., REMIX Ent. Ventures and Germany’s EM.Entertainment, and is available both as a free video on-demand (VOD) channel and a free online broadband site (www.Kabillion.com). Initially launched on Comcast Cable’s Select On Demand across the U.S., the VOD platform is now also available to digital cable subscribers nationwide on Bresnan cable systems.
