Breakthrough Highlights Kids, Factual, Drama Fare

TORONTO, January 22: Breakthrough Entertainment will arrive
at NATPE next week with a new crop of children’s, factual and drama
programming.

Breakthrough’s slate this year includes the 13×30-minute
children’s series Think Big, which
follows innovative kids as they create and invent new toys, games, learning
tools, websites and new modes of transportation. Produced by Breakthrough Films
& Television in association with TV Ontario in Canada, the delivery of the
series is expected to begin this summer. Animated series are also part of the
lineup, including the action-adventure comedy series Atomic Betty, which follows a sweet and brainy “girl next door”
who also defends the galaxy from the super-villain Maximus I.Q.; and Captain
Flamingo, centered on Milo Powell, who
saves the day dressed in a terrycloth cape with pink headgear. The third
seasons of both series will be available at the market.

On the drama front, Breakthrough will present the
13×30-minute comedy Less Than Kind,
which follows 15-year-old Sheldon Blecher as he attempts to manage his teenage
years while dealing with his dysfunctional family; and the 104×30-minute Paradise
Falls, covering the dramatic antics in a
town that looks like paradise and where everyone has a dirty little secret.
Shot in HD and produced for Showcase in Canada and here! TV in the U.S., the
third season of Paradise Falls is
now in production and will be available this summer.

Factual programming includes the 85-minute documentary The
World Without US, which questions the
reasons, benefits and consequences of U.S. military presence around the world.
Breakthrough will also offer up series like the 23×30-minute The
Re-Inventors, which follow Matt Hunter and
Jeremy MacPherson as they dig up original patent designs from history’s lost
inventions and build them, test them and try to make them work; and the
26×30-minute Plastic Makes Perfect,
featuring hidden camera experiments and real life experiences that examine
prevailing beauty myths. The second seasons of both series are currently in
production.

—By Irene Lew