MarVista Bulks Up Prank Patrol Library

LOS ANGELES, March 27:
MarVista Entertainment will debut 22 new half-hour episodes of the live-action
kids’ reality series Prank Patrol at
MIPTV, following YTV’s decision to renew the show for a fourth season.

Now totaling 100 episodes,
Prank Patrol is produced by the
Montreal-based producer Apartment 11 Productions in association with YTV, and
with support from the Shaw Rocket Fund. Production on the fourth season begins
in May, and is slated for a fall debut on YTV.

In Prank Patrol, viewers get to create, build and execute a
big-time prank. Each week, in the customized "SpyVan," host Andre
“Andy” Simoneau and his
sidekick Ninjas take the prankster to the special-effects pros. With their
movie-making skills, these experts help the prankster put together and pull off
the prank of a lifetime. Prank Patrol is created by Jonathan Finkelstein and David Hansen. Finkelstein is
also the executive producer of the series and the president of Apartment 11.
David Hansen produced seasons one and two, while Maryke McEwen produced seasons
three and four.

In addition to the Canadian production, Prank Patrol is licensed as
a format to the BBC, who renewed the series for a second season, broadcasting a
total number of 30 episodes. The British version of the series was produced in
the U.K. by Bakermedia. MarVista is also responsible for distributing the U.K.
version of Prank Patrol outside of Canada, the U.K. and Ireland and is
responsible for licensing format rights to other territories.

“Jonathan Finkelstein and his team at Apartment 11 continue to make
outstanding programming that performs consistently well,” commented Fernando Szew, the president of
MarVista. “As a result, their shows continually get renewed by their
commissioning broadcasters, providing series with multiple episodes for the
overseas market, an attractive proposition for most international
broadcasters.”

“Prank Patrol continues to resonate with viewers because they know
when they tune in to each episode, they can expect a half hour full of laughter
and surprises,” noted Finkelstein. “We never cease to be amazed by the
boundless imagination of the stars of our show—real kids who provide us
with the motivation to outdo ourselves each year with wilder and more
outrageous pranks.”

—By Ned Berke