Ryan W. Mead

Warner Bros rebuffs Paramount takeover approach, Bloomberg News reports Warner Bros Discovery has rebuffed Paramount Skydance's initial takeover approach as too low, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.

Some good news - for now, at least: Warner Bros. Discovery has rejected Paramount’s initial buyout offer as they feel the proposed purchase price of $20 a share is too low, Bloomberg reports citing anonymous inside sources: www.reuters.com/business/med...

Advertising; 'Dennis' Is Added To Lineup (Published 1986)

As this 1986 New York Times article shows, the reason they were using “evergreens” and “perennials” to refer to these is that they weren’t tied to toy fads and thus were considered safe investments that could run for years.

Of course, the Turtles bucked the trend. www.nytimes.com/1986/06/13/b...

Also, it’s very amusing to see the comment in the Gumby ad that the only show it wasn’t able to beat in the ratings was Thundercats, “but then again, you’d expect that!”

Of course, Lorimar-Telepictures distributed both shows.

Seeing as I was the first person to comment on the “turtles come and turtles go” ad on social media years ago, it’s interesting to see other trade ads from the era and that Lorimar-Telepictures used “perennials” to refer to their syndicated shows, not too far off from Program Exchange’s “evergreens”

Oh that was just a trade ad war. Marketing teams were playing dirty non-stop. Old VS new, new VS new... it was wild.

An ad with classic cartoon characters Fred Flintstone, Dennis the Menace, and Woody Woodpecker with the caption "Turtles Come And Turtles Go, But We Go On Forever"

Don't worry, American culture was also threatened by the ninja turtles based on nothing but "New is bad, old is good"

‘Backyard Sports’ Animated Special to Debut in 2026; Playground Productions to Complete Video Game Re-Release Lineup Playground Productions announced a retro bundle, new gamification features, and a "Backyard Sports" animated special at New York Comic Con

Pablo Sanchez hits the big time (again): a Backyard Sports animated special is set for a 2026 release, initially through a partnership with Dave and Busters. Irish studio Lighthouse (Rick & Morty, Bob’s Burgers Movie, Cuphead) is the animation house. variety.com/2025/gaming/...

Woody Woodpecker is owned by Universal. Surprisingly, he is and always has been hugely popular in Brazil and remains so to this day, leading to the production of two direct-to-Netflix feature films.

YouTube video by Gushers FruitHead | NEW Horror Film [Starring Bradley Whitford]

A horror movie spoof played straight paying homage to those old Gushers commercials where the kids’ heads turn into fruit - and the unfortunate side effect one of those kids seeks revenge on the director (Bradley Whitford) for. youtu.be/3uO_d-4TJPo

As the Spinal Tap line goes, there’s a fine line between clever and stupid, and General Mills and Ron Howard’s production company - who also collaborated on the Count Chocula Jim Henson puppets - seem to be in just the right frame of mind for their other Halloween collab:

A poster for an A Minecraft Movie sequel depicting two pickaxes forming the Roman numeral II above the text “July 23 2027”.

A promotional photo depicting a script cover reading “BAD FAIRIES Starring Cynthia Erivo. Logos appear for Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Locksmith Animation.

It’s time to try chickening a jockey (or some other suitable pun): Warner Bros. has today both dated an “A Minecraft Movie” sequel for July 2027 and announced “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo will star in their animated film “Bad Fairies”, bowing May of the same year.

Gail Simone wrote a few of these!

Conservative Watchdog Parents TV Council Files for Bankruptcy: Famed for ‘Family Guy’ Feud Seth MacFarlane once famously called the PTC "like getting hate mail from Hitler." Now they've filed for Chapter 11.

Brent Bozell’s Parents Television Council, probably best known for its WWE and “Family Guy” campaigns (the latter surprisingly ending with Bozell’s successor Tim Winter befriending Seth McFarlane and praising “The Orville”), has filed for bankruptcy: www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/p...

Leigh Anne Brodsky Dies: Longtime Nickelodeon & Discovery Licensing Exec Was 67 Leigh Anne Brodsky, a leading Nickelodeon and Discovery licensing executive, has died at the age of 67.

RIP marketing exec Leigh Anne Brodsky, who in a quite impressive career oversaw Garfield during his 1980s heyday, suggested Nickelodeon’s purchase of the Ninja Turtles, and ran Snoopy and co’s largest ever marketing effort for “The Peanuts Movie”. deadline.com/2025/10/leig...

The brand name “Domino’s” in blue sans-serif text. Multiple circles have been overlaid over the text to show how the curves of the font are intended to resemble the round shape of a pizza.

Domino’s has done an entire brand redesign which on the whole isn’t too bad but it includes a new corporate font called Domino’s Sans which they point out is rounded like a pizza wherever possible which just reminds me of the Pepsi Document

This is just a Stan Kelly cartoon without any irony attached

YouTube video by Paramount Pictures Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Chrome Alone 2 | Official Teaser (2025 Short)

Preview of a short: The “Mutant Mayhem” TMNT face AI, bootleg toys, and the wilds of New Jersey. (Speaking as a Jerseyan overwhelmed by their first NYC trip but now takes it like a pro I can imagine the inverse is just as frightening).

*toy does not live

youtu.be/HZ3ZIHw9Vws

Poster for Walt Disney World’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starting the Muppets, styled as a vintage rock concert poster. Photo credit: Disney

Publicity photo of Miss Piggy released by the promotional team for “Rob Lake Magic on Broadway with Special Guests The Muppets”. Photo credit: DCK/O&M

This is a Muppet News Flash:

The Muppets will officially take over Walt Disney World’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in Summer 2026, with an animatronic Scooter in tow (and perhaps others?)

Not to be outdone, Rob Lake’s Broadway magic show has officially welcomed Miss Piggy.

I love Pikmin, but it seems strange that Nintendo would use an animated short to relay the lore message that “Pikmin aren’t just very tiny, but also invisible to humans”.

Then again, using an animated short to relay it is VERY much a Nintendo way of doing things.

Nintendo's second 'Close to You' video reveals it was Pikmin all along - Vooks Team Rosalina in shambles.

Well, that was fast: it turns out those saying the short had something to do with Pikmin were absolutely right as a version showed up on Nintendo Today revealing that Pikmin absolutely were manipulating everything in that baby’s room.

Forget what I said.

www.vooks.net/nintendos-se...

Pikmin can be seen in both the Mario and Donkey Kong sections of Super Nintendo World, the Nintendo Museum, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It’s a cross-company Easter egg just like the Pizza Planet truck and much like the “Pixar Theory” isn’t real has no deeper meaning to it

Miyamoto: I've been saying for a long time that Pikmin games tend to stand out due to their world and characters, but I think they re also interesting as a game genre. Furthermore, I want people to have this real sense that Pikmin are all around us, that they aren't just fantasy creatures. Pikmin have no set age or nationality. They have a unique presence as creatures that exist somewhere on Earth. That's not the case with Mario. We know he's of Italian descent in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but it's not like you can bump into him walking down the street, because he lives in the world of Mario. (Laughs) In fact, I consider Pikmin to be Nintendo's most global characters. Since the promotional campaign we launched over ten years ago, we've been saying, "Pikmin are all around us." | think we've finally reached a point where people can find Pikmin in various places, not just in their imaginations. I hope more and more people become aware of Pikmin and play Pikmin games.

People are assuming that Nintendo’s mysterious “Close to You” short is a tie-in with Pikmin because one apparently can be seen briefly, but remember that Shigeru Miyamoto has said Pikmin are the only Nintendo characters that exist in the “real world” so to speak

Jimmy Fallon Is Bringing Wordle To TV With NBC Piloting Game Show; Savannah Guthrie Hosting Fallon is producing via his Electric Hot Dog banner and Universal Television Alternative Studio.

The New York Times, NBC, and producer Jimmy Fallon will adopt 🟩🟩🟨🟩🟩
adept 🟩🟩🟨🟩🟩
adapt the popular online word game Wordle into a game show to be hosted by Savannah Guthrie. A pilot will be shot in the UK in hopes of a series pickup. deadline.com/2025/10/word...

Pixar’s earliest shorts were themselves tests of their own rendering hardware (which at the time was sold commercially), so my best guess is that this is Nintendo Pictures or one of their other subsidiaries saying “here’s what we can make when not working with Mario or Zelda”.

YouTube video by Nintendo of America Close to You – Nintendo

Nintendo always has zigged where others zagged and tries to branch out of video games and be a Disneyesque “everything company so their releasing a four-minute Pixar-style short with no connection to existing characters is both odd and par for the course: youtu.be/rsufGY5I8jA

Told Not to Watch, Millions Tuned In – Now 9 Story is Bringing the Hit Series ‘Do Not Watch This Show’ to Global Audiences - 9 Story Media Group Following a record-breaking debut in Australia, 9 Story Distribution has acquired worldwide distribution rights   9 Story Distribution International is pleased to announce it has acquired worldwide di...

The next “Bluey”? Australia has a new hit kids’ show breaking the heeler’s viewership records, created by and starring Andy Lee as a monster with a simple (ignored) request: “Do Not Watch This Show”. 9 Story has picked up the show outside Australia and NZ. 9story.com/told-not-to-...

Official NOAA nose art provided by The Jim Henson Company for hurricane hunting aircraft “Kermit”, “Miss Piggy”, and “Gonzo”.

Given the nickname “Miss Piggy” being lent to one of the planes Frith suggested its companion be named Kermit.

In 1996 a high-flying Gulfstream was added for recon purposes, given the name “Gonzo” due to its nose shape. Now HE would fly into a hurricane.

Due to its nose shape, one of the air rad was nicknamed “the pig”which during a renovation led to jokes about Miss Piggy, being a pig who always cares about her looks. The NOAA actually reached out to the Jim Henson Company and artist Michael Frith provided WWII-style mascot art

Today I found out that there are only two aircraft which are able to directly fly into the eye of a hurricane. They have been operative since 1976 (set to be retired in 2030) and are all named after Muppets, which is in itself an interesting story: www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/about_hr...

and the current political climate worldwide of immigrants seeking permanent shelter being compared in press to the Moomins’ origin story of being in a strange land after a flood, much ink has been shed on the appeal of this idyllic world of “no money, no cars, and no fights”.