I imagine, Simon, it's contingent on that demo reel that won't be ready till "end of summer." If approved, I would think the series couldn't get started until the spring sweeps weeks (if there is such a thing next year).

Drifter | July 22, 11:04 CET

I hear animation takes a long time, the Simpsons quote six months for an episode.... So I'd guess mid 95 at least.

But at least something is happening!

zz9 | July 22, 13:00 CET

'95? I've been wishing to turn the clock back ten years, zz9, thanks! ;)

I was so disappointed when it looked like Buffy Animated was a goner; this is great news! Like his characters, Whedon's shows refuse to die.

zencat | July 22, 17:42 CET

I'm hoping that working on this series is gonna get Joss' hunger for the show back again, and in a completely old-school fashion. Maybe he'll get into it again, and really get jazzed about doing a movie or anything at all more.

numbereleven | July 22, 19:18 CET

And I'm hoping it's on a nice cable network that will treat Joss right. Cartoon Network or FX or Sci-Fi, where it can become a centerpiece rather than a filler.

randygiles | July 22, 19:26 CET

I'm rooting for saturday nights on cartoon network right next to Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited. Or it could be the first show to air on adult swim. That way we can have some cussing in the show.

SpikeBad | July 22, 19:40 CET

Stick it with Teen Titans and JLU would be awesome. I always enjoyed the take on the current Justice League cartoon. And even though Teen Titans does seem a lot more childish at the surface, the creators were able to convey a lot of deph from the original series. Of couse, I'm kinda biased when it concerns anything Titans related. I'm almost as fanboy to anything Whedon creates, to anything Titans related.
That's why I'm not that worried about the take we'll see in the Buffy Animated.

Numfar PTB | July 22, 20:09 CET

Anybody remember Star Trek: The Animated Series? Ran from about 1973-1975, featuring the voices of most of the original crew (including Shatner, Nimoy and Kelly). Animation was awful, but the scripts were great, with contributions from original Trek writers like Dorothy C. Fontana and science fiction gods like Larry Niven. (In my opinion, ST:TAS even had a genuine 'classic' ep, equal to the best of the live action series: Fontana's "Yesteryear.")

But beyond its intrinsic value as entertainment, ST:TAS kept the franchise alive five years after cancellation, and may have kept Trek fresh in the minds of Paramount execs when Roddenberry pitched the second series--which, of course, was eventually reworked into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The rest, as they say, is history.

I see the BUFFY franchise moving in an eerily similar path to the TREK franchise. The Buffy Animated series--with most of the original cast and writing staff intact--should keep the franchise alive in the minds of those perpetually short-sighted Fox execs until the Buffy movies are ready to launch. (And ten years after that, we'll have SLAYERS: THE NEXT GENERATION.)

So let's see those 13 eps of B:TAS already! (Unlike the Trek 'toon, the design sketches look fantastic.) A final word to TV executives who watch the bottom line: I'll subscribe to ANY cable channel that decides to run this cartoon.

cjl | July 22, 21:07 CET

Anybody remember Star Trek: The Animated Series?

I do, and I remember watching it religiously, hungry for any scrap of Star Trek I could find in the vacuum created by the show's cancellation. I have all the novelizations of the scripts, and although I only saw the cartoons once (in the days before VHS was readily available), I recall thinking back then that many of them were as good as the live action episodes. I'll have to dig out those books now and see if I can refresh my memory.

Does anyone have any idea when/if ST:TAS is coming out on DVD?

Wiseblood | July 23, 01:36 CET