Michael Eisner’s animated series key to Nickelodeon’s plan for family viewing

Animated dentist key to Nickelodeon’s family plan

NEW YORK — The Nickelodeon network’s new family plan begins in earnest Monday night with the debut of former Walt Disney Co. chief Michael Eisner’s new animated series about a dentist and his roadtripping family.

Back-to-back episodes of “Glenn Martin DDS” will air all week at 8 p.m. EDT on Nickelodeon, which is expanding its Nick at Nite prime-time franchise for an hour to encourage family viewing.

Kevin Nealon does the voiceover for the cartoon’s lead character, with Catherine O’Hara and Judy Greer also contributing their voices. Nealon’s character takes his family on a cross-country adventure to places like the White House, Atlantic City, N.J., and Hollywood.

Nickelodeon has led a double life since 1984, showing kids’ programming during the day and switching to adult-oriented Nick at Nite programming — mostly old sitcoms — after 9 p.m. when children go to bed.

But when Nick purchased the rights to “George Lopez” and began airing it a few years ago, the series got unexpectedly strong ratings, averaging more than 2 million viewers per episode, according to Nielsen Media Research. Nick also noticed that Nickelodeon is a leader in co-viewing, or adults watching with children.

So Nickelodeon decided to expand Nick at Nite to 8 p.m., hoping to encourage more parents and children to watch TV together. The effort began in July when Nick purchased the seven-season library of the old Fox show “Malcolm in the Middle.”

“The numbers are good, not great, partially due to the summertime,” said Cyma Zarghami, Nickelodeon president. “I’m betting on it.”

After this week’s marathon, “Glenn Martin DDS” will settle into a regular Monday time slot, she said. So far, it’s the only original series ordered for the new Nick at Nite schedule, Zarghami said.

It’s something of a milestone for Eisner, and his Tornante Co.: the first series he’s sold to a television network. As he made Disney, Tornante is a diversified company that also has a media studio creating content for the Internet, and a recent acquisition of The Topps Co. Inc., makers of baseball cards.

Eisner said he approached Zarghami with “Glenn Martin DDS” because he heard about the family viewing strategy and thought it would be a good fit.

The former Disney chief, who used to oversee ABC, also said he thought a cable network would give the series a better chance at success since it would be able to stick with it longer.

Nickelodeon is owned by Viacom International Inc.

On the Net:

www.nickatnite.com/