Paramount Home Entertainment has picked up home video distribution rights to the Emmy Award-winning CG-animated series, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks. The critically acclaimed show currently airs on PBS KIDS in the U.S. and TVO, SCN, Access Alberta and Knowledge Network in Canada, and will be available on DVD and VHS in major retail outlets beginning in the spring of 2005.
Jakers! is produced for Entara by Mike Young Prods. The series, aimed at kids 3-6, follows Piggley Winks and friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny the Bull through their childhood in rural 1950s Ireland. While the trio busy themselves with imaginative adventures, American import Wiley the Sheep (voiced by comic legend Mel Brooks), attempts to bring some attitude to his rural flock.
"Since the series debuted last September, we’ve been inundated with requests from viewers to make it available on DVD and VHS," says Entara CEO Stéphanie Gougeon. "We’re thrilled to be able to fulfill their enthusiastic demand for product, especially with a first-class distributor like Paramount Home Entertainment, which handles such premiere children’s programs as Blue Clue’s, Dora the Explorer and Rugrats, to name a few."
Jakers! debuted on PBS KIDS in September 2003 and has since garnered a 2004 Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award, two Annie Award nominations, a 2003 Genesis Commendation from the U.S. Humane Society and two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Production Design and Outstanding Achievement in Storyboarding.
The Spring 2005 home video release schedule coincides with the launch of a line of Jakers! story and novelty books from Simon Spotlight, a division of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. In addition, Simon & Schuster will feature Jakers! books on its website (SimonSaysKids.com) and work with Paramount Home Entertainment to cross-promote the books in videos and DVDs. For more information about the series, visit http://pbskids.org/jakers.
