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"Mission Hill" returns!

"Mission Hill," the animated series that was pulled by the WB after just two airings last fall, has finally been allowed back on the schedule. With luck and your viewership, all 13 episodes of the original order will air between now and the end of summer, starting 9:30 p.m. June 25. I learned it from a reader Wednesday night — and then Bill Oakley, who created "Mission Hill" with Josh Weinstein, confirmed it in a Thursday e-mail.

"Everybody's pretty excited about it, obviously," Oakley said in a phone interview later in the day. He and Weinstein have returned to Matt Groening's stable, where they were formerly co-showrunners for "The Simpsons," and are now consulting on "Futurama."

The summer run came about in an orderly manner, said Oakley. "They asked us to propose a list. They said they had 15 weeks open and had us present a list of how the 13 episodes would be aired."

And then did the WB executives tell you all 13 episodes would air?

"They never made it clear," said Oakley. "Unless there's a disaster in the ratings, we should get all 13 on the air."

Well, of course, there was a disaster in the ratings last fall — that's why "Mission Hill" left so abruptly. The WB had incongruously paired "Mission Hill," an animated series about young white slackers, with three black-oriented comedies — and stuck them all on Friday night, where the network had previously never had a presence.

"There really wasn't another comedy to go with it at the time," Oakley recalled. "They really didn't have any other comedies. It was just us, Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx and 'For Your Love.'"

So when the show had ratings trouble right out of the gate, said Oakley, "there was really no place for us to go."

As Sharon Waxman reported in the Washington Post, "Mission Hill" got a terrible introduction, thanks to a poorly-compiled preview tape and unavailability of episodes to TV critics. The WB had made the unusual decision to launch its very first animated show in the fall (most cartoons debut in the winter because they take so much time to produce). Then it yanked "Mission Hill" after just two weeks.

"(The show) built up a body of several hundred to a thousand fans who were sending us e-mail at our website," said Oakley. "And after that they took it off the air."

Creatively, "Mission Hill" had two missions, succeeding at one, bombing at the other. Its success was introducing a gay couple in Gus and Wally (pictured above), two old lovers Oakley honestly believes could've been breakout characters. GLAAD took notice of the twosome immediately and asked Oakley and Weinstein to produce a clip reel of Gus and Wally for their annual awards.

"The episode where Gus and Wally meet is the best one. We moved it up to, I think, sixth (in order of airdate) ... Basically the story is they met in Hollywood in the 1950s. Wally was a director, like Ed Wood, and Gus was the zombie. And they fell in love. And Wally basically quit his job as a director to be with gus. There's a lot of tributes to 'Plan 9' in that episode."

The other creative goal was to integrate pop-culture references with more obscure references to fringe culture. It didn't work.

Oakley: "While we were producing the show we were thinking of 'The Simpsons' and 'King of the Hill' — but we were also thinking of Optic Nerve and all those alternative comics. And then, only after that show was cancelled, we realized all the people in America who have ever read Optic Nerve would not equal one-tenth of a ratings point."

WB promised Oakley and Weinstein a return in the spring. Spring came and went. Now "Mission Hill" is being slipped back onto the WB schedule starting next Sunday, June 25, in the timeslot formerly occupied by "Zoe." In theory, it could even return next year if ratings are strong. "If animation is dead, we hope to be the zombie that came back from the undead," Oakley joked.

But then he quickly added: "I don't have too many illusions about it ... We actually sold (the show) in December 1997. This was before WB had put on 'Dawson's Creek.' They hadn't really defined themselves as a teen network. Garth Ancier was president and it was whole different deal ...

"Launching a show today is obviously very different than when 'The Simpsons' was launched ... If somebody came out with the first episode of 'The Simpsons' today, it would get bad reviews and people wouldn't pay any attention. I think people expect these days that animated shows will be nonstop gags, like 'Family Guy' or 'Clerks,' four gags a minute. ... People have short memories. They don't realize that if you watch that first episode of 'The Simpsons' its not nonstop gags."

Future plans for the duo? None so far.

"We'd like to go back to 'Mission Hill,' but that doesn't seem likely," sighed Oakley. Especially with this time period. "Mission Hill" airs at 9:30 p.m. Sundays, following ... yep, Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx and "For Your Love."

Here's how I described the show last fall:

"Mission Hill" — Two of the more renowned alumni of "The Simpsons" created this charming and at times laugh-out-loud animated sitcom for the WB audience of teens and 20-somethings. Creators Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein promise to satirize everything important to their young audience, including the WB itself. "Mission Hill" has a tall task drawing cartoon viewers to Friday nights, where it will usher in the WB's three live-action comedies aimed at African-Americans.

Pick to click

Is it me or does it seem like ABC is squirreling away this year's ALMA Awards? The ALMAs, sponsored by the National Council of La Raza, is the only televised English-language program honoring Hispanic achievements in the arts. It's typically taped in April and shown in June. But this year's broadcast is airing 9 p.m. Saturday on ABC, making it the latest and arguably most obscure airdate since they were renamed the ALMA awards in 1998. (By comparison, the Essence Awards, honoring black achievement, aired on Fox in May, right at the end of the TV season.)

The entertainers of the year — no surprise here — are Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez. As usual, several pairings of Hispanic and non-Hispanic performers highlight this year's presentation, including rockers Beck and Ozomatli and singers Jon Secada and Reba McEntire.

On this date...

in 1990, ABC has high hopes for its new prime-time show based on a game that's a sensation all over the world. That game is Monopoly. Hosted by one-time "Jeopardy!" contestant Michael Reilly, the "Monopoly" show is initially planned for syndication, but few stations were willing to pay rent on this property. With a rulebook as complex as that of the original, viewers find "Monopoly" a "bored game" and the program rolls snake eyes come September.

June 17: in 1985, the clothes come off on Walton Mountain! Actress Judy Norton-Taylor (aka Mary Ellen Walton) poses in the altogether for Playboy. (Thank heavens, "The Waltons" signed off four years earlier.)

June 18: in 1990, "Star Trek: The Next Generation's" Commander William Riker issues the order, "Mr. Worf, fire!" As the Enterprise prepares to do so, three even more frightening words appear: "To be continued." Thus, the nation's Trekkies (who demand to be called Trekkers) must wait until the start of season four to find out whether Captain Picard, now as assimilated by the Borg, will survive the blast from his own ship. -- Tom Heald

Previously at TV Barn:

On the wires:

 

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