Girls make the leap to top spot on production slates

Five years ago, the number of tween girl toons could be counted on one hand, leaving girls ages eight to 14 to make do with whatever their kid brother was watching. "It's always been the adage that you don't create a show directed at girls because boys control the remote," says Bill Schultz, the Emmy-winning producer of The Simpsons.

Today, however, tween and teen girls are a powerful and coveted demo, wielding considerable purchase power and influence. According to Girl Games, an L.A.-based girl market research firm, there are 18 million girls between the ages of 10 and 19 in the U.S. alone, spending a collective US$67 billion annually. With numbers like that, execs are now racing to create girl toons. Even Schultz is convinced--he's currently developing a tween girl-targeted series called Troop 318.

While broadcasters and producers are finally warming to the idea of girl toons, they can't be blamed entirely for the industry's previous disinterest. In a classic chicken-and-egg conundrum, some would argue that market resistance to girl-targeted toons came from girls themselves. "Traditionally, older girls were less interested in animation than virtually anybody--they were going into live action beginning at age nine," says Linda Simensky, senior VP of original animation at Cartoon Network. "But tween girls are sticking around now because they're growing up with better animation and better shows."

The Powerpuff Girls gets much of the credit for exposing the possibilities of the tween girl demo. Launched on Cartoon Network in the fall of '98, Simensky says the series was originally targeted at "pretty much everyone but tween girls." Three years later, though, both the series and its related merchandise have won a sizable tween fanbase comprised of both sexes. In July 2001, the series secured a 3.0 rating among kids nine to 14, and year-to-date sales on PPG licensed merch had hit the US$150-million mark at press time, with the highly lucrative back-to-school and holiday seasons yet to come.

In this new tween toon genre, girl heroes are the de facto leads, reflecting the culture of the tween girl audience at large. "There's no 'getting them empowered;' they're already empowered," says Joan Lambur, president of on-screen entertainment for The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company, which has a new tween girl-targeted toon on its MIP slate. Produced using Adobe software by Ottawa, Canada-based Atomic Productions at a cost of just over US$65,000 per half hour, Joey (formerly known as Wannabe) focuses on a sarcastic and spirited 15-year-old girl, her friends, her career-obsessed mom and her stay-at-home dad.

Lambur expects an aspirational audience to tune in. "An eight- or nine-year-old girl wants nothing more than to be a 12- or 13-year-old girl," she says. Asked whether the sarcastic tone of Joey hooks into the tween girl headspace by following a formula proven by Daria, Lambur is adamant that the series is a departure from the usual tween fare--including Daria: "The creators' goal is to be true to tweens by tapping into their humor. We're just being real." Canadian caster YTV is sold on the concept--it has picked up 26 episodes, with the first 13 scheduled for fall 2002 and another 13 for spring 2003. itsy bitsy holds international rights to the series, while Atomic retains Canadian rights.

However, some producers, including Andy Heyward, chairman and CEO of L.A.-based DIC Entertainment, feel that getting girl-skewing fare on the air may not depend so much on the product as it does on the broadcaster. "Some networks are more focused on girls and some more on boys. Kids' WB!, for example, is aimed much more towards boys than girls, while ABC is aimed more towards girls."

Sabrina the Animated Series, a DIC co-production with Hartbreak Productions targeting girls eight to 14, is enjoying a season-to-date average share of 5.0 on ABC. The show will be joined this fall by DIC's Mary Kate and Ashley In Action! A co-production with the Dualstar Entertainment Company, the new series, which also targets the eight to 14 set, is a combination of live action and animation starring the eponymous twins.

While girl-friendly nets are helping to fuel the girl toon trend, a pitch-perfect understanding of teens is critical to maintaining the wannabe-teen demo. "The real challenge for me is to be competitive with the other things that nine- to 14-year-old girls are watching," says Joel Andryc, executive VP of programming and development at Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids Network. "They're watching MTV and shows like Jackass and Real World. One of the favorite shows of [this demo] is Friends. We could never cover much of the subject matter those types of shows do."

Instead, Andryc has turned to celebrity voices and bolder themes to lure an older audience to shows like Braceface, an animated co-pro targeting eight- to 14-year-olds from Canada's Nelvana and Hong Kong-based Jade Animation. One episode of the Alicia Silverstone-voiced program features 13-year-old lead character Sharon Spitz getting her period and, in another episode, inadvertently getting drunk. The mature subject matter appears to be working--the series' June 2001 premiere on Fox Family brought in a 6.2 rating with girls six to 11, and a 5.3 rating with girls nine to 14.

Andryc hopes to repeat Braceface's success with an animated version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Fox Kids and Totally Spies for Fox Family. Both target the eight to 14 crowd, with a skew toward girls.

Totally Spies, a co-pro between France's Marathon, French broadcaster TF1, Fox Family Worldwide and Fox Kids Europe, follows the adventures of three Beverly Hills teenagers who become international secret agents. Described by Andryc as a cross between Clueless and Charlie's Angels, the series is slated to debut next month. "It's tentatively scheduled for Saturday or Sunday morning, and will most likely be coupled with Braceface to get the same tween audience."