Jan 12, 2019

Nickelodeon froze production and fired an important crew member in the upcoming series "Glitch Tex."

On Monday, Nickelodeon suddenly announced the immediate layoffs of the majority of the show's production crew at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California.

Dan Milano (Greg The Bunny, Warren The Ape), co-creator of the upcoming series, described the production outage on Twitter as a "shock" and called the series' artists "shock." It led to speculation that the series had been canceled by the network when the star began talking on social media about being fired without warning.

But it is not. The show's other creator, Eric Robles (Fanboy & Chum Chum), went to social media to clarify that the series is still ongoing at Nickelodeon.

According to an Instagram message Robles posted on Wednesday, Nick is still planning to start a full first season consisting of 20 episodes. "When I was writing this, we were in production, bringing back great animations from Europe and Asia," Robles said. "Let me also speak from the heart when I say that Nickelodeon Animation has helped Dan and myself in ensuring the freedom to create original and unique IP in an era when these types of projects are few and far between."

The production freeze occurred in the order of the late season of the show, Robles explained, but that would not affect the completion of the first season in progress. "As most of you know, until the show actually airs, most studios are for your series, and in our case because they're the chang of the show, we were deeply grateful when we saw Nickelodeon fit to pick up an extra half-season production order. This kept our amazing team of artists and designers together longer than we had ever expected."

Fired artists recruited to fight video game monsters who have found their way into the real world 1 of the series' production artists who spoke with enthusiastic Cartoon Brew about the future of the show said, "All I can ask for at the moment is to get as active support as possible for the show." It's just that you can do it. I don't say anything negative about Nick - they, along with Eric and Dan, are as transparent as they can and take care of the technical team.

Another artist in the series, Philip Jacobson, wrote a long public post on a Youtube video and said, "Network, showrunners." ・ All of us - literally everyone in Nick is so hyped for this show. I'm telling you, our SP [director-producer], Ian Graham, was working on Avatar, Korra, Zim, etc- and I can't quote him directly, but every time there's a rock animatic screening, all he tells me is how the executives are advertised for this. What is it?"

But a sudden work stoppage has put Nickelodeon employees on the edge about the studio's commitment to the original work, affecting the mood in the rest of the studio.

An artist who is currently working on another production in the studio told Cartoon Brew: "This news has caused morale in the studio to plummet. In the past two town hall meetings, we're on high ups that they want to Greenlight Productions and they want to put more trust in their shows and their actions show the complete opposite of this. The whole team of incredible artists don't trust the production to let the content go without notice before it airs....Those artists on glitch technology were very talented and I do not imagine that the talent will come back to Nickelodeon. They are a severe result, especially when you try to compete with talented power home studios flocking to them. It's not hard to see, just look at the Netflix creator's line-up for animation.

The current uncertainty at the studio level stems in part from the shift taking place at Viacom, the company's parent company. Nickelodeon is the most watched children's network on Linear TV, generating more revenue than any Viacom facility, but its ratings have been permanently freefall over the last few years as children's viewing habits have shifted to streaming providers such as Netflix and Google's Youtube. Recognizing that it is no longer able to compete effectively with streamers, Nickelodeon announced last summer a strategic transition to a "studio model" in which animation studios produce new original content for third parties, such as streaming services.This allows you to create new and original content for third parties, such as streaming services, in addition to programs that you already create for your own network.

Among the first major deals it signed was a deal with competitor Netflix. As part of that deal, Nick has already delivered the original production of Pinky Marine Key to Netflix, which was originally scheduled to air on Nickelodeon in 2015 when the series was lit green. Nick is also producing a live-action version of Avatar for netflix: The last Airbender.

In addition to experimenting with studio model strategies, Nick has also reviewed its upper management in recent months, appointing both a new President (Brian Robbins) and a new executive v-p (Ramsey Naito) in animation production and development.

Below is Robles' full statement posted on his Instagram page on May 9.

Dan, I myself would like to thank everyone who has reached out to support the Glitch Techs team. To clear the bad air, know that the glitch technician is not canceled. When I'm writing this, we're in production, bringing back great animations from Europe and Asia. Let me also speak from the heart when Nickelodeon Animation said that in an era when there were few of these types of projects, Dan and myself have been working together to ensure the freedom to create original and unique IP.

As most of you know, most studios allow writing pickups for your series until the show actually airs, so in our case, we were deeply grateful when we saw Nickelodeon fit to pick up extra half-season production orders. . This kept our amazing team of artists and designers together longer than we had ever expected.

.As you can guess, producing an animated show (especially with ambitious and dynamic action sequences) can be very expensive. As we hit the New Year with the money we need for brand new content, which is a show that has not yet been tested, we have a business decision, Net

The sudden dismissal of the crew last week was a terrible shock, but we have not been able to concentrate on the episodes of our second season. I am so grateful for this. We know that production for the rest of our half-season (and hopefully more) can resume when the show finally airs and reaches its audience

.When my kids grew up, I always dreamed of working with people as talented as our crew and sharing ideas, but now I have the privilege of working with them every day for the past two and a half years. I can't express how much fun it has been to create this show and know it will have an impact when we share it with the world. I can't stress how important it is for our industry to support each other, and for those who support creative ideas. Please keep following me for future updates on Nickelodeon Glitch Techs and thanks to all who read this Eric "El Glitch Tech" Robles.