Rejected Nick Pilot: the Modifyers

[ryuuseipro]

I've seen the pilot for The Modifyers weeks ago when Chris Reccardi posted it on Facebook (I was exposed to it by animator Shane Corn), and I absolutely loved it! Chris Reccardi and his wife Lynne Naylor have done an excellent job with this pilot. The visuals are beautiful and appealing, Chris' music score rocks, and the heroine is awesome. Also loved the references to 60s British spy shows. The cliffhanger ending truly left me wanting more!

So Nick AND Cartoon Network rejected the pilot because of a female lead? That would explain why Nick was eager to cancel MLAATR and The Mighty B! Seriously, it was already dumb that Nickelodeon dropped the series. This made me hate them even more.

CN I can already understand, because they just want more in-your-face programming for adolescent boys (the toys of which have next to zero merchandise of the girl characters). The days of The Powerpuff Girls are long behind them (or anyone for that matter).

It's a drag, because this would've made an awesome series.

Incidentally, you can also watch this pilot on Chris' Vimeo page!
http://www.vimeo.com/9383918

 

[CatChancey]

I just watched the pilot and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good art, voice acting, and execution. I especially like the music - a blend of baroque and techno.

It was probably rejected due to lack of pop culture refs, school aged angst and crude humor.

 

[stephane dumas]

I just watched the pilot and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good art, voice acting, and execution. I especially like the music - a blend of baroque and techno.

It was probably rejected due to lack of pop culture refs, school aged angst and crude humor.

If they had submitted it to the Great White North at Teletoon office, I think then there lots of chances then Teletoon would had picked the Modifyers.

 

[Neo Yi]

So Nick AND Cartoon Network rejected the pilot because of a female lead? That would explain why Nick was eager to cancel MLAATR and The Mighty B! Seriously, it was already dumb that Nickelodeon dropped the series. This made me hate them even more.

I don't know about The Mighty B!, but I'm pretty sure My Life As a Teenage Robot was canned not because it starred a female, but because it held low ratings.

 

[Antiyonder]

CN I can already understand, because they just want more in-your-face programming for adolescent boys (the toys of which have next to zero merchandise of the girl characters). The days of The Powerpuff Girls are long behind them (or anyone for that matter).

But wasn't PPG successful with the male demograph?

Frankly the whole "males won't watch shows with a female lead" is negated with PPG, Kim Possible and The Wild Thornberrys. All of which not only didn't fail, but were hits in their time.

 

[strawberryjuice]

Just out of curiosity, is there a direct source that tells us it was rejected because of a female lead...? because I'm starting to think there's more to the story.

 

[ryuuseipro]

I just watched the pilot and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good art, voice acting, and execution. I especially like the music - a blend of baroque and techno.

It was probably rejected due to lack of pop culture refs, school aged angst and crude humor.

There's also the possibility of its rejection because it's creator-driven.

Notice that the majority of Nicktoons canceled in the past decade are creator-driven. A trend started with Invader ZIM. (Or, it could even go as far back as Hey, Arnold.) And it's in serious decline now. (Especially if it's hand-drawn, and done very well.)

MLAATR, The X's, El Tigre, and The Mighty B! (and to an extent, Danny Phantom) are all creator-driven, and canceled. The shows that succeed, Spongebob Squarepants, Fairly OddParents, and Jimmy Neutron, are somewhat relinquished by their creators to Nickelodeon, which puts all their faith in these shows, because they can control them now, and can revive them at any time. (John Davis is not working on Planet Sheen, to the best of my knowledge, because DNA Productions went out of business, and Butch Hartman is busy with TUFF Puppy.)

Nick will never forget the curse of John Kricfalusi. Or Jhonen Vasquez.

 

[strawberryjuice]

Nick will never forget the curse of John Kricfalusi. Or Jhonen Vasquez.

God I'm so tired of people saying this... Invader Zim was cancelled because the team decided to call it quits. The show was extremely expensive to make and nick wasn't giving them enough support financially. Some of it was creativity yes, but the cost is what killed the show. There is no bad blood between nick and vasquez.

 

[Azeke]

Where does Avatar go in that scheme?

And i heard Nickelodeon would be happy to come back to Zim anytime given how huge it become in the internets and though the merchandise. I also heard that it wasn't Nickelodeon who went out of the building (in the middle of production) without saying a word to anyone only to never be seen again there.

 

[ryuuseipro]

God I'm so tired of people saying this... Invader Zim was cancelled because the team decided to call it quits. The show was extremely expensive to make and nick wasn't giving them enough support financially. Some of it was creativity yes, but the cost is what killed the show. There is no bad blood between nick and vasquez.

Not bad blood per se, just disagreements. The culmination of these disagreements was the big stink raised over the cover for the Volume 2 DVD (which Nick thought was too violent; Jhonen threw his arms up and said, "No more ZIM material for Nick.")

Jhonen indeed had frustrations over creative differences (and even Nick was heard saying they wanted more subservient creators), but at least he didn't get fired like John K. That would've been worse.

 

[ryuuseipro]

Where does Avatar go in that scheme?

As a creator-driven show?

Avatar is a closed book. The show didn't get canceled, it ended! It did what it set out to do, and succeeded where Samurai Jack ostensibly failed: telling a whole story! A beginning, middle, and end. And during its lifespan on Nick, it actually succeeded in unseating Spongebob! But then, Avatar is over, and Spongebob has since reclaimed the Nick throne.

 

[ryuuseipro]

But wasn't PPG successful with the male demograph?

Frankly the whole "males won't watch shows with a female lead" is negated with PPG, Kim Possible and The Wild Thornberrys. All of which not only didn't fail, but were hits in their time.

And that's exactly why I'm suspicious of today's network execs! (Not just about the recent shakeup in cartoon-specialized networks, but possibly the current economy as well.) Just like The Mighty B! did, The Modifyers could have that very same PPG appeal, and do well with both males and females, young and old. Young people will go for the wackiness, action, and characters, while older people go for the colorful and appealing art style and hidden jokes.

Today, execs seem to think that shows with female leads should only have that PC Dora the Explorer/Bratz mindset. It's really patronizing, and even sad. Cartoon-specialized networks are becoming more and more conservative.

 

[MehGuy]

The girls facial emotions were pretty nice, backgrounds and settings were good boring jokes eh.

 

[Neo Yi]

ryuuseipro, please refrain from double/triple posting. You can respond to all three users in one single post instead of needlessly filling up space. If you keep this up, I'll be forced to hand out warnings.

 

[ryuuseipro]

ryuuseipro, please refrain from double/triple posting. You can respond to all three users in one single post instead of needlessly filling up space. If you keep this up, I'll be forced to hand out warnings.

I'll remember that, thank you.

 

[tmansterr]

the Modifyers

What we could do is make short episodes and post them on youtube if you or any one you know are good animators to copy the design or something

 

[Zanneck]

What we could do is make short episodes and post them on youtube if you or any one you know are good animators to copy the design or something

i second this - this series needs to live on... It deserves that much.

 

[tmansterr]

What all of us could do is go to Write to Nick and start asking them why they aren't making seasons of the Modifyers if anyone is that concerned about the show not airing

 

[ILDC]

I think this would have been a good fit for post-P&F Disney Channel.

 

[FriendlyMushroom]

I just saw this. It's probably in the top 5 of the best TV animation I've ever seen. Great colors, great story and characters, great character design and backgrounds. It's very close to perfect, not surprising since it had a great staff.

Supposedly, this was turned down by Nick and Cartoon Network, with the excuse being that neither wanted girl shows. I think this would've fit in great at Cartoon Network in 2007 (when this was made) and I would even love to see it made today. This pilot is one of the reasons I'd like to become a TV executive, to make sure that precious animation like this doesn't evaporate away.

That's just ridiculous, if true. Action-tilted shows with a female main character are rare but there have been successes; Kim Possible, Powerpuff Girls, and Nick's own My Life as a Teenage Robot. It also makes me wonder what changed to let Nick greenlight Legend of Korra with a female main character. Maybe they just trusted Mike Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko enough after the success of A:TLA and those guys made a big push for it.

Anyways, seems like this would have been a fun show. The designs are pretty good -- again, reminiscent of stuff like Foster's Home or Chowder. The voice acting as great (I <3 Mae Whitman), and there isn't much funny jokes or slapstick but at least it isn't dull. There's certainly the potential for greatness there, and it's a shame Nick doesn't see it. I hope it get picked up at some point, maybe by the Hub?