Art Attack

Art Attack
Genre	Art & Crafts
Created by	Neil Buchanan; Tim Edmunds
Written by	Neil Buchanan; Tim Edmunds; Nic Ayling; Helen Evans; Driana Jones; Louise Lamb; Andy Prendergast
Directed by	Tim Edmunds; Nick Bigsby; Jeremy Cross; Peter Eyre; Claire Michel; Richard Bradley; Jeremy Swan; Fernando Berreta; Mary Taylor
Presented by	Neil Buchanan (1990–2007); Jassa Ahluwalia (2011); Lloyd Warbey (2012–present)[1]
Theme music composer	Mr Miller & Mr Porter
Opening theme	"Art Attack"
Ending theme	"Art Attack"
Country of origin	United Kingdom (1990-2007, 2011-present); Argentina (2011-present)
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	CITV: 19 (1990–2007); (Spin-off series) (1996–1997, 2003); Disney Junior: 4 (2011–present)
No. of episodes	ORIGINAL:; 301 (main series); (5 Christmas specials 1994–1997, 2003) (25 other episodes from 3 spinoff series: 1996–1997, 2003) CURRENT:; 87
Production
Executive producer(s)	Neil Buchanan; Tim Edmunds; Nigel Pickard; Sandy Ross; Elizabeth Partyka; Adrian Edwards
Producer(s)	Neil Buchanan; Tim Edmunds; Helen Dawson; Helen Evans; Nic Ayling; Louise Lamb
Production location(s)	Maidstone, Kent (CITV); Southampton (CITV); Buenos Aires (Disney Junior)
Running time	15 minutes (Series 1–6); 20 minutes (Series 7–present)
Production company(s)	TVS (1990–1992); The Media Merchants (1993–2007); STV Productions (1993–2007); The Walt Disney Company (2011–present)
Distributor	HIT Entertainment; The Walt Disney Company
Release
Original network	ITV; (1990–2007); CITV; (1990–2007); Disney Junior; (2011–present)
Picture format	4:3 (1990-2000); 16:9 SD (2001-2007); 16:9 HD (2011-present)
First shown in	United Kingdom
Original release	15 June 1990 – present
Chronology
Related shows	SMart (1994–2009)
External links
	Website

Art Attack is a British children's television series revolving around art, currently hosted by Lloyd Warbey on Disney Junior, and originally airing on CITV hosted by Neil Buchanan from 1990 to 2007.

The original series aired on CITV between 15 June 1990 and 26 May 2007, and was presented by one of its creators, Neil Buchanan, throughout. Buchanan also wrote and produced the series, and came up with a majority of the creative ideas.

A new series launched on Disney Junior (UK & Ireland) on 6 June 2011 and was presented by Jassa Ahluwalia. Each show involved Ahluwalia voicing-over footage of an artist producing three works of art, taking the viewer through the various stages of production step by step. Ahluwalia was later replaced with Lloyd Warbey at the start of the British second revived series.

History

The programme was originally a TVS production, devised by two TVS employees, Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds. Buchanan and Edmunds met each other at Southern Television in 1978, and worked together on No. 73 and Do It!.

The first Art Attacks were a strand within No. 73, and this segment proved so popular, Nigel Pickard the executive producer of children's programming at TVS green lit the pilot. The Art Attack pilot was shot on location at a disused swimming pool in Gillingham, Kent in 1989, and the series began the following year.

When TVS lost its franchise, Edmunds and Buchanan bought the rights to the show and produced Art Attack through their company, The Media Merchants. The Media Merchants used STV Productions (then known as "SMG Productions"), as the ITV company to get the series onto the network: this was partly down to the fact that Nigel Pickard had moved to Scottish Television. In 1993 another ex-TVS employee, Peter Urie set up a production management company, Television Support Services. Television Support Services managed all of the Media Merchants productions.

For the vast majority of its run, the show was filmed at The Maidstone Studios, Maidstone, Kent. In 1998, Disney bought the rights to produce foreign-language versions of Art Attack. Each version had a different local host for each territory, and was made in Maidstone, on a similar set to the original version. Neil Buchanan's Big Art Attacks were retained in the international shows, as was The Head, who was dubbed by relevant local voice artists. Buchanan also produced the artwork for the foreign versions - footage of his hands creating the pieces would be voiced over by the local host, who would show the artwork in-between stages and explain what to do next.^[2] Disney ended production of the foreign shows in 2005.

ITV announced the cancellation of the series in July 2007.^[3] Until January 2014, the show was regularly repeated on CITV, usually on weekend afternoons. After the programme's demise, many of the production team transferred to Finger Tips and Mister Maker, both recorded at The Maidstone Studios.

In 2010, Disney announced a new version of the series would air on Disney Junior around the world. Production was moved to Disney's studios in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Once again, several versions were made for each market; these were produced in a similar manner to the previous international versions. The first series of the new UK version was presented by Jassa Ahluwalia. Local artist Alexiev Gandman was brought in to create the Big Art Attacks.

In December 2012, Buchanan was featured in a segment dedicated to the programme's original run in the one-off documentary special 30 Years of CITV: a 1992 episode was broadcast on the CITV channel shortly after the above was broadcast, as part of its Old Skool Weekend marathon.

Characters

The Head

The Head, was a puppet stone bust who would humorously recap the steps needed to produce the last art piece made. After doing this, he would usually show his creation of the previous Art Attack, most times however getting it hilariously wrong and usually bursting into tears. However, on occasion, by accidentally doing part of the instructions incorrectly, he would create a different effect to that desired and be proud of his work. He would sometimes tell jokes after the Big Art Attacks. In series one, 'The Head' was played by Jim Sweeney, in series 2, Andrew O'Connor; and from series 3, having been redesigned as a puppet, he was voiced and operated by Francis Wright. 'The Head' did not appear in series 12 or 13, or in series 18 and 19.

Vincent Van Coconut

In the revived series, The Head was replaced by a talking palm tree called Vincent Van Coconut, voiced by Tim Hibber. His name, Vincent van Coconut, is a parody of the famous Painter painter Vincent Van Gogh.

Series guide

Original series

Series	Episodes	Start Date	End Date	Length
1	7	15 June 1990	27 July 1990	15'
2	7	4 April 1991	16 May 1991	15'
3	7	16 March 1992	11 May 1992	15'
4	7	10 September 1992	22 October 1992	15'
5	7	10 May 1993	28 June 1993	15'
6	10	10 January 1994	14 March 1994	15'
7	10	9 January 1995	13 March 1995	20'
8	10	8 January 1996	19 February 1996	20'
9	12	6 January 1997	17 March 1997	20'
10	13	5 January 1998	30 March 1998	20'
11	16	7 September 1998	14 December 1998	20'
12	30	6 September 1999	15 December 1999	15'
13	30	4 September 2000	13 December 2000	15'
14	20	5 November 2001	30 November 2001	20'
15	15	6 September 2002	13 December 2002	20'
16	15	10 September 2003	17 December 2003	20'
17	18	12 August 2004	14 December 2004	20'
18	26	7 September 2005	21 December 2005	20'
19	26	22 September 2006	26 May 2007	20'

Note: two episodes aired each week during series 12 and 13. Five episodes aired each week during series 14.

Christmas specials

Entitle	Aired	Length
Xmas special 1	13 December 1994	20'
Xmas special 2	12 December 1995	20'
Xmas special 3	18 December 1996	20'
Xmas special 4	17 December 1997	20'
Xmas special 5	22 December 2003	20'

Other

Series	Episodes	Start Date	End Date	Length
Best of Art Attack	2	23 August 1996	30 August 1996	20'
Art Attack Scrapbook	8	22 October 1997	10 December 1997	20'
Art Attack: Mini Makes	15	31 August 2003	Late 2003	5'

Revived series

Series	Episodes	Start Date	End Date	Length
1	26	6 June 2011	28 November 2011	23:30'
2	21	2 June 2012	20 October 2012	23:30'
3	24	29 June 2013	17 December 2014	23:30'
4	26	Late 2015		23:30'

(Source: ITV/Hit Entertainment/BFI/Disney)

Video releases

VHS video title	Year of release	Company	Video specials
Art Attack: Over 30 Great Art and Craft Ideas	1992	Future Video	Neil shows his favourite craft ideas for Art Attacks on the first series.
Art Attack with Neil Buchanan	1993	Video Class	Neil shows his 16 favourite Art Attacks.
Art Attack: Most Wanted	1996	Contender Entertainment Group	Neil shows everyone's most requested favourites.
Art Attack: Crazy Cartoons and Dazzling Drawings	1996		Neil shows his tips for drawing cartoons and pictures.
Art Attack Let's Party!	1996		Neil shows his favourite Art Attacks for parties, birthdays and Christmas.
Art Attack: Top 20	1997		Neil shows his 20 favourite Art Attacks.
Art Attack: Scrapbook	1997		Neil shows his scrapbook with all the best Art Attacks.
Art Attack: 10 of the Best	1998		Neil celebrates 10 of the best Art Attacks from the first 10 series.
Art Attack: Christmas Cracker	1998		Neil shows Art Attacks to make 'n' do from the Christmas Specials.
Art Attack: Greatest Tips and Tricks	1999		Neil shows how he put together some of the best tips and tricks.
Art Attack: How to Draw	2000		Neil shows how to do some drawing - the Art Attack way!
Art Attack: How to Paint	2000		Neil shows how to concentrate on painting - the Art Attack way!
Art Attack: Make 'n' Do	2001		Neil shows how to make things made out of old rubbish.
Art Attack Monsters and other Scary Stuff	2002	Video Collection International	A collection of Neil's most scary Art Attacks.

No DVD releases have been issued in the UK, except DVDs bundled with Art Attack books and DVDs which came free with newspapers. In India, Art Attack was released in three volumes by Disney DVD in 2010.

Many Art Attack books were also released by Dorling Kindersley.

International broadcast

Disney Channel and its various offshoots have broadcast Art Attack in most territories since the late 1990s, producing localised versions of the programme for many countries. In Australia, Art Attack was broadcast on ABC from July 1995 to October 1999; later episodes were broadcast on Disney Channel, with the revived series being broadcast on Disney Junior and on various channels of the Seven Network. In Canada, the programme has aired variously on TVOKids, Family Jr. and Knowledge Kids; in the United States, Art Attack was broadcast on WAM! during the 1990s.

The original series, hosted by Neil Buchanan, has also been dubbed or subtitled in various non-English speaking countries, having been broadcast in various forms by Dragon Club in China, ET1 in Greece, Disney Channel in Taiwan and TRT in Turkey; in the Middle East, the Turkish version of the revived series has been dubbed into Arabic and broadcast by Jeem TV. In much of Latin America, Art Attack was broadcast on Discovery Kids during the 1990s, dubbed into Spanish and Portuguese. From 2000-2002, localised versions in Spanish and Portuguese were produced by Disney, which aired on Disney Channel Latin America and Disney Channel (Brazil), respectively; in later years, the British version was dubbed and broadcast by Disney in these territories. A Hindi version has been produced for India since 2011, hosted by Gaurav Juyal; previously, the UK version was aired.

References

↑ http://www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/art-attack/show-facts/presenter-profile/
↑ "Neil's hands are a media export". Kent Business. KM Group. 2002-03-28. Retrieved 2016-12-29.
↑ Oatts, Joanne (13 July 2007). "Art Attack axed after 18 years". Digital Spy. Retrieved 13 July 2007.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] ttp://www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/art-attack/show-facts/presenter-profile/

[2] "Neil's hands are a media export". Kent Business. KM Group. 2002-03-28. Retrieved 2016-12-29.

[3] Oatts, Joanne (13 July 2007). "Art Attack axed after 18 years". Digital Spy. Retrieved 13 July 2007.