Tuesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Happiness heads to PBS via DCD

PBS in the US has picked up the first two seasons of musical comedy series Happiness from UK-based distributor DCD Rights.

The deal includes North American broadcast and digital rights to the first season of the Greenstone TV Production, with PBS striking a pre-sale deal for the second series.

Happiness is produced in New Zealand and tells the story of an amateur theatrical group. It debuted on Three/Sky Free in NZ.

Comedies lead Yes Studios Mipcom slate

Yes Studios is heading to Mipcom next month with two new comedies for the market, Little Fucker and Canteen Commando.

Little Fucker is a coming-of-age comedy that follows a 12-year-old misfit who’s bullied at school and mocked at home, but who changes his life when he catches his dad cheating. It was produced by Tedy TV for yes TV.

Yes TV’s Canteen Commando is based on creator Eran Zarahovich’s unforgettable – and sometimes repressed – memories of military service. Moish Goldberg and Ilan Shefler are co-creators, Yes TV produces with Yoav Gross Productions.

Romantic comedy Bloody Murray also returns with a second season. The show continues the story of best two friends and their daily struggles as single, thirty-something women. It was created and written by Stav Idisis, produced by yes TV and Kastina Communications for Yes TV.

Each show is available as a completed series or scripted format.

WBITVP unveils finished slate for Mipcom

Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) has revealed its Mipcom finished programming slate, led by shows including Golden Bachelor Australia and 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing.

Golden Bachelor Australia (10 x 60 minutes) was produced by WBITVP Australia for Nine Network and follows a 61-year-old widower who meets 20 women looking for love later in life.

Also on the slate are two seasons of TLC’s MILF Manor and Discovery US’s adventure competition Survive the Raft, while fact ent shows include HBO Max’s cookery battle 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing.

Docs headed to Cannes include Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club from Wall to Wall for BBC Two, and Paranormal III: Britain’s Last Witch, while scripted is represented by WBITVP New Zealand’s Crackhead and BBC One drama Waterloo Road.

TV Asahi’s Doraemon lands on YouTube

A dubbed version of TV Asahi’s animated series Doraemon is to launch on YouTube in France, followed by a wider roll-out that includes Prime Video.

The show’s latest 13 x 22-minute series, sold by Paris-based distributor Soupir, will premiere on YouTube in France from 3 October. Launches on Anime Digital Network (ADN), Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV and other platforms will follow.

The roll-out comes a decade after the first French-language dub of the Japanese show.