Nick Greenlights A Weiner: ‘Pinky Malinky’

Animated shows are covering all the major food groups nowadays. Disney’s got Pickle & Peanut and now Nickelodeon’s adding some meat to their line-up.

Nick announced a 20 episode greenlight today for Pinky Malinky, a “social media influenced comedy” about an “infectiously positive hotdog” who must navigate the challenges of living in the real world.

The series was created by European artists Chris Garbutt and Rikke Asbjoern, who both worked on Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball. We wrote about their project Little Rikke back in 2009.

Their new show actually has a seasoned history: Pinky was originally created for Cartoon Network Europe’s shorts program and ended up with its own pilot in 2009. Garbutt documented the experience on his blog. Here is the Cartoon Network version:

The project has been redeveloped for Nick with the help of executive producer Scott Kreamer (Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness). A key addition to this new version is mockumentary and reality show tropes, such as having the characters speak directly into the camera.

Also, as part of Nick’s shift toward creating multi-platform properties, the series will have additional short-form videos and social media content beyond the episodes themselves. “In this fast-paced digital age, the online extensions in this brand-new series are another example of how Nickelodeon meets the needs of our kids who want to access content anytime and everywhere,” said Russell Hicks, Nick’s president of content development and production.

Pinky Malinky, which will be produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California, is scheduled to premiere in 2016.