FROM TRICKED-OUT VEGAS AQUARIUMS TO SOUTHERN-STYLE “NOODLING,” ANIMAL PLANET GREENLIGHTS DUO OF SPLASHY SUMMER SERIES
February 22, 2011
(New York, NY, February 22, 2011) - Marjorie Kaplan, president of Animal Planet and Science Channel, announced two new reality series for Animal Planet that will surprise and entertain audiences this summer. TANKED debuts in July and follows the antics of two brothers-in-law as they run the largest aquarium manufacturing company in the nation. Then, HILLBILLY HANDFISHIN' premieres in August and introduces the wild sport of noodling, where adventure-thirsty city slickers head to Oklahoma to submerge themselves in murky waters to catch catfish with their bare hands and feet with comedic and dramatic results.
TANKED, a six-episode series, dunks viewers into the high-decibel, family-owned business of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM), one of the country's leading and most successful builders of aquariums. Led by brothers-in-law (and business partners, best friends and rivals) Brett Raymer and Wayde King and housed in a state-of-the-art, cavernous facility located in the center of Sin City, ATM literally has created thousands of enormous conceptual aquariums for high-profile clients. Working with opinionated and outrageous family and staff, Brett and Wayde will take on jaw-dropping aquarium builds, from such intricate and interesting locations as inside restaurants, casinos, bank, hotels, churches offices, mansions, museums and zoos. Their tanks are for celebrities and ordinary Joes, and their aquariums and their business are filled with the most unusual...and larger-than-life creatures in the world.
The seven-episode series HILLBILLY HANDFISHIN' is a trip of a lifetime for fish-out-of-water adventure-seeking clients who want nothing more than to surprise themselves - and maybe gross themselves out - by doing things they'd never thought they'd do. Led by Oklahoma hand-fisherman and self-proclaimed hillbilly Skipper Bivins, these people get a taste of redneck lifestyle by going through the paces of noodling catfish with no fishing rods and no hooks. The only lures in this cat-fishing are fingers and toes - which, by the way, can be just as attractive to the snakes, beavers, muskrats and snapping turtles that take over abandoned catfish holes as homes of their own. The experience might be uncomfortable, completely foreign and downright terrifying, but it promises to alter the lives and positively affect each newly crowned noodler long after the last morsel of deep-fried fish is gone.
TANKED is produced for Animal Planet by Nancy Glass Productions. Nancy Glass and Eric Neuhaus are the executive producers, and Jeffrey Weaver is co-executive producer for Nancy Glass, and Melinda Toporoff is the executive producer for Animal Planet. HILLBILLY HANDFISHIN' is produced for Animal Planet by Half Yard Productions. Abby Greensfelder and Sean Gallagher are the executive producers for Half Yard Productions, and Keith Hoffman is the executive producer for Animal Planet. TANKED was developed by Animal Planet's Charlie Foley and Sara Helman, and HILLBILLY HANDFISHIN' was developed by Sara Helman.
Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 97 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.
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