Not-So-Gay Nineties

With the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s birth just past (April 16), Toronto-based Nelvana Entertainment plans to animate Chaplin’s Little Tramp character in a $4.5 million, 13-week series of hour-long shows. A cable deal is being worked out that could have “Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in Modern Times” airing as early as this Christmas season.

The series, now being written, will show the forlorn fellow coping with life in the 1990s “and coming to the aid of the disadvantaged,” said Nelvana exec veep Stanford Blum. Animation and dubbing (English and French) could begin in Canada and France within the next few weeks.

Nelvana (“The Care Bears”) and the Paris-based Ellipse Programme made a rights deal for use of the classic character with the Chaplin estate last year. “The family will be actively involved in the direction of these shows,” said Blum. “Nothing will be done without their approval.”