Tower Prep: Morgan Brothers' New Show

[Blackoil]

Glen Morgan and his brother Darin Morgan are producing a new TV-series called Tower Prep for Cartoon Network.

A one-hour, live-action scripted series premiering this fall, Tower Prep tells the story of a rebellious teen, Ian (Drew Van Acker), who wakes up one morning to find himself trapped at a mysterious prep school that offers no escape. He forms a secret group with CJ (Elise Gatien), Gabe (Ryan Pinkston) and Suki (Dyana Liu), intent on discovering what they're being trained for and how to escape. Tower Prep is produced by Cartoon Network Studios in association with Dolphin Entertainment. The series is executive-produced and created by Paul Dini (Lost, Batman Beyond).

Glen Morgan serves as an executive producer and a writer, Darin Morgan serves as a consulting producer and a writer. And according to IMDb, James Wong directs one of the episodes.

[Blackoil]

teaser promo for Tower Prep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXH1_tO1Glk&

looks exciting

[ethsnafu]

YES!

This news has simply made my day. I have already Facebooked this and shared a link to your Blog, Juri. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. I had been expecting "Gunplay" to be the next thing we would see from the chaps so this is absolutely superb news. I didn't expect anything so soon. Darin, James and Glen on the same show. Died. And. Gone. To. Heaven. Nuff said.

Eth

[Blackoil]

Yeah, I'm excited too!

I've been quite curious about this show when I first heard about it (I guess it was some months ago) and just yesterday I was checking IMDb pages of Morgan brothers and when I saw their names attached to Tower Prep I was like "WOW!" LOL

I'm sure they are gonna make a fantastic show. I don't know why but it seems like they can bring the best things out of the projects created by other people, it looks like they feel pretty comfortable making other people's ideas work.

So, yeah - I'm totally excited about Tower Prep. I always enjoyed these kind of stories about teens investigating something so I'm sure Tower Prep is gonna be great.

[model217]

Thanks for the find. I hadn't heard of this. Paul Dini seems to be a busy writer also.

[liberty]

This should be interesting. Hope there will be more from Darin than his brother

[Libby]

This looks interesting - but I'm a bit perplexed by it being on the Cartoon Network. I've never watched that channel, but it seems to be aimed mostly at youngsters. That's not a detraction, because often teens are not very forgiving if a TV show doesn't maintain expected standards. Also, the content in shows aimed mostly at the younger age group tends to be restricted. That's quite a challenge for a drama - but for writers and directors who like a challenge that can be an exciting one. Clearly, there won't be any recycling of "Home"!

Looking at the list of crew on the imdb page - there are a couple of familiar names. Thomas J Wright, and Mark Freeborn. Put those two together with the Morgans and I'd watch even if it was a commercial for soap powder. And, strangely, one of the people providing original music is a Kristopher Carter - that's just weird.

I had been thinking about cancelling my newsgroup account which I've used to download US TV shows that don't find their way over here, but I'll keep it going just so I can catch the pilot episode if the UK channel doesn't show it.

Good find, Blackoil!

[Orodromeus]

Good find once again, Blackoil!

A new Glen-Darin-James project is certainly something to be amazed by! But like Libby I'm still sceptical... I've never been attracted to teen shows (no, not even Buffy!) or anything produced by the Cartoon Network. I didn't watch "Final Destination" either. Perhaps the writing and the secrets behind this prep will be such that the show will win me over, but for now I'm perplexed.

[ethsnafu]

I have to say the only sticking point for me is that is a children's show but let's be fair that there is far more wiggle room these days in terms of what you can get away with under the umbrella of children's television. If you think in terms of "Doctor Who" then this is a show that is essentially designed to appeal to the younger generations and doesn't contain anything that crosses what is acceptable for them but is also able to inject enough into it to have a wider appeal to adults as well. I'm hoping that this new show is more akin to that than say "Sarah Jane Adventures" which is a "Doctor Who" spin-off aimed squarely at the little ones. That said SJA still retains enough appeal for Who fans generally to warrant adult viewers and if you compare some episodes of the show with its parent show there is often little to distinguish between them.

I have to say having the opportunity to see Darin script a children's show is one that I wouldn't miss for the world. I predict lots of line-walking in that episode in terms of what he can and can't get away with.

Eth

[Libby]

I don't think it's a children's programme, from looking at the trailer. I think the term "prep" is one of those words that have different meanings on either side of the pond. In the UK, a prep school is the equivalent of a private middle school, 8 to 13 year olds, whereas in the US (according to Wikipedia) it can apply to a private secondary that prepares students for college/university, so more like a UK public school, like Eton, which goes from 13 to 18.

I did watch Buffy, which of course was set in a high school, so similar to a prep school. That was shown on UK TV (I can't remember which channel) in the early evening (6 o'clock or so) because it was regarded as "children's" TV. As that show's storyline progressed along with the ages of the characters, the show did get darker which meant some aspects had to be cut from the early showing and an uncut version shown later at night after the watershed. Tower Prep is clearly going to start off dark, so presumably will be shown much later in the evening. But it can't be too dark or scary as that would presumably go against the ethos of the Cartoon Network, unless it's seen as a kind of Harry Potter.

I think I'm trying to rationalise all this, because I really can't fit the Morgans and Cartoon Network together.

But: I've just looked at Wikipedia's page on Cartoon Network and seen mention of "Adult Swim":

Adult Swim (stylized as [adult swim]) is Cartoon Network's late night adult-oriented sister network, which premiered on September 2, 2001, in the USA. Originally a Sunday-only block that was rerun on Thursdays, Adult Swim now airs all week. The block, programmed by Williams Street , plays American animated comedy series and shorts as well as a wide variety of mature anime series (now moved exclusively to Saturday and early Sunday morning) and original video animations (OVA) geared towards audiences 17 and older.

So, perhaps "Tower Prep" will be shown as part of that segment of the channel. That would work, although even so it's still skewing at a somewhat lower age group than the Morgans are used to.