You're reading: ‘Made in Ukraine’ animated TV political satire could hit airwaves

As early as the 2013 TV season, American audiences could be laughing in their living rooms to an animated political comedy series created by a Ukrainian public relations company.

With the
working title “Desperate White House,” audiences will get a
behind-the-scenes
look at the inner workings of the White House through eight
staff members with
flawed, politically incorrect character traits.

They range from the wayward security boss
Emmanuel who is a grumbling
ex-dictator from Haiti to the cynical French chef Luc who is
convinced that
McDonald’s restaurant is the work of the devil.

Together,
viewers get to spy on the improbable group that really calls the
shots in the
most powerful nation in the world.

“I’m sorry, Mr. President, I’m not into
those kinds of kinky things,”
says Hanna, the dim-witted Polish bombshell doctor, in response
to U.S.
President Barack Obama’s question on whether she would like to
go into the
annals of White House history on her 40th birthday.

Another
character is Charles the butler, who is an unflappable
upper-class Brit who
never loses his cool. When he heard Obama declare in Congress
that “Time was
running out for the terrorists,” he responded, “They had better
hurry up then,
hadn’t they?”

The creators
of MuPoToon – music, politics, cartoons – are a group of
Western-educated
Ukrainian spin doctors from CFC who say that an angel investor
has invested
some $350,000 into the product over four years.

But a CFC
representative told the Kyiv Post the series is potentially
worth millions of
dollars.

CFC managing partner Gennadiy Kurochka noted
that the tongue-in-cheek
comedy won’t hold much back, just like the Simpsons – America’s
longest-running
TV series – and South Park.

The group is
in the conceptual stage so far with Hollywood’s Electra Star
Management as
their exclusive agent in the U.S.

“We received
a lot of positive feedback from our partners in the industry and
believe that
it will do well in the American market and, hopefully,
worldwide,” e-mailed
Michael Blakey, president of Electra Star Management.

CFC’s
Kurochka told the Kyiv Post that the group is currently in talks
with a U.S.
talent agency. But Electra’s Blakey added that Ron White, the
number one touring
comedian in the U.S., is on board as one of the character voices
in the series.

According to
Kurochka, the talent agency will be responsible for the
all-round promotion of
the project, not just the voice-over artists.

Jointly with
ElectraStar they will participate in negotiating deals with TV
networks,
organize the project’s advertisement and product placement, run
the promotion
of the series through various platforms and develop models for
generating cash
flow from merchandising and other means.

“I’ll also be negotiating the involvement of
some of Hollywood’s most
successful writers and show runners (executive producers),” said
Blakey. “When
we have our celebrity team and all the necessary components in
place, our
Ukrainian partners will visit Los Angeles and we will do a set
of meetings with
high level TV networks executives.”

CFC’s
Kurochka said he expects to meet with six to seven TV networks
as early as this
fall.

Kurochka
added that it will take his team one year to make 26 episodes
that are 22 minutes
in length. Although the scripts so far have been written in
Ukraine, he said
they’ve identified several more writers to adapt the material to
the U.S.
market.

“It is early
yet to say when the series will be broadcast, but taking into
account the excitement
with which the animated series have been perceived by many of
our counterparts,
we are hopeful that it may happen within the next year,” said
Electra’s Blakey.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can
be reached at
[email protected].