user: IN: Peter Rabbit on Nickelodeon for Christmas, Then as Series
Lily Bobtail, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny in the holiday special âPeter Rabbitâs Christmas Tale,â appearing Dec. 14 on Nickelodeon. A series begins in March.

In Beatrix Potter’s first version of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” a menacing Mrs. McGregor leans over a kitchen table and presented a steaming-hot pie to Mr. McGregor, who holds a knife and fork at the ready. The pie, of course, is stuffed with the remains of Peter’s father.

Potter’s publisher, Frederick Warne & Company, said the image was too horrific for young children. She protested, and the publisher decided to keep the story line but remove the illustration from the 1902 edition.

You might think young viewers today would be much harder to shock. But Nickelodeon, which is remaking Potter’s books as a “Peter Rabbit” animated series, concluded that the death by pie was still too horrific for children even 110 years later. But executives did want the story to be set up around a single mother, which appealed to test audiences.

“Here’s a single mom raising four bunnies,” said Teri Weiss, executive vice president of production and development for Nickelodeon preschool. “That’s an important element we thought kids could connect with.”

Nickelodeon embarked on “Peter Rabbit” with the hopes that the series, regular episodes of which are to go on the air in March, would have built-in appeal to parents who grew up with the blue-coated anthropomorphic bunny. The network, which has seen its ratings decline recently, took a similar approach with older viewers in September when it introduced an updated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

But redoing “Peter Rabbit,” one of the most popular and beloved children’s properties, comes with potential pitfalls. Change too much, and audiences who loved the original will cringe. Don’t change enough, and it could come off looking like a stale imitation of the idyllic original.

“You can’t fundamentally mess with something that has been around for that long,” Cyma Zarghami, president of Viacom’s Nickelodeon Group, said. “It was about freshening up his look.”

The new “Peter Rabbit” features computer-animated imagery in soft pastel hues. Peter and his friends get into the same type of outdoorsy adventures as they used to, set against the backdrop of the sweeping landscapes of the Lake District in England, which Potter devoted her later life to preserving. Animators visited the district and took more than 3,000 photos before embarking on recreating the scenery.

A team of animators worked exclusively on the fur of the bunnies, foxes and badgers. They made sure it blew in the wind realistically as the characters slid down a frozen lake or looked sufficiently damp after a snowball fight. “Capturing that warmth in CGI is really important,” Ms. Weiss said. “You want to feel like you’re holding a furry bunny in your hands.”

But showing Peter’s father’s death didn’t seem so warm and fuzzy. “That would scare a 4-year-old witless, and it wouldn’t get past standards and practices these days,” said Waheed Alli, the British media mogul whose Silvergate Media bought the rights to “The World of Beatrix Potter,” which includes Potter’s library of animals, and is a co-producer of the Nickelodeon version.

The series instead portrays a fatherless Peter and a cruel Mr. McGregor but doesn’t go into gory detail. In “Peter Rabbit’s Christmas Tale,” a holiday special having its premiere Dec. 14 on Nickelodeon, Peter’s mother passes down his father’s journal, filled with chronicles of adventures, and several empty pages for Peter to fill in.

Peter and his risk-averse buddy Benjamin get into outdoor mischief similar to what was in the books. The only rule the Potter estate insisted on was that Peter wear his royal-blue coat, a hand-me-down from his father, in the television series. Nickelodeon added a character, Lily Bobtail.
What is a short summary of the above article?

OUT: Nickelodeon approached âPeter Rabbitâ with the hopes that the series would have built-in appeal to parents who grew up with the blue-coated anthropomorphic bunny.


IN: Sidney Crosby Topics Page
Given that TV sports is pretty formulaic, here's an odd conundrum: What should Erin Andrews do now?

In an odd twist, the final NHL game played at Mellon Arena will be remembered for a poor start that cost the Pittsburgh Penguins their hope of successfully defending their Stanley Cup championship.

The Montreal Canadiens' unlikely playoff success story added another chapter Wednesday when they knocked off the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 in Game 7 to reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 17 years.

Just as they did in the first round, the Montreal Canadiens have forced a deciding Game 7 against a favored opponent.

4d 18h ago By Jacques Demers, as told to USA TODAY

The Montreal Canadiens are the surprise of the playoffs. Nobody expected this team to get past the highly favored Washington Capitals and now they have the opportunity Wednesday night to pull off an upset of the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

...and Los Angeles' Ryan Smyth took the most hooking penalties. But the one you'll get the biggest kick out of is that Crosby was whistled for the most slashing infractions, with 11. Whacking another player with your stick, of course, is one of the most honorable...

...Cup celebration. “It’s disappointing because of those expectations. You don’t get those opportunities every year.” While Sidney Crosby dismissed fatigue as a factor for the Penguins’ early elimination, Evgeni Malkin is convinced it played a role. The Penguins...

...after two years of playing in the final, and [some] going to the Olympic Games," Malkin said. Center and team captain Sidney Crosby, another Olympian, hesitated when asked how he felt going into the offseason. "OK," he said. "Pretty good considering the amount...

...night, with Malkin hoping to follow today. The tournament is early in the second round. Penguins center and captain Sidney Crosby, the hero for gold-medalist Canada at the Olympics in February, turned down an offer Thursday to join Team Canada in Germany as...

...games. It was the ninth time he reached 50 points. "[Gonchar] is obviously a big part of our team," center and captain Sidney Crosby said. "My first year, he was here. Year after year, you always get an appreciation for what he brings, on an off the ice." Defenseman...

Michael Cammalleri scored his second goal of the game midway through the second period and Jaroslav Spacek netted the go-ahead tally 2:30 later for the Montreal Canadiens, who forced a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.

The Montreal Canadiens' defense is reeling from injuries heading into a must-win Game 6 against the Penguins.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves, Kris Letang scored on a power play after accidentally setting up Montreal's decisive goal in the previous game and the Pittsburgh Penguins moved to within a victory of eliminating the Canadiens by winning 2-1 on Saturday night.

Maxim Lapierre and Brian Gionta scored 1:33 apart early in the third period to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 on Thursday night, tying the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Penguins center Jordan Staal has had surgery on his right foot, but coach Dan Bylsma is hopeful he'll be back during the playoffs.
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OUT:

assistant: Collection of all USATODAY.com coverage of Sidney Crosby., including articles, videos, photos, and quotes.