A.N.T. Farm

**A.N.T. Farm** is a live-action television series created by Dan Signer. The series premiered on May 6, 2011 and aired for three seasons until March 21, 2014.

## Plot

A.N.T. Farm revolves around Chyna Parks, an 11-year-old musical prodigy, who has just become the newest student in the Advanced Natural Talents (A.N.T.) program at Webster High School in San Francisco, California for gifted middle schoolers. On her first day, she meets Gibson, the goofy counsellor and tutor of the A.N.T. Farm, as well as Olive Doyle, a girl with an eidetic memory, and Fletcher Quimby, an artistic genius, but otherwise quite dim, who falls in love with Chyna when they first meet. After becoming friends, the three proceed to go on multiple adventures, using their talents to their advantage.

The school's it girl, Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott), is one of the teenagers who thinks that the A.N.T.s don't belong at Webster High School and views them as little kids. She proceeds to bully Chyna, thinking of her as competition in being the star of the school. Chyna's older brother, Cameron, attempts to avoid Chyna in high school as much as he can, afraid she will be an embarrassment to him. Lexi's best friend Paisley and Angus, a computer prodigy who harbours a crush on Olive, are major recurring roles in the series.

The third season takes place at a boarding school called Z-Tech after all of the A.N.T.s are accepted as students. The school is run by a big technology company, Z-Tech, owned by Zoltan Grundy. The series ends with Fletcher winning an arts fellowship in New York City and moving there to follow his dreams.

## Episodes

See Also: List of A.N.T. Farm Episodes

 2 | 20
 3 | 17

## Cast and Characters

### Main

* China Anne McClain as Chyna Parks
* Sierra McCormick as Olive Doyle
* Jake Short as Fletcher Quimby
* Stefanie Scott as Alexis "Lexi" Reed
* Carlon Jeffery as Cameron Parks (Season 1-2)
* Aedin Mincks as Angus Chestnut (Season 3)

### Recurring

* Allie DeBerry as Paisley Houndstooth
* Zach Steel as Gibson
* Mindy Sterline as Susan Skidmore
* Finesse Mitchell as Darryl Parks
* Christian Campos as Wacky the Wol
* Elise Neal as Roxanne Parks
* Matt Lowe as Hippo
* Claire Engler as Violet
* Dominic Burgess as Zoltan Grundy
* Zibby Allen as Madame Goo Goo
* Piper Curda as Kennedy Van Buren / Kumiko Hashimoto
* Tom Choi as Mr. Hashimoto

### Guest Stars

* Zendaya as Sequoia Jones
* Vanessa Morgan as Jeanne Gossamer / Vanessa
* Billy Unger as Tasmanian Neville
* Chris Rock as Himself

## Production

### Development

Disney Channel announced on November 11, 2010 that they had green-lit the show for production, which began in early 2011. The show was first conceived when Dan Signer, creator of the show, saw China Anne McClain. "The girl had so much confidence. She can nail a joke. She can sing. She can play instruments. It's like China was some sort of child prodigy... and that's when it hit me: Why not build a show around a child prodigy? Someone who's got all of this natural talent & ability, but is still challenged when she's sent off to high school at the age of 11?" Signer said in an interview. After the first few episodes of the show were shown, Disney Channel bumped up their order of episodes for the show from 13 episodes to 26 episodes for the first season. On November 30, 2011, it was announced the series was renewed for a second season. On October 2, 2012, it was announced the series was renewed for a third and final season.

### Casting

In 2009, China Anne McClain booked the starring role as Janet in the Disney Channel pilot Jack and Janet Save the Planet alongside future co-stars Sierra McCormick and Jake Short. The pilot was not picked up and never aired. After the pilot was not picked up, Dan Signer began creating another show tailor-made for McClain and cast her as the lead. Sierra McCormick was cast after an audition where she continually talked about tigers. Dan Signer stated "And as I heard her continually talking about tigers, I thought 'That's just how Olive would sound,' because Olive is a fast talking, intelligent student whose talent is memory, which is how Sierra got that part." Jake Short was cast after Signer found him to be likable as an artist during his audition. Jake Short was the last of the three core characters to be cast. Caroline Sunshine was originally cast as Lexi and Stefanie Scott as the role of Tinka Hessenheffer in Shake It Up!, but Dan Signer decided that Sunshine would be better as Tinka and Scott as Lexi, so the two switched roles. Sunshine, however, would later guest star in the episode "some enchANTed evening".

## Release

In Canada, the show had a preview on May 23, 2011, with the premiere on June 24, 2011. In New Zealand, it premiered on August 15, 2011, and in Australia on the same day, as well on Seven Network on May 19, 2012. It previewed on September 16, 2011, and premiered on October 7, 2011, in the UK and Ireland. It was released in South Africa on December 10, 2011.

## Reception

### U.S. Television Ratings

The sneak preview of the series garnered 4.4 million viewers on its premiere night, ranked as TV's No. 1 Telecast in Total Day among Tweens 9-14 (441,000/1.8 rating) and was also TV's No. 1 Telecast among Kids 6-11 (544,000/2.2 rating). Its lead-in, the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck, received 4.6 million.

The episode "The PhANTom Locker" was the most watched episode of the series, scoring 4.6 million viewers, until August 5, 2011, when an unnamed episode earned 4.9 million viewers right after the Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd dimension. It did better than its lead-in Wizards of Waverly Place, which earned 4.1 million viewers.

In Australia the episode "transplANTed" delivered 80,000 viewers. In the United Kingdom the same episode had 321,000 viewers, and the episode "participANTs" garnered 240,000 viewers.