The Adventures of Leah Thompson

The series logo.

***The Adventures of Leah Thompson*** (or ***Leah's World*** outside the United States and Canada) is an American animated television series created by Steven Spielberg for NBC. The series is a spinoff of *Geo's World* and *The Geo Team*. The series is set in the fictional town of Springville, and largely takes place in McGuire Manor.

The series was conceived in 199O, which was 6 years after the original run of *The Geo Team* for the NBC in July 14, 1991. *The Adventures of Leah Thompson* first appeared in the original unaired pilot in 1996. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series. The cartoons were adapted into a half-hour television series on December 24, 1997 with the episode "House of George's", which led to a series of half-hour episodes.

## Production

### Development

Spielberg initially conceived the show in 1991. The show was originally named *Leah's World*, then in September 1997, it was later retitled *The Adventures of Leah Thompson*.

*The Adventures of Leah Thompson* first appeared in the development slate by NBC in early 1997, under no official name for the pilot, after a report that NBC had purchased the series from creators. On June 7, 1997, Steven and Universal Television inked a deal. The pilot was named *1996 Pilot Pitch* in June 1997, when it appeared on the primetime slate for the 1997–98 television season, although it wasn't officially on the network schedule. In August 1997, the show appeared on the primetime slate for the 1997–98 television season. On November 20, 1997, it was announced that the show would premiere on December 24, 1997 with a sneak peak for The Geo Team episode, *Leah Joins The Geo Team*.

Spielberg pitched a 28-minute and 57-second pilot to NBC which aired on December 24, 1997. Even before the pilot episode premiered, the show had already been renewed for a 22-episode second season. After the first season of the show aired, it was given the green light to start production. On May 5, 1997, less than three weeks into the first season's winter hiatus, it was announced that NBC was ordering a third season. A fourth season was announced on January 10, 1999, just a few days before the second season concluded.

### Executive producers

Lauren Faust, Craig Kellman, Dan Povenmire, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Matt Groening, and Steven Spielberg were served as executive producers on the series since the first season. They're in charge of the production of the television series.

### Casting

The casting of the series was done by Steven Spielberg.

### Animation

The style uses a cel animation, hand drawn animation, key animation until the season 6 finale, ALF's Sick Day. The animation is currently done at Film Roman as of Season 8, as well as other companies like Rough Draft Studios, it's Korean division, AKOM Production Co., Freelance Animation, Toon City, TMS Entertainment (seasons 1-9), Startoons, Kennedy Cartoons, and DHX Media, just to name a few.

## Setting

The series is about the fictional town of Springville and McGuire Manor.

## Summary

The series is about an 13 year old girl named Leah Thompson who was forced to move to a new town, Springville, with her family, before she is befriended by George McGuire and becomes his new girlfriend and go on a mansion called McGuire Manor where his friends live and spend a time with them and deal with some villains for some trouble.

## Characters

*Main article: List of The Adventures of Leah Thompson characters*

## Merchandise

The show also spawned a large and popular merchandise line at Hot Topic, Claire's, RadioShack, Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys "R" Us stores in the United States as well as the Zellers, Wal-Mart, and Toys "R" Us stores in Canada, and a limited selection of merchandise at Kmart and Target in Australia.

There were many *The Adventures of Leah Thompson* kids meal tie-ins at Burger King restaurants in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, for the movie in 2001, 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015.

## Home media

### VHS Releases

*Main article: List of VHS releases*
The show's VHS releases that features volumes 1 & 4 of each episode.

### Region 1

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released all nine seasons of *The Adventures of Leah Thompson* to Region 1 DVD in box sets, with each set having 19-13 episodes on three discs.

## Credits

*Main article: The Adventures of Leah Thompson/Credits*
Lauren Faust and Universal Studios made the credits at the end of every episode from every season.