WPXT Adds 'Badly-Animated' Special to Christmas Programming Pantheon

You never know what to expect out of WPXT in Portland, Maine.

We wrote about the WPXT-WPME duopoly a few months ago, and the extraordinary slate of homegrown programs the CW-MyNet pair produces: game shows, entertainment shows, travel programs, etc., all in HD.

This time around, they have a musical Christmas special in Jose’s Badly-Animated Christmas, which airs December 22 at 7:30 p.m. It stars Jose, the Badly-Animated Worm, who got his start on the stations’ goofy weekly game show Kick Start.

“We call him ‘Badly-Animated’ because we’re no Pixar, that’s for sure,” says Chief Creative Officer John Marshall. “We never have time to do much more with him than open and close his mouth. Even so, José has developed a real following. Kids love him and, with all the animated holiday specials that air at this time of year, I thought it would be fun to see what we could pull together.”

Marshall wrote the script and the music. The show airs in HD.

“The idea of a local TV station creating a 30-minute animated TV show is crazy,” concedes Doug Finck, GM of the stations. “And making it a musical, with original songs, is completely over the top.”