I'm Your Handy Manny

Disney Channel is adding multi-cultural fix-it cartoon Handy Manny to its pre-school programming block Playhouse Disney in early 2006.

That 70's Show's Wilmer Valderamma will voice the role of Latino handyman hero Manny Garcia, who with the help of some talking tools, is the town's Mr. fix-it in this CGI animated show.

Handy Manny is created by children's TV vets Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen. Playhouse Disney, which  airs at 6 a.m.- 2 p.m. and weekends at 6-10:30 a.m.,  launched in 1999 to promote early childhood learning.

Disney has also picked up a second season of CGI-animated Higglytown Heroes for the Playhouse.

The show, which airs daily at 8 a.m., features songs and celebrity guests who voice an episode's "hero for the day." Celebrities who guested last season include Sharon Stone, Naomi Judd, Serena Williams, Susan Lucci and Cyndi Lauper.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.