Food Buzz, a series covering the latest in food trends, is hosted by Chris Hauselt. (Photo: PBS Digital Studios)
• PBS Digital Studios announced four additions to its programming lineup, including its first scripted series, at its May 5 NewFronts presentation to advertisers in New York. The scripted eight-episode show, Frankenstein, M.D., will be a modern twist on the Frankenstein myth, “following the obsessive, eccentric prodigy Victoria Frankenstein through her medical experiments,” according to a PBSDS release. The program is produced by Pemberley Digital and executive-produced by Emmy-winner Bernie Su. Frankenstein, M.D. will launch later this year.
PBSDS will also reboot the children’s musical variety show Pancake Mountain, which attracted a cult following when it launched online and on public access in 2002. The show featured appearances from musicians including Katy Perry, M.I.A. and Arcade Fire. It went off the air in 2012, but series creator Scott Stuckey is partnering with PBSDS to revive it this summer.
Finally, PBSDS also launched two web-original shows May 5 produced by Magnet Media. Boingo Boingo is a comedy program about language hosted by Ethan Fixell; Food Buzz, hosted by Chris Hauselt, tracks food trends.
• Innovation Hub, a weekly WGBH Radio series about technology and creative thinking, is now being distributed nationally by Public Radio International. Host and executive editor Kara Miller launched the program in 2011 for Boston audiences as an expansion of a segment on the news program Greater Boston. PRI is owned by WGBH.
• Satirical Atlanta news site The Atlanta Banana poked fun at pubradio’s most wonderful time of the year with the headline “Fifteen Dead in WABE Public Radio Pledge Drive.” Cause of death? NPR’s “guilt tactics.”