A.N.T. Farm

This article is about the television series. For other uses, see Ant farm (disambiguation).
A.N.T. Farm
Genre Teen sitcom
Created by Dan Signer
Starring
Theme music composer Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins, China Anne McClain, Lauryn McClain, and Sierra McClain
Opening theme "Exceptional", performed by China Anne McClain
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 62 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Camera setup Videotape (filmized);
Multi-camera
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor Disney–ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network Disney Channel
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Original release May 6, 2011 (2011-05-06) – March 21, 2014 (2014-03-21)
External links
Website

A.N.T. Farm is an American teen sitcom which originally aired on Disney Channel from May 6, 2011 to March 21, 2014. It first aired on May 6, 2011, as a special one-episode preview and continued as a regular series starting on June 17, 2011.[1] After airing as the preview of the series, the pilot episode "transplANTed" later re-aired after the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck.[2] The series was created by Dan Signer, a former writer and co-executive producer of The Suite Life on Deck and creator of the YTV series Mr. Young. In mid-November 2010, Disney Channel greenlighted the series,[3] with production beginning in early 2011.[4] The first promo was released during the premiere of Lemonade Mouth.

Taking place in San Francisco, the series stars China Anne McClain, Sierra McCormick, and Jake Short as middle-schoolers in a gifted program at their local high school called the "Advanced Natural Talent" or "A.N.T." program.

Plot

A.N.T. Farm revolves around Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain), an 11-year-old musical prodigy, who has just become the newest A.N.T. (student in the A.N.T. program) in the A.N.T. program at Webster High School in San Francisco, California. On her first day, she meets Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick), an odd girl who has an eidetic memory, and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), an artistic genius (but otherwise quite dim) who falls deeply in love with Chyna when they first meet. They soon become her best friends at the high school. They proceed to go on multiple adventures, using their talents to their advantage. Before Chyna meets Olive and Fletcher, she meets Gibson (Zach Steel), the counselor, tutor, and therapist of the A.N.T. Farm, who is a strange, goofy guy who isn't the brightest person. The school's "it" girl, Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott), is one of the teenagers who thinks the ants are little kids at Webster. She proceeds to bully Chyna, thinking of her as competition in being the star of the school. Chyna's bumbling older brother, Cameron (Carlon Jeffery), 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, (Allie DeBerry) and Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher's friend Angus (Aedin Mincks) share major recurring roles on the series.

Season 3 takes place at a boarding school called Z-tech instead of at Webster High School. The school is run by a big technology company, Z Tech, owned by Zoltan Grundy (Dominic Burgess). The series ended with Fletcher (Jake Short) winning an art fellowship in New York City and moves there with his grandma.

Production

Development

Disney Channel announced on November 11, 2010 that they had greenlighted the show for production, which began in early 2011.[5] 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.[6] 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.[6] On November 19, 2011, the series was renewed for a second season, which would start filming in early December.[7]

Casting

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."[6] 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".

Characters

Main characters

Lexi Reed Olive Doyle Chyna Parks Fletcher Quimby Cameron Parks
The season 1 and 2 main characters of A.N.T. Farm: (from left to right) Lexi Reed, Olive Doyle, Chyna Parks, Fletcher Quimby, and Cameron Parks. Can also use cursor to identify.

Recurring characters

Special guest stars

Episodes

Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 25 May 6, 2011 (2011-05-06) April 13, 2012 (2012-04-13)
2 20 June 1, 2012 (2012-06-01) April 26, 2013 (2013-04-26)
3 17 May 31, 2013 (2013-05-31) March 21, 2014 (2014-03-21)

Special episodes

Title Air date
"America Needs TalANT" November 25, 2011
"chANTs of a Lifetime" November 23, 2012
"trANTsferred" May 31, 2013

Songs

List of songs in A.N.T. Farm
Title Performer Episode Soundtrack
"Exceptional" China Anne McClain All episodes (opening credits) and influANTces A.N.T. Farm
"Dynamite" China Anne McClain transplANTed A.N.T. Farm
"My Crush" China Anne McClain replicANT A.N.T. Farm
"Unstoppable" China Anne McClain managemANT A.N.T. Farm
"Calling All the Monsters" China Anne McClain mutANT farm and mutANT farm 2 A.N.T. Farm
"Beautiful" China Anne McClain America Needs TalANT A.N.T. Farm
"DNA" China Anne McClain creative consultANT Disney Channel Play It Loud
"Dancin' by Myself" China Anne McClain fANTasy girl and ANTswers Disney Channel Play It Loud
"I Got My Scream On" China Anne McClain mutANT farm 2 Make Your Mark: Ultimate Playlist
"Go" McClain Sisters chANTs of a lifetime Go - Single
"How Do I Get There from Here" China Anne McClain chANTs of a lifetime Make Your Mark: Ultimate Playlist
"Stars Aligning" China Anne McClain trANTsferred N/A
"Turn Back the Clock" China Anne McClain past, presANT, and future N/A
"Wild Card" China Anne McClain uncanny resemblANTs N/A
"Silent Night" China Anne McClain silANT night N/A
"Do Your Own Thing" China Anne McClain and Roshon Fegan the New York experiANTs N/A

Reception

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).[10] Its lead-in, the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck, received 4.6 million.[10]

The episode "The PhANTom Locker", is currently the most watched episode of the series, scoring 4.6 million viewers.,[7] But on Friday, August 5, 2011 a random episode scored 4.9 right after the Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd dimension.[11] It did better than its lead-in Wizards of Waverly Place, which earned 4.1 million viewers.[7]

In Australia the episode "transplANTed" delivered 80,000 viewers.[12] In the United Kingdom the same episode had 321,000 viewers[13] and the episode "participANTs" garnered 240,000 viewers.[14]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Work Result
2012 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Favorite TV Actor Jake Short Won
Young Artist Award Best Performance in a TV series – Supporting Young Actress Stefanie Scott Won
Best Performance in a TV series – Guest Starring Young Actress Ten and Under Francesca Capaldi Nominated
Best Performance in a TV series – Recurring Young Actress 17–21 Allie DeBerry Nominated
2014 NAACP Image Awards[15] Outstanding Performance in a Youth/ Children’s Program – (Series or Special) China Anne McClainA.N.T. Farm Won

Broadcast

In Canada, the show had a preview on May 23, 2011, with the premiere on June 24, 2011.[16] 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.[17] It previewed on September 16, 2011, and premiered on October 7, 2011, in the UK and Ireland.[18] In Singapore it was released on October 7, 2011, and in South Africa on December 10, 2011.[19]

References

  1. Gorman, Bill (May 12, 2011). "A.N.T. Farm To Premiere June 17 On Disney Channel USA". TV by the numbers. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
  2. "Disney Channel and Disney Junior May 2011 Program Highlights" (DOC). The Walt Disney Company. April 22, 2011. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
  3. Hibberd, James (November 11, 2010). "Disney Orders Live Action Comedy 'Ant Farm'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 13 November 2010. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
  4. Andreeva, Nellie (November 11, 2010). "Disney Channel Picks Up Comedy 'A.N.T. Farm' To Series". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  5. "Disney Channel Greenlights Live-Action Comedy Series "A.N.T. Farm"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 "Dan Signer talks about developing the Disney Channel's newest hit, "A.N.T. Farm"". Jim Hill Media. June 21, 2011. Retrieved July 2, 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 Seidman, Robert (June 27, 2011). "Friday Cable Ratings: TNT Movie, 'American Restoration' Lead Cable; 'Smackdown' Steady + "A.N.T. Farm", "Phineas and Ferb" & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  8. Weisman, Jon (October 2, 2012). "Disney Channel renews 'A.N.T. Farm'". Variety. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
  9. TV Guide
  10. 1 2 Friday's Series Finale of "The Suite Life on Deck" and Sneak Peek of "A.N.T. Farm" Stand as TV's Top 2 Telecasts in Kids 6-11 and Tweens 9-14
  11. TV by the Numbers
  12. "Pay TV Ratings Week 34". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  13. "Top 10 12-18 September 2011". barb.co.uk.
  14. "Top 10 3-9 October 2011". barb.co.uk.
  15. Couch, Aaron (February 22, 2014). "NAACP Image Awards: The Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
  16. "Canadian website".
  17. "Australian website".
  18. "UK Website".
  19. "South African website".

External links

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