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TV producers woo cable with animals By John Darling Animals may get a lot funnier if a cable channel buys up the "Animal Action" TV series being produced by two Southern Oregon men. Animal rehabilitator-trainer Eddie Williams of Roseburg and comic actor Greg Robbins of Grants Pass Wednesday finished shooting 13 half-hour shows and are in talks with several cable networks, including Discovery, USA Network and Fox Kids channel. "We�re trying to teach through laughter," said Williams, who plays the straight man � and the answer man � to Robbins� goofy, slapstick character. "We guarantee we�re going to make you laugh a lot, and if you�re not careful, you might learn something." In their pilot shows, Greg gets chased by a Bengal tiger, scratches a rhino behind the ears, chats with a huge kodiak bear ("He sure could use some tic-tacs"), dances in tuxedo with penguins and swims with sharks, giant octopi and wolf eels in the Oregon Coast Aquarium. In Medford Wednesday, the pair shot their last segment � a scene in an executive jet where Greg, wearing a penguin nose and tux, acts out the fact that penguins can�t fly. In the manner of Abbott and Costello, Eddie chides, warns and teaches curious Greg � and the audience � all about animal habits, diets, behaviors and threats to their survival. The two use their real names in the show. The shows will premier in dubbed version this fall in Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand and Taiwan, said Robbins and, if things work out, in France and the U.S. The primary audience is children age 6 to 18, and the shows are available now as rental videos and for elementary schools on the West Coast. The distributor is RAMM Entertainment of Los Angeles. Williams and Robbins met while working at Wildlife Safari in Winston. Williams was in education and animal care, and Robbins was marketing director. They both had backgrounds in radio and video production and soon were producing and hosting an hour-long animal show on nearby KQEN radio. As they hatched the TV series, they became equal partners with Steve Hardie of Steve Hardie Productions in Gold Hill, who produces and shoots the show on digital video. Williams writes the science and Robbins writes the comedy. They bankrolled production with deposits from Asian broadcasters, Robbins said. Before Wildlife Safari, Williams was education director for Wildlife Images in Grants Pass. He wrote and shot documentaries for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensics Lab in Ashland. He�s been a cameraman on National Geographic and Discovery Channel. Robbins had his own TV production company in Southern Oregon; he created, hosted, wrote and directed several shows, including a game show that ran six years. He was educated in acting at Strasberg School of Method Acting in Hollywood and has appeared in several films, including "Terminator." Robbins and Williams are not save-the-animals activists, said Robbins, but "maybe, through laughter, the show will help people understand and appreciate these animals and they�ll be around longer." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA