A.N.T. Farm

A.N.T. Farm
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Dan Signer
Starring	China Anne McClain Sierra McCormick Jake Short Stefanie Scott Carlon Jeffery
Theme music composer	Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins, China Anne McClain, Lauryn McClain & Sierra McClain
Opening theme	"Exceptional", performed by China Anne McClain
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	25 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Dan Signer Stephen Engel
Camera setup	Videotape (filmized); Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	It's a Laugh Productions Gravy Boat Productions Disney Channel Original Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Disney Channel (USA) Family (CAN)
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Original run	May 6, 2011 (2011-05-06) – present
External links
Official website

A.N.T. Farm is a Disney Channel television sitcom that premiered on May 6, 2011 as a special preview and continued as a regular series on June 17, 2011.^[1] The pilot episode, "TransplANTed" 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 Disney XD series. Also a Ytv series, Mr. Young. In mid-November 2010, Disney Channel green-lit 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 Talents" (or "A.N.T.") program.

On November 30, 2011, A.N.T. Farm was officially picked up for a second season.^[5]

Premise

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. (Advanced Natural Talents) in the A.N.T. program at Webster High School in San Francisco, California. On her first day, she meets Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick), a girl who has an eidetic memory, and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), an artistic genius who deeply falls in love with her 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.

The school's "it" girl, Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott), proceeds to bully Chyna, thinking of her as competition in being the star of the school. Chyna's 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 Minks) share a major-recurring role on the series.

Production

Development

Disney Channel announced on November 11, 2010 that they had green-lighted the show for production, which began in early 2011.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[7] On November 19, 2011, the series was renewed for a second season which would start filming in early December.^[8]

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 who's talent is memory. Which is how Sierra got that part."^[7] Jake Short was the last of the three core characters to be cast.

Characters

Main characters

The cast of A.N.T. Farm: (from left to right) Stefanie Scott as Lexi Reed, Sierra McCormick as Olive Doyle, China Anne McClain as Chyna Parks, Jake Short as Fletcher Quimby, and Carlon Jeffery as Cameron Parks.

• Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain) is the A.N.T. program's musically gifted one, as she can play guitar, piano, violin, trumpet, saxophone, flute, cello, harp, bagpipes, French horn, bugle, Theremin, drums, harmonica, keyboard, bassoon and the spoons, but surprisingly can't play the triangle. She also sings a lot, blowing people away with her big, soulful voice. Never afraid of a challenge, she sees high school as an exciting place. Unfortunately, she’s going to have to drag her new friends out of their shells to experience it.
• Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick) is a human computer. Thanks to her eidetic memory, everything she’s ever read, heard, or seen is permanently etched in her brain. Olive, always ready with a fact about pretty much everything, is something of an over-thinker. She’d rather hide in the safety of the ANT Farm, but her new friend Chyna is not going to let that happen. Olive is scared of many things, from ghosts to curly fries.
• Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short) is an artistic genius, gifted in all media – painting, sculpture, drawing, and other forms of art. But to him, the most beautiful work of art is Chyna. He's been in love with her since the first moment he saw her, though has trouble keeping his crush a secret when he’s constantly immortalizing her in his art. His crush on her may lead him to lose his mind sometimes.
• Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott) Lexi Reed is Chyna’s biggest rival at Webster High. She is the series main antagonist. Chyna may be the leader of the ANTs, but Lexi still considers herself Queen Bee. She was known as the star of every school play until Chyna showed up, creating a rivalry between the two. However, she begins allying with Chyna and her friends, especially Cameron. Eventually, she becomes Student-Body President. Her best friend and sidekick is Paisley, and she'll listen to every word Lexi says, but sometimes in the wrong way.
• Cameron Parks (Carlon Jeffery) is Chyna’s older brother, though he spends a lot of time in her shadow. While she’s a prodigy, he’s not especially gifted at anything, but is determined to find something at which he excels. He’s not thrilled that his kid sister is at his school, so he tries to keep his distance. But, when push comes to shove, Cameron will step up to help Chyna, especially when it involves problems with Lexi. In some scenarios, Chyna helps him. He is under five feet tall, even as a sophomore. Ironically, he often seems to get along with his sister's nemesis, Lexi, who mostly goes along with his plans to entertain herself because she wants to see how ignorant he is. Cameron used to be one of the tallest kids, but he peaked too early.

Recurring characters

• Angus Chestnut (Aedin Mincks) is a computer genius who often runs illegal programs on his computer disguised as video games. He has a huge, but unrequited, crush on Olive. Because of the extensive time he spends on his computer, he is quite lazy and unwilling to do basic physical tasks, such as walking in between classes, to the point where he, in the episode, "ClairvoyANT", rides on an elderly scooter so he doesn't have to walk.
• Paisley Houndstooth (Allie DeBerry) is Lexi's empty-headed friend. She is also on the cheer squad, even though she's clueless about almost every cheer, and often hopelessly confused about everything that's going on. However, she thinks differently than Lexi because she is more a sweet-spirited girl who cares about people. Both easily fooled and free with compliments, she is treated badly by Lexi despite their being "best friends." She broke up with her boyfriend Keith in ClairvoyANT after she accused Keith of hitting Angus's electronic wheelchair with his body. She loves Badgers as shown in TransplANTed.
• Susan Skidmore (Mindy Sterling) is the corrupt school principal. She's completely convinced herself that she is young and beautiful, to the point where she cannot believe her own reflection is her. She runs the A.N.T Program like a sweatshop, to use the kids' talents for her own use and benefit. She is at times finding ways to save money as possible. Examples include replacing dinosaur nuggets with different nuggets because they cost five cents less and replacing the school nurse with a first aid kit.
• Darryl Parks (Finesse Mitchell) is Chyna and Cameron's dad. He loves his daughter dearly, but can be very overprotective at times, going to extreme and often ridiculous measures to ensure her safety. He is also known to be relatively cheap. Though known as a "highly decorated" police officer, he is occasionally seen not taking his job very seriously.
• Gibson (Zach Steel) is the counselor, tutor, and therapist of the A.N.T. Farm. He is shown to be caring, sensitive, and somewhat dimwitted, as well as acting more like a child. He likes knitting, mahjong, and feeding pigeons. He doesn't like his grandmother's boyfriend, Bob, and in "Bad RomANTs," he has gotten back together with his childhood girlfriend despite the fact that she's in jail, and is a freak. Gibson keeps many items in his voluminous hair. Items range from tissues to assorted foods.
• Wacky the Wolf (Christian Campos) is the taciturn school mascot. The person inside the costume is never shown. He is good friends with Chyna, Olive and Fletcher. Wacky is shown to take his job as school mascot very seriously.
• Roxanne Parks (Elise Neal) is Chyna and Cameron's mom. She is a children's birthday party entertainer. So far, she has only been seen in four episodes, but has been mentioned in three episodes. Although she is busy with her work, she still loves her kids.
• Violet (Claire Engler) is the newest A.N.T. Her talent is sports and basically anything athletic. In Ballet DANTser, she had a crush on Fletcher. She appeared in "InfANT", when Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher have to find a baby's talent.

Episodes

Soundtrack

The A.N.T. Farm Soundtrack is a Disney Channel soundtrack from the TV series, A.N.T. Farm. It was released on October 11, 2011. In addition to songs by China Anne McClain and cast members Stefanie Scott and Carlon Jeffery, it features two songs by China and her sisters as The McClain Sisters leading up to their debut album on Hollywood Records in 2012.^[11] The soundtrack has released 2 singles. The first single to be released was "Dynamite". The second single to be released was "Calling All the Monsters". The song was the first single to chart, peaking at number 86 on America and charting in 2 more countries. The third single to be released was "Unstoppable".

Release

Ratings

The sneak preview of the series earned 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).^[12] Its lead-in, the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck, got 4.6 million.^[12]

The episode "The PhANTom Locker", is currently the most watched episode of the series, scoring 4.6 million viewers.^[8] It did better than its lead-in Wizards of Waverly Place, which got 4 million viewers.^[8] The episode "ballet dANTser", is currently the least watched episode of the series, only scoring 2.5 million viewers.^[13] It also did better than its lead-in Jessie, which had 2.3 million viewers.

Awards

International release

Country / Region	Channel	Series premiere	Title in country
United States	Disney Channel	May 6, 2011 (Sneak peek) June 17, 2011 (Premiere)	A.N.T. Farm
Canada  Bahamas  Jamaica	Family	May 23, 2011 (Sneak peek) June 24, 2011 (Premiere)
Australia	Disney Channel Australia	August 15, 2011		Saturday Disney	May 19, 2012
Argentina  Bolivia  Chile  Colombia  Ecuador  Mexico  Peru  Uruguay  Venezuela	Disney Channel Latin America	August 21, 2011 (Sneak peek) September 16, 2011 (Premiere)	Programa de Talentos (Programme of Talents)
Brazil	Disney Channel Brazil
France	Disney Channel France	October 5, 2011	Section Genius
United Kingdom	Disney Channel UK and Ireland	September 16, 2011 (Sneak peek) October 7, 2011 (Premiere)	A.N.T. Farm
Italy	Disney Channel Italy	October 7, 2011	A.N.T. Farm: Accademia Nuovi Talenti (A.N.T. Farm: New Talent Academy)
Singapore	Disney Channel Singapore		A.N.T. Farm
Denmark  Finland  Norway  Sweden	Disney Channel Scandinavia	October 21, 2011	A.N.T. Farm
Spain	Disney Channel Spain	November 11, 2011	A.N.T. Farm Escuela de Talentos (A.N.T Farm Talent School)
Austria  Germany  Switzerland	Disney Channel Germany	November 17, 2011	A.N.T.: Achtung Natur-Talente (A.N.T.: Attention Natural Talents)
Bulgaria  Macedonia	Disney Channel Bulgaria	December 10, 2011	Фермата Г.О.Т. (Farm G.O.T.)
Cyprus  Greece	Disney Channel Greece		Παιδιά- τσακάλια (Kids- Geniuses)
Czech Republic  Slovakia	Disney Channel Czech Republic		Farma R.A.K.(Farm R.A.C.)
Hungary	Disney Channel Hungary		Zsenipalánták (Little Geniuses)
Moldova  Romania	Disney Channel Romania		Bobocii isteti (Smart Kids)
Poland	Disney Channel Poland		Nadzdolni
Turkey	Disney Channel Turkey		Yetenek Çiftliği (Talent Farm)
Ukraine	Disney Channel Ukraine		Табiр О.С.А. (Camp B.E.E.)
Netherlands  Belgium	Disney Channel Netherlands and Flanders	December 23, 2011 (Sneak peek) January 13, 2012 (Premiere)	A.N.T. Farm
Israel	Disney Channel Israel	January 26, 2012	החרשנים
Japan	Disney Channel Japan	January 28, 2012	天才学級アント・ファーム (Genius Class A.N.T. Farm)
Russia	Disney Channel Russia	March 3, 2012	Высший класс! (The Upper Class!)
Taiwan	Disney Channel Taiwan	March 16, 2012	天才學園 (Genius School)
South Korea	Disney Channel Korea	2012	개미 농장 (Ant Farm)

References

External links

• Official website
• A.N.T. Farm at the Internet Movie Database
• A.N.T. Farm at TV.com
• A.N.T. Farm at TV Guide