Samantha was invited this Summer into a really fun animated project called "Pound Dogs"
where she played two different charactors. The project written and created by Mike Salva has gone on to win two development deals with MTV via the New York Television Festival. Mike Salva and "Pound Dogs" also made Best of Nashville 2011: Media & Politics Writers' Choice in "The Nashville Scene"
BEST CANDIDATE FOR ADULT SWIM: MIKE SALVA
Squat blue dog to skinny yellow dog, behind bars: "I am cold. You're lookin' at six hard nipples right here." So begins the trailer for "Pound Dogs," a proposed animated series directed by Nashville animator Salva and starring local comics Ryan Williams and Sean Parrott, along with locals such as musician/filmmaker Steve Taylor and former Jem voice talent Samantha Newark. It killed 'em at the recent New York Television Festival, a "development incubator" designed to foster original programming, where MTV awarded it two $5,000 development deals for writing and animation. On top of that, Salva, who's lived and worked in Nashville for 15 years, and voice director Tom Snyder won a $25,000 development deal sponsored by Microsoft search engine Bing for their entry "Death Row Diet," in which Jonathan Katz (from the Comedy Central cult favorite Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist) and Seinfeld scribe Tom Leopold lend voice to an animated slice of life on ... well, check the title. Good stuff — and so firmly within the Adult Swim sardonic-stoner sensibility it might have been pitched by a talking meatball and a flying shake. JIM RIDLEY
Age limit: All ages