Chris and Shane Houghton, the creators of Disney Channel’s “Big City Greens,” have signed a multiyear deal with Disney Branded Television. The news was announced during the 2024 Television Critics Association winter press tour.
Under this new deal the brothers and creative partners will produce animated projects with Disney Television Animation studio and will also have the option to develop live-action projects within the division and across linear and streaming platforms. The deal also includes development opportunities with 20th Television Animation for adult animation projects.
“Big City Greens” first premiered in 2018 and has run for nearly 100 episodes. After losing his farm, Bill Green and his two children move in with Bill’s mother Alice, also known as Gramma, who lives on a small farm in the middle of Big City. Initially, the series followed the adventures of the mischievous 10-year-old Cricket (voiced by Chris Houghton) as he navigates the big city, but as the series has continued, it’s jumped between adventures in Big City and Smalton.
The series was heavily influenced by the Houghtons’ childhood growing up in the small town of St. Johns, Mich., and may characters are inspired by their real-life family members and the people of their hometown. The “Big City Greens” is set to debut a movie, which will premiere this summer.
“Big City Greens” was the No. 2 most-watched kids animated series of 2023 and has achieved more than 2 billion hours watched across linear and streaming since its debut in 2018.
Apart form their Disney Channel hit, the Houghtons are known for creating, writing and illustrating the comic book series “Reed Gunther,” which follows a bear-riding cowboy. The comic was published by Image Comics. On a television level, Chris worked as a storyboard artist for Disney’s “Gravity Falls” and “Wander Over Yonder,” and Shane was an editor for the reality series “Tattoo School.”
