Dale Taylor at ytv will go into prepro this fall on his pet project Control Shift, the first live-action series to be produced by the kids' specialty.

Aimed at a tween audience, the program centers on a group of youths who use the Internet to solve local crimes and mysteries as well as learn how they can become involved in local, national and international issues. Topics will run the gamut from global warming and the destruction of Brazilian forests to school kids trying to sell essays on the Net.

Taylor plans to finance the $350,000 per half-hour series with international presales and is currently in negotiations with u.k. and American broadcasters and distributors.

John May and Suzanne Bolch are writing the scripts and production will begin next spring for a fall '98 launch. A director and cast have not been attached.

A Website will be twinned with the series where viewers can pick up clues to the unfolding mysteries as well as find out how to access Websites that deal with the issues confronted in the program and lend their voices to action campaigns. Taylor anticipates the series content and show direction will eventually be driven by audience comments.

ytv is also in development on another half-hour series being scripted by May. The cel-animated Pig William, a copro between Toronto's Cambium Film and Video Productions and Vancouver's Boing Entertainment (owned by Bardel Animation), is based on a book by Arlene Dubanevich about a pig who gets distracted by the menial chores of daily life and daydreams away his time with imaginary adventures.

-Alliance trying for Candy book

Alliance Communications is currently in negotiations to option Laughing On The Outside: The Life of John Candy, a book by Martin Knelman. Alliance is reportedly interested in a tv movie based on the story.

-Atlantis's Alex Kelly

Early September has been slated for production of the cbs tv movie Alex Kelly Story (working title), produced by Atlantis Films. Director and cast have not been lined up.

-Comedy Network picks up Tom Green

The wacky off-the-wall exploits of comic actor Tom Green first surfaced on Rogers Cable Ottawa, had a short stint as a cbc pilot last fall, and is reemerging on The Comedy Network come January.

Merilyn Read's Ottawa-based production company MTR Entertainment has picked up a broadcast licence from The Comedy Network to produce 13 eps of The Tom Green Show, a twentysomething variety spoof that sees Green gallivant around the country creating chaos ­ previous escapades included taping himself to a post at MuchMusic until Monica Deol promised to come out and pledge her love for him.

The program aired for a year and a half on Rogers Cable Ottawa as an in-house production. Read, who produced the Babar and Father Christmas special and Happy Birthday Bunnykins for ctv, nabbed the rights and produced a cbc pilot last fall.

Production on 13 eps is currently underway in Ottawa. Upcoming shows will see Green wander through Mexico determined to open a theme park bearing his name.