Nightly News at Nine series

Nightly News at Nine is a series of brickfilms created by Dave Pickett. It centers around a news show in New Block City, Figuria, and all of the strange happenings in the land, including evil plots from the villain Malifios and a war between the colors green and orange. It stars Eric Benson and Eleanor Rivera as news anchors Phil Brickley and Sherry Tiles, Dave Pickett as sportscaster-disguised villain Robert Vylan/Malifios (as well as weatherdragon Zundar Silverspine), and Lila Pearl Shapiro as field reporter Report-O-Bot-Ophelia.

Nightly News at Nine is produced in chapters that consist of four main news report films of 4-5 minutes in length, which are bridged by three commercial break films of 1-2 minutes in length. After all of the separate parts have been created are released, they are compiled to make a full chapter film of about 24 minutes in length which is uploaded and also made available for sale. So far, two full chapters have been released, and Pickett has scripted at least two more.

NNN News Flash (2007)
NNN News Flash, also known as Where's my briefcase?, is the pilot episode of Nightly News at Nine. It does not fit into the chronology of the series as a whole, and serves as a standalone film to introduce the characters and series. It was released over two years before the parts of Chapter 1: New Beginnings began to be released, and Pickett had been planning the NNN universe and characters for years before that (the earliest evidence of this is a character with the appearance and voice of Malifios in Pickett's 2003 brickfilm, Hamlet - Play Within the Play).

Chapter 1: New Beginnings
In NNN Chapter 1: New Beginnings, the evil Malifios who wishes to destroy New Block City escapes from prison and manages to join the Nightly News at Nine team incognito. The news focuses on Malifios' breakout for the day, and also reports on the beginning of a war that has broken out between the colors green and orange. In the 2009 Bricks in Motion Awards, NNN won Best Series. The individual films that make up NNN Chapter 1: New Beginnings are:


 * Out of Bonds (2009)
 * SVELT Commercial - SVELT - We are Evil (2009)
 * SVELT Interview (2009)
 * Pro-Green Commercial - Green: A Better Color for Better Building (2009)
 * On the Street with Steve Deepsea (2009)
 * Anti-Green Commercial - Orange: Because anything is better than Green (2010)
 * The Orange-Green War Begins (2010)
 * Deleted Scene - Sherry and Robert (2010)

 Cast 
 * Eric Benson as Phil Brickley, Dissatisfied thug, Joseph Fairweather, Stephen Mitchell, Trifacto Jones, Anti-Green commercial voice-over
 * Claire Gilbert as Persephone Verada
 * Dana Kroop as SVELT spokeswoman
 * David Pagano as Duane Parsons
 * David M Pickett as Robert Vylan/Malifios, Steve Flatwise, Pro-Green commercial voice-over, Zundar Silverspine, Zachariah Zubalee, Henry Langdonville, Trifacto Jones, Q'#!*, Brian Applecheeks, Cornelius Crocogator, Leggsly Von Sharkerton
 * Jack Pickett as George Hingely
 * Linda Pickett as Amelia Airtight
 * Robert Planthold as Steve Deepsea
 * Stephanie Rivera as Sherry Tiles
 * Tiffany Salone as Eye of Eyes
 * Lila Pearl Shapiro as Report-O-Bot-Ophelia, Rhonda Rhododendron, Trifacto Jones
 * Isaiah Vincent as Child on playground

 Crew 
 * David M Pickett - Director, Animator
 * Sean Carroll - Henry Langdonville animation
 * Adam Dusen - Red shirt kid & snakes animation
 * Karan Dhadialla - NNN theme song
 * Bert Fox - Various sound effects
 * Fire Escape Films Screenwriting Circle, Katy at the LEGO Store on Michigan Ave., Bricks in Motion/Eurobricks/misc. AFOLs, Mead McCormick, Mr. Fox of Fallentomato Studio North - Special thanks

Chapter 2: Robots!
NNN Chapter 2: Robots! takes place the day after Chapter 1. Figuria is invaded by small space robots called Pinchbots, which pushes the Malifios story out of the news cycle. Robert Vylan begins his job as sportscaster, and attempts to replace existing sports with his own creations.

After the first two parts had been released, the rest of the chapter was crowdfunded on Kickstarter. 74 people pledged a total of $3,414. The individual films that make up NNN Chapter 2: Robots! are:


 * The Pinchbot Invasion (2010)
 * Orange Beats Binary (2010)
 * Deleted Scene - Les Briques Tres Chic Commercial (2011)
 * ROBOphelia vs. Grabbor (2011)
 * Robots! Robots! Robots! (2011)
 * The End of Sports (2012)
 * Police Show Commercial (2013)
 * The Orange-Green War Continues (2013)

 Cast 
 * Veronica Aglow as Chiselbot
 * Eric Benson as Phil Brickley, Chuck Malarkey, K-0P-3R
 * Bert Fox as Grabbor
 * Dana Kroop as Infomercial woman
 * Seth Maxon as Figurian government voice
 * David Pagano as Toymaster General
 * David M Pickett as Leggsly Von Sharkerton, Police Show announcer, Robert Vylan/Malifios, Snaps Harvey, Zundar Silverspine
 * Eleanor Rivera as Sherry Tiles
 * Tiffany Salone as Eye of Eyes
 * Lila Pearl Shapiro as Report-O-Bot-Ophelia
 * Stacey Shintani as Disembodied voice

 Crew 
 * David M Pickett - Director, Animator
 * Stuart Marsh - The Orange-Green War Continues animator
 * Seth Maxon - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Laura Moore - The Orange-Green War Continues animator
 * Laryssa Paulson - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Linda Pickett - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Eleanor Rivera - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Eric Salone - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Tiffany Salone - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Stacey Shintani - Robots! Robots! Robots! animator
 * Karan "Dhadcat" Dhadialla - NNN theme song
 * Michael Carroll, George Grunditz, Joshua Ho, Nicholas Ho, Xavier Morla, Herschel Nathan, Daniel Polahar, Ben Salinas, Lucas Seidl, Rachel Weingart - Special thanks

Chapter 3: Pirates!
A script for NNN Chapter 3: Pirates! was written in 2014, but this chapter was never filmed. Dave Pickett did a live reading of the NNN Chapter 3 script during Brickworld Virtual 2020.

Door Chase Scene (2009)
Steve Deepsea runs away from a legshark through doorways, in an homage to Scooby Doo. This was planned to be part of a larger animation called Steve Deepsea's Nightmare, in which Steve Deepsea would run away from legsharks in multiple scenarios and always end up getting eaten.

Robot Auditions (2011)
An introduction of 7 robot designs. A vote in the comments decided which 4 would appear in ''Robots! Robots! Robots!''.

Appearances in Minilife TV
Nightly News at Nine has also crossed over with the brickfilm series Minilife TV by Christopher Salaises and Ian Holmquist. Characters from Minilife TV have watched the Nightly News at Nine on TV, and also have had encounters with the characters from it. Dave Pickett and Eleanor Rivera have provided voices for these appearances (with Phil being voiced by Pickett; not Eric Benson).

Minilife TV Ep8: Crossing Ian (2012) Ian watches a Nightly News at Nine report on his run for mayor, in which he is interviewed by Phil.

Minilife TV Ep36: The Late Night Snowball (2013) Robert Vylan is a guest on Snowball's late night talk show.

Minilife TV Ep53: Snowball's Encounter (2014) Genevieve Mcfabulous, an aspiring news anchor, spots Sherry in public and asks for a picture with her. Robert Vylan/Malifios makes an appearance and tries to convince Snowball to join him in his evil plans.

Minilife TV Ep58: The X-Team Attacks (2014) Phil, Sherry and Robert Vylan are part of a group of civilians held captive by the evil X-Team.