The series, which premiered in January, starred Swayze as Charles Barker, a rogue undercover FBI agent teamed up with rookie Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel). The series was filmed on location in Chicago.

Reviews for the series were mixed and its audience averaged 1.3 million viewers through the 13 episodes, which concluded their run in April.

But Swayze was unstinting in a rough-and-tumble performance that he maintained while battling pancreatic cancer. His illness had no discernible effect on his gritty portrayal.

A&E President Bob DeBitetto called the performance "an inspiration to us all."

DeBitetto said the series "has truly been a labor of love for everyone," but added that "after careful deliberation we have reluctantly decided not to attempt a second season."

Known for such films as "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing," the 56-year-old Swayze went public with his diagnosis in 2008.

A memoir by him and Lisa Niemi, his wife of more 30 years, is scheduled for publication in the fall. The book is expected to offer an intimate account of his childhood, career and marriage, as well as his fight against the cancer.

The second season will have 25 episodes - but the group also is making the equivalent of a twenty-sixth episode, a series of short stories about a puppet cast member, Where Is Warehouse Mouse? They premiere July 18.

"They feature the mouse," Scott "Smitty" Smith, a guitarist and New Orleans firefighter (on leave), explained. "Warehouse Mouse, not Mickey."

"They're very kind of Buster Keatonish," Mover Scott Durbin said. "It's like the silent movie where everything has to be conveyed. Kevin Carlson, the puppeteer, is just a really brilliant, brilliant fellow."

The Movers were in New York City last Monday (June 8), for Live With Regis and Kelly and performing a 45-minute concert for kids at Sirius XM Satellite Radio headquarters. They spoke with The Wire after the radio gig, which will air on the Kids Place Live channel.

Imagination Movers, on Disney Channel, has connected with viewers, with 19% more average viewers (1.15 million vs. 969,000) in the 9:30 a.m. weekday slot compared with a year ago, according to the channel. The week of June 1, it averaged 1.5 million viewers, its best mark in five months and up 69% from its first full week (in September 2008).

The Movers say they get recognized more now - even at Patsy's restaurant in Greenwich Village - and "we're still at the stage where [that's] awesome," drummer Rich Collins said.

"It's an extreme honor," he said. "We're just goofy guys and dads from New Orleans and we had this dream to make a funny show that our kids would like, that was smart and funny and was really rocking. And we are so fortunate to have made it through Hurricane Katrina and all these other obstacles that would be in the way of any project like this. Now we are here playing in New York City, our show is on in 40 countries and we've got CDs and DVDs in stores nationwide."

"It's such a one-in-a-million shot, from where we were to here, that I don't think there's a day goes by that we take it for granted," Mover Dave Poche added.

The group famously was scouted by Playhouse Disney programming executive Nancy Kanter at the 2005 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where they played the Kids Tent. Disney signed the Movers to do a show that's essentially a concept the foursome developed themselves in 2003. "Idea emergencies" come up and the guys, in the Idea Warehouse, work out solutions and sing songs, tell stories and clown around.

When the Movers played the Jazz Fest this past April, they were on the Acura Stage, where Bon Jovi and Dave Matthews Band played. The Movers were on at 11:30 a.m. "Now we're lobbying to get later and later in the day," Durbin joked. "We're regular guys but we also are very ambitious and have a lot of dreams and desires. We think big. We want to close the Acura Stage now."

The group's next CD drops widely on July 7 and a 40-city concert tour is being scheduled for the fall. Future goals include an international tour - especially Australia, home base of Playhouse Disney's The Wiggles, a troupe the Movers say "blazed the trail" - and a movie.

Set to take place in Anaheim, Calif., the festival will run June 28 - July 5. Competitions, clinics and sing-along showcases are to be part of the melodious schedule of events.

The Dapper Dans barbershop quartet has been a Disneyland staple since 1959. This year marks the 50th anniversary of their entry into show business made possible by the nostalgic elements inside the Southern California theme park.

Since their inception, the singing bunch cloned themselves into equally successful Dapper Dans quartets. The groups now perform at Disney's satellite dreamparks around the globe.

In tune with the convention's international flavor, Dapper Dans of many cultural stripes will be on hand to congratulate the influential quartet. In special tribute, the contemporary follow-up group Anaheim Dappers will perform for evening's grand finale.

The moms-and-kids-focused monthly will be known as Disney FamilyFun, after its parent company, as of the August issue. The company's magazine publishing division is also changing its name, to Disney FamilyFun Group, all in an effort to make the most of combined brand power of Disney and the 2.1 million-circulation FamilyFun. The magazine will also try to broaden its appeal by adding a new section for preschoolers, "Fun for Little Ones." Another new section in the magazine, "Disney Fun" will extend the Disney tie-in with special offers and content from Disney.

"After joining the company last summer, I did a really thorough analysis of our assets and opportunities, and it just made a lot of sense to leverage the brand of our parent company, Disney, which is so popular and has incredible equity in the family marketplace," said Aparna Pande, VP and general manager of the Disney FamilyFun Group. "I certainly hope that being Disney branded will entice more people to try and experience the magazine, and I think they'll love it because the Disney brand is very powerful in that way."

The Disney logo will now be embedded on all of FamilyFun's consumer marketing efforts. Pande noted that the Disney branding will also make integrated advertising programs with other Disney brands more seamless.

FamilyFun brand extensions, including family cookbooks and special interest publications are slated to roll out later in the year, starting with a magazine focused on Halloween.

Disney FamilyFun Group will also grow its custom publishing division, which soft-launched with the magazine Disney En Familia — a custom project for Disney's multicultural marketing group — last year. Disney En Familia is a full-sized magazine that is direct mailed to 350,000 Hispanic families in the US.

As the central character of the hit animated movie of the same name, the pooch is one of the box-office stars of the year.

But Disney experts have revealed the digital 3D character only came to life thanks to a long family tree of cartoon dogs.

Bolt supervising animator Doug Bennett and his team spent months searching the Disney archives to find the right look and inspiration for Bolt, a little white dog, voiced by John Travolta, who thinks he is a superhero.

They trawled through early Mickey Mouse films to see how the first Pluto, and other animated canines, came to life at the hands of cartoon guruWalt Disney.

They also looked at how the studio had portrayed dogs in films such as Bambi, Lady And The Tramp and 101 Dalmatians.

And according to Disney historian and author Brian Sibley, Bolt, which is released today on DVD, is just the latest example of the huge part that dogs have played in the studio's success.

In fact, they're the most important animal in the history of animated movies.

Even though the film company's most famous characters are a mouse and a duck,Walt was a massive fan of dogs and kept a small pack of pedigree chows, for which he and wife Lillian cared lovingly all their lives.

Walt made sure there was a dog playing an important role in the first Mickey Mouse film, Plane Crazy, in 1928.

He also introduced Mickey's pals Pluto and Goofy and went on to make them central characters in his casting menagerie.

Brian said: "Dogs have always been hugely important to the success of Disney films down the years.

"It's not surprising, considering how important they are to lots of people, and how fond of dogsWalt Disney was.

"There are lots of stories about howWalt brought dogs into the films. For example, if you look at the opening scene of Lady And The Tramp, where the husband gives his wife a big hat-box with a puppy inside, that is exactly howWalt gave his wife one oftheir chows.

"Lady is based on a cocker spaniel belonging to one of his main animators, Joe Grant.

"Walt definitely had a real soft spot for dogs and, even if they are not the lead characters in most of the films, they were always around.

"There are probably more dogs in Disney films than any other animals.

"One of the reasons they are so popular in animated films, more so than cats, for example, is that you have so many different breeds and types of dogs that you instantly have very different looking characters.

"It's a bit like character actors. "You look at Lady And The Tramp in the pound and there are all different kinds of dogs representing different characters."

The first Disney dog was an unnamed dachshund in Plane Crazy, the first animation ever made, although it was released after the historic Steamboat Willie.

In the film, wannabe pilot Mickey Mouse builds a plane and uses a dachshund as the propellor after twisting the poor beast up like an elastic band.

Later, in The Picnic, we see Minnie Mouse introducing a pet dog who, although called Rover, is identical to Pluto.

And in Chain Gang, a fugitive Mickey is pursued by a Pluto-like bloodhound.

Then in the Mickey adventure Moose Hunt, in 1931, Pluto himself is introduced, and he became a regular fixture, with Goofy, originally called Dippy Dawg, appearing three years later.

Brian said: "The first feature role for dogs was in Bambi, with the hounds chasing Bambi and the fawn.

"It's quite a scary scene, and the Bolt animators watched this scene especially to get the motion of the animals right.

"In 1955, the classic film with dogs came out - Lady And The Tramp. This is similar to Bolt in which, unlike many Disney films, the dogs only speak to each other and only ever bark in the company of humans.

"It's the suspension of disbelief.

"This was very important, as it was the first animated film made in Cinemascope, or widescreen.

"And with the singer Peggy Lee, who voiced the pekinese Peg and sang the song He's A Tramp, it had the first star voice in an animated film.

"Then in 1961, 101 Dalmatians was also revolutionary, using a new Xerox animation process.

"So if you look at the way dogs have been involved in Disney movies, their films have always been milestones for the studio, from Plane Crazy right up to Bolt in digital 3D."

In the years after 101 Dalmatians, Disney films featuring dogs included the Oliver Twist adaptation Oliver & Company, while there were four-legged friends in The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas.

And current animation artist Doug Bennett emphasised they were just as important to Disney films now as ever.

Bolt, which made almost $300million worldwide when it was released in the spring, was the first Disney animation made in digital 3D, using similar computer animation techniques to Pixar films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo, but with the added 3Daspect.

With star voices, including John Travolta and teen actress Miley Cyrus, the movie has been one of the biggest hits of the year.

LikeWalt and his animators before them, Doug and his Hollywood team tried to be as authentic as possible in their animation of their newest dog hero.

Doug revealed they had brought lots of dogs into the studios to observe their movements and expressions. And to make sure they carried on Disney's proud tradition, they also studied the classics to get things perfect.

"We absolutely looked at films from the past, as they are such classics and such incredible movies," said Doug.

"There were some sequences in Bolt where we just couldn't get it right at first.

"There was just something intangible missing, not the right expressions or performance.

"So we studied films like Lady And The Tramp, which is perfect, and there is so much there to learn from that we managed to get it done right.

"We took lots of little things - and it was putting all the subtleties together that made it work - and that was a great help.

"We brought in lots of dogs, especially performing dogs, which there are a lot of out here in Los Angeles. And as Bolt is an acting dog in the film, it helped us to see how those behaved. There is a lot of pressure animating dogs.

"Not only do they have a lot of personality, but so many people have dogs at home, and will be familiar with how they move and act, that you have to get it right and make them believable."

So having been responsible for one of the biggest doggie hits in years, and recently studying the classic canine cartoons, what does Doug think is the best of the breed? "Definitely Lady And The Tramp," he said. "That is such a beautiful movie.

"101 Dalmatians is a close second, but you can't beat Lady And The Tramp."

A group of more than 50 children, all members of Spin Dance and Fitness, had been invited to perform at the French theme park in August.

The youngsters, aged between four and 18, were tirelessly fundraising for the planned trip.

Supermarkets

But heartless thieves broke into the studio on the Longmile Road just two weeks ago and stole more than €5,000 worth of coins, which had just been collected during a bag-packing effort in local supermarkets.

Office manager Annette Redmond said that the children, who were near to their fundraising target, were understandably upset when they found out.

"It has knocked the stuffing out of them," she said. "It has taken the heart out of the fundraising. Some parents are afraid to say that their children will be able to go. Having to tell the kids was terrible. The parents were annoyed -- devastated but understanding."

The burglars broke in through the roof after cutting the telephone lines outside the premises. They brought equipment to cut locks, rip off roof tiles and stash the stolen goods.

They took €5,260, but the manager said that it was pure misfortune that so much was stolen, because the club owners regularly lodge any cash.

"The coins were just too heavy and we were in the process of getting them to the bank," Annette said.