With being just weeks away from announcing a US broadcast partner for Almost Naked Animals, and its other six to 11-skewing toon Best Ed getting ready to roll out, Toronto, Canada-based producer 9 Story Entertainment has turned to fellow Canadian co The Licensing Shop to craft L&M strategies for both series.

First out, TLS is launching a pre-TV round of merch for the cheeky short series, Almost Naked Animals. TLS chief strategist Nancy Fowler is looking to seed the market with images of the property’s quirky, underwear-clad characters on t-shirts, greeting cards, underwear (naturally) and trading cards for early 2009. She’s negotiating for specialty, department store and mid-tier distribution and won’t roll anything out at mass until late 2009 or early 2010, when the series starts airing. At that point, Fowler hopes to expand the program with a soon-to-be-announced toy partner, and is open to talking with licensees in apparel, publishing and video games.

TLS is repping Almost Naked Animals and Best Ed worldwide, except in Germany.