The penguins in DreamWorks Animation’s feature film “Madagascar” will soon find themselves the stars of a new TV show on Nickelodeon, scheduled to premiere in early 2009.

Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private will star in a 26-episode series that Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation have agreed on.

A tentative title is at the moment “The Penguins of Madagascar,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. The show will make its debut in early 2009.

The foursome appeared in the studio’s 2005 film “Madagascar” as penguins who believe they are in fact spies, that they do not belong in the Central Park Zoo and that they need to return to Antarctica to escape the conspiracy.

The four penguins also starred in the short film “The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.”

They were voiced by Tom McGrath, who also directed the animated comedy, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights and John DiMaggio.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming television series will feature the voices of Tom McGrath, Jeff Bennett, James Patrick Stewart, John DiMaggio and Danny Jacobs.

“Madagascar: The Crate Escape,” the sequel to the 2005 box office success, is scheduled to be released in late 2008. It is expected that the actors who originally lent their voices to the characters will return. “Madagascar” featured Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock and Cedric the Entertainer.

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the series will suffer minor adjustments “here and there” but that the series’ penguins will very much resemble the movie’s penguins.

In the TV show, the four will effectively rule the zoo, reported the Times, and conduct their top-secret missions mostly within New York City.

Whatever the setting and whatever their missions, the four penguins are sure to be fun, as Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of DreamWorks Animation, told the paper: “They're almost like four brothers; they're like the Marx Brothers. They can take the littlest thing and blow it completely out of proportion, and it's just hilarious.”