A Children's Media Lover's Wish List 2012

Last year's wish list was so successful and really fun to make. I couldn't wait to do it again this year, and I've spent the past few months bookmarking everything from Pinterest, Etsy, Amazon, and random adventures, that I thought might be good for the post. 

This year, I tried to create a mix of fun things that children's media peeps should have in their toolbox, as well as ways to show their love for the field. It does a pretty good of supporting my mission to make this site the official lifestyle blog for people in children's media. 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Click on the picture for a larger view!

1. This sarcastic mug is a nod to the Trunchbull from Matilda. I can't wait until Matilda the Musical makes its way to NYC so I can get this awesome mug for my desk.

2. Writer's block got you down? Grab a few of these Story Cubes to help you come up with some new ideas and story elements. Also a fun game to play with friends big and small.

3. Going for some special subtlety on New Year's Eve? These Jem earrings are truly outrageous!

4. For the publisher friend who has everything: book fair in a bag created by Sweet and Lovely.

5. Pulled from Jim Henson's Red Book, a journal of his day-to-day musings and activities, Imagination Illustrated should be sitting on your shelf.

6. We preach high production value every day, which Fairie Tale Theatre didn't always have...but these fairy tales have celebrities and whimsical story elements that are sure to capture your child at heart and satisfy your '80s craving. Thanks, Shelley Duvall.

7. Ever wish you could smell like Play Doh? Me too.

8. Just a little something to share your love and appreciation, and they make pretty spectacular party favors: giant super ball in a You're Super! drawstring bag. Made by yours truly and available in my Etsy shop!

9. The Threadless Sesame Street tees are out...and these four are my favorites!

And perhaps the most children's media-worthy gift of all: a tax deductible donation to Children's Media Association!

What's on your wish list?

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Walk of Fame

In an effort to take a true vacation and relax a bit, I jetted off to California and disconnected from social media. As hard as I may have tried, I couldn't NOT think about children's media's place in Hollywood. I quickly swept the Walk of Fame and found a few familiar names. Further evidence that media for kids, even non-profit media for kids, can make a major cultural impact.

Who do you think should be on the Walk of Fame?

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Big Top Fitness on YouTube

I left Tufts a year ago, Big Top Fitness in tow. I wasn't sure what to do with it, how to pitch it, or if I even wanted to pitch it. A lot has changed in a year, including the continuous growth and evolution of online viewing. I've heard a lot about YouTube channels, and have decided that this might be an interesting venue for my project.
This week, I'll be rolling out the series on www.bigtopfitness.com, and hope you'll take a peek! I look forward to getting some feedback on the show and taking advantage of Google Analytics. This is truly an experiment in online sharing, and I'll be learning along the way.

Enjoy and Happy Memorial Day!

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7 Minutes In Heaven Is Not a Kids' Show

Have you seen 7 Minutes in Heaven with Mike O'Brien? It is not a kids' show, but it is hilarious. I've been following the show from Hulu to YouTube to Yahoo!, as it's navigated the web viewing world. Next stop, Amazon?

via televisionwithoutpity.com

7 Minutes in Heaven is a side project of Mike O'Brien, writer on Saturday Night Live (think backup guitar player in a really awesome rock band starts recording his acoustic tracks). So what does this absurdly addictive series have to teach us children's media people? Internet viewing is a strange, new frontier. It's our next step, and we're going to have to comply with it, to an extent, and find ways to make it profitable. Perhaps we have to follow pioneers like O'Brien, observe their strategies, and test things out for ourselves.

I'd love to know more about the process of creating the series and what business decisions were behind switching from site to site. Mike O'Brien, I'd love 7 minutes of your time to talk about your series...I'll pick the questions, you pick the closet.

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How do you ignite a generation's imagination?

I often wonder what kind of impact the creative work we make will have on the generation we make it for. Will they watch it? Will they play act it? Will they talk about it with their friends? Will they think about it when they get older?

For my generation (call us Generation Y or Millennials, I suppose), it's undeniable that television has had an influence on our adults lives. From PeeWee Herman's Broadway debut to Rainbow Brite pint glasses, nostalgic media is everywhere. This heavy influence was very apparent last Friday evening at the Bowery Ballroom, where Pete and Pete themselves, along with Artie, Ellen, and Mom and Dad came out to share clips and stories about the much-loved '90s series. Show creators William McRobb and Chris Viscardi opened the evening by introducing The Blowholes playing some favorite Polaris hits. 

My favorite moment of the evening was hearing Will and Chris talk about creating the show. It all started as a series of promotional interstitials for Nickelodeon, showing the life of kids from the kid point of view. When developing the series, they decided to concentrate "on the backyard and the magic that happens there." They had an opportunity to define what childhood was all about. They also cited that the show had a meta-nostalgic feel to it. Their definition of childhood was based on all the things they loved and wanted from their own childhoods. 


This great interview was posted days before the reunion. "Nostalgia shit for aging hipsters." That's my favorite kind!

Don't be a blowhole. Show your '90s TV love and let it inspire your work.

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Puppet Palooza at The New Victory Theater

To the world of theater for young audiences, The New Victory Theater Gala is second only to the Tony awards. I missed the event twice while living in Massachusetts, and I was so excited to return this year to honor the work of Cheryl Henson, arts advocate, puppeteer, and president of the Jim Henson Foundation. Cheryl has helped shepherd countless puppet projects to international audiences, and has supported many projects at The New Victory. I first met her in a puppetry Family Workshop at the New Vic several years ago. Of course I was working with my favorite puppeteer, Spica Wobbe, but who was I to share puppets with the daughter and grandchildren of Jim (freakin’)Henson?! Cheryl was kind and encouraging throughout the workshop, and it was clear then, as it was on the night of the gala, how important the artform is to her.

The evening was hosted by John Tartaglia and included performances from Arias With a Twist, directed by Basil Twist, War Horse, The Little Prince at The New Victory Theater, IBEX Puppetry, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph & Lolly, and Marty Robinson & Telly. The show opened with a procession of music and masks/puppets by Ralph Lee. Ralph is well-known for his giant puppeteers made most famous in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. He also happens to have been my masks and puppetry instructor while studying at NYU. When Bill Irwin, who was honored last year, introduced Big Bird, I nearly fell to the floor. How much better could it get? It was an unforgettable night.

I was able to take a sneak peek at the dinner setup downstairs. Oobie eyes on the wineglasses?! Brilliant! Check more pictures out here.

The evening ended with all the performers sharing a bow on stage. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Heather Henson, who performed in the gala, marveling at Joey, the horse from War Horse. You could tell she was examining his construction, his movement. Perhaps that simple look of joy and awe in the eyes of an artist was the best part of the night. I’ve seen that same look in the eyes of children watching live and televised puppet performances. To me, that’s what art is all about.

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Photograph from The New Victory Theater Facebook page

Guest Blogger: Xavier Raphael Vanegas

It has been a fascinating journey as I have been developing a children’s television show called
Fink Forest Friends, which received the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship. It seems many cable networks aren’t interested though in accolades, but two things: a fully developed show and ancillary possibilities - merchandise, video games, toys, and digital products. The brand started through its potential in the ancillary side with an eco-friendly plush toy line, now featured in a few boutiques around Los Angeles.

Now comes the bigger challenge - developing the show. Not just so that it stands out from the rest of programming on television, but how will it fare against the best kids' shows? Our show has to fit in a space between classics like Winnie the Pooh and hit shows like The Wonder Pets. My collaborator, Cathleen Cimino, and I love Josh Selig’s work at Little Airplane, which has been a huge inspiration for the development process.

Such work represents the kind of finesse and attention to storytelling we want for our program. At the same time we realize that the process cannot be rushed as we seek to uphold the integrity and original vision of the Fink world and its characters. Look at Pixar, they spend up to 8 years developing their brands for a film release. They’re the best studio brand right now and I think it has to do with development - allowing oneself to travel down one possible story path for a few weeks then say, "You know what, that isn’t working." So instead of forcing the charge forward, you can back pedal to a place where the infinite possibilities for the show are reset and the brand richly developed.

We are closer to developing our vision of the show. What started years ago as absurdist anti-plot mini comics where everything in the Fink Forest was just simple and cheery all of the time, has now evolved into developed characters and plots that follow 4 friends - Skunk, Lily the Red Panda, Moose and Bird as they learn lessons through their adventures and mishaps growing up in the forest.

Photo: Original Bird and Moose comic with simple, no plot or story line

The initial simple, plot-less concept for the Fink Forest Friends was a sort of backlash against Joseph Campbell from my days at the Film Studies program at Columbia University. However, in molding the substance of the show and making it more accessible to an audience, we’ve been conscious of keeping the original quirkiness intact. Now the characters are in the process of transformation from simple 2D drawing concepts to 3D models toward a new hybrid style of animation. There’s a long way to go, but it’s been an exciting process and we are hoping to release our first animation piece soon.

Part of developing the series involves having a clear consciousness of the world and the brand beyond the show itself, with cross-platform considerations like social networks and new learning-technologies and devices. It opens up an exciting realm of possibility because even the most inane detail in the story world can then lend itself for exploration in greater depth. I’ve seen this as an opportunity to make the world as rich as possible so as to encourage fans and participants to look deeper into it.

Photo: Developing the world of the Fink Forest

If I were to give one piece of advice to someone pursuing their own idea or show, I would probably say the most important part is the world building. Take time to bring depth to the characters and be open to creative dynamism brought on by writers and other collaborators. “Fink Forest Friends” continues to be enriched by this process, all towards the end of the final pitching of the show. We’ve been lucky to be able to work with incredibly talented writers who have taken the original Fink characters and breathed new life into them and shaped them into robust multi-dimensional beings.

The Fink Forest Friends are more complex and rich than ever before. I can’t wait to share the characters with the world. They are starting to become like actual people as to the level of depth woven into them. Now, I can anticipate how a given character will react in a given situation and as the plots unfold we learn more about each character, their habits, traits, fears, hopes, and desires. With great characters we’ll be able to deliver incredible stories. It’s been a pleasure working with our creative team and I think I have in turn become a better artist and storyteller in the process.

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SpiderMonster as Muse

Today is my one quiet, restful day before summer teaching starts. After a relaxing walk, it is time to put on my big girl sundress and get down to business.

My projects today include some preliminary data analysis for a study that I'm working on and the outline of a new show I'm creating. I'll be compiling all of my notes scribbled on corners of paper and coming up with a cohesive outline and plan. It's been a very slow and sluggish morning, and it's taken me a great deal of self-motivation to get started. I just saw this new promotional sneak peek that Sesame Workshop released for it's upcoming season.

SpiderMonster pokes fun at the drama that has surrounded the "new" musical adaptation of Spider-Man. It reminded me that writing for children should be funny, relevant, and accessible. Those are the words I'll be carrying with me today.


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Wartella et al.

It has been almost two full years since I committed myself to returning to school with the intention of learning more about child development and entering the field of children's television. As I began my quest for knowledge, I spent a significant amount of time learning what information was already out there and easy for me to access. I joined the Cynopsis: Kids! listserve which allowed me to become better acquainted with many of the production companies, licensing agreements, and ratings for children's media. I often logged onto the Kidscreen website which provided me with a great deal of information about the key creative players in the industry and currently hosts a wonderful blog written by the president of Little Airplane Productions, Josh Selig. I also spent a significant amount of time on Amazon searching for books about different children's television programs and research. One name that continuously came up in my search was Dr. Ellen Wartella. Dr. Wartella is currently a professor at UC Riverside and a leading researcher in children's media. One book seemed particularly interesting to me as an aspiring scholar. I purchased Children and Television: Fifty Years of Research which was edited by Dr. Wartella with Norma Peccora and John P. Murray.

I have selected several articles from this book for my independent study. They include: "The Changing Nature of Children's Television: Fifty Years of Research," "From Attention to Comprehension: How Children Watch and Learn From Television," and "Is Television Healthy? The Medical Perspective." "The Changing Nature of Children's Television" provides a comprehensive history of television created specifically for children and its corresponding research. This provided me with a great understanding of the roots of the industry and how that past has influenced modern programming. I previously did not understand the full impact of the 1980's on television programming. It was marked with the introduction of cable television into everyday life, Nickelodeon as the station for children, and programming as "a showcase for licensed products" (p 26).

The article that provided me with the greatest amount of information for this independent study on content development was the piece on how children watch and learn from television. I previously did not know that television viewing decreased when children went to school, although it seems quite logical. I was also very intrigued about "active" viewing and the idea that children make "moment-to-moment decisions about when to attend, when to look away, and when to monitor sound for an interesting moment" (p 48). It also emphasized the importance of formal features in a child's viewing experience. As I develop my program, I'd like to refer to this text as a guideline for creating formal features that will not only be interesting to a child but that will also inform the rest of the program.

Although the book was published only three years ago, I did find that there was little comparison of television viewing versus technology use. I believe this is due to the fact that technology, particularly in regards to child-specific media, has experienced a huge boom in the past three years. With the inception of the iPhone application, Video on Demand, and Hulu, television viewing "looks" different. I am interested in finding out more about this comparison and doubtful that research can keep pace with the evolution of the medium.

Not trying to cause a big sensation...

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog. This semester, I plan to use the internet to track and journal about my academic readings, research, and the creative process of developing a children's television series. TV is dead, you say? I beg to differ. Although television isn't being watched in the traditional sense, series are being watched on demand, on the internet, and on telephones.

I've spent a great deal of time thinking of a clever name for the blog. In the midst of a mini-road trip this weekend, I thought a great deal about Mac's branding. The iBook, iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. It seems as if we are putting this "i" in front of everything representative of technological advances. That's when I started thinking about "iGeneration" as a phrase for the current generation of young children who know more about social networking than I do. With the lyrics to "My Generation" stuck in my head, I immediately turned on my computer and googled the word in hopes that it was unsearchable. Much to my dismay, someone had already thought of this as an alternative to Generation Z (What the heck does the Z stand for, anyway?). Wikipedia has this to say about the iGeneration:

On the average they are highly connected, many having had lifelong use of communications and media technologies such as the World Wide Web, instant messaging,text messaging, MP3 players, cellular phones and YouTube,[10][11] earning them the nickname "digital natives".[3] No longer limited to the home computer, the internet is now increasingly carried in their pockets on mobile internet devices such as mobile phones.

I am excited to begin my exploration of children's television content development and look forward to reading your comments, answering your questions, and pondering your ideas. I'd like to conclude my first post with a music video that I have been thinking a lot about recently. Some of my heroes include Fred Rogers, Joan Gantz Cooney, and Jim Henson. They were all visionaries who were unafraid of making change in children's media. Their ideas and creativity have had a profound influence on my work as an artist, teacher, and academic. I think regardless of our chosen path, the media we participate in as young people has an impact on our adult experience. Please check out this XYZ Affair video for their song "All My Friends." Can you ID all of the special guest stars?