No nerds, please: Producers devising likeably clever characters
Launched nearly three years ago to win back little eyeballs from cable nets such as Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, the Next Generation PBS Kids initiative mapped out a plan to compete on-air and online.
The kids programming team, led by Linda Simensky, senior director of children’s programming, first had to invest in shows with irresistible characters as well as strong core curricula.
This fall and winter, a talking dog, a kid comedian and hip-hop wordsmiths will debut in shows that promote reading and interest in science. Martha Speaks, Sid the Science Kid and a reborn Electric Company are the sixth, seventh and eighth shows created under PBS’s Next Generation initiative.
For the fall, the network has tweaked its on-air schedule to better compete with commercial nets in middays. Online, PBS also will launch the PBS Kids Go! broadband service for older kids, including video clips, full TV episodes and games.
The initiative aspires to help kids learn important lessons they may not encounter elsewhere in media or daily life, said Lesli Rotenberg, senior v.p. of PBS Kids — lessons in reading and staying healthy, for instance.
Twenty stations are now part of PBS’s Raising Readers program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, which backs literacy outreach services for children from low-income families. PBS is also working on a children’s health initiative to help combat obesity and has pulled together a health curriculum that stations can use in their communities. (More information about Go! broadband, Raising Readers and the children’s health initiative to be posted this week.)
It’s the characters, stupid
Since coming on board in 2003, Simensky, has been working to rejuvenate the program lineup with unforgettable characters, such as the loquacious superhero WordGirl and the ornery star of Curious George, which is still the most popular TV program for preschoolers.
“Funny isn’t really a word we put in our five-year plan,” she said at Showcase, “but we wrote it in invisible ink.”
PBS wants to provide smart and funny characters that kids can aspire to be like, she says. “You’re asking them to spend time with these characters — they really should admire them, they should like them, and they should think they’re funny.” In the sea of kidvid characters, says Simensky, not many are very interesting. She thinks there hasn’t been a compelling hit character since Nickelodeon's SpongeBob. “Certainly, for younger kids, we can help fill that void.”
The enthusiastic, sociable star of the upcoming Sid the Science Kid, who does stand-up comic routines for his stuffed animals, may help. Three years ago, PBS Kids was looking for another preschool science show, and the last thing Simensky wanted was another wacky scientist in a white lab coat.
“I honestly believe those kinds of shows, ultimately, have depicted science in a bad way,” she says. The “whole idea that science is about lab coats and Bunsen burners and making things explode and acting weird,” she says, misses the idea that science can be the domain of any regular, smart kid.
When the Jim Henson Co. presented a cool character who’s excited about knowing things, PBS Kids execs knew the show was what they needed. The kid’s name changed from Josh to Sid, but the character survived.
“He’s not a nerd,” says Simensky, but Sid captures how quirky curious kids are. When he discovers his shoes aren’t shrinking but his feet are growing, for example, he wants to invent stretchy shoes.
“The thing that we always forget is that science is kind of funny,” Simensky said at Showcase. Caterpillars turn into butterflies, she said — “That’s weird.”
Kids will also identify with how the talking-dog star of Martha Speaks is learning to use language. Martha eats alphabet soup, the letters accidentally go to her brain instead of her stomach, and she starts speaking. “Who wouldn’t love a talking dog?” Simensky asks. Martha learns how to order pizza by phone, but doesn’t always know what words mean. Research is finding that kids who can read may not always comprehend, either, Simensky says.
Martha Speaks, funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready to Learn grant, provides a bridge between Sesame Street and Super Why!, which appeal to a younger set, and the vocab-rich WordGirl, which is geared toward school-aged kids. “Its sweet spot is kids [ages] 4 and 5,” Simensky says.
PBS’s goal has been to create a “scaffolded” learning opportunity for different ages and kinds of learners. “The study of vocabulary is really big right now in literacy circles,” and educators are pushing for varied levels of — and approaches to — vocab on PBS Kids, she says.
Experts differ on how many words can be taught at once and whether they should be thematic, and the producers differ, too. Martha Speaks teaches a certain number of words per episode, built around a couple topics, Simensky says, while WordGirl goes for fewer words, repeated often in an 11-minute cartoon.
In Sesame Workshop’s new version of its 1970s show, The Electric Company, coming in January, vocabulary is conversational, embedded in comedy skits and music such as the song “Silent E.” Like WordGirl, the program leans heavily on wordplay — something Simensky says kids’ shows usually shy away from, partly because it’s hard to translate and sell abroad.
The Electric Company, a Ready to Learn program and targeted at kids ages 6-8, is more character-based than the original program. The culturally diverse cast, ranging from school-aged to adult, includes a beat-box artist named Shockwave, who scratches turntables on a playground. Like its predecessor, the show exploits the contemporary pop culture vibe — it has a little of Disney's High School Musical approach, says Simensky, with a little bit of Broadway and a little bit of pop music.
At the Showcase meeting, some station programmers wondered if The Electric Company would feel too “urban” for their viewers. PBS had the same concern, says Simensky, but Sesame Workshop tested the program in smaller places such as Carbondale, Ill., and kids liked it.
“They’ve been pitching it as urban,” says Simensky, “but in terms of appeal it seems to be working for all kids. It’s really more about characters and stories and the music—it’s not about the ‘action on the street.’ ” The school, the playground or the diner (an after-school hangout) are places all kids identify with.
“I think when they have more [footage] to show, stations will find that it’s got more of a pop-culture vibe than an urban vibe,” says Simensky. She notes that, in 2008, hip-hop is basically synonymous with pop music.
Owning the midday
To help the PBS Kids characters work their magic, Simensky and co. have tweaked the fall schedule, focusing on the midday lineup. While she hears broadcasters saying that kids don’t watch TV after noon, says Simensky, PBS noticed that Nickelodeon’s and Disney’s ratings jump at that point in the day, and Nielsen identifies a big preschool-age audience from noon to 2 p.m. PBS talked with station programmers and agreed they want to strengthen that period.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. PBS will run Dragon Tales, WordWorld, Super Why!, and Sid the Science Kid. (In the morning preschool block, Sid the Science Kid replaces Dragon Tales.) At 1 p.m., when Nick and Disney have finished their preschool-age schedules, PBS will counter-program with It’s a Big Big World, Barney, and Caillou.
Between the Lions, which now runs at 1:30 even though it wasn’t really designed for younger kids, says Simensky, will move to a 6:30 a.m. slot. Martha will run at 3:30 p.m. (and 7:30 a.m.) to catch both older and younger kids, and Arthur kicks off the after-school PBS Kids Go! block at 4 p.m. WordGirl, which will go daily, moves Maya & Miguel out of the Go! block to 6 p.m. (See “What’s old” at right.)
The new programs will be shot in HD, giving PBS 10 HD kids shows this fall. With animated programs, the noticeable difference is mostly their aspect ratio, Simensky says, though figures may look crisper and brighter.
PBS Kids is counting on characters’ sharp wit and vivid personalities to pull its littlest viewers in. “Historically, kids’ shows have shied away from being at all challenging — they don’t use big words, they don’t use big concepts,” says Simensky. “I haven’t shied anybody away from using bigger words. I think kids want to hear that.”
Web page posted June 10, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC
Teletubbies and Jakers, neither still in production, will be taken off the schedule. Reading Rainbow will move to the 5:30 a.m. daily slot. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood will become a weekly feed.