For little kids, as John Wilson calls them, this fall promises great things. In September, PBS is adding eight new book-based children’s programs to its lineup, including six programs that will air as a three-hour block on Saturday mornings.
“There’s a lot of kids’ programming out there on Saturday mornings, but I’m not sure it’s quality kids’ programming,” says Wilson, senior vice president of programming services for the Public Broadcasting System.
He notes network schedules filled largely with action-packed cartoons, targeting older kids both to watch and to buy the coordinating toys. “When I look at what’s on Saturday mornings, I don’t see a lot of offerings for little kids — preschoolers. I don’t see a lot of options as a parent.”
Wilson speaks with the passion and wisdom attained by being father to a 5-year-old and 18-month-old. “It seemed like a natural to hook up with some of kids’ best-loved authors,” he says, in designing the Saturday programs. Beyond that, he sees adding another day of kids’ shows as natural growth in PBS’ mission. This move, he says, “extends (the network) to a strong seventh day.”
“I saw it as an opportunity to bring content to an audience being underserved on that day of the week,” Wilson says, but adds quickly he doesn’t think viewership will end with 5- or 6-year-olds.
The traditional age demarcations of 2- to 5-year-olds and 6- to 11-year-olds are used frequently because they reflect Nielsen television rating categories.
“Things are never that neat and tidy in the real world. I won’t be surprised to see older kids” watching, he says.
Many of the books serving as springboards for the eight fall shows have been favorites for years — some long enough to be favorites of today’s parents when they were children. All of Saturday’s shows are being produced by Nelvana, which already has “Little Bear and Franklin” on the air in Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. weekday morning lineup.
“These are perfectly wonderful programs,” Wilson says, explaining one reason to go with the Canadian company. “Nelvana was able to come to us with a host of authors that they were working with.”
The Saturday morning block, called PBS Bookworm Bunch, will include:
– “Corduroy,” the classic character in Don Freeman’s two books. Corduroy, a bear, lives a lonely life in a big department store until he is brought home by Lisa.
– “George Shrinks,” based on the richly illustrated book by artist-author William Joyce. This is Joyce’s second children’s show. “Rolie Polie Olie,” also produced by Nelvana, airs on The Disney Channel.
– “Seven Little Monsters,” by Maurice Sendak, is about seven characters of tremendous height. But being 10 feet tall is about the only thing these monsters have in common.
– “Timothy Goes to School,” Rosemary Wells’ charming tale about a raccoon in school and all his adventures and friends.
– “Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse,” by the mother-son writing team of Betty and Michael Paraskevas. It’s the third book the Paraskevases have moved to television.
– “Elliot Moose,” by Andrea Beck, combines live-action with puppetry and animation as the characters interact at a place they call “The Big House.”
Two other new kids’ shows — one based on the incredibly popular book “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” the other called “Caillou,” also based on a book series — will be added to PBS’ weekday children’s lineup.
While the programs all are educational in some sense — mostly they promote what’s know as “pro-social” behavior, Wilson says — they also provide a tie to the library. And, Wilson assures us, they’re fun to watch.
It’s rare that a network rolls out eight new kids’ shows in one month. Wilson can’t remember it ever happening at PBS and notes that several years ago, when many broadcast networks added shows under duress to meet Federal Communications Commission mandates to air educational or informational children’s programming.
“We don’t do this because someone regulated us into this,” Wilson says of PBS’ new offerings. “We do this because this is what we do.”
