Somewhere in the United Kingdom, there is a 5-year-old boy named James Palmer with a fixation on a television show that has prompted his parents to set up a fan Web site devoted to it.
They’ve titled the site “James the Builder,” and it’s about James’ appetite for all things related to the BBC series “Bob the Builder,” a fever that burns in him morning (backpack and Bob costume), noon (canned pasta and matching juice cups) and night (plush toys, books and videos).
The object of James’ obsession is a preschool-oriented stop-motion animation series starring a hard-hatted general contractor, his business partner Wendy, a blue cat, a mischievous scarecrow and a bunch of rolling-and-talking, childlike pieces of heavy equipment. Sort of Gumby and Pokey meet Tonka.
It may seem a bit extreme, posting an all-Bob personal photo album on the Web (look it up at www.bobthebuilder.ic24.net to see pictures of Mummy, Daddy and baby sister Emma in their hard hats). But it’s not altogether surprising given the raging success the series has enjoyed worldwide since its launch in spring 1999.
There are early signs it will be as big a hit here. When Nickelodeon and HIT Entertainment imported the show last month, the affable construction worker stepped off a jet at JFK in New York to shouts of adoring fans a la the Beatles in 1964. Of course, Bob’s fans were handpicked preschoolers pumped up for the event with show previews and the sheer thrill of a day at the airport, so even the series’ publicist confesses their response may not be typical.
Later that day, the life-size character was in Harlem on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, the non-profit organization Bob supports in personal appearances and other publicity efforts. The occasion was the 100,000th house Habitat has erected for a low-income family, which was across the street from an elementary school. The celebration happened to take place as the school was letting out.
“The character was totally surrounded” by schoolkids, said Steve Syatt, who helped organize the event. “This was a few days before the show premiered (on Nick Jr.). The children knew the character from the on-air promotions. It currently airs weekdays at 9 a.m.
“It came as a very big surprise because the children at the airport were primed, but in Harlem there was no prompting the children at all,” Syatt said. “The HIT Entertainment people were absolutely amazed. I think it said right then and there that this character is special.”
“It could have something to do with the look of the show, the sound of the show or the content,” said Amy Aidman of the Washington-based Center for Media Education. “Kids like construction. Think about watching kids around a construction site, the fascination kids have with the equipment.”
The success story to date includes a peppy, cheerleaderlike theme song (“Can we fix it? Yes we can!”) that over the holiday season blew rapper Eminem out of the No. 1 position on the British pop charts. It has knocked “The Teletubbies” on their fuzzy behinds in the U.K. preschool ratings. On Nick Jr., home of “Blue’s Clues” and “Dora the Explorer,” it set a record on Jan. 15 with the station’s highest debut rating and has grown since.
“It’s been incredibly successful and we have a huge following,” said Jackie Cockle, head of HIT’s HOT Animation division in London. Cockle, who adapted an idea by Keith Chapman and produces the episodes, looks as much to anecdotal evidence as she does ratings and merchandise sales figures.
“I hear stories like one I heard the other day about somebody’d been overheard in the park talking about her little boy who is called Robert, who now wouldn’t answer to the name `Robert’ and had to be called `Bob,”‘ she said. “That’s when you suddenly realize that kids are completely captivated by him. It just makes you feel really good that you’ve created this world and these characters and kids have just latched onto it.”
Look for the frenzy to peak in the United States later this year, with home videos coming out in May, the theme song hitting the air in the summer or early fall, and scads of merchandise on the shelves in time for the holidays.
Although “Bob the Builder” would seem to be aimed at boys, research shows it has strong appeal with girls as well, maybe because of the business-savvy yet feminine Wendy and the general lack of dirt on Bob and his equipment.
“We never wanted it to be a boy-oriented show,” Cockle said. “I wanted it to be an all-arounder, really, to work on many levels, which I think it does.”
“Bob the Builder” seems to have several key ingredients of a successful preschool franchise. Gene Del Vecchio, a Los Angeles advertising and marketing consultant who specializes in reaching children, said those elements include a secure environment, fantasy aspects and characters who are pals to children and who take pride in simple accomplishments as their young viewers do — all presented with broad, often silly humor.
Any one of those factors can win over a young child, Del Vecchio said. Those franchises that have routinely incorporated several of them — Mickey Mouse and “Sesame Street,” for example — have captured the hearts of generations.
The show plays in 108 countries now throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, and South America will pick it up next year. “I was very careful when we designed the show that I made it non-specific in terms of countries because I wanted kids all around the world to be able to relate to Bob,” Cockle said.
In keeping with that concept, the U.S. episodes have been revoiced by American actors cast and recorded by HOT Animation in England to preserve the characters’ integrity.
Cockle currently is working up another animated series, “Splish Splash Splosh,” about a bunch of bathtub toys, as well as “Dinosaur Roar,” a family-oriented feature. But she says “Bob” remains her pet project, one she won’t walk away from.
“I can’t imagine life without Bob now,” she said with a laugh.
Neither, we suspect, can James Palmer and millions of other little kids.
