![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
You know who you are :)
Who knew that the cocreator of Dora the Explorer and Little Einsteins lives here in NYC? TONY Kids catches up with tot-TV writer Eric Weiner.
By Jeff Patterson
TONY Kids After creating Dora the Explorer, arguably the biggest hit in kids’ entertainment right now, was it daunting to approach the task of coming up with a new show, namely the Disney Channel’s Little Einsteins?
Eric Weiner After Disney bought the Baby Einstein series [in 2001], they wanted to create a show for older kids, the graduates of [the videos]. My experience on Dora really helped when I was called in to work on it. My ideas for children’s TV were already steeped in that interactive style, so the challenge was applying it to the new subject matter.
TONYK And how exactly did you get from the Baby Einstein videos––which flash colors and shapes at one-year-olds––to the TV show’s four kids in a spaceship?
EW Disney already had the basic premise, but it didn’t really connect to the Baby Einstein brand. So my partners and I went back and watched lots of the original videos, which, I’m embarrassed to admit, I enjoy–even though they’re made for infants. The videos introduced babies to classical music and famous artwork, but they didn’t have story lines. So we took those four kids and made them musicians who flew their ship into classic paintings.
TONYK Infants will sit through anything, though. Were there worries that all this high culture would fly over the heads of slightly older kids?
EW Yes. But, just like we’ve always done with Dora, we test every episode on real preschoolers. First, we have the writers read a storybook version of their scripts to a class so they can experience firsthand when they’re losing the audience. Kids can’t hide it when they’re bored––they fall on their backs, they whine. It’s grueling for a writer.
TONYK Have you used your own children as guinea pigs for ideas?
EW My two older kids were in the target age when I was first working on Dora, and they were immeasurably helpful. I’d want them to see stuff so often that one would stop me sometimes and say, “Not now, Dad, I’m on a break right now.”
TONYK How do they feel now about their father’s being the man behind the Dora empire?
EW My five-year-old son, Zach, loves Dora and Diego, but he won’t admit it in front of other kids. I think my two older kids like it. Zach was once afraid of a playground bully, until he heard what the bully was singing: “Backpack, backpack!”
TONYK Dora is such a major presence in so many kids’ lives today. Do you ever get any flak from people who are against TV for children?
EW This is a pretty big issue for me, since I work full-time making television for preschoolers. When parents say they don’t let their kids watch any TV, or only let them watch PBS, I can’t respond by saying, “No, you’re depriving them! That’s wrong!” But that’s why I’m interested in doing shows that give viewers something substantial rather than just letting them veg out. We tested an episode of Little Einsteins in one school where we’d been told the kids were so wild, they’d never sit still long enough to watch the tape. This school had no music program––there was no budget for it––so we assumed these children weren’t familiar with Bach’s Brandenburg. But as soon as the music started playing, they were all up and dancing.
Okay, so it's only kinda about Dora. Sue me.
Who knew that the cocreator of Dora the Explorer and Little Einsteins lives here in NYC? TONY Kids catches up with tot-TV writer Eric Weiner.
By Jeff Patterson
TONY Kids After creating Dora the Explorer, arguably the biggest hit in kids’ entertainment right now, was it daunting to approach the task of coming up with a new show, namely the Disney Channel’s Little Einsteins?
Eric Weiner After Disney bought the Baby Einstein series [in 2001], they wanted to create a show for older kids, the graduates of [the videos]. My experience on Dora really helped when I was called in to work on it. My ideas for children’s TV were already steeped in that interactive style, so the challenge was applying it to the new subject matter.
TONYK And how exactly did you get from the Baby Einstein videos––which flash colors and shapes at one-year-olds––to the TV show’s four kids in a spaceship?
EW Disney already had the basic premise, but it didn’t really connect to the Baby Einstein brand. So my partners and I went back and watched lots of the original videos, which, I’m embarrassed to admit, I enjoy–even though they’re made for infants. The videos introduced babies to classical music and famous artwork, but they didn’t have story lines. So we took those four kids and made them musicians who flew their ship into classic paintings.
TONYK Infants will sit through anything, though. Were there worries that all this high culture would fly over the heads of slightly older kids?
EW Yes. But, just like we’ve always done with Dora, we test every episode on real preschoolers. First, we have the writers read a storybook version of their scripts to a class so they can experience firsthand when they’re losing the audience. Kids can’t hide it when they’re bored––they fall on their backs, they whine. It’s grueling for a writer.
TONYK Have you used your own children as guinea pigs for ideas?
EW My two older kids were in the target age when I was first working on Dora, and they were immeasurably helpful. I’d want them to see stuff so often that one would stop me sometimes and say, “Not now, Dad, I’m on a break right now.”
TONYK How do they feel now about their father’s being the man behind the Dora empire?
EW My five-year-old son, Zach, loves Dora and Diego, but he won’t admit it in front of other kids. I think my two older kids like it. Zach was once afraid of a playground bully, until he heard what the bully was singing: “Backpack, backpack!”
TONYK Dora is such a major presence in so many kids’ lives today. Do you ever get any flak from people who are against TV for children?
EW This is a pretty big issue for me, since I work full-time making television for preschoolers. When parents say they don’t let their kids watch any TV, or only let them watch PBS, I can’t respond by saying, “No, you’re depriving them! That’s wrong!” But that’s why I’m interested in doing shows that give viewers something substantial rather than just letting them veg out. We tested an episode of Little Einsteins in one school where we’d been told the kids were so wild, they’d never sit still long enough to watch the tape. This school had no music program––there was no budget for it––so we assumed these children weren’t familiar with Bach’s Brandenburg. But as soon as the music started playing, they were all up and dancing.
Okay, so it's only kinda about Dora. Sue me.
