Among the many Canadian Rockie nominees, two very different homegrown series were appointed in the children’s category: Straight Up, a daring, in-your-face look at teenage life, and Liszt’s Rhapsody, a family-oriented, sound-track-heavy look at the life of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The only things these shows appear to have in common is the nomination and a strong creative vision.

Liszt’s Rhapsody is part of Toronto-based Devine Entertainment’s The Composers’ Specials, which now contains six installments, among them Bach’s Fight for Freedom and Bizet’s Dream. Devine began producing the Composers’ Specials in 1991, after its hit Beethoven Lives Upstairs won an Emmy.

‘We wanted to make art forms accessible to kids, bring them to life through the eyes of a child,’ says Richard Mozer, producer and cocreator with David Devine of Liszt’s Rhapsody. ‘They are stories that kids relate to today. We make a conscious effort to deal with history and heroes in a way that is classic, but with a fast-paced style and modern themes and language.’

That classic-contemporary approach has paid off for Devine. The Composers’ Specials, with a $1.2 million budget per show, first aired on Family Channel in Canada and hbo in the u.s. The series has sold to broadcasters in close to 20 countries, and home videos and sound tracks are now being released by Sony. Book and cd-rom deals are in the works as well.

‘It’s done very well in Europe, where it’s seen as an arts show, and in the u.s., where it’s seen as a high-quality kids’ show,’ says Mozer.

‘We did our first Raffi concert in 1985. Then there was no such thing as a video sell-through, but then we licensed the Raffi video to Disney and they ran a tag at the end saying people could write in for the video – 7,500 people wrote in.’

Since then, Devine has sold close to a million Raffi and Beethoven Lives Upstairs videos in North America alone. Mozer says no figures are available yet on the Composers’ video sales, but sees 300,000 in North America as a comfortable target.

‘It’s critical when financing this type of project to get ancillary projects going, like books. You have to look at as great a worldwide market as possible, make international deals and pull together as many sales as possible. Also our focus is to create the highest quality program that has a long life. We want to create films that people will want to see today and 15 years from now.’

Straight Up, the six-part Alliance-produced series for cbc, has yet to achieve the scope of the Composers’ series, and likely won’t have as universal an appeal. The vision behind the show comes from award-winning filmmakers Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchell (Talk 16, Talk 19). ‘The vision,’ says Christine Shipton, Alliance’s vp of creative affairs, ‘was to have a true teenage voice and stick to that. It’s raw and honest and takes a lot of risks.’

The six episodes that have aired have been received with both acclaim and controversy. The controversy comes from the language and the subject matter: the first episode deals with a teenager trying to tell her boyfriend that she never has orgasms. The episode nominated for the Rockie Award, ‘Small Bang Theory,’ deals with a teen who finds all people stupid and longs to escape this unbearable earth.

With the use of a hand-held camera, Straight Up affects a unique documentary style, with an edgy look. Admirers point out that it’s a brave artistic effort. But does its boldness, its age-specific themes and strong sense of place (Toronto) give it much room to cross international borders?

‘We never go into these things saying, `Oh, if we do it this way, it will affect international sales,’ ‘ says Shipton. ‘Having a strong vision to go back to is more important. This is the show we wanted and of course it won’t be for everyone. But it does have a universality in that it is about teenagers’ feelings.’

Straight Up made its international debut at this year’s mip-tv. Although no international sales have been nailed down yet, Shipton says there was strong interest in it.

‘It’s different than anything people have seen before. The Dutch were particularly interested, and we’re in ongoing discussions with Great Britain.’

At this point, Alliance is still waiting for the word from cbc as to whether the show will be picked up beyond these six episodes. To that end, Shipton hopes, a Rockie Award nomination couldn’t hurt.