In this report, Playback looks at the people and forces involved in the development of three new Canadian kids’ programs and the marketing and merchandising thrusts behind those and some other kids’ properties.

Inside:

Development diaries:

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza p. 24

Zoboomafoo p. 27

Mr. Men p. 29

Treehouse TV p. 26

Wimzie update p. 30

ACT awards approach p. 30

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After a successful run with Kratts’ Creatures, Paragon Entertainment is bringing the Brothers Kratt back to the small screen as the hosts of a new series designed for a younger audience called Zoboomafoo, and this time they have a playful primate friend.

Zoboo is a real life lemur, or sifaka to be more precise, a type of lemur, with a long tail which comes to life as a puppet to make introductions between the kids and the plethora of animals they come across during their explorations.

Martin and Chris Kratt’s furry sidekick will be featured live from the Duke Primate Centre outside Durham, North Carolina, at the beginning and end of each episode and he will be the subject of a whole gamut of products from United Media in New York.

While there are no licensees on board just yet – Paragon, the Kratts and pbs are still working on the look of the show – Wendi Daniels, director of marketing and sales at United Media, says they have incredibly high hopes for this property and plan to put a lot of their resources behind it.

Targeting toy manufacturers and publishers as key anchor licensees, Daniels says plush will be big as will pop-up, sticker, coloring and picture books, the bulk of which will be in stores by the 1999 holiday season.

In addition, United Media will be looking after the promotions and approaching many consumer product groups which target the preschool crowd such as McDonald’s.

The show, which will air next fall, is being shot for more than $200,000 an episode, 70% of which is coming from pbs, whose unusually large stake means the pubcaster will be taking a majority position in domestic merchandising revenues while Paragon takes a majority in non-domestic.

While Kratts’ Creatures was designed for an audience of eight- to 12-year-olds, Richard Borchiver, president and coo of Paragon Entertainment and series producer, says the young target group for Zoboomafoo accounts for the best merchandising component in the market.

Borchiver says to get the ‘mother lode’ of merchandising, three things must be present: broad distribution, which pbs has, a show primarily aimed at young children, and ‘animals always help’ – all of which are in the mix for Zoboomafoo.

‘Whether the kids buy into it and want the merchandise no one knows,’ says Borchiver, ‘but all the ingredients are there.’

The association between the Kratts, Paragon and pbs began in 1993 when all joined forces to create Kratts’ Creatures the wildlife series which exposes kids to animals in the natural world.

When they saw how successful Kratts’ Creatures was, not only with the audience for which it is intended but also with preschoolers, all involved decided the responsible thing to do would be to develop a show with a language, pacing and animals that would be more comprehensible to a younger group.

In fall of 1995, Chris and Martin Kratt came up with the idea for Zoboomafoo, and having studied lemurs at Duke University, decided the intelligent and likable primate was the right creature to help them take curious kids exploring through the animal world.

In each episode, the Kratts, who are the show’s writers, will get together with animal visitors from around the world at Animal Junction, go on trips to see wildlife in their natural environments, show segments of real kids with their animals, and watch claymation stories from Zobooland.

Over the last couple of weeks, the brothers have been shooting at the Duke Primate Center. From there they move to South Dakota and California where they will be looking at everything from puppies to emus and other animals that preschoolers will probably be catching a glimpse of for the first time.

Paragon, which will be distributing internationally, is now in the process of nailing down a broadcast commitment for Canada, and keeping their fingers crossed that Zoboomafoo will match the success of its predecessor, which sold in over 40 countries around the world.

According to Borchiver, preschool shows don’t travel well. ‘Kratts’ Creatures’ success in the international marketplace was due to the fact that it had wildlife. Zoboomafoo may do that as well, but it is still a tougher sell because preschool programming is primarily indigenous,’ he explains.

Executive producers on the series are Jon Slan, Leo Eaton and Martin and Chris Kratt. Directors will be different for each episode.