Last year I wrote about the trippy new kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, and it was an incredibly popular post, owing to just how cool the show looked. And that was before there was even much information about the show online. Now that it’s fully in production and seems to be living up to the hype, there’s finally a lot more to see.
A feature article in Print Magazine (from the upcoming Sept/Oct issue) goes into detail about the production of the show and tries to help explain why something that seems so atypical for contemporary children’s programming also seems so very perfect to a new generation of parents who grew up on 1970s kids shows.
Brown Johnson, the network’s executive vice president who oversees the Nick Jr. programming bloc, uses terms like unique, brave, and boundary-pushing to describe the content. “It’s definitely weird,†she admits. “But it’s good weird, as opposed to creepy weird. Pure, innocent, happy weird.â€
Even “life-changing” indie music darlings The Shins are getting in on the act by performing an original music video for the show. Or at least that’s what I was told was on the other end of that link — I’m unable to visit the site because I don’t live in the United States (and I’m on a Mac). I guess Nickelodeon thinks “pure, innocent, happy weird” is best left constrained by the US border.