Sid the Science Kid
How do things work? he asks For instance, virtual puppetry?
There are no low-talkers, Festivus or other displays of Upper West Side neurosis, but the new PBS Kids science show from the Jim Henson Co. and KCET in Los Angeles is sort of like Seinfeld for kids, says Linda Simensky, director of PBS children’s programming.
Initially pitched as a comedy for preschoolers, the Henson company’s idea eventually morphed into a funny science show, slated for fall 2008. Sid the Science Kid — the working title was What’s the Big Idea? — will be the famed puppeteering company’s first PBS endeavor since Sesame Street.
“They started working in this whole idea of kids trying to figure out how things work — sort of how Seinfeld would question, in essence, how the world works,” says Simensky. “It turned out that science fit pretty neatly into that.”
The show’s puppetry-animation hybrid will make it look and feel unlike any other kids’ series on television. It’s the first to use digital puppetry — puppeteers manipulating animated characters on the screen in real time.
Each episode of the show begins with Sid, a preschooler with an oversized microphone (named Josh in earlier plans), addressing a morning monologue to his stuffed animals. Why, he asks, do bananas get brown spots?
“Like so many preschoolers, he asks ‘Why?’ a lot,” says Lisa Henson, co-c.e.o. of the Henson company and a daughter of its late founder.
Throughout the day, Sid talks with his friends, family and teacher to find the answer. They explain some things but encourage Sid to go out and find answers on his own. As in Seinfeld, the characters exhibit their own quirks and obsessions.
At day’s end, Sid does a little stand-up about what he found out—why his shoes didn’t fit one morning (he was growing) or why his favorite shirt has an annoying itchy tag inside (the writers have him experiencing the five senses).
Often he’s struck by an otherworldly brainstorm about what he’s learned — he thinks about combining all the old mushy banana peels to make a giant Slip ’n Slide. Henson says the objective there is to model how “sometimes it takes an imaginative leap to create valuable inventions.”
While plenty of pubTV preschool shows are good at being earnest, Henson says her company has always traded in funny. “Sesame Street’s always been funny, and our friends at that company have made other funny shows like The Upside Down Show — there is comedy for preschoolers that we know works,” she says. “It makes the whole show more enjoyable for parents [who] we know are watching with them. These kinds of shows are made for co-viewing.”
Part of WTBI’sappeal is likely to be the realism and seeming spontaneity of the puppet characters. The animation process — called the Henson Digital Performance Studio — is the first to use motion capture with puppets. Motion capture works by attaching sensors to a performer, whose movements are mimicked by a virtual figure in the computer and skinned to look like a puppet with the same moves. HDPS gives an additional role to a puppeteer—using joystick-like hand controls and speaking into a microphone to add facial expressions and voices while watching the results on a screen.
“[HDPS has] enough of that cartoony movement and enough of that human involvement that it’s got a completely different feel to it,” says Simensky. With traditional animation, adds Henson, “you just do it in little bits and pieces, and it all comes together in such a piecemeal manner—it’s hard to have this organic quality that puppetry performances have.” (The company has posted a video of HDPS in action.)
“The thing that I liked about the show, besides the content,” says Simensky, “was that it fit into the category of technological innovation, which is something that we’ve been pushing for here—to keep our air fresh. . . . What people expect from PBS is not just to make the best shows, but to do the most innovation. I feel like that’s our birthright here—to move the medium forward.”
This story has been revised to use the new series title and lead character name. In Current's print edition, the working title and character name of Josh were used.
Web page posted Dec. 5, 2007, revised Dec. 18, 2007
Copyright 2007 by Current Publishing Committee
