2020 rocks gentle world of children’s TV
Creators tackling seismic events with candor, immediacy
Since he arrived in the world eight years ago, Daniel Tiger has overcome many an obstacle.
Therewas the whole potty-training ordeal and a rocky adjustment becoming a big brother. And who could forget the peach allergy?
But likemost Americans — furry and otherwise— Daniel has never endured anything like 2020. This summer, hewas devastated to learn he wouldn’t be going to the annual carnival.
“We’re staying far apart so we don’t accidentally spread germs,” Dad Tiger tells a teary-eyed Daniel in “Daniel Tiger’ s Neighborhood: Won’t You Sing Along with Me?,” a special created to help families cope with the pandemic.
Daniel isn’t the only anthropomorphic character feeling the strain of multiple crises. In a short episode of “Arthur” released this summer, the bespectacled aardvark and his friend Buster call each other on Zoom to talk about a troubling video they watched.
“I can’t believe someone would be hurt like that, just because they’re Black,” says Buster, a bunny. No further details are required, but none are necessary. They call Mrs. MacGrady, the school lunch lady and a former civil rights activist, for guidance. “Racism is like a disease,” she tells them. “If you don’t treat it, it will get worse.”
Pretty heavy stuff for “Arthur’s” 4-to-8-yearold target audience, but the seismic events of this year, including the spread of a deadly virus that has upended daily life and a societal reckoning over systemic racism and police violence, have rocked the gentle world of children’s television like never before.
While the medium— especially the educational programming on PBS— has a long history of tackling thorny social issues and has been responsive to changing social mores, the makers of kids’ TV have approached the dire news this year with unprecedented immediacy and candor.
“We knewthat these were issues that needed attention,” says Linda Simens ky, head of content for PBS Kids. “We look at these situations and think, ‘OK, how can we help? What is it thatwe can do that other people might not be able to do?’ And what we can do is put on shows where trusted characters and trusted voices are able to be role models for kids.”
Mere weeks into the pandemic, “Sesame Street” released a special called “Elmo’s Playdate,” following the beloved red Muppet as he spent socially distanced timewith friends. “The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special” helped kids understand the importance of fighting intolerance, while “Sesame Street”-themed townhalls on CNN discussed racism and the basics of COVID-19.
A timely half-hour special, “PBS Kids Talk About: Race and Racism,” released lastmonth, was designed to foster candid discussions about diversity between parents and their children.
The discussion has also spread beyond the realm of public television. In September, Netflix introduced “Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices,” in which celebrities including Lupita Nyong’o and Common read children’s books about the Black experience.
Ever since Fred Rogers first zipped up his cardigan, children’s television has actively engaged with social issues. The minister and puppeteer became a national treasure by imparting lessons about divorce, death, racism and violence to young viewers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood .”
Over five decades on the air, “Sesame Street” has helped kids deal with adversity and championed inclusion through such characters as Julia, a Muppet with autism, and story lines about racism, disability, adoption, divorce and incarceration. “Sesame Street” sensitively addressed the terrorist attacks of 9/11with an episode in which Elmo is traumatized by a fire at Hooper’s Store. It has since aired regularly on PBS stations after natural disasters or other emergencies.
Simen sky has pushed to create more topical kids’ programming that directly confronts issues in the news, such as an episode of “Arthur” about a hurricane. “Everyone at PBS Kids is thinking, ‘What canwe do to be helpful?’ Therewill be people who disagree with this approach and disagree that this is an appropriate topic for kids. Andmy advice to those people is, ‘Don’t watch it.’ And that’s the beauty of television. You can turn it off.”
“We continue to draw from Mr. Rogers’ legacy on everything thatwe do,” says Christopher Log gins, supervising producer for “Daniel Tiger’ s Neighborhood ,” an animated spinoff of “Mister Rogers” following the children of characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. “One thing that he said is, ‘What’ s mention able is manageable.’ If you can talk about things, it might make them easier to understand, and that’s the approach we took” in making the COVID-19 singalong special, Loggins says.
Both “Won’t You Sing Along With Me?” and “PBS Kids Talk About Race and Racism” are “very specific and very timely,” says Simen sky. “If both of them went out of date very quickly, I’d be fine with that.”
Putting out a special about race, though essential, required additional care. “Even just the idea of leaning in and saying words like ‘race’ and ‘racism,’ which we’ve shied away from until now, felt new to us, butwe felt very strongly thatwe should do this. And we were very careful. We didn’t just jumpin. We talked to a lot of advisors.”
One of those advisers was Aisha White, director of the P.R.I.D.E. (Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education) program. The message she wanted the special to impart was that “parents need to be talking to their children about race at a very young age. The first thing they need to do is help their children understand that it’s OK to wonder about these things, to talk about these things and to question these things. Our message is to make this conversation about race as ordinary and everyday and consistent as any other conversation that you would have.”
“These children are actively involved in demanding the change they want to see in the world,” says poet and activist Amanda Gorman, who hosts the special. “It’s the idea that if you don’t see it, you can’t become it. TV is often the first signifier to children that their dreams are possible and their truths are something not to be ignored.”