Laurie Berkner's New Show: Sing It, Laurie!

The biggest news to come down the pike yesterday was the first public steps toward Laurie Berkner's return to TV.

Oh, sure, Jack's Big Music Show is still airing on Nick Jr. But it's been years since new episodes have been made. So it's a big deal that Little Airplane Productions (The Wonder Pets!, Small Potatoes) is partnering with Berkner to create Sing It, Laurie!, a new animated preschool TV series. The series is about a little girl named Laurie who loves to sing and play her purple guitar. In each 11-minute episode, Laurie, along with her dog Jamaica (Jam for short), will explore one theme, such as family, community, or nature. That's Laurie and Jam flying in the Wing Dinger, a "unique one person helicopter that's just the perfect size for Laurie and Jam." Each episode features Berkner's music, some of it newly composed for the show, some of it from Berkner's past albums.

The announcement noted that the educational curriculum was written by Dr. Christine Ricci (Dora the Explorer) and will focus on three core themes: creativity, curiosity and music appreciation.

What's missing, of course, is the announcement of a TV distribution agreement, so it'll be awhile before we'll see Laurie and Jam figuring out how to solve childhood obesity with a guitar and a helicopter. (OK, we'll probably never see that episode. Which is probably a good thing.) But given both Little Airplane and Berkner's track record, this has a better shot than any other kindie-musician-with-a-script of making it onto a TV channel near you in the next year.