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.

Mamma Yamma: The Canadian Foofa (Or Is It Toodee)?

I recently got a note from reader Susan suggesting I check out Kids' CBC, because they "seem to be doing a Yo Gabba Gabba-type thing by inviting Canadian indie musicians to jam with the character Mamma Yamma, who is a large, ebullient yam. In particular, Susan directed me to this video which featured musician Joel Plaskett doing a kid-friendly take on his song "Fashionable People."

Joel Plaskett - "Fashionable People" (from Kids' CBC) [YouTube]

Goofy, and kinda cute, even if you don't know the pretty-much-not-kid-friendly original. Though I'd been vaguely familiar with the show (it even has a CD of songs), I hadn't paid too much attention. My loss, I suppose.

As I watched this video and dug deeper into the Mamma Yamma archives, I got not only a YGG vibe, but also a Sesame Street feeling. That show's been inviting musical guests onto its street pretty much from the get-go forty years ago. Admittedly, it's generally gone for more mainstream musical guests than Brobee, Foofa, Toodee, and the rest have on their own show, but they've occasionally dipped into slightly more off-center artists. (See: Feist.)

In fact, Mamma Yamma has her own Feist-ian equivalent, with Kathleen Edwards reworking her kid-unfriendly (albeit pretty awesome) "Cheapest Key" into a very kid-friendly (and still pretty awesome) song "Eat the Alphabet". (Sorry, for some reason it's cutting off early, but you get the point. If you want to listen to a live version, Bill played it before at Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, perhaps he'll do so again, hint hint.)

And here's one more complete one to finish this off. Any show that features Tegan and Sara gets a thumbs up in my book.

Tegan and Sara - "Alligator" (for Kids' CBC) [YouTube]