Why So Many Shows Suck

July 24, 2012 by Josh Selig

I think that most of us would agree that much of what is made for and consumed by preschool children – books, music, shows, and films – sucks. And just so nobody thinks that I believe I’m above the fray, I’ll readily admit that I have made a lot of work over the years that has sucked, too. I’m sure we all have. So, since no one is being singled out here, let’s talk honestly about why so many shows suck.

There are many culprits, of course, but the main culprit is not the one that most people blame: Money. Shortage of funds is typically just a red herring for why shows suck, and only those who use this excuse ever buy this excuse. “We just didn’t have enough in the budget to cast a kid who could sing.” “We couldn’t afford writers who could write funny jokes.” Hmmm. We’ve all seen brilliant shows that were made on a shoestring and disasters that cost a mint. As everyone knows, a good producer can always find a way to make quality work even within the most modest of budgets.

So, if it isn’t lack of money, then why do so many preschool shows suck? I have thought about this question a lot over the years and this week I came up with a short list of reasons. It is by no means comprehensive but, then again, I have always sucked at making comprehensive lists.

1) Too Many Cooks. Many kids’ TV shows suffer these days because they rely on co-production models that spread production across the globe in ways that make any unified approach to the creative almost impossible. It is not uncommon for head writers to receive four or five sets of conflicting notes from broadcasters and IP owners. It is also not uncommon for there to be no show-runner who is overseeing the progression of every episode through the pipeline to make sure it all holds together. This lack of a creative focus leads to mediocrity. Just as it would be hard to prepare a yummy meal in which the vegetables were being sautéed on one continent while the fish was getting poached in another, our current (and unavoidable) reliance on international co-productions has made it very hard to deliver truly yummy shows. In other words, we not only have too many cooks but we also have too many kitchens.

2) Copycats. The worst shows are the ones that try to replicate what someone else did that worked. I attended a really interesting presentation by one of the larger toy companies this year on preschool TV and the conclusion was that every TV-based mega-toy hit since the beginning of time broke every rule that had been established before that show premiered, from Sesame Street to Teletubbies to Dora. So, why do people bother making copycat shows? See below.

3) Laziness. From writing to design to music to the creation of a new show, laziness abounds. People call the same casting agents and cast the same voice actors again and again. They hire all the same writers who warm up old plotlines and dialogue from their past six series. Is it any wonder that so many preschool shows sound the same? It takes hard work to design a great character or cast a great voice or compose really good music for a show. But it is exactly this attention to detail that makes shows great.

4) Niceness. In my view, the best creative teams are both collaborative and hierarchical. Yes, people must work together but someone at the top must be able to say “yay” or “nay” and protect the delicate vision of their show. Without this leadership, projects quickly become soft, democratic, and uninteresting. I have been involved with many series where everyone was uber-nice to everyone else and every creative idea was celebrated as if a toddler had just taken his first dump into the potty. These shows may be fun to work on but they are certainly no fun to watch.

When I was five I used to have a shoe shine box and during the block parties on West 89th Street where my family lived, I would shine peoples’ shoes for fifty cents. My creative older brother, by contrast, made beautiful jewelry in a little kiln and sold it at the same block party and made a lot more money than I did. Though none of us can control which gifts we were born with and which ones we were denied, I do think we can all work hard to improve in the areas that may not be our strongest. In other words, we can all strive, in our own ways, to suck a little less.

Heather

Totally agree. Sucking less also requires bolder broadcast executive choices in some spaces. Sometimes there is a creative lead that is being held back based on hohum group think. Ties into the copycats and niceness comment. But an amusing reminder never hurts us all.
Tabitharosen

Tired of people copying you Josh, huh! But I happen to agree.
Ann

Working as a team and being respectful of everyone is key in making small budgets work.
Annoyed

The pessimism in this blog makes my blood boil. Stop making TV if it sucks so much, there are other people happy to do it that won’t piss everyone off in the process.
Noggin the Nog

your blog comes across as rather arrogant Mr Selig. is it that the industry doesn’t meet your high standards? oh dear, we’d better roll over and let you through I guess – shine a bright light on the darkness for us all.

give me a break from this pompous nonsense!
Pingback: The Animation Anomaly | How To Fix The Reasons Why So Many Shows Suck
http://twitter.com/BigSisterProd Karla

This is definitely an interesting read. I find it interesting why shows fall flat from a producer’s perspective, since I am aware that there are also so many run of the mill, boring preschool shows because a lot of people simply don’t mind if their child watches something sup bar.
Artfully_Yours

This is like reading the ramblings of a bitter, angry man who’s willfully extinguishing the light of his success. It’s like watching a man self destruct. You can almost feel the heat from all the bridges burned with each post. You sound like such a pleasure to work with! Wake us up when you have another Wonder Pets.
Gavbarbey

I wonder if money is not also an excuse… I feel often to many cooks in the broadcast sector take something honest, beautiful and truly created for pre school and then whether because of Ego or because of Merchandising they then complicate everything trying to raise the age group. We all know that kids over 5 whether we like it or not as parents are watching shows and films way above there age group, it is a modern world and companies like pixar bought us a whole new look that is exciting… though pre school is what it says, pre school… why do some many shows fill kids with screaming non-sense characters that are filled with explanational diologue about often nothing of ideas that are way to big in scale… what happened to allowing kids to have an imagination, even when watching something… I know this from the hand made show we were trying to get up… so much money wasted on scripts (no blame on the script writers), over loading what was a beautiful and unique hand made pre school show/shows and no one in the broadcast world listened to us, the creators, it wasn’t supposed to be complicated… I really think Ego may be a cause for a lot of pain in the televison world… creativity does not cost lots of money, it is when people collaborate on a creative level with passion that lasting artistic expression is birthed, jim henson is a testoment to this… just because there are computers that run soft wares does not mean churned out computer generated animation is good, pre school has to be felt… and yes there is to many shows that look like the next in style, we mould children enough with schooling into the so called one brand fits all and look where it has got us… we live in one of the most exciting educated times, what we call alternative schoolings are often leading the way, why because they have strong educated and felt understandings that they follow though elvolve with… lets give room back for kids to utilize imagination, not make everything about lessons, rules or even worse just noice
Michael Bourchier

It would be more useful for those who disagree with Josh’s point of view to proffer a different opinion, rather than cast invective like confetti.
It is necessarily harder to make shows which rely on co-productions. Developing a level of trust and openness to other’s ideas without compromise is difficult to do when there is a creative central vision that has been developed by the original producer. It is possible to do it when the right conditions exist and very difficult when there are conflicting voices whether they be other producers, broadcasters or distributors.For shows to work, they do need a strong producer who holds the DNA of the show and considers all comments from others in the light that they are contributions for the betterment of the show. If they are not, the producer must fight for his or her point of view to prevail. However, a producer who does not openly consider the needs of the other parties, is likely to have a brief career indeed.

The ‘HBO model’ of allowing producers to realise their vision with guidance rather than demands from the network has served them well. A lot of the best shows in our realm have come about in the same way.
FE MACEDO

GREAT STUFF JOSH!
LET’S WORK HARD TO SUCK A LITTLE LESS
ALL THE BEST!

FERNANDO MACEDO
DIGITAL SPIRIT ANIMATION
http://vimeopro.com/digitalspirit/portfolio
Ddunnboysen

I actually think that most preschool shows don’t really suck that bad. Most that I’ve seen in the business (big and small) are created by real parents that want something better for their kids from a learning or sometimes just wholesome entertainment perspective from Sesame Street to Super Why to Baby Einstein to Wonder Pets to Yo Gabba! and many others. As an adult, maybe many of them are hard for us to watch, but they are beloved by children for one reason or another. I mean have you seen Mighty Machines? My three year old son is obsessed with it. I call this the Power Ranger effect. As an adult, you watch Power Rangers and its painful. But you go anywhere around the world and ask a 4-6 year old boy who his favorite Ranger is and he’ll tell you. That doesn’t suck.
Noggin the Nog

Well who’s actually saying they suck? Mr Selig, that’s all. Last time I looked he wasn’t voted spokesman by me! Offer up alternatives? Why? This blog is no More than Mr Seligs personal views, helpfully disseminated via Kidscreen, too often it falls into the trap of pompous self righteousness, (and that’s MY view) it ain’t my gospel!
Josh Selig has no more answers than every joe working in kids television, if he had the elusive ( and non existant) ‘magic formula’ he’d be a rich man, but instead he can write blogs like this essentially casting doubts on the quality of other peoples shows, (without naming names of course – that would mean putting his neck on the block) and people take him seriously.
OK Josh, you want to discuss why YOU think some shows suck, please tell us which ones and we can have a debate about those shows, otherwise what’s this all about other than ego.
http://www.sixteensouth.tv/ Colin Williams

I do agree with you, Josh.

We’ve just finished day three of our creative workshop for our new mixed-media animated show, Driftwood Bay and I actually began today by reading this post to our creative team.

Why did I do that?

We’re just starting pre-production and I want to remind all of us again WHY we do what we’re doing and what’s important to us: originality, passion, great stories and characters, commitment and complete 100% heart-and-soul into what we’re doing. And to constantly stay in the mindset of a 5 year old and remember we are making shows for children to enjoy, relate to and learn from.

Co-productions work for us – we really enjoy them. When they work well, they are partnerships – and we actually call our co-productions that: partnerships.

But to make them work, all partners need to trust each other, and enjoy each other. They need to know what’s important to each other and learn when to compromise and together, only ever to make decisions that are for the good of the show. Partnerships often create a show that is synergistic – more than the sum of the equal parts. On our productions, we believe in an inclusive approach, listening to everyone, but doing what is ultimately right for the show. On one show, we created a ‘panic’ button that anyone could press, but only in extreme situations. It was called the ‘over my dead body’ button. And if it was pressed, that view or that angle or note must’ve been taken. That required complete trust in each other. And guess what – no-one ever pressed the button! This is when partnerships work well. They could easily be a nightmare, and I wholly understand where you’re coming from.

I love this industry – I love the fact that this big bunch of preschool and childrens’ producers from many countries across the world feels like a big family and that we all get on so very well. And we’re all better off when we learn from each other.

And so, I feel a little sad at some of these comments above. It takes experience – and guts to speak frankly about how we as an industry can be better at what we do, and I feel that some of these responses to Josh, especially those which are anonymous are really quite out-of-order and very unfair.

Lets’ not forget the enormous responsibility that we have been given – we are creating and producing shows that will have a small formative part of the young viewers’ lives who will watch them. That is incredible. And that needs to be given all of what we have.

Colin
Noggin the Nog

‘out of order & unfair’ ? nonsense – you post opinions, you get responses – are you suggesting we can’t disagree with him? you may be happily in orbit around Planet Preschool, but some of us choose our own paths.

This high horse – ‘we care more than you’ mentality is what bugs me about some folk in television – do you think anyone making programmes for young kids thinks ‘ahhh sod it! i couldn’t care less’ – of course not.

People are out there working hard to make programmes in a harsh climate right now – at least those in unsubsidised regions - and we’re all trying to come up with unique and engaging ideas for our genre, and we all care about our audience and we all care passionately about the quality of the shows we’re making.

My point is I don’t feel I need Josh Selig to remind me to try harder – i’m aware of what it takes thank you – i put it down to experience
Kelly Bean

a blog that brings out emotion is a blog well-written. Keep up the good work!
Yvette Brown

Josh:
Thanks for answer the question that those of us outside TV production frequently ask. Truth be told, your observations apply generally to much of working world– fuzzy goals lead to fuzzy results (Brian Tracy) and change comes from the fringe (Tom Peters’ observation, applying nature to business). When we present “game-changer” ideas to clients, it takes a passionate leader to drive them through the organization, or else they end up in the “too hard pile”.

On a separate note, I cannot think of anyone better suited to write this than you. Not only was Wonder Pets a wonderfully different show, but it has impacted by 4 yr old daughter in so many positive ways. After watching Wonder Pets regularly, she now continues to recognize animals and iconic landmarks (like
the Eiffel Tower and Pyramids), and even claims to have a second family that
lives on Coney Island (per the Brooklyn squirrel-saving episode). And even now when we only watch every few weeks, she makes reference to WP episodes (like when she hears about
a “twister” on the news, or refers to a desert as “a land, all covered in sand”). I believe I can thank The Wonder Pet influence
for her “innate love of nature”, as described by her PreK Teacher (beyond what
she sees in other kids), and most recently she has begun to make up her own
songs about her surroundings.

If not for the innovative work of Little Airplane, my daughter would not be where she is today. We need more innovation, more passion, and more game-changers like you.
http://twitter.com/360KID Scott Traylor

I like to tell my team, the fewer the creatives, the stronger the creative vision. Creativity in the development of a show, of a video game, of a toy, results in the best outcome when directed by the fewest people. It’s worth sharing this with everyone, not just among the small creative team. All players in the development of something new and great have to have this understanding. It’s hard for people not to want to put their fingerprints on some creative element of a new product, and sometimes outside contributions are great, but please, lets leave ego at the door and realize that quality art, production, writing, sound are all equally important to that collective creative outcome, and I don’t mean a democratic approach to creative is the solution. Creative vision, creative direction is not a team sport. That’s brand integrity. Don’t confuse the two.
Melbourne Kidson

Yes, your comments are correct. Kids entertainment has really become junk and its the children who suffer. A pleasant change on the weekend was a kids party we went to celebrate where the birthday family had got in a mobile wildlife show to entertain the kids. Instead of the usual crap food and noise and screaming, these kids were really engaged and learning.
All the best
N. Shaw

I like the 3rd point on your list. When
everything is in place, and you get past all of the cooks, it can be very
frustrating when people drop the ball due to laziness. I think we always have
to keep in mind the audience that we are making these shows for. Trying to pass
off the same packaged stories with bright colors, poor design and poor quality
can only go so far.

Entertaining and informative read as always, for sure, no
one else better to write this than you Josh!
Barbiefan1337

I agree with mr.selig. Simple, take one of your shows to hasbro and talk with lauren faust. If she can make My Little Pony have a massive fandom, then it might work.
TimUK

My four year daughter would endorse Josh’s view. Her radar for CBeebies content is quite at odds with the recent Baftas. For her, as I can observe, the characters must be credible and there needs to be a real story to tell. Paper thin plots fail every time.

Photos

MIPCOM 2012 - View of Cannes from the Nelvana stand