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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 9 January 2020
Streaming TV programming for kids embraces iconic brands

By MARK KENNEDY Charlie Brown’s floppy-
NEW YORK (AP) — New eared beagle and for pup-
technology. Same furry pets from the famed Sesa-
faces. me Workshop in its slate of
When Apple was thinking kid and family friendly pro-
about what kind of chil- grams.
dren’s TV programming it “Both Snoopy and Sesame
wanted on its new stream- Workshop are crown jew-
ing service, it doubled els of the last decades in
down on two multi-gen- what family entertainment
erational crowd-pleasers looks like. There’s a reason
— Snoopy and “Sesame that we went proactively
Street.” to those two entities,” said
Apple TV Plus has carved Zack Van Amburg, who is
out prominent roles for Apple’s head of worldwide

This image released by Apple shows the character Snoopy in a scene from an animated short
"Snoopy in Space."
Associated Press

video alongside Jamie Erli- Eggs and Ham,” the comic “Helpsters,” which mixes
cht. book “Raising Dion” and human actors and pup-
The decision to use existing even a youth-orientated pets, including Cody, a
children’s icons as the bed- “Fast and Furious” series. new puppet that loves
rock for the fledgling plat- “Our intention is to offer a computer coding. And
form is one shared by sev- lot of choice. When we there’s “Ghostwriter,” a
eral other streaming servic- think about kids or we think live-action fantasy series
es, often with one eye on about a family audience, that re-imagines the Sesa-
looming Netflix, the world’s one of the things we think me Workshop’s 1992 series.
largest streamer with an ar- about is there’s no two The streamer will also have
senal of titles attracting kids kids that are the same and the original animated spe-
and families. there are no two families cial “Here We Are” based
The services are competing that are the same,” said on lauded author Oliver
for kids’ eyeballs not only Melissa Cobb, Netflix’s vice Jeffers’ book, the animat-
from each other but also president of kids and fam- ed series “Wolfboy and
from shows on YouTube ily. the Everything Factory,”
and traditional broadcast Brian Wright, vice president the live-action animated
channels. Often the safest of original series at Netflix, hybrid “Lovely Little Farm”
way forward is piggyback- said its creators are hoping and a pair of animated se-
ing on established titles that to craft content that allows ries based on the children’s
parents already know from a family to have a shared books “Doug Unplugged”
their childhood and lean- experience and a shared (rebranded for TV “Doug
ing into the nostalgia. conversation — wherever Unplugs”) and “Zen Shorts”
Amazon Prime Video has that family is. (called “Stillwater” for TV).
rebooted “ Clifford the Big “We really want to be in the “When you look at the
Red Dog ” and has origi- space of building really ap- breadth of programming,
nal shows featuring Kung- pealing worlds that have I think you’ll see a mix of
Fu Panda, Pete the Cat, something for everybody,” established book proper-
and Rocky and Bullwinkle. he said. “One thing that we ties, reboots of television
CBS All Access has series talk a lot about is reflecting shows, but also new prop-
built on the classic book the world back at itself. We erties from diverse cre-
“Cloudy With a Chance of want to break down the ators,” said Tara Sorensen,
Meatballs” and the classic barriers of who gets to be Apple’s head of children’s
’toon “Danger Mouse.” seen and represented.” programming. “Apple as
Disney Plus is offering shorts Apple TV Plus subscrib- a whole believes in great
starring Forky from “Toy Sto- ers may not get as many storytelling and so we want
ry 4” and a reboot of the shows as Netflix but execu- to make sure we represent
Hilary Duff-led “Lizzie Mc- tives are building a care- that across our slate.”
Guire,” another show built fully curated list, including a Van Amburg and Sorensen
around Phineas & Ferb, dozen 8-minute “Snoopy in said that what makes Ap-
plus a new series based Space” animated shorts, as ple TV Plus distinctive from
on Marvel Comics’ “The well as the brand new up- some of the others is a
Falcon and the Winter Sol- coming series “The Snoopy commitment to education
dier.” And, yes, it, too, has Show,” with each install- and imparting lessons. “We
Muppets — the unscripted ment featuring three sev- want to make sure parents
series “Muppets Now.” en-minute cartoons starring feel good about watching
Netflix has embraced the Peanuts crew. these programs together
shows built around Cap- They’ll also get two series as a family but also putting
tain Underpants, “Lost in from Sesame: the live- their kids in front of them
Space,” the book “Green action preschool-aimed solo,” said Sorensen.q