Monday, September 3, 2007
By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER
[Picture, above, courtesy of northjersey.com. Photographer: Thomas Franklin.]
Created by Harrington Park native Angela Santomero and Hillsdale native Samantha Freeman -- the same pair who made Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues" must-see TV among the playground set -- "Super Why" will teach basic reading skills such as spelling, letter recognition and theme comprehension to school-age children.
"Literacy is a national problem, and it's a hot topic at the moment," says Santomero. The new show was specifically designed for kids ages 3 to 6, she adds.
Many busy parents probably wonder whether their children can actually learn to read from watching a TV show. That's a tall order for a television program, and even executive producer Freeman admits that "Super Why's" mission is to "tip children in the right direction."
But if there's anything Santomero and Freeman are sure of, it's that the formula that made "Blue's Clues" a decade-plus success works. Their award-winning educational show has become one of the gold standards in children's television over the past 11 years, largely because of its dedication to research -- research that led Santomero and Freeman to create "Super Why."
Doing a test run
It's a busy day at summer camp, but at the Kew Forest School in Queens, camp counselors are taking a break in the library. Their preschool-age charges are being treated to a very special story time.
"Wands up!" says researcher Alice Walters, seated on the floor next to shelves of children's books.
Finn Latici-McAvey, Matthew Gelpi and Mia Kurta obediently sit forward on their beanbags and raise their tiny fists as if grasping thin sticks. They stare at the colorful, letter-sized printout where a princess in a purple gown points her own glowing instrument at a cluttered ballroom.
"Let's write the letter 'C,' " Walters says.
They go on to spell the word "clean." When the task is complete, Walters puts the page facedown on the ground to reveal another sheet with the same scene, tidied. The word "clean" floats above the ballroom like a physical spell.
"Ta-da!"
The graphics are less than earth-shattering. But the storyboard Finn, Matthew and Mia are seeing today is a glimpse of what many kids will eventually get to see. They can now tell their friends in pre-school and kindergarten that they saw it first.
The research process
After testing an illustrated storyboard version of an episode, researchers in Walters' team work with Santomero's writers to modify the script. The animators create a rough version, called an animatic, and another group of kids watches the episode. Writers then make minor modifications, and animators apply the final touches before the last group watches the pre-air version.
About 25 children see the episode at each of these three stages. Since PBS ordered 65 episodes (roughly three years' worth) of "Super Why" from Santomero and Freeman's Out of the Blue production company, the pair have had their hands full.
Santomero made sure that episodes of "Super Why" would be shown three times to kids in the tri-state area. Her own erstwhile elementary school in Harrington Park was one of the research sites.
When Santomero and Walters began working together on "Blue's Clues" research more than a decade ago, the only intensively researched children's show they could look up to was perennial favorite "Sesame Street," which had carried on a tradition of educational television for about 30 years.
"We carved money out of the production budget for the research," said Santomero of her work at Nickelodeon on "Blue's Clues." That dedication was a point of pride for her and the entire creative team.
Rosemarie Truglio, vice president of education and research for "Sesame Street," taught a class at Teachers College, attended by both Santomero and Walters. "Angela felt strongly that she wanted to adapt what we do at 'Sesame Street' to her creation," she remembers.
Although Santomero and Freeman are no longer working within a deep-pocketed network, they want to make sure "Super Why" has the same quality of research to back up its educational curriculum.
"This show is designed to be education, whereas some shows use research more for appeal," explains Freeman. "Appeal is also part of our goal; but it's there to help them learn."
Levels of difficulty
Back at the Kew Forest School, Santomero sits behind the children, scribbling notes on a copy of the script as they respond to the story. The plot is roughly based on Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper": A prince living in a castle and a pauper living in a cottage switch places; chaos ensues.
Santomero watches intently as Mia, Finn and Matthew choose words from a cupboard to form the prince's meager meal and find bright red "Super Letters" in the scenery. Whenever she sees a twitching leg or wandering eye, she makes a mark.
"Studies show that attention equals comprehension," she explains.
It's hard to write for kids from age 3 to 6 because of all the different reading and development levels. To accommodate a wide audience, Out of the Blue tries to layer levels of difficulty into each episode.
On the base level, kids can find the red Super Letters hidden in scenes throughout the episode as a kind of scavenger hunt. Understanding the story is an added plus that makes the show enjoyable. Kids with more reading skills can solve puzzles, read words and spell.
The hardest level to crack is thematic understanding. For this episode, the message is about finding where you truly belong. Plugged into the "Super Computer," the Super Letters spell "home."
Mia, barely 4, gets the idea first and wonders why the pauper is still in the castle, not his own home in the cottage.
"We have to change the sentence first," says Walters gently.
A magical switcheroo of the words "castle" and "cottage" -- perhaps "farm" in later versions for easier understanding -- and the characters are back where they belong.
"Should we put this story on television?" Walters asks them at the end.
"Yes!" they say in chorus.
The creators of 'Super Why'
Angela Santomero
Hometown: Harrington Park
Background: Teachers College, Columbia University
Samantha Freeman
Hometown: Hillsdale
Background: MBA, Harvard University
How they met: Santomero and Freeman met while working on Nickelodeon's hit show "Blue's Clues." Santomero came from a child-development research background, earning a master's in developmental psychology. Freeman brought her marketing and branding experience to the table. The two realized that they were both Bergen natives and found an instant connection. Together, they launched production company Out of the Blue two years ago, when their Nickelodeon contracts expired.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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