Short Stops: Animated Interstitials
Once upon a time -- that time being Saturday morning 34 years ago on ABC-TV -- there was Multiplication Rock. The three-minute long cartoon math lessons set to music proved so popular, they led to similar series covering grammar, science, American history, money and computers under the umbrella title of Schoolhouse Rock.
The brief segments were there to provide an educational counterpoint to the morning's fun and games; an unintentional side effect of their presence was that their creativity and high spirits made the surrounding shows look anemic by comparison.
For many kids in the U.S., Schoolhouse Rock was their introduction to interstitials -- short form segments serving as a bridge between full-length programming. The overall quality of TV cartoons has risen dramatically since the 1970s -- and so has the demand for interstitials. Now some of those same kids are creating or commissioning the next generation of these short-form bursts of animation.
"We love interstitials and our audience does too," enthuses Michele Weiss, exec director of original programming for Playhouse Disney. The preschool block runs anywhere between seven and 10 different interstitial series at any given moment, the vast majority produced by Disney in partnership with outside production companies. Like many non-commercial outlets, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney use shorts to fill out show times that run under 30 minutes and bridge the gap to the next program. "We want to entertain kids while they're waiting for the next show to come on. We definitely have a certain umbrella our shorts fall under. We look for interstitials built around interactivity and music -- those are strong aspects of what we do. They also need to be curriculum based."
One of Playhouse Disney's most popular interstitials is Lou and Lou: Safety Patrol, featuring Asian-American boy-and-girl twins who challenge their audience to spot potentially hazardous conditions during their three-minute segments. Music-based interstitials include pop singer Genevieve performing up-tempo numbers against a CGI background in Choo-Choo Soul, and Dan Zanes House Party, featuring a laid-back kids' singer whose videos often include animation.
Michele Weiss says she looks for "small [production] houses with neat styles that have something of a track record. It's a nice way to tap into the animation community." Lou and Lou's production company, Oddbot, definitely fits the description of a small outfit with a neat style. Christopher Hamilton, Oddbot's president, worked on Lou and Lou, along with other Playhouse Disney interstitials like Shanna's Show and Shane's Kindergarten Countdown before opening his company Oddbot. After Disney approached Hamilton to do an additional 10 Lou and Lou segments, Oddbot is earning a reputation as a `go-to' place for animated pre-school interstitials.
"Do I think it's growing?" Hamilton asks rhetorically. "I think it is. I've been able to keep my lights on doing mostly interstitials and shorts." The success of the safety-themed shorts have led to an assignment from Disney for a new, currently in-the-works interstitial package, even as the company produced 16 three-minute long segments of The Many Adventures of Mr. Mailman for PBS Kids Sprout. "When I was with the other company clients were ordering three, then five segments at a time. Then I started Oddbot and I immediately got the order for 16, way more than I was used to. We were very lucky when Playhouse called us. We went back and forth, but they wanted a batch of 10 segments. Then they ordered another show, another batch of 10. That was like `whoa,' with a larger order like that we can spend more time working on them, that's good.
"As a small studio, we're touch and go. We're just trying to get our name out there and pick up what we can. I've been really successful doing interstitials and preschool content. I love it, I'm really enjoying my time in it."
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