Discovery Kids and WGBH are currently in production on an original new animated series, TIME WARP TRIO, that will debut on Discovery Kids on NBC this July. Kids television producer WGBH created the series, based on a popular book series, in association with Soup2Nuts.
This action/adventure series transports three curious kids on exciting journeys into history via a magic book. Based on the p book series of the same name by Jon Scieszka (who also wrote THE STINKY CHEESE MAN and THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS), the TIME WARP TRIO series hopes to ignite kids interest in history by combining humor and great stories.
TIME WARP TRIO is slated to debut on the Discovery Kids on NBC Saturday morning block on July 2 and will air weekly at 10:30 am (ET)/8:30 am (PT), and also air on the Discovery Kids Channel.
A 10-year-old city kid, Joe, receives a mysterious book from his eccentric magician uncle, which leads to great adventures, accompanied by his friends Sam and Fred. The Book emits a pale green mist that warps the kids back in time whether they want to go or not. The boys may duel with gladiators in ancient Rome, march in battle with the samurai in Shogunate Japan, meet Blackbeard the pirate on the open seas and even ride horseback into battle against the Tartars with a young Genghis Khan.
The boys are even accidentally warped into the future, where they meet their own great-granddaughters, Jodie, Samantha and Freddi, who live in the year 2105 and who also inherited The Book. As they travel through time, the boys and girls are constantly bumping into each other and sometimes help each other out. The kids must use their skills and smarts to outwit the bad guys and figure out how to warp back home.
Each episode is loaded with cool facts about real history, such as the word Thursday evolved from a Viking named Thor, as in Thors day; native Americans such as Sacagawea used bear grease in pre-hair mousse days to control the frizzies; and Mongolian nomads sniffed each other as a greeting rather than shaking hands.
TIME WARP TRIO has just the right mix of kid humor and cool facts, rooted in real history, that will appeal to kids and is in keeping with our mission to help kids explore the real world as only kids can, said Marjorie Kaplan, evp/gm for Discovery Kids. Each trip back in time is told through a kids perspective of history, which, we hope, will resonate with our viewers and perhaps even turn them into young history buffs!
Added Carol Greenwald, exec producer from WGBH, TIME WARP TRIO is unique because it combines history with action, adventure, humor and great stories which appeal to our key audience of 6- to 11-year-olds.
Greenwald is exec producer of TIME WARP TRIO for WGBH. Discovery Kids ex producers are Martha Ripp and Jim Rapsas and Kaplan is exec in charge of production. Major funding for TIME WARP TRIO is provided by a grant for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Saturday morning block on NBC and the Discovery Kids Channel (a 24-hour digital channel) offer entertaining, engaging, high-quality, real-world programming for kids. Building on Discovery Networks signature areas of science, adventure, exploration and natural history as well as a genre just for kids real-world narrative each Discovery Kids show gives kids another perspective of the world in which they live and the possibilities available to them.
WGBH is the producer of award-winning childrens series such as ARTHUR, BETWEEN THE LIONS, POSTCARDS FROM BUSTER and ZOOM, airing on PBS, and the Emmy-nominated PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD, airing on TLCs READY SET LEARN! and the Discovery Kids Channel. Under the leadership of vp Brigid Sullivan, the WGBH childrens lineup leads the field in educational multimedia (including the Web, broadband and interactive television) and in technologies and services that make media accessible for people with disabilities.
Soup2Nuts is an innovative Boston-based digital animation studio offering full, in-house production services from creating series, writing, music composing, recording, character design, through the entire animation process. Founded in 1994, the studio quickly established a reputation as a successful and award-winning creator and producer of animated comedy programming with its first hit, DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST on Comedy Central. Soup2Nuts has produced numerous series including HOME MOVIES for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, HEY MONIE for Oxygen Network and BET; SQUIGGLEVISION, on ABC and O'GRADY on Noggin's tween block, The N. Soup2Nuts is owned by Scholastic, the global childrens publishing and media company.
