Kathy Kinney

Playing the magical Mrs. P on the kid-friendly Web site, MrsP.com, Kinney is now directing her talents to help get children more interested in reading. With no advertisements and a safe connection, MrsP.com is fast gaining recognition by media and moms alike. TCC's Kimberly Helk spoke with Kinney about her new character and Web site.

KH: Congratulations on MrsP.com, I checked it out and it was a lot of fun.

KK: Oh thank you, yeah, I think it is, I'm really proud to be part of the whole project. It's beautiful, it's well-lit, it's really fun, it's whimsical, and it's free. You can't beat that, can you? It's free and children can't veer off and buy motorcycles or pornography, so I think it's pretty special.

KH: What sparked the idea for this?

KK: Well, it's interesting, after The Drew Carey Show ended, I actually did another show with Drew Carey, called "The Green Screen Project" (Green Screen Show), but then I was just resting on my laurels and they say, you know, in Hollywood, you're never supposed to say you're "retired" but that you're on a "grand sabbatical." So I was on a grand sabbatical and Clay Graham, who had been an executive producer and head writer on The Drew Carey Show, came to me a couple of summers ago and said, "Oh, you know, I want to do something about literacy and children on the Web, I want to call it Mrs. P, I want you to be Mrs. P, do you want to do it?" And I was like, "Yes!" So he said, "Don't you want to think about it?" And I go, "No." I mean because you get to a certain age and I really just want to work with people that I like, I want to be things that I like, that have some meaning in the world, so he and I and another woman, Dana Plautz, it was three partners, and we just started working on it and we spent all our own money on it and we wanted to keep it free of advertising and free for children and we wanted it to be a fun and safe place for them to come, and I think that's what we've accomplished.

KH: How are you able to handle having it be free?

KK: Well, I think it's one of those things that I think will kind of pay off for us in the end because we just want to create a product that, like I said, is entertaining, fun, educational. We want Mrs. P to be a good representative of someone who's a leader who says that reading is fun, reading is cool, you should do this. And Mrs. P's kind of wacky, but there's nobody really out there for children right now. She's kind of a Mary Poppins/Mr. Rogers/Captain Kangaroo-ish gal and that's what we wanted. We hope in the end to be able to sell some of the content and to have Mrs. P be a representative of reading, and reading is fun, and have kids know that, and have her have a seal of approval that, in the end, might help us generate income.

KH: After less than a year since the debut of MrsP.com, it's received a lot of recognition and praise. Were you nervous before the debut? Or were you fairly confident that you would have such a successful reception as you did?

KK: I don't think I even really thought about it. I mean, maybe Clay and Dana were, probably not, I mean we were just sort of. . . . I thought to myself, even now, I mean we've gotten massive amounts of recognition, the National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval, American Library Association's recognition of Mrs. P as a really great Web site for kids, you know we're affiliated with all kinds of amazing organizations like Listen Up Kids, and I perform all over, but the thing is that when I started it, I thought (and still do) that if nothing ever came of it, it's just been fun and I've been working with great people and having children as my audience was the scariest audience in the world! I've traveled around the world with Drew Carey doing shows for the USO in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and nothing to me has ever been as frightening as performing for children because they can tell if you're not real, or if you're lying, or if you're making something up. So it's the best kind of audience to have because they're so real. It's very enjoyable.

KH: How do you get yourself into the character of Mrs. P?

KK: That's funny, well, I don't have to work too hard at it. I mean I've always been lucky by being the actress who got to wear the vivid clothing and wigs and all different kinds of accessories, so when I get that on, I get the Mrs. P red wig and glasses on, her special dress on, and her orange lipstick, suddenly the accent locks into place and she's Mrs. P and she's ready to read to you. So it's just a natural progression for me.

KH: And you said Clay Graham is the one who came up with Mrs. P, the character?

KK: He did. He had a vision and we got together and we tried out different things. We tried out different accents and things but it was his idea. He really felt the need to have something available to children. The experience of being read to as a child for him was really very vivid and very delightful and he wanted to make sure that even if parents were too busy to provide that for their children that they would have a place to go and parents would know that they would be safe. So it was his idea to create Mrs. P and he kind of had an image with the marriage of her and the way she came together was ultimately a group effort for all of us.

KH: How are the books chosen that are recorded for the Web site?

KK: You know we're sticking with the classics: The Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, anything that's kind of out there and in the public and we remember from our childhood. We're just launching The Ugly Duckling on the site this month and Hansel and Gretel, and those are classic, classic classics.

KH: What's been your favorite story to do?

KK: You know, right now I am really enjoying reading Jack and the Beanstalk. I don't know what it is, it's just a really fun story to read. And also I am really blessed because, for each one of the stories, Clay, who is the writer, writes a little introduction to each story that's a story about Mrs. P. And she always tells a story about herself before she reads whichever children's story. So the Jack and the Beanstalk introduction is very funny, about a little boy named Timothy O'Hallahan whose grandfather they said was a leprechaun. And its intro just amuses me and he gives him the gift of a pair of magic socks that are going to make him the fastest boy in the world. And they do. And it's the story about what happens to this little boy and his magic socks. And so I tell that story about Mrs. P and I begin reading Jack and the Beanstalk and it's just fun. It's fun to do the voices, it's fun to think of that giant, that ogre going, "Fe-fi-fo-fum," you know, all those old things that I remember from when I was a kid. But it's hard. That's just my current favorite because honestly I like them all. I really do. Even the scary ones amuse me. I love our scary room. It's not too scary; just scary enough.

KH: Your character, Mrs. P, is such a far stretch from your other popular character, Mimi, from The Drew Carey Show. Which one do you enjoy doing more?

KK: That's a good question. You know, I loved them both and it's been a while; The Drew Carey Show ended about five years ago, although I did just do a one time only on The Price Is Right as Mimi with Drew Carey. And that was really fun, although I didn't even speak, but I was like a model, like a model wouldn't speak, I'd just show off a new car! You know that was really fun. I like them both very, very much. I'll always have a warm spot in my heart for Mimi. I think that when I got the job, I probably had a little bit of low self-esteem, but being Mimi certainly took that out of me and I became quite bold. And I think Mimi became quite human because of who I was. But I love Mrs. P; she's so charming and funny and knows everybody and has great hobbies and has taken wonderful trips. Like I said, it's just wonderful to have a whole different audience to play to. So, I don't know, maybe they are sisters underneath the wigs! Mimi and Mrs. P.