Blue’s Clues, debuted in 1996 on Nickelodeon, and combined concepts from both child development and early-childhood education, mixing them with innovative animation and production techniques that helped viewers learn. Along with director Todd Kessler, animator Traci Page Johnson, producer and co-creator Angela Santomero took non-traditional ideas and approached child program development to a different level, achieving something different, innovative, and set the bar very high for everything after.
While earning her master’s degree in childhood development and psychology at Columbia University, Santomero studied the effects of television violence on children. She realized that with the negative effects television influenced, that there must be a way to invoke an equal amount of positive effects on young viewers from television as well.
With an impressive resume including the Mister Rodger’s Neighborhood influenced Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and megahit Super Why, Santomero is now developing shows exclusively for Amazon Prime members. The first of these shows is Creative Galaxy, which follows character Arty and sidekick Epiphany through their galaxy solving problems through art, music, and dance. We had a chance to speak with Santomero and go in more detail of the new show, working with Amazon Prime, and her website angelasclues.com.
TheCelebrityCafe: How were you approached to develop a show for Amazon Prime?
Angela Santomero: It really came from the show itself, in a sense that we wanted to create a creativity curriculum and creative problem solving and bring the arts back to kids, which I’m definitely a big proponent of. The idea to create something that was signature for Amazon was really exciting for me because they are doing things so different from what everyone else is doing. It was a perfect for them.
TCC: Did having the show not specifically made for TV give you creative freedom, or did you approach it differently?
Santomero: We weren’t constrained by the length of time of the show, so we were able to include live-action footage of real kids actually being inspired to make things from every episode of the show, and the total running time of the show was a little longer than I normally would have been able to do, which was great. Tara Sorenson, the head of Amazon Kids is an amazing innovator and visionary, and she was involved in the process the whole way through.
TCC: How do you think technology has benefitted this new generation?
Santomero: For me I love the idea, and I come from a pre-school world, that kids can get what they want when they want it, and with that, we can choose really great content for them. With six episodes available instead of just one, you can literally go to the episode that would interest your child the most. For example, one episode concentrates on Pointillism, creating art with little dots, so if you see your kids are doing something similar, you can pull that up instantly, show them and they can be inspired to keep going. For me it’s been all about true interactivity, and also choice, being able to have the content when you want it, which for little kids is the biggest and most positive change.
TCC: For Creative Galaxy you have great talent doing the voices with Jason Priestley and Cloris Leachman…
Santomero: Yes, it was great to have Amazon as a partner, they pretty much just asked, “Who do you want on the show?” We gave them a list and then boom, there you go. Having Cloris Leachman on the museum planet brings a beautiful texture to the show. Samantha Bee and Jason Jones from The Daily Show play the Mom and Dad, and are Mom and Dad together in real life too. Brooke Shields, a fellow Jersey girl (laughs), who plays Seraphina from the Sculpture Planet, and she is so fun and funny. And then Jason Priestley, of course, plays Sketch, who is our coolest character. All of our voice talent is fantastic. There are so many different characters, and for the parent, it’s great to be able to bring that sort of creativity to life to the child.
TCC: We are all familiar with how Blue’s Clues and Super Why bring in kids with interactivity, how does Creative Galaxy spark kids imagination?
Santomero: Arty, who is our main little alien character, and he lives in the Creative galaxy, and has a sidekick named Epiphany, who can shape anything into a million different things. He carries an “idea box” with him where he collects stuff. At the beginning of every episode he opens it up and will make things, like a whistle out of paper. Then there’s a problem that happens along the way, like his sister Baby Georgia is crying, and he tries to figure out a way to help her stop. He’s motivated by art, so he goes to the Fabric Planet; all the planets are made out of different art mediums, so there’s Fabric Planet, and a Sculpture Planet, a Drawing Planet, and a Painting Planet, and they each have their own song, and all these kinds of things. So Arty goes and creates a “stuffy”, and brings it back to Baby Georgia and solves the problem. Then we see real kids, going through how you can makes these things in real life as well.
TCC: Another kids program you are working on is Wishenpoof…
Santomero: This one I am so excited about! It’s all about kid empowerment, another cirriculum, another area I’m really excited about. All about the mind and the making is the foundation of the cirriculum, so we’re teaching kids how to help and how to solve different problems. For instance, if there’s a “bully”, or someone who’s just not treating you well, and you need to use your words, or say something to stand up to your friend. It’s all about Bianca who is a little girl that finds out one day that she has wish magic, and can make all her wishes come true. So through her imagination she can actually be under the sea, or in outer space, but she can also be there to help her friends. Sometimes, because she’s just in “training”, things misfire, and there’s a huge comedic element to the show as well. So much fun playing in my Amazon world, I have to tell you (laughs).
TCC: How did angelasclues.comcome about?
Santomero: I’m constantly asked to speak or asked to come and answer a million questions about Blue’s Clues, or whatever, and it literally came from looking at my own world, and trying to figure things out, and to be available to things people are writing to me about. That’s really where the blog really started from. One of the first questions I received was “do you sing the mail-song when the mail comes?” I wish my life was like one of my animated episodes (laughs). Angelasclues has really been about questions that people ask me and when I can I sit down and write people back. But I love being available, because I can’t tell you how many ideas I get from the parents, and from the kids.
Creative Galaxy is available on Amazon Prime now, with six full episodes ready to stream.