LITTLE ROCK — It has been more than 20 years since we had a preschooler in the house, but I still remember worrying about what he was watching on TV.
Would Ninja Turtles or Masters of the Universe cause him to act aggressively? Or more importantly, would Fraggle Rock make him only want to eat radishes and doozer sticks or talk to a trash heap?
Our child survived, but caring parents are always concerned about what their kids are watching. Nickelodeon feels your angst and that's why shows such as The Fresh Beat Band are on the air.
The new live-action series debuts at 11 a.m. Monday on Nick Jr.
with a target audience of 4- and 5-year-olds. That's the official demographic, but I think eventhose a couple of years older will enjoy it.
The Fresh Beat Band stars four best friends - Marina, Kiki, Twist and Shout - who attend music school together and love to sing and dance.
This being Nickelodeon, the four friends are also ethnically diverse so that most of the audience can identify with at least one of the characters.
They include a white girl with red hair, a tall goofy white guy, an energetic black guy and a perky Hispanic gal.
In fact, all four are perky. Way too perky for me, but for the target demographic, they have it all.
They're colorful, move around a lot and they're shiny.
Here's the Fresh Beat gang: Marina (Shayna Rose) is the band's drummer. She frequently whips out her drumsticks and plays a beat on anything.
Rose, a Denver native, is a TV veteran and spent a year on Days of our Lives. She has training in classical opera.
Kiki (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer) plays guitar and violin and is the best dancer in the band.
Gonzalez-Nacer is of Cuban heritage. She was born and raised in Miami and most recently played Rosa on Guiding Light. She also has an opera background.
Twist (Jon Beavers) is our tall lanky fellow with a gift for physical comedy. He raps and he's a beat boxer. He also plays jokes.
For the uninitiated, beat boxing is primarily using your mouth to produce rhythmic and other musical sounds.
Beavers is from Iowa and has done extensive theater work.
Shout (Thomas Hobson) plays keyboards and is usually the one most excited about each bandproject.
Hobson is from Los Angeles and has acted since he was 6. He went to Yale.
Each episode will feature four chirpy songs, lots of kinetic choreography and witty storylines that demonstrate positive social behavior.
Musically, the goal is to introduce kids to the fundamentals of music such as melody, rhythm, tempo and performance styles.
In each episode, preschoolers will sing and dance along as they help the band solve everyday challenges. While they're being entertained, the kids also learn the importance of friendship, working together and respecting one another's differences.
Each challenge will always be one with which preschoolers can identify. When that episode's problem rears its ugly head, the band will sing a song about how
to solve it.
After the problem is solved
we'll have the big number with
the solution incorporated into
the lyrics.
Finally, each of the 20 epi
sodes will end with the gang
singing their signature song,
"Great Day." In Monday's premiere episode,
"Stick Together," Kiki, Marina,
Twist and Shout are planning a
surprise birthday party for their
music teacher, Ms. Piccolo.
At first, the gang decides to
work on the new wallpaper sep
arately. We all know how that
turns out, don't we, boys and
girls? So they decide to work ...
together! Yea.
There will be two back-to
back episodes at 11 a.m. Monday,
followed by new episodes for the
next two weeks (encores air on
Fridays).
TV Week, Pages 81 on 08/23/2009