I've been a bit philological for my last couple of posts, so I thought I'd break it up a bit by talking about Playschool.
I was watching an episode while eating breakfast a few weeks ago, and Justine was showing the viewers how the lights in the studio can change the look of the set...
And suddenly I realised just how simple the Playschool set-up really was. The whole thing is just a cyclorama with some flats representing trees (for outside) or a wall with a window (for inside). Beyond that, it's just a small handful of props and a few well-placed lights.
So, I was looking at this, thinking: "Good Lord, you could do this in your basement (if you had a basement)!" Heck, the entire musical accompaniment is just one piano!
And this is possibly the most popular and long-running show in Australian television history (apart from the news). It's one of the longest running children's shows in the world.
So, now I have this powerful urge to rip of the Playschool model (not the format, because that would be a copyright infringement) and make an incredibly cheap children's show in someone's backyard. Maybe I can convince JCU to let me use the Cowshed Theater, or something. It wouldn't take that much effort to convert it to a sound stage...
Oh, and if I make it bilingual, I can try to sell it to SBS. I reckon an English/Italian preschoolers' TV show with books, games, stories, songs and arts-and-crafts projects would go down a treat with the SBS crowd.
All I need is a catchy theme tune, some charismatic bilingual hosts and some helpful Italian mothers to provide the songs...
No comments:
Post a Comment