I pitched my last children's show presentation in the mid 1980's. The era of locally produced children's shows was over and the networks were not and are not interested in children's television.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The kids don't really have any part of my television life. Fortunately, there aren't many times when show business intrudes on our family existence.
I grew up on the golden age of children's TV.
I don't think I have ever done anything for this age of children before, a pre-school audience. Generally speaking, we don't have vivid memories of that age and what influenced us, yet clearly they are hugely formative years and it's really important that we can create television of a high quality for that audience.
I grew up in the '50s, in New York City, where television was born. There were 90 live shows every week, and they used a lot of kids. There were schools just for these kids. There was a whole world that doesn't exist anymore.
I started working in the mid-to-late Seventies, when television was not what it is now.
My two boys were the same ages as the kids in the show. In real life or in between the breaks I was raising two kids off camera who were not unlike the two kids who were being paid to be my kids.
Kids aren't growing up with a sense of television as the aspirational place for their ideas.
From the time I was 8 years old I was on almost every radio show there was.
Me personally, I wouldn't put my kids on television. But to each his own.
In the '80s, I was the only one who didn't watch the shows about teenagers. I had to go over to friends' houses to see them. I still don't have a TV!