TVSquad

While my hard-working brother Joel has been bothering television hotshots with his sitcom idea on the Spanish Inquisition covering daily activities at the New York Television Festival, he has provided me with four pilots from the Educational category to review. As a father of young children it's interesting to see what is in the pipeline under this category because, frankly, you can only watch Jeff falling asleep on The Wiggles Show so many times. With the future education of my children in mind, I have requested the assistance of my nearly six-year-old daughter Samantha to provide a child's eye review of these pilots to go along with my gruff, skeptical adult opinions.

By the way, if you want to follow along you can watch all of these pilots over at MSN. That being said, let's jump ahead to the pilots.

Critical Hours

They say: This documentary-style show follows three New York City public schools in a tournament to build the ultimate robot . . . out of Legos. It focuses on the students who are participating in the competition as well as the teachers who are asking their pupils to work a little harder than normal to achieve their goals. The few critical hours that these kids work on this project helps to expand their minds to other aspects of their education other than studying for tests.

Samantha says: She liked this show, especially when they showed the robots made of Legos. She thought it was funny.

I say: The most slickly produced pilot of the entire group. If picked up for a series this episode could air almost immediately. I found the whole subject of the road to the Robotic Lego Championship very interesting. By the end I was actually rooting for one of the teams to win.

The only problem I had with this pilot was the editing. Like many other kid-based shows the scenes were very short and the camera was everywhere. I had a devil of a time getting a decent screen shot from the DVD because everything was moving so quickly.

Dave and Augie's Home Movies

They say: Sock puppets Dave and Augie, along with their human friend Hillary, travel to famous historical sites across the United States, providing information as they go along. In this episode the trio journeys to Sagamore Hill, the home of 26th president of the U.S. Theodore Roosevelt.

Samantha says: It reminded her of the Muppets.

I say: There were two puppet-based educational pilots, and this was the worse of the two. While the subject was somewhat interesting, the way they presented it was not entertaining, and even a bit confusing. Computer animation techniques were utilized way too much to provide a history of Teddy Roosevelt. Even for a kid it seemed like a bit too much.

I also thought that the whole production was poorly executed. The voices of Dave and Augie seemed distant and tinny, which distracted me from the subject of the show. It looked like something you would see on public access television. But, hey what do I know. A few years from now I could be buying tickets for Dave and Augie Live at the Wachovia Center. Oh, by the way, for anyone who watches this pilot on MSN, could you please tell me what on-ramp Hillary is driving onto to get to the New Jersey Turnpike. I don't recognize it and it's bothering the heck out of me!

Marti & Kim's Story of . . . [Abridged]

They say: Two self-proclaimed geeks (and cute ones at that), Marti and Kim, travel to historical sites around the United States (hmm, sounds familiar), using humor, role playing and interviews to tell the story of a particular person, place or thing. In this episode the two travelers journey to St. Augustine, Florida, to tell the tale of the oldest European town in America.

Samantha says: She didn't like it at first, but it grew on her towards the end.

I say: Actually, this wasn't really for the six and under crowd. This pilot, which would work well on The Travel Channel, was geared more towards an adult audience with some of their references. While not as slickly produced as Critical Hours (especially during the interview segments), Story of . . . was still very well done. The humor, the little historical scenes and an interview with an expert on the Florida city, reminded me of Alton Brown's Good Eats on the Food Network. On that show, Alton uses comedy, acting, and some interviews to talk about various food topics. Marti and Kim use the same concept here to discuss history. Oh, the girls really are cute, by the way.

What's Cooking With Waffles and Mousemeat

They say: Waffles the dog and Mousemeat the, er, mouse learn about healthy alternatives to, say, eating a jar full of cookies for breakfast (now, raise your hand if you never did that in your life. Not many hands, I see.). To further their food education the two puppets visit an organic farm in California, make pizzas out of english muffins, and talk to some band I've never heard of at a juice bar. Meanwhile, the spices talk to the dog and mouse, as well as to their human friend. Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, are you listening? I smell lawsuit!

Samantha says: Waffles and Mousemeat were puppets, so she liked it. Eh, she's nearly six-years-old, what does she know?

I say: First the good, then the bad. The good is that I liked the concept. Other than a few five or ten minute kids' cooking segments you would see in-between shows on Nickelodeon or Noggin there really isn't much out there to teach children how to eat healthy. The bad is that the production of the pilot distracted from that lesson. The color of Waffles fur was so brown that is was hard to see when he was talking. Mousemeat, and his (her?) human friend, sounded like they were talking from empty paper towel rolls on the other side of the room. Many of the scenes where very dark and hard to see.

Then there was the scene with the puppets talking to some band in a juice bar. Unless you're talking to Laurie Berkner or the members of Ralph's World (is that just Ralph?) this is something you shouldn't be including in the pilot. Maybe that whole scene was a favor to one of the production staff.