Just the Right Senses of Humor and Propriety

The Toronto Star’s current series on Canadian culture offers a fascinating overview of kids’ TV shows that are produced in Canada.

They quote many industry experts, including Cookie Jar’s Michael Hirsh, the BBC’s Adrian Mills, and Caroline Fortier from The Alliance for Children and Television.

The Star correctly points out that Canadian kids’ programming has wide appeal around the world because it seems to have just the right sense of humor and just the right sense of propriety:

• We have a good sense of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
• Canadians have different values. We are a cross between the European and the American.
• Canadian kids’ shows score low on violence and very high on informal education, happy characters and scenes depicting social relationships, ecological behaviour and cultural activities.
• We have shared social and cultural values --a passion and deep-rooted respect for the audience.
• Canadian producers can bring an ‘American’ sensibility to a program — particularly in animation or live-action drama for older kids — but in a toned-down, safer kind of way which some consider more palatable than the undiluted product.

Children’s television in general, and animation in particular, is a real Canadian forte, and I feel privileged to work with several Canadian companies who bring great entertainment to kids around the world.

Check out the full article in The Star here.