Daniel Tiger Visits The Texas Tech Neighborhood

“I remember being a kid, running into the kitchen, and asking my Mom for ‘agua,’ and she had no idea what I was talking about,” Rachel Kalban said with a laugh. “Knowing something that my parents didn’t was pretty neat. That is the first time I remember learning something from a TV show.”

On Tuesday, Kalban, research director for Out of the Blue Enterprise, visited the College of Media and Communication to discuss television that teaches. While working on PBS’s “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” Kalban has seen why research is crucial in children’s television.

Rachel Kalban presenting in the College of Media and Communication on March 11.

Rachel Kalban presenting in the College of Media and Communication on March 11.

Kalban has worked on shows such as Nickelodean’s “Blue’s Clues” and PBS’s “Super Why!” Her primary job is to go through an episode with children and range their reactions to the show. The rise of interactive television, having the characters directly engage the viewer with questions, is a product of this kind of research.

Kalban said the idea for “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” came from “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.” After Fred Rogers passed away in 2003, the Fred Rogers Company wanted to continue his legacy. “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” is a spin-off of sorts, that brings the Neighborhood of Make Believe from the original show back to life. The animated program follows Daniel Tiger, the son of the original puppet Daniel Tiger. Other characters are reincarnated as well, with an updated look.

One of the first slides of Kalban’s presentation included a video of Rogers discussing why PBS deserves funding in 1969. The powerful video induced emotions in most attendants of the discussion. Kalban said the speech is very inspiring, and proves why the Public Broadcasting Service is crucial for child development.

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” focuses on a sociological – emotional curriculum. Kalban said narrowing down what the show would cover was one of the most difficult parts of production.

“What were we going to teach? We had to come up with a whole slew of things. Including self regulation, self confidence, patience, persistence, feelings, and each of these really do branch off to smaller categories and moments,” Kalban said.

“What were we going to teach?”

Kalban explained producing the show aimed towards 2- to 5-year-olds is a lengthy process, taking up to a year for a single episode. The procedure begins with storyboarding and concept, moves on to initial script writing and drawing, and then enters a research phase. This is where Kalban’s position comes in.

“We do what we call formative research,” Kalban said. “We conduct research in pre-schools, head starts, day care centers, anywhere where the kids are. We test half high income schools, half low income schools, so we’re making sure we get the gamut of kids. We create a protocol where we ask the pre-schoolers a ton of questions about what they’re doing.”

Kalban next showed video of herself reading to three young children. She was reading a copy of the script, while showing corresponding pictures to the children. Pausing routinely to ask the children questions about the story, the children seemed very interested and interacted well.

The next phase of production builds off this research. The script goes back to the writers to clear up anything that was questioned by the children. The next phase of research is a rough draft of the final product. Again, they take the episode to children to watch and gage their feedback. The example videos shown during the presentation showed children very excited and engaged in what they were watching.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience working for the show.”

Kalban said this form of production has been proven to be the most beneficial for children, and produces the best final product. She said working on the show has been very rewarding.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience working for the show,” Kalban said. “It’s become one of the No. 1 television shows on TV, and it’s in the top 10. And that’s all great, but for me, I like hearing from parents. Hearing the parents are using this in their homes is why we do it.”

About Sarah Self-Walbrick

Graduate Executive Director — Mass Communication Graduate Student, Class of 2017
Sarah, a Lubbock native, has two bachelor of art degrees in electronic media and communication and journalism, and is pursuing a master's in mass communications. She loves Texas, her husband and dog, and good storytelling.