Buzzco created a brand new series of segments for Between the Lions called Polly and the Pirate. Polly and the Pirate is an on-going adventure series whose primary mission is to teach locative words (over, under, next to, around, etc.) Each adventure takes place on a different Caribbean island with a show-specific treasure they're hunting for: On a tropical island they're searching for a turbo-charged skateboard; on a crater filled landscape they look for a telescope; on an island with bushes shaped like musical instruments they're looking for a set of musical instruments; on an island resembling Ireland, they're searching for a pot of gold and finally on a desert island they're looking for a toy helicopter. The parrot reads the instructions and the treasure-hunting pirate, despite missteps and mistakes, valiantly follows them.
After starting with the storybooks, the folks at Between the Lions asked us to come up with ideas for teaching directional words. We came up with Polly and the Pirate.
Working with head writers Norman Stiles and Christopher Cerf, I honed the idea to write the 6 episodes. It was Chris who came up with the idea that the Pirate and her parrot were both named Polly and then Chris created a catchy theme song.
They encouraged silliness and creating this series was a blast! And Vinny, Rick and Bryon went over the top in the animation.
I was delighted to learn that Between the Lions was nominated for a daytime Emmy. When the ceremony was announced to take place at the new Rose Jazz Center in New York City, I was invited to join the WGBH gang for the evening. There was no expectation that they (we) would win, but when they announced the winner– I got an Emmy!!!
2016 Daytime Emmy
Theme Song by: Christopher Cerf
Voices: Peter Linz and Heather Asch
Written by: Candy Kugel
Designed by: Bryon Moore
Animated by: Vincent Cafarelli
Assistant: Rick Broas
Directed by: Candy Kugel and Vincent Cafarelli
Produced by: Marilyn Kraemer
