Owen-TV: PBS unveils 'The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That'

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - This fall children's television gets a new network -- The Hub, a joint collaboration between Discovery Networks and Hasbro toys, replaces Discovery Kids on Oct. 10 -- a refreshed, computer-animated "Thomas & Friends" on PBS and a new PBS Kids weekday series, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That," premiering Monday, Sept. 6.

For PBS, "The Cat in the Hat" represents the latest piece of a rebuilt kids' schedule that emphasizes curriculum for younger children.

"We all know that there are millions of children who will never see the inside of a pre-K classroom, but those kids have access to PBS, whether it's on air, online or on a mobile device," said PBS President Paula Kerger at a recent press conference. "We want to help them build the skills that they'll need to succeed in school and in life."

At the same time, the shows have to keep children entertained.

"It is not (enough) just to build programs that their parents are going to be happy they're watching, but also that kids want to watch," Kerger said.

In the 2009-10 TV season, weekday ratings for PBS Kids shows were up 19 percent among children ages 2-5 compared to a year earlier. Kerger said: "We've aligned ourselves with a lot of established literary properties like 'Cat in the Hat' and 'Curious George,' very strong character-driven projects, and we've looked to slowly move our schedule around so that the emphasis is really on these projects that have that curriculum basis to them."

For "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That," the objective is to teach preschoolers about science. Actor Martin Short gives voice to the Cat -- in rhyme, of course -- as he guides Sally and Nick (now neighbors, not siblings) on adventures where they learn about science, including how bees make honey and why owls sleep during the day. Other Dr. Seuss characters, including the Fish and Thing 1 and Thing 2, also appear.

Kate Klimo, executive director of development for Random House Children's Entertainment and publisher of Random House Children's Books, was Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel's editor and is also the production executive on the PBS program. She said that long after the 1957 publication of "Cat in the Hat," which was designed to entertain as well as to teach reading skills, Dr. Seuss became concerned about American children falling behind in the sciences.

He went to NASA and expressed interest in writing science-themed books for kids with their input. He died before that could happen and there was turnover in the ranks at NASA. Random House approached Geisel's widow about continuing to pursue science-themed "Cat in the Hat" books, which have been published along with the creation of the new PBS series.

As for the casting of Short, Klimo said he was the actor Audrey Geisel had hoped would play the Cat in the 2003 live-action movie (Mike Myers got the part).

"Martin really nailed the Cat," Klimo said. "He's the perfect combination of suave and mysterious, playful, wiseacre and downright loopy."

Of course, getting the Cat's rhyming dialogue to match Dr. Seuss' style is a challenge.

"Like any great icon of children's literature, Dr. Seuss is both a good example and gives rise to terrible imitators," Klimo said. "So a lot of people mimic his rhyming style without actually understanding that it's a kind of freewheeling thing, that it's not predictable, that it has a little bit of a surprise in it even though it contains a certain amount of information."

She said there was "rhyme-doctoring" work to be done and an effort to work with writers who understood Dr. Seuss' approach.

"We went with the writers whose gift for rhyme existed and wasn't forced. Forced rhyme leads to a sort of clubfooted rhyme, and, I think, you'll find that the rhymes in this show, it's not a constant thing. It's more like a refrain and they're pretty free and easy."

(Follow TV writer Rob Owen on Twitter or Facebook under RobOwenTV. E-mail owenr(at)shns.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

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