ShareThisCreators of children's TV often cite the work of Fred Rogers on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" as an influence, but for Ford Riley, there was a more direct impact. Riley, the creator of Disney Channel's new "Special Agent Oso," grew up in Pittsburgh, the iconic figure's home base.
"My son was born a few months after Fred Rogers passed away, and growing up in Pittsburgh with Fred Rogers as a huge influence, it struck me that my son was not going to have this guy on TV when he's growing up," Riley said, noting that his TiVo in Glendale, Calif., catches "Neighborhood" reruns airing in Los Angeles only sporadically. "Since I was already writing for animation, albeit an older audience, it made me want to focus on writing for a younger audience."
Airing as part of the pre-school-targeted Playhouse Disney programming block, the daily "Special Agent Oso" follows the exploits of a bear named Oso ("bear" in Spanish), who's in training with U.N.I.Q.U.E. (United Network for Investigating Quite Usual Events), an organization of stuffed animals that helps kids with everyday tasks. Oso is voiced by Sean Astin ("Lord of the Rings").
In Saturday's premiere (8 a.m. EDT), Oso -- named after a teddy bear belonging to Riley's wife, Holly -- is in training on a snowy mountain when he gets an emergency call to help a little girl locate a lost letter and get it in the mail. Two 11-minute stories air as part of every 30-minute "Oso" episode.
Riley said he was watching a James Bond movie while working out when his son, Quinn, came in the room and immediately was transfixed.
"Bond was trying to defuse a bomb, but Quinn was only two-and-a-half and he couldn't watch it, but he got totally sucked into this thing even though I couldn't even tell him the title of the movie," Riley said of his viewing of "Octopussy." "But it struck me that there's a natural, instinctive attraction to these action sequences for little kids -- boys, especially -- and it would be great if I could take that adrenaline rush and channel it into an age-appropriate, educational show."
Riley studied playwrighting at New York University and he was inspired, particularly, by absurdist playwrights.
"You can't make a living as an absurdist playwright; however, there is a certain absurdity to animation," he said. "I found my writing just naturally gravitated toward animation and the license you have to do crazy things is more of an animation writing skill than perhaps a live-action skill."
He previously was a story editor on Cartoon Network's "Land Before Time" and worked on Disney's "Higglytown Heroes," "Teacher's Pet" and "Recess."
As Riley was developing "Oso" in 2005, his son, now 6, was diagnosed with autism. Part of Quinn's autism therapy was to break the most mundane tasks into smaller steps, which Riley uses in "Oso" as the bear walks through three simple steps for every task.
"If you have a child with autism, you might recognize that method of breaking things down," Riley said. "While certainly my son's therapy inspired the technique used, it's really focused on a broad audience of all kids ages 2-6."
(Contact TV editor Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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