TV host snags early start in industry
Daniel Cook is a star — just ask any four-year-old. Daniel Cook is the star of his own TV show, simply called This Is Daniel Cook. The premise isn't hard to divine from the title — Daniel, being himself, while doing all of the things most grade-schoolers would love to try: feeding zoo animals, making ice cream, flying a plane and conducting an orchestra, among the hundred-plus things Daniel has done for the cameras.
If you've never heard of Daniel, it's probably because you don't have a reason to be watching Treehouse, the preschooler cable channel, or TVO during one of their kid-friendly morning programming blocks. If you have, it's because you probably live with someone between the ages of 2 and 10 who made This Is Daniel Cook a hit in its first season.
The six-minute shows air throughout the week, but Treehouse also airs a half-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays.
Daniel is an apparently fearless red-haired boy who approaches each task with revving enthusiasm, alternating occasionally with distracted moments typical of his age — a quality that his audience obviously identifies with. Two years ago, he was a six-year-old being courted by a talent agency for commercial work when he met J.J. Johnson, a Ryerson student working at the agency. Daniel tells the story simply:
"My dad had a friend at work who knew the person I work for right now and he thought I'd be great to be on TV, and he said 'Why don't you go meet him?' That's what we did, and that's how I got into the TV business. And the director of my show saw me and said, 'Hey, he's pretty good, let's put him on a show.' And that's how I got on this show."
Johnson recalls talking to Daniel about Transformers, and jotted down a few short notes that would become This Is Daniel Cook. Johnson and two of his friends, Matt Bishop and Blair Powers, started Sinking Ship Productions when they graduated, shot the first episode (Daniel making chocolate truffles) over a weekend, and went back to their jobs on Monday. This year, they were nominated for three Geminis, and This Is Daniel Cook began airing on Playhouse Disney in the U.S. For his part, the highlights of Daniel's year have included taking the controls of an airplane and a helicopter, but he's quick to tell you about his favorite show of all.
"Digging for dinosaurs. Well, we did find a few dinosaur bones, and I got to work with a paleontologist who dug up my favorite dinosaur in the dinosaur era — Giganotosaurus, the biggest meat eater ever."
He's says he's learned a lot in the past two years.
"I've learned about some interesting plants — I learned that milkweed's been around as long as the dinosaurs. And I learned a lot about duckies and tigers — I got to pet a tiger."
Was he afraid? "No! I also saw elephants. And a whole bunch of farm animals — I got attacked by a whole bunch of chickens! I did."
Does he have any advice for anyone entering the TV business?
"It takes a long time to make a short TV show. It takes a long time to make any TV show, actually, even if it's five minutes long, it takes an hour to film. I get a bit tired when we do the second part of filming — I start to fall asleep."
TV for kids comes of age
If you have kids, you know this already. If you don't have kids but are planning to, you will know soon enough. And if you have grandchildren, you are most certainly a champion hummer of theme songs from shows such as Blue's Clues, The Big Comfy Couch and Max & Ruby.
Which means you also find yourself, at the oddest times, singing that lilting little ditty, "You're watching Treehouse . . . ."
Like me, you may be from a time when your own (now adult) children spent much of their television face time with the likes of Bert and Ernie, their sponge-worthy little minds largely at the mercy of the venerable Children's Television Workshop, and maybe even a rather dull Mr. Rogers.
(And, please, let's not even pretend that we didn't count on television to help us raise our kids -- who among us hasn't parked a child in front of the tube for an hour or so, thus raising a generation that learned a big chunk of their manners, social mores and cultural references from the dysfunctional personae that are Oscar the Grouch, and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.)
So, what a surprise, all these years later, to discover -- with the help of a young granddaughter, in my case -- that children's television has grown up.
The evidence is right there on Treehouse TV, best described as Sesame Street on steroids, a 24-hour channel devoted not only to entertaining your baby, but to educating and socializing the little sprog as well.
Treehouse, which debuted in 1997 and airs on Channel 56, bills itself as "worry-free" television for pre-schoolers -- that is, kids six and under -- and is owned by the Canadian-based Corus Entertainment conglomerate, which also owns YTV and Discovery Kids Canada.
Treehouse claims to have five million Canadian viewers and says its unique mandate (there is no round-the-clock U.S. television show just for pre-schoolers) is to provide entertainment that addresses the developmental and social needs of its demographic, and thus its mix of puppets, live action and cartoon characters delivers a lineup that includes Dora the Explorer, Berenstain Bears, Ants In Your Pants, Dragon, Thomas the Tank, Bob the Builder and 4 Square.
Treehouse also takes its shows, live-action versions, on the road -- in case you hadn't noticed the crowds at her recent Vancouver appearance, Dora is a kindergartener's rock star.
And then there is This is Daniel Cook, a show about an inquisitive red-headed boy who, in many ways, is what makes Treehouse and children's programming these days so different.
And so much better.
Because Daniel Cook isn't a puppet, and he isn't a cartoon.
He's a real boy, a freckled dynamo from Ontario who possesses all the requisite inquisitiveness of your average eight-year-old.
In This is Daniel Cook, he takes on the everyday fun stuff that most kids would love to do, but maybe can't or won't.
The little host has explored beehives, made chocolate, ice skated with the champions, tried yoga, visited a fire house and picked up a pen with award-winning writers.
Season 2 of This is Daniel Cook premiers next Monday, with 65-plus new six-minute episodes airing daily Monday through Friday in various time slots.
Among Daniel's new adventures will be dog sledding, whale watching and writing a song with one of the Barenaked Ladies.
As with all things Treehouse, there is an online component, where kids can interact with Daniel in his backyard playhouse.
What makes This is Daniel Cook progressive, and worth noting -- and it's a theme found in most children's programming these days -- is that he acts his age.
Visiting with Toronto Mayor David Miller in the show's first season, Daniel was moved to ask: "David, why can't kids have dessert before dinner?"
He's neither a smart-mouth Muppet nor a condescending adult with a teaching certificate spelling out the ABCs for a captive broadcast audience.
Daniel doesn't sit on the sidelines and listen to other people tell him how to do things. He asks questions and does stuff himself, unscripted.
You know, just like a real kid.
Good to know that children's television has finally come of age.
Eight is Enough
At the 20th annual Gemini awards in Toronto this weekend, the country’s television executives will no doubt confer on how to capture younger audiences.
They may want to ask Daniel Cook, a spunky eight-year-old whose show, This is Daniel Cook, is up for three of the awards.
Airing on Treehouse and TVO, and now Playhouse Disney in the US, the show is up for best pre-school program and best direction and performance in a children’s series. It follows Cook as he learns about different jobs- for example, how to make truffles, construct a sidewalk, fly a plane or break a board in two with a Tae Kwon Do chop. All the cameras are close to the ground, keeping everything from Daniel’s perspective.
Created, written and directed by Sinking Ship Productions’ J.J. Johnson, a 25-year-old graduate of Ryerson University’s Radio and Television Arts program, the show has a remarkably catchy theme song- which is nice and short- and because Daniel is simply acting himself, the series has an honest feel, making it substantially easier on the adult brain, than, say, Teletubbies or Barney and Friends.
“I was thinking what I would like a kids’ show to be,” Johnson says, “and I was always afraid of puppets and couldn’t afford animation, so I thought of just having this one kid host it. I was sure that in the industry of preschool television there must be a show hosted by a pre-schooler, but no one had really picked up on that simplicity.
“We scrambled together a pilot, sent it out, and TVO called the next day. They said, ‘We love this idea- who are you?’”
In an interview with Daniel after school, he reveals he’s aware of what a Gemini Award is, and says quietly, “I’m very excited- I never thought I’d get nominated for one.”
When asked what it’s like having his own TV show, he seems to have prepared a rather grown-up answer.
“It’s really fun having my own show ‘cause I get to meet a whole bunch of people,” he says, “and go to a whole bunch of places, and I really like the people who help me do the show ‘case they’re really nice.”
Yet after this soundbite, Daniel responds like most kids his age- that is, in one-word replies that almost always consist of either “Yeah”; “Not really”; “Probably”; or “Both.” He’s definitely not your typical publicist-moulded child star, but he’s not meant to be.
A lot of the humour in This is Daniel Cook comes from Daniel’s physical reactions to things. For example, when he learns to make truffles, his hands get covered in dripping chocolate, and when he goes to shake the pot of nuts, he stops for a second, looks at his hands, seems to be contemplating rinsing them off, but then just proceeds to just lick them at a remarkably rapid pace. It’s a most natural and endearing reaction that both kids and adults will see humour in.
“What’s great is, with Daniel,” says Johnson, “there are no formalities. He doesn’t even realize that the people he talks to on the show are often celebrities, so he’ll call them by their first names. In one episode, he called the (Toronto) mayor ‘David’ and asked him why kids can’t vote, and why he can’t make a law that we eat dessert before dinner.”
Johnson, who first met Daniel when he was just 5 and enjoyed a lively conversation about Transformers and Optimus Prime with him, says it was important that Daniel not be a professional actor, but a real kid.
For the show to work, Daniel has to have enough control to guide the show and do things in which he’s genuinely interested.
“We really didn’t come in with any preconceived ideas,” Johnson says. “The reason it doesn’t feel staged is because it’s not. In post-production, we’ll see that he answers some things wrong or he stumbles a bit, but that’s fine. We don’t want to be too clean, we want to say, ‘It’s okay for your poem to be silly, and your art doesn’t have to look exacltly like what Mr. Dressup draws.’”
Daniel is certainly the model of acceptance. In fact, he probably won’t be too bothered if he doesn’t win a Gemini- after all, at the beginning of the show, he wanted to be a paleontologist, and he’ll still want to be one when the show ends. It won’t matter whether there’s a statuette on his shelf or not.
For Johnson’s part, he says he hasn’t even thought about acceptance speeches or what he’ll wear on the red carpet yet.
“Honestly, just having a show is comfort enough,” he says. It would be great if Daniel won because he deserves it, but, for me, it’s not just an honour to be nominated, it’s shocking to be nominated.”
Everybody loves Daniel
It's 8 a.m. on a Monday and Daniel Cook, the star of one of Canada's most popular kids' shows, This is Daniel Cook, has just finished breakfast, a bowl of Lucky Charms.
Before school started this year, Cook taped 65 more episodes of the show, which airs not only on virtually every kids' channel in Canada, but, since being bought by Disney this year, five days a week across the U.S. (The new season starts in December.)
The first DVD of This is Daniel Cook, which premiered in 2004, will be released in November and the BBC recently followed him around for a week for a profile.
Cook, who lives just outside Toronto, began his television career at the age of six. He is now eight (though his agent tells me he's calling himself seven -- apparently, it's never too early in this business to start lying about your age). He has become so famous his family can no longer walk into a McDonald's. "We have to go through the drive-through," says his mother, Deborah. "Too many people want to talk to him. We've even been approached by 20-year-olds who know who he is. I'm not sure what they're doing watching a kids' show."
Cook, I've been warned before our interview, has been "media trained." "Hello Rebecca," he says, politely, when his mother passes the phone to him. After three minutes of answering such questions as, "Do you like school?" and "Do you have a best friend?" he moans, "Oh my ears!" He's bored talking to me. This is the beauty of Daniel Cook. He says whatever enters his mind. When he met the mayor of Toronto, he asked David Miller why kids aren't allowed to vote -- or have dessert before dinner.
In each episode of his show (they have titles like "This is Daniel Cook feeding animals" or "This is Daniel Cook learning to train a puppy"), Cook learns from professional guests -- everyone from chocolate makers to world champion figure skaters. "My favourite show was flying the plane, and my other favourite show was getting to go to Disneyland," he says. From a child's perspective, the show is a hit because Cook gets to do everything a child dreams of doing. From an adult perspective -- and for the university students who watch children's TV for kicks -- the appeal is getting to watch unscripted television. If Daniel Cook is bored filming, for instance, he doesn't hide it.
Then there's the dinosaur thing. More often than not, he'll bring up his love for dinosaurs even if he's making pizza with a professional pizza maker. "I want to be a paleontologist when I grow up," he says, "because I really, really, really, really like dinosaurs." .
Cook was "discovered" at the age of five, when his mother took him to meet a talent agent, a friend of the family who had told the Cooks he saw something in Daniel. While his mother was signing documents, Cook was left talking to receptionist J.J. Johnson, then a 22-year-old graduate of Ryerson University who had already started Sinking Ship Productions with Blair Powers, which, along with Marble Media, produces This Is Daniel Cook. "They just got along so well," says Deborah Cook of Johnson. "They were talking about TransFormers and having the best time. So J.J. created the show around Daniel. We thought maybe Daniel would make a commercial or two and make a bit of money. We never thought it would go this far."
Deborah Cook knew she had what she describes as a "smarty-pants" early on. "Once he was bickering with his younger brother, Spencer, and I said, 'Stop aggravating your brother, Daniel, and he responded, 'He activated me first.' He just says such astounding things," Deborah says. The stay-at-home mother and her husband, Murray, who works at an advertising company, have no idea where their son's ability comes from. "He's never intimidated," she says. Still, despite Daniel's success, they don't want their five-year-old, Spencer, to go into the business. "We don't want that sibling rivalry. Spencer is a really good skier so I think we'll concentrate on that for him."
At home Daniel acts, and is treated like, any other eight-year-old. He likes video games and his favourite chore is washing the car. "Oh my gosh, he is such a normal kid," says his mother. "But because he's so exuberant, he can sometimes get a little crazy. He does get punished and does get time outs, probably more than the average kid."
Right now it's time for Daniel to get off the phone. The TV host has to go to school. "Yeah, too bad for me," he says.
"Here We Are!" Daniel Cook off to Gemini's
After a highly successful 2005, the producers of This is Daniel Cook will cap it off on the red carpet at this years Gemini Awards Industry night on Friday November 18th.
The hit preschool series in is contention for the award for Best Preschool Series, while J.J. Johnson is nominated for Best Direction in a Children's Youth Program or Series, and Daniel Cook is up for Best Performance in a Children's Youth Program or Series.
The series and companion website were lauded as Best Program, ages 3-5, Best Website, and Best in Show at this year's Alliance for Children and Television Awards, and the website is nominated for the prestigious NHK Japan Prize in the Web Division.
This is the program's first year of eligibility for the Gemini competition. This is Daniel Cook will be joined at the Gemini Awards by marble's deafplanet.com, The First Television Series and Website in American Sign Language, which is nominated for Best Interactive as well as Canada's Most Popular Website.
This is Daniel Cook is a live action preschool series that follows its host, six-year-old Daniel Cook, as he discovers the world from his perspective. Daniel explores, learns and creates with everyone from firefighters to dog trainers. This is Daniel Cook airs seven days a week on Treehouse TV and TVOkids, and Monday to Friday on the Disney Channel in the US. The second season of the show will premiere on Treehouse TV this December. www.thisisdanielcook.com, the This is Daniel Cook website, encourages children to explore, learn and create- just the way they see Daniel do on television.
The upcoming release of the DVD's for season one, which are eagerly anticipated by Daniel's many fans, will see sales in stores and on the website as of November 1st.
Daniel Cook wins big at ACT Awards
The team behind This Is Daniel Cook carried the night at this year's Alliance for Children and Television's Awards of Excellence, winning the Grand Prize for best program, all categories; best program in the all-genres, ages 3-5 division; and best website.
Daniel Cook is produced by marblemedia and Sinking Ship Produtions. Marblemedia producers Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg also scored the Emerging Talent Award for their work on the live-action children's show that follows its six-year-old redheaded host on a multitude of exciting trips and events.
The ACT Awards, recognizing quality children's television, were held June 1 at CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.
Still flying high after its recent win at the Daytime Emmys for outstanding children's animated program, Peep and the Big Wide World, produced by 9 Story Entertainment, won in the animation, ages 3-5 division. The half-hour holiday special Noël Noël (National Film Board/Teletoon) won in the animation, ages 6-8 category, while the sci-fi series Delta State (Nelvana/Teletoon) won for animation, ages 9-14.
The Special Jury Award went to Delta State's design team for their original visual designs and approach to animated images.
The Blobheads (Decode Entertainment/Wark Clements Production/ CBC), a series about 14-year-old Billy Barnes, who must learn to coexist with the two aliens he found in his toilet bowl, won in the all-genres, ages 6-8 division.
Radio Free Roscoe (Decode/Family Channel) and My Brand New Life (NFB/Les Productions La Fête/YTV) shared the award in the all-genres, ages 9-12 division. CTV's Instant Star (Epitome Pctures/CTV) and Street Cents (CBC) shared the honors in the all-genres, teen category. Doodlez (Cellar Door Productions/Teletoon) won the all-genres, all-ages division.
The Outstanding Achievement Award went to J. Kevin Wright, senior VP of Astral Television Networks, for his role in youth programming. Wright oversees the acquisition, commissioning and scheduling of programming for Family Channel, Mpix and The Movie Network.
The Mouse plays with Canada's marble
Canadian indie marblemedia's live-action preschool series, This is Daniel Cook, has been picked up by Disney Channel US for its Breakfast With Bear block, running Monday to Friday.
The deal for pick-up of 65 six-minute episodes was finalized here at the Banff World Television Festival, negotiated on marble's behalf by Picture Box Distribution.
Scott Garner, Disney's vp of programme planning and scheduling spoke about what attracted him to the project: "(Daniel's) genuine enthusiasm and inquisitive nature will help fulfill our brand promise to help our preschool viewers imagine and learn," he said.
The show was coproduced with fellow Canuck indie Sinking Ship Productions. It currently airs on Canadian preschool network Treehouse TV, along with TVO, Knowledge Network, Access Alberta and SCN, and has been okayed for a second season.
"Part of Daniel's charm and the series' success comes from the fact that each episode is driven by his real-life curiosity," said marblemedia's Rita Carbone Fleury, describing the show which features an inquisitive seven-year-old learning, exploring, and creating as he visits with all types of people, such as chocolate makers, artists and zoo keepers.
This Disney deal follows the multi-platform preschool series picking up awards for best programme, all genres aged 3-5, best website and the grand prize for best programme overall at last week's Alliance for Children & Television Awards in Toronto.
marblemedia has received additional funding through Canada's new media Bell Fund, which is fueling expansion of the show's website.
Publishing and DVD deals are also reportedly in the works.
The Toronto-based indie is currently in development on several kids and youth-oriented projects, including multi-platform series Project: Adrenaline and The Flash Mob.
Bravo for Larry Weinstein's quick-hit
The camera pans over a bed, the satin sheets bathed in the soft morning light. The beautiful Constance wakes gently from her slumber. The music that swells around her has a sinister quality; something feels not quite right. The camera moves to a shelf holding pictures of a couple in happy times. This domestic idyll is shattered by a cry from down the hall. Constance's husband Trevor has discovered a crime so serious that its details must be sung, not spoken. "Toothpaste!" he bellows in a rich baritone. "You've left the cap off the toothpaste!"
Thus begins Toothpaste, a six-minute "domestic opera" directed by Larry Weinstein, composed by Alexina Louie, written by Dan Redican and performed by Barbara Hannigan and Mark McKinney. A celebrated soprano, Hannigan supplies her own voice while McKinney's baritone is delivered by Doug MacNaughton. And in the interest of accuracy, I should also mention that Trevor's first line in the libretto is "You've left the cap off the fucking toothpaste," though Weinstein attempted to cover up the profanity with a sight gag. "We tried to make the toothpaste look like a Vietnamese brand," he explains. "It's actually called Phu King. I wanted to make it uncensorable."
He laughs, "It didn't work."
F-word issues notwithstanding, Toothpaste has enjoyed an extraordinary career since making its debut on Bravo! four years ago, screening on channels all over the world and even appearing in a film series at the Louvre. Original in form and sweetly deranged in content, Toothpaste is the sort of film that probably shouldn't exist. One major reason that it does is Bravo!FACT. For the last decade, the arts channel's broad-minded funding program has enabled the creation of audacious shorts that draw on disciplines as diverse as dance, poetry, fine art, animation and, in the case of Toothpaste, opera. Weinstein's short and its equally amusing sequel I Am Sooo Over You -- the first in an upcoming hour-long domestic-opera package called Burnt Toast -- screen as part of the Worldwide Short Film Festival's Bravo!FACT retrospective.
"Toothpaste wouldn't have happened without Bravo!FACT," says Weinstein. Nor would Jesse Rosensweet's prize-winning animated short The Stone of Folly, dance films directed by Veronica Tennant or At the Quinte Hotel, the Al Purdy tribute that marked Gord Downie's acting debut. All were funded by the program, which was originally proposed when CHUM, trying to stave off a competing arts-channel bid by the CBC, promised to award 5 per cent of Bravo!'s annual gross revenue to independent productions. Says Bravo!FACT executive director Judy Gladstone, "That 5 per cent has grown from $500,000 to well over $2 million in the new year."
Gladstone explains that the program was an effort to adapt MuchMusic's VideoFACT model to something other than pop videos. "The idea was to give artists in different genres and disciplines the opportunity to have the exposure that musical artists get through music videos," says Gladstone. The shorts air in a weekly half-hour program and during gaps in Bravo!'s schedule.
Despite the productions' strict time limits (no more than six minutes) and modest budgets ($25,000 max, though Bravo!FACT encourages the participation of other funding bodies), the program has yielded an amazing bounty of adventurous new work by first-timers and veterans alike. Weinstein and his partners at Rhombus Media were awarded a grant for Toothpaste in the early days of the program but didn't get around to making it until some years later. Bravo!FACT was the only one willing to back it.
For Weinstein, Toothpaste was an opportunity to take a break from his more serious-minded music docs like Ravel's Brain. "I was really attracted to the idea of doing something comic," he says. "Plus, it's a dramatic piece and I'm a documentary filmmaker. Our composer, Alexina Louie, is a serious orchestral composer who's very widely performed, but she'd never done comedy before. And here's Dan Redican, who's a great comic and a great comic writer but he'd certainly never worked in opera. We were all pushing the boundaries of what we normally do just with this little piece."
"The idea sounded Kids in the Hall-ish to me," says McKinney. "It's an opera about people having this domestic spat, yet the passions are very, very large. Who knows how many wars have started by someone leaving the cap off the toothpaste? Maybe someone leaving the wood off the toothpaste gourd started the Hundred Years War."
The film was made on the fly at the home of Rhombus partner Sheena Macdonald over the course of a weekend. McKinney had to keep his participation a secret. "At the time I was shooting a sitcom pilot in Los Angeles and I literally had to sneak out of the city because they would've sued me if they found out," he says.
Toothpaste achieved such immediate popularity that Weinstein was soon asked to do more vignettes by European broadcasters. For the eight new shorts in Burnt Toast (to be broadcast this fall, first on CBC's Opening Night, then on Bravo!, which again supplied funding), the Toothpaste team created new mini-operas starring the likes of Paul Gross, Colm Feore and Liane Balaban. Hannigan and McKinney return for I Am Sooo Over You, which portrays a supermarket encounter between Constance and Trevor with Seán Cullen contributing a hilarious performance as Charles, Constance's new curly-haired beau.
Gladstone and Bravo!FACT are understandably pleased to see all that Toothpaste has wrought. "It has taken on a life of its own," she says. "It's creating new work -- not just new film work but new opera, too."
McKinney (whose sitcom Robson Arms debuted on CTV last week) will have another opportunity to discover what a Bravo!FACT short can lead to, since the program recently funded his own directorial debut.
"It's a documentary short called I'm Sorry," he says. "I went out and asked people if they thought they owed an apology to anyone. I got them to describe the circumstances and apologize to the camera. It wasn't always easy to get people to stop but when they did, they usually had a story. Most people were like, 'Oh fuck, thank god! Finally, someone asked!' It really was extraordinary."