Center Wins $550,000 To Produce TV Show

The Harvard-affiliated Judge Baker Children's Center has been awarded $550,000 by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for production of its award-winning children's television show Willoughby's Wonders.

The grant will be used by the organization's Media Center to develop 13 new episodes of their Emmy Award-winning program.

The show, filmed in Boston's South End, centers around a children's soccer team called the Wonders, the players' families and the team's coach, Max Willoughby.

The program stresses "essential social coping skills" by showing the life choice the members of the soccer team must regularly make, according to the show's developers.

According to Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, director of the Media Center and professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the grant will allow the Baker Center to raise additional funds to get Willoughby's Wonders on the air as a series.

"We will be able to leverage this grant to raise more money," Poussaint said. "It is an endorsement from CPB, and we now hope to raise more money from foundations and corporations."

Poussaint said the Baker Center and WGBH, the Boston Public Broadcasting affiliate, are developing marketing strategies to secure further funding, aided by the support of CPB.

While he called the over half-million dollar grant "a good start," Poussaint expects the show will eventually require over six million dollars.

Carolinn Reid-Wallace, senior vice president for education and programming for CPB, expressed her enthusiasm for the program.

"We think it's high-quality, creative, fast-paced and dramatic and is going to make an important contribution to our national program schedule," she said.

Dr. Susan E. Linn, the Media Center's associatedirector, said Willoughby's Wonders isunique in that it "puts mental health at center ofthe show."

Linn described the program as a live-actioncomedy-drama, centering around a diverse group ofchildren and dealing with important questions ofdevelopment.

"We set up situations that will have meaningfor a target audience and explore them in way thatis honest and relevant for the audience," saidLinn.

"One of the ways that kids learn [socialskills] is by modeling, and television is a verygood way of teaching through modeling," shecontinued.

Poussaint noted that the soccer team settinghelps underscore important developmental issues.

"One kid on the team lies about how good heis," Poussaint explained. "The kids then have todeal with this."

The show also makes use of what Linn terms"inner-world sequences" which dramatize differentindividuals' thoughts and feelings. Such sequencespromote empathy, according to Linn.

"This gives value to a person's inner life,which is something that is often not valuedtoday," she said. Both she and Poussaint emphasizethe importance of these skills.

According to Linn, "Cooperation is central todemocratic society, as is empathy. We are tryingto provide kids with tools for working and playingin a multiracial society."

The CPB sees the Baker Center's new series as agood example of the type of television they seekto promote, Reid-Wallace said.

"The CPB believes strongly that television is ateaching and learning tool and we specialize inhigh quality children's programming," she said.

"We think [Willoughby's Wonders] is avery, very fine children's television program thatwill do a great deal to introduce in important anddramatic ways lessons about how young people cometo a clearer understanding about a variety of reallife issues."

Thus far, only a pilot episode, which aired inDecember of 1996, has been filmed.

The pilot episode was produced with moneyraised from the federal government, the FordFoundation and the United States SoccerAssociation, among other sources.

It won two regional Emmy awards, one for"Outstanding Children's Special," and one fordirecting. Poussaint said the Emmy awards aid infundraising for the show.

"Emmys are named by people in the industry andthat helped," he said.

The pilot episode was produced by the BakerCenter, but the series will be co-produced withWGBH.

Poussaint said that he is pleased to be workingwith WGBH, calling it "one of the top-rankedpublic broadcasting stations in the country."

In addition, having WGBH as a producer may helpto keep filming in Boston, a setting whichPoussaint would like to preserve.

"We are hoping to keep it in Boston because welike the urban setting, but there are costs," saidPoussaint, noting that it can be substantiallycheaper to film in Canada.

The Judge Baker Children's Center was foundedin 1917 and is dedicated to the healthydevelopment of children through research andeducation.

According to Poussaint, the center dealsprimarily with children who have family problemsor emotional problems, and contains its own schoolfor such children.

Willoughby's Wonders is the Center'sfirst such program, though the Media Center hasproduced various video teaching tools in the past

Dr. Susan E. Linn, the Media Center's associatedirector, said Willoughby's Wonders isunique in that it "puts mental health at center ofthe show."

Linn described the program as a live-actioncomedy-drama, centering around a diverse group ofchildren and dealing with important questions ofdevelopment.

"We set up situations that will have meaningfor a target audience and explore them in way thatis honest and relevant for the audience," saidLinn.

"One of the ways that kids learn [socialskills] is by modeling, and television is a verygood way of teaching through modeling," shecontinued.

Poussaint noted that the soccer team settinghelps underscore important developmental issues.

"One kid on the team lies about how good heis," Poussaint explained. "The kids then have todeal with this."

The show also makes use of what Linn terms"inner-world sequences" which dramatize differentindividuals' thoughts and feelings. Such sequencespromote empathy, according to Linn.

"This gives value to a person's inner life,which is something that is often not valuedtoday," she said. Both she and Poussaint emphasizethe importance of these skills.

According to Linn, "Cooperation is central todemocratic society, as is empathy. We are tryingto provide kids with tools for working and playingin a multiracial society."

The CPB sees the Baker Center's new series as agood example of the type of television they seekto promote, Reid-Wallace said.

"The CPB believes strongly that television is ateaching and learning tool and we specialize inhigh quality children's programming," she said.

"We think [Willoughby's Wonders] is avery, very fine children's television program thatwill do a great deal to introduce in important anddramatic ways lessons about how young people cometo a clearer understanding about a variety of reallife issues."

Thus far, only a pilot episode, which aired inDecember of 1996, has been filmed.

The pilot episode was produced with moneyraised from the federal government, the FordFoundation and the United States SoccerAssociation, among other sources.

It won two regional Emmy awards, one for"Outstanding Children's Special," and one fordirecting. Poussaint said the Emmy awards aid infundraising for the show.

"Emmys are named by people in the industry andthat helped," he said.

The pilot episode was produced by the BakerCenter, but the series will be co-produced withWGBH.

Poussaint said that he is pleased to be workingwith WGBH, calling it "one of the top-rankedpublic broadcasting stations in the country."

In addition, having WGBH as a producer may helpto keep filming in Boston, a setting whichPoussaint would like to preserve.

"We are hoping to keep it in Boston because welike the urban setting, but there are costs," saidPoussaint, noting that it can be substantiallycheaper to film in Canada.

The Judge Baker Children's Center was foundedin 1917 and is dedicated to the healthydevelopment of children through research andeducation.

According to Poussaint, the center dealsprimarily with children who have family problemsor emotional problems, and contains its own schoolfor such children.

Willoughby's Wonders is the Center'sfirst such program, though the Media Center hasproduced various video teaching tools in the past