Friday, April 17, 2009

Yo Gabba Gabba's Mormon Roots


I mentioned Mormon cinema in my last post; it is my other main interest besides children's media. How appropriate then that yesterday Mormon Times ran a profile of the LDS creators of Yo Gabba Gabba, Mormonism's best contribution to children's television to date. For those who are truly interested in children's television the article doesn't give much new information about the show, but it does at least mention the fact that Scott Schultz and Christian Jacobs' faith influenced their creation of it, as my faith has also influenced my own decision to work in kids' TV. I also think it's cool that in California's post-Proposition 8 atmosphere Yo Gabba Gabba is still the arbiter of coolness and hasn't been shunned in any way by guest stars because of its creators' faith. What that may indicate is that child rearing brings together folks of all belief systems: it is one of the few things we all have in common all across the globe. Here then is the article, written by Sharon Haddock.

A couple years ago I wrote a history of Mormon children's media from the 1910s to the present. I wrote it before Yo Gabba Gabba was on the radar but I still think it's an interesting history, with myriad film, TV, and radio productions over the decades. It's not yet available online but I'd email it to anyone interested; the print version was published in Irreantum: A Review of Mormon Literature and Film 9:1 (2007); you can order that specific issue here or find out more about the journal in general (I was the film editor for a couple years, and the literary stuff is top-notch) at the Association for Mormon Letters website

1 comment:

Barbara's Brainwaves said...

It's great to learn this about a show that my grandson has been watching for some months now - no wonder we loved it so much!
Yo Gabba Gabba!