Following a debut season that won five Emmy Awards in 2018, best-selling author James Patterson’s Kid Stew returns to public television with six new episodes, offering a total of 10 half-hours celebrating imagination and encouraging children’s interest in reading, music, art, and creative expression.
A culturally diverse group of pre-teens — Armando, Blake, Caroline, David, Luke, Madison, Milena, Nicholas, and Satine — and their mascot dog Ozzie, time travel through history, virtually globetrot, conduct interviews with famous creatives, host newscasts, star in comedy skits, explore the science behind joke shop classics, and more kid-centric cool, all while inspiring their viewers to “mix it up” and be themselves.
Producing station South Florida PBS, James Patterson’s hometown station, distributes the series nationally to public television stations via American Public Television with the new season beginning Saturday, May 4, at 9 a.m., on WXEL in West Palm Beach and Sunday, May 5, at 9:30 a.m., on WPBT in Miami. The series airs nationwide beginning in May.
Series creator James Patterson has been a longtime advocate for children’s literacy, founding the Read Kiddo Read initiative and spearheading grants for teachers to supplement their school libraries each year.
He is the No. 3 kid’s author in the United States with best-selling children’s titles including the Max Einstein, I Funny, and Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life series (along with his hundreds of bestsellers for those kids’ parents).
“There’s no reason learning has to be dull and boring… it can even be hilarious,” explained Patterson about his inspiration for the series. “On Kid Stew we’re teaching about art, history, international culture, the environment, and more, but we’re having a lot of fun while we’re at it – so much that parents might start watching, too. The Emmy awards the series just won suggests we are doing something very right. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Kid Stew’s mix of ingredients keeps young viewers interested with music and jokes while exploring seriously important forms of artistic expression and individuality. Interviews with popular authors Judy Blume, Eliot Schrefer, Ridley Pearson, Jill Sheeley, Soman Chainani, and Peter Brown reveal their inspiration and offer encouragement, because, as Blume notes, “it’s hard work, growing up.”
Visits with a broad range of artists including ice sculptors carving larger than life installations outdoors, jazz musician Miles Evans’ family legacy, Costa Rican artist Hernán Cortés’ awareness-raising paintings of the rainforest, French artist Duaív’s modern Impressionism and more demonstrate the limitless ways young viewers can find to express themselves.
Skits that find the kid cast in reimagined fairy tales, period costume sketches, and iconic Hollywood scenes with a twist promote confidence in breaking from the crowd, being an upstander or becoming aware of issues larger than themselves.
Visits to NASA (with astronaut Thomas Jones), a marine biology lab researching coral reef restoration, a training program for ski patrol rescue dogs and a humane society further expand kids’ perspectives. Subtle suggestions to visit the library to further investigate interesting topics covered in the episodes remind viewers that reading isn’t just something you have to do for school.
Recurring segments bring a familiar combination of ingredients to each Kid Stew. Humorous travel skits find the cell phone era kids travelling in a phone booth to visit iconic figures like the Wright Brothers, Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Marie Curie, and Pablo Picasso at critical points in their personal stories (and changing the course of history in the process).
The Kid Stew Ewws! newscast, “the news where the truth is always gross,” offers strange but true reports of human hygiene through history, odd animal behaviors and more, plus parodies of cheesy commercials straight out of these kids’ parents’ childhoods. The kids go to the Really Big Brain (or “RBB”) for a deeper dive into the science behind topics in other segments in each episode (with a bonus of bad ‘dad’ jokes).
Amazing Kids spotlights young people excelling in creative fields from the prodigious piano playing Phoenix twins to students at Bak Middle School of the Arts and a sailing school in Sweden. KS Classics introduces viewers to music pioneers Johannes Brahms, Robert Johnson, Philip Glass, Bill Monroe, and Duke Ellington. Art by the Globeful segments virtually visit Costa Rica, Africa, Norway, France, Polynesia, and England to explore other cultures and learn about their unique creative legacies.
Book reviews with animals offer creature-centric recommendations for viewers to look for in their local library to read themselves or to a younger sibling.
The kids visit Jorge’s Joke Shop where a miniaturized Mad Scientist explains the science behind classics like trick birthday candles. Original music videos — sometimes with a message about issues important to kids like self-esteem or inclusion, sometimes just for fun — keep the pace moving along.
Families can follow the series on Instagram (KidStewTV), Facebook, and Twitter (@stew_tv).
Kid Stew is co-produced by South Florida PBS and James Patterson and presented nationally by South Florida PBS via American Public Television. The series was made possible by support from The Eunice Joyce Gardiner Charitable Foundation and the Cornelia T. Bailey Charitable Trust.
