Grand adventures in TV

Elia Powers

Teens and 20-somethings are normal targets for television shows.

Baby boomers are the ones usually calling the shots. Now it’s time

for a different demographic to have its time on camera.

Producers at PBS Kids are turning to grandparents for the taping

of multiple three-minute segments that will accompany its Emmy

award-winning television program, “Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley

Winks.”

They have invited more than a dozen grandparents -- mostly

immigrants -- to a San Fernando Valley studio for filming of casual

conversations that begin airing in the fall.

One of those selected to make an on-camera appearance is

63-year-old Newport Beach resident Nadia Polny.

The Ukrainian-born Polny moved to Poland and then Canada as a

child, before settling into Southern California last year to be near

her family.

On the taped segment, Polny tells her grandchildren about life

growing up in a war-torn Ukraine.

As a child, she made dolls out of scrap fabric because her family

couldn’t afford to buy her toys. Polny showed her grandchildren

pictures of her old homeland and described indigenous rituals and

traditions.

“I never experienced something like this,” said Polny, whose

grandchildren call her “Baba.” “It was interesting to tell them what

I did when I was younger. They never knew about these things before.”

The entire taping took about two hours, Polny said. Her segment

will air regularly in September, when “Jakers!” goes to five days a

week. It currently airs Sunday mornings on local PBS stations.

After each “Jakers!” episode next season, an animated short will

segue into the storytelling session, Young said.

Another short segment will air after that, with celebrity

storytellers such as Catherine Zeta-Jones on camera.

On the computer-animated children’s television show, Piggley

Winks, an 8-year-old pig, and his friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny

the Bull, traverse Raloo Farm in Ireland on adventures.

Each episode features a present-day Piggley as a grandfather,

telling his childhood tales to three inquisitive grandchildren.

The offspring learn lessons from Piggley, who sits in a

grandfatherly armchair.

Mike Young, the show’s executive producer, said he wanted to

augment the existing 22-minute animated show with a piece featuring

actual grandparents who have interesting cultural stories to share.

“With the Internet and evening television becoming so popular,

there’s not much time for face-to-face storytelling,” Young said.

“There’s something about personal interaction that transcends all.

“I thought, intergenerational relationships are what’s missing.”

Both concepts are based on Young’s experiences as a Welsh

grandfather of American grandchildren.

On this year’s international search for grandparents, the

producers received thousands of submissions.

Scott Ward, the show’s associate producer, said the production

team interviewed about 50 grandparents in person and tried them out

on camera. Diverse ethnicity and story- telling ability were integral

in the selection, he said.

“The common theme is that they had to use their imaginations and

couldn’t just push a button,” Ward said. “Nadia is a perfect example

of that.”

Young said Polny was “brilliant” and set the bar high for other

grandparents who have come to the studio for tapings.