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TV KIDS
PROPERTY PROFILE
HOOPLA DOOPLA! By Joanna Padovano
elinda Wearne, an accomplished Australian producer, was watching her 5-year-old son practicing acrobatics on the family couch when she had an idea for a new show. Wearne’s company, The Content Agency, partnered with Beyond Screen Production to make the 52x12-minute preschool show Hoopla Doopla!, which is being sold internationally by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF). In it, Mimi, Ziggy, Jango, Bop, Squiggie and Zap, who all live in the town of Hoopla, each possess a special ability, from expert juggling and magic to super strength and flexibility. “Hoopla Doopla! has warm, lovable, eccentric characters and great stories,” says Wearne, the founder and owner of The Content Agency. “In each episode, our characters are presented with a simple problem that the audience can relate to, and that needs to be solved. Eventually, a solution is always found, but only after our heroes have traveled down the most comical, action- and stunt-packed story paths imaginable.” “The universal nature of the stories told for a preschool audience, combined with great scripts and a talented cast in a magical setting, holds wide appeal,” adds co-creator and producer Ron Saunders, the general manager of Beyond Screen Production. “The series has no dialogue, only the voice of the narrator, so it is easy to dub and it has a multicultural, uniquely talented cast. It would work in any territory.” Hoopla Doopla! was produced for Australia’s ABC and China’s CCTV, which came on board as a co-production partner after a pilot was made in Australia. “With a great tradition of circus skills in China, CCTV’s capacity for large-scale production and ABC TV’s long track record of making successful preschool television and exporting it to the world, it was clear that Hoopla Doopla!
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was the ideal basis for a co-production between the two broadcasters,” says Simon Hopkinson, commissioning editor at ABC. “Developing Hoopla Doopla! as an Australian/Chinese co-production provided an opportunity to create a show that genuinely combined the cultures of both countries.” Earlier this year, Hoopla Doopla! debuted on ABC4Kids, where it has boosted the number of viewers for its time slot by 10 percent. “Hoopla Doopla! has been an immediate hit with our audience and has performed far beyond our expectations,” says Deirdre Brennan, the head of children’s television at ABC. The series is also doing well on CCTV, where “it has increased viewers in the time slot and is fast becoming one of its most popular preschool shows,” says Roberta Di Vito, ACTF’s international sales manager. “We are getting the loveliest feedback ever from parents about Hoopla Doopla!,” says Jenny Buckland, the CEO of ACTF. “Toddlers have split their sides laughing at the antics, tumbles and crazy mistakes of these wonderful characters in their beautiful town.” Hoopla Doopla! is already being featured in a live stage show that kicks off in Australia later this year, and there is a variety of merchandise hitting retail, including a DVD release this October and a series of books in November. ACTF has high hopes for Hoopla Doopla! as it introduces the property at MIP Junior. “We know the launch of this unique series will generate a lot of interest from broadcasters, online and digital services [and] other outlets of preschool programming around the world,” says Di Vito. “The fact that the series has been so successful in both Australia and China, is easy to dub and has an international cast” will be appealing to broadcasters, Di Vito says.