rdfs:comment
| - || PBS Kids || || Current shows || Arthur The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Dinosaur Train Franny's Feet Kart Kingdom Peg + Cat Plum Landing Ruff Ruffman, Humble Media Genius Sesame Street Thomas & Friends Wild Kratts || Past shows || 3000 Whys of Blue Cat Adventures from the Book of Virtues The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon The Amazing Colossal Adventures of WordGirl Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps* Baby Einstein The Baby Einstein Company Barney & Friends* The Berenstain Bears (2003-)* Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures Between the Lions* Bill Nye the Science Guy The Big Comfy Couch The Biscuit Brothers Biz Kid$ Bob the Builder Boohbah Caillou* Captain Kangaroo The Charlie Horse Music
- thumb|right|Jan (left) and Stan (right) Berenstain Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant met in 1941, on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where they formed an immediate bond. After being separated during World War II, during which Stan worked for the Army as a medical illustrator and Janice worked as a riveter, they were reunited and married in 1946. While initially working as art teachers, the Berenstains pursued a joint career in cartooning and gradually found success working together on illustrations, humorous sketches and cover art for publications including The Saturday Review of Literature, Collier's, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and The Saturday Evening Post. In 1951, they published Berenstains' Baby Book, a humorous how-to aimed at
- The popularity of the books subsequently spawned numerous child-friendly television shows and computer games. The family consists of Papa Bear, the woodworker father; Mama Bear, his homemaker (and sometimes small-business-owner) wife; and their three children: Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and Honey Bear. Stories are set in Bear Country, a society composed entirely of bears. Story lines typically follow the Bear family as they deal with topics relevant to both children and parents.
|
abstract
| - || PBS Kids || || Current shows || Arthur The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Dinosaur Train Franny's Feet Kart Kingdom Peg + Cat Plum Landing Ruff Ruffman, Humble Media Genius Sesame Street Thomas & Friends Wild Kratts || Past shows || 3000 Whys of Blue Cat Adventures from the Book of Virtues The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon The Amazing Colossal Adventures of WordGirl Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps* Baby Einstein The Baby Einstein Company Barney & Friends* The Berenstain Bears (2003-)* Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures Between the Lions* Bill Nye the Science Guy The Big Comfy Couch The Biscuit Brothers Biz Kid$ Bob the Builder Boohbah Caillou* Captain Kangaroo The Charlie Horse Music Pizza Clifford the Big Red Dog* Clifford's Puppy Days* Curious George* Corduroy Cyberchase* Danger Rangers Design Squad The Dooley and Pals Show DragonflyTV Dragon Tales The Electric Company* (original * remake) Elliot Moose Elmo's World Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman* Gerbert George Shrinks Ghostwriter (1992-1995) Groundling Marsh Hello Mrs. Cherrywinkle Hooper The Huggabug Club In the Mix It's a Big Big World Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks Jay Jay: The Jet Plane Katie and Orbie Kidsongs KidsWorld Sports Kratts' Creatures Lamb Chop's Play-Along Liberty's Kids Little Amadeus Lomax, the Hound of Music* Long Ago & Far Away Lost Lagoon The Magic School Bus Mark Kistler's Imagination Station Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies* Martha Speaks* Maya & Miguel* Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales Mister Rogers' Neighborhood* Newton's Apple Noddy OWL/TV Panwapa Pappyland PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch PBS Kids Go! Peep and the Big Wide World Peppermint Place Pocoyo Popular Mechanics for Kids Postcards from Buster Powerhouse The Puzzle Place Raggs Reading Rainbow Romper Room Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat SciGirls* Seemore's Playhouse Shalom Sesame Shining Time Station Shining Time Station: 'Tis a Gift The Short Circus Sid the Science Kid Signing Time! Space Racers Square One Television Story Factory Super Why! Seven Little Monsters Taste Buds Teletubbies Theodore Tugboat Toopy and Binoo* Tots TV Waiting for Santa Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? Wild About Animals Wild Animal Baby Wimzie's House Wishbone WordGirl* WordWorld* Writers Contest The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss Zoboomafoo* Zoobilee Zoo ZOOM* (original * remake) The Zula Patrol ||end||
- thumb|right|Jan (left) and Stan (right) Berenstain Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant met in 1941, on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where they formed an immediate bond. After being separated during World War II, during which Stan worked for the Army as a medical illustrator and Janice worked as a riveter, they were reunited and married in 1946. While initially working as art teachers, the Berenstains pursued a joint career in cartooning and gradually found success working together on illustrations, humorous sketches and cover art for publications including The Saturday Review of Literature, Collier's, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and The Saturday Evening Post. In 1951, they published Berenstains' Baby Book, a humorous how-to aimed at adults and based on their experiences raising their infant son Leo in downtown Philadelphia. Nearly two dozen other books followed; described by Stan as "cartoon essays," the titles included Marital Blitz, How To Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making A Complete Fool of Yourself and Have A Baby, My Wife Just Had A Cigar! In the early 1960s, the Berenstains sought to enter the field of writing for young children. For their first children's book, they chose to cast bears as the main characters, primarily because the animal held wide appeal and could be drawn easily. Stan also observed that female bears are "terrifyingly good mothers" while the males are "lousy fathers." (The Berenstains denied that their last name had anything to do with the decision.) In their 2002 memoir, they said that they knew from the start that their book would "have three characters: a bluff, overenthusiastic Papa Bear who wore bib overalls and a plaid shirt and...a wise Mama Bear who wore a blue dress with white polka dots...and a bright, lively little cub." The Berenstains' first bear story, titled Freddy Bear's Spanking, arrived on the desk of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, who had found phenomenal success in 1957 with The Cat in the Hat and was now editor of a Random House series called "Beginner Books". Geisel took on the manuscript, but spent the next two years ruthlessly challenging the Berenstains to make improvements to the writing and structure and to connect with their characters on a deeper level. He asked questions such as "What kind of pipe tobacco does Papa Bear smoke?" and urged them to analyze the relationship between Papa Bear and Small Bear, to which Stan responded, mystified, "Well, he's the father, and he's the son"; however, Jan attributed the inspiration for the characters' dynamic to the 1931 film The Champ. [[wikipedia:Image:Thebighoneyhunt3.jpg|thumb|left|The Big Honey Hunt in its original 1962 publication, left, and its 2002 reissue|]] The book was finally published in 1962 under the title The Big Honey Hunt, with no plans to revisit the bears in a sequel. Geisel had told the Berenstains to feature a different animal in their next story, as "there are already too many bears... Sendak's got some kind of bear. There's Yogi Bear, the Three Bears, Smokey Bear, the Chicago Bears... for your next book you should do something as different from bears as possible." They had started work on a new project featuring a penguin when Geisel called and told them: "We're selling the hell out of the bear book." The second bear book, The Bike Lesson, appeared in 1964, featuring the names Stan and Jan Berenstain instead of Stanley and Janice; Geisel had changed the credit without consulting them. Geisel was also responsible for adding the name "Berenstain Bears" to the covers of succeeding books. Over the next several decades, Stan and Jan collaborated on hundreds of books from their home studio outside Philadelphia. After developing a storyline together, one of them (usually Stan) would develop a first draft, which the other would then refine into an 1100-word manuscript. They also worked together on the illustrations. In 2002, the couple released a memoir of their career titled Down A Sunny Dirt Road. Their sons Leo and Mike also entered the family business after making their own forays into children's publishing as an author and illustrator, respectively. In the 1990s, the men worked on the Berenstain Bears "Big Chapter Book" series (published under the names Stan and Jan Berenstain). Following Stan's death from lymphoma in 2005, Mike collaborated with his mother on writing and illustrating Berenstain Bears installments, while Leo has been involved with the business side of the franchise. Jan Berenstain died in February 2012 following a stroke. Mike Berenstain continues to write and illustrate new books in the series.
- The popularity of the books subsequently spawned numerous child-friendly television shows and computer games. The family consists of Papa Bear, the woodworker father; Mama Bear, his homemaker (and sometimes small-business-owner) wife; and their three children: Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and Honey Bear. Stories are set in Bear Country, a society composed entirely of bears. Story lines typically follow the Bear family as they deal with topics relevant to both children and parents. Each Bear's role in the family is well defined. Brother, as the older sibling, is controlling and protective of Sister and also more cautious in his manner. Sister, as the younger sibling, is more laid-back, energetic and free spirited. Mama typically is the source of wisdom and knowledge. Papa, while also being wise at times, is more bumbling and clumsy in his demeanor. Both Brother and Sister are susceptible to making "poor decisions", particularly in situations that are likely to be faced by children in their age (and sometimes gender-) groups. Sister has, at times, been portrayed as "the more responsible one"; however, the Bears overall are quite malleable, and character traits tend to be fairly unique to each given story. One of the upshots of this is that readers can generally read the books in any order they choose; there is little "backstory" beyond the family itself (and even in this case, there is some flexibility -- in the earliest stories, Sister had yet to be born, and her arrival was the subject of an early Bears storybook).
|