Creator Stuckey performs a song with Rufus Leaking, his puppet co-host.
MUSIC MAN A talking sheep named Rufus Leaking, a hot band and a crowd of kids jumping around onstage are the key ingredients of Pancake Mountain, one of the most energetic--and certainly one of the hippest--kids' shows on the planet. The ingredients are basic, but it took Washington-based Scott Stuckey, 44, and a group of volunteers to make a hit out of them.
Stuckey grew up fascinated by local TV. "I was a big fan of a show called Captain 20," he says, "and you could see the star of the show around town. I grew up thinking television was this great medium everybody could take part in."
Later, Stuckey, who used to work as a music producer, realized that TV was not as accessible as he had imagined, so he decided to combine his passion for rock 'n' roll and, as he calls it, "locally controlled arts" to produce his own show. Why did he aim it at kids? "Let's face it," he says. "Most adults give up on music after college. You gotta plant the seeds early."
Pancake Mountain does not have much of an educational component to it--nor is that what Stuckey is aiming for--but it does try to get messages across. By having Rufus hold an oversize cereal box and urge kids in an exaggerated manner to get their parents to buy that exact brand, for example, the show tries to expose marketing strategies. "We want to make kids savvy by poking fun at these things," Stuckey says.
What Pancake Mountain tries most to do is simply be fun both for the audience and for the performers. And it seems to be succeeding: artists like the White Stripes and Henry Rollins are lining up to be part of it. Pancake Mountain is available on several cable-access stations, the Internet and DVD, but so far, none of the networks has picked it up. Stuckey is in talks with a number of them, however, and optimistic a deal will come. No word yet on how the nets feel about the cereal thing.