Sam Ewing

TV Kids
Weekly, August 12, 2008

Head of New
Program Sales, International

The Jim Henson
Company

Over the
course of more than three decades, Sam Ewing has been involved with some of the
biggest properties in the kids’ business, during stints at NBC Entertainment,
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Saban International and Cookie Jar Entertainment.
With longstanding relationships with key broadcasters around the world, Ewing
was recently appointed by The Jim Henson Company (JHC) to kick-start its own
international distribution efforts.

Sid the
Science Kid is the
newest series that JHC will be representing worldwide, with its Family Classics
library titles continuing to be handled by HIT Entertainment. The educational
animated show, launching on PBS KIDS this September, uses comedy to encourage
exploration, discovery and an interest in science in the preschool set.

The series,
produced with proprietary technology at the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio,
features its title character, Sid, and his friends learning early science
concepts with everyday examples. “Sid is just like every kid,” says Ewing. “He
speaks to camera and he’s got a great curiosity. Why do bananas turn mushy? How
do you measure a whale? Why are my shoes getting smaller? I think Alice Cahn
once said, preschool shows, when they’re best, are not only a mirror but also a
window. That really applies to Sid the Science Kid. It’s a mirror in that Sid asks
questions that kids ask, and it’s a window because it opens up the world so
that they can explore it and understand it and see what’s going on.”

Ewing is
thrilled to be taking the property out to the international market this MIPCOM.
He says that when he was first approached by Lisa Henson, the co-CEO of JHC,
about joining the company to represent Sid, he responded: “I just watched my
son receive his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California
Santa Barbara and when he was handed his diploma I whispered, ‘Thank you, Bill
Nye.’ It was his science series in 1993 on PBS that ignited my then 8-year-old
son into science. Considering that my son also watched an infomercial about a
magic mop, I’d say we both came out ahead!”

Knowing
firsthand the kind of influence TV programming can have on young kids, Ewing is
passionate about placing high-quality shows he believes in on broadcast outlets
worldwide. “You want to be able to give them the very best. We are in the
business of entertaining and educating our children, and so it’s our
responsibility to open the world, to spark the imagination and to make children
laugh out loud.”

—By
Mansha Daswani