Behind the Scenes of Alma’s Way

Sonia Manzano, best known for her long run on Sesame Street as Maria, and Ellen Doherty, the chief creative officer at Fred Rogers Productions, took TV Kids Festival viewers inside the creation of the new PBS KIDS show Alma’s Way.

Manzano and Doherty participated in a creative keynote with TV Kids’ Kristin Brzoznowski on the second day of the TV Kids Festival. You can watch the entire session here. “I wouldn’t have thought of creating a children’s show if I hadn’t been asked!” Manzano said of how Alma’s Way came about. “After so many years on Sesame Street, creating a children’s show would have been a daunting task. But Linda Simensky at PBS KIDS asked me to do that. She wanted a family show with a Latinx family as the star. So I began to do that.”

Doherty then worked with Manzano to develop the concept further. “It was a joy from the first conversation with Sonia,” she said. “When she came in, she had such a clear idea for the show, for the world, for Alma, her family and friends. In that first conversation, for the learning part of things, Sonia said, ‘I want kids to know they have a mind and can use it.’ That was a clear call to action for how to make this show and what we wanted to achieve with it.”

Manzano portrayed Maria on Sesame Street for more than 40 years. “The biggest takeaway from Sesame Street is that kids live in the same world we do. They like a real place to operate from. They want to know how the world functions and what their part is in the world. So it was very important to me to have this show placed in a very real place. At first, I thought a generic Bronx-y area would be fine. That’s where I’m from; that’s what I know. I’m so happy Ellen said, ‘Why sort of the Bronx? Let it be the Bronx!’ So with her encouragement, we took that leap to make it a real place; it even has the number 6 train running through it. That anchors the show.”

“That authenticity is everything,” Doherty added. “The realness still gives you room to play and make fun and funny and somewhat exaggerated characters, but the world being New York City, being the Bronx, is amazing. We did make a deal with the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to use real designs of the 6 train and other related subway stops, including the announcer.”

Specificity is key, Manzano added. “The more generic you are, the fewer people you’ll reach. The more specific, the more it speaks to everyone.”

In every episode, Alma, a young Puerto Rican girl, faces a problem, “and we see a thought bubble,” Manzano said. “The idea is the kid at home will see there is a process to thinking. You can separate one idea from another. That’s what Alma gets to do in every episode.”

Doherty added, “It’s modeling for young children that idea of how to talk to yourself, how to think things through on your own. This is a show for kids 4 to 6. Developmentally, they are getting out into the world a bit more than they might have in younger preschool. They maybe have more classmates, more neighbors, just people around the community. It’s also a time when the adult-to-child ratio changes, so there’s more time that kids have to navigate things that are little to adults but big to kids. There’s a moment that happens and they don’t know what to do. Alma models how to pause and say, ‘What’s happening?’ She reflects on what happened, or she might imagine what would happen if she took one course of action or another. It’s done at a nice pace. It’s very reflective and relatable for young children, and they can follow along.”

Doherty then discussed how Alma speaks directly to the “camera”—an “intimacy…that is important to have the viewer be along with Alma on her ride through the story. When good things happen, funny things, uneasy things, Alma can take to camera and you know what’s going on with her. The think-through moments are a bit different because it’s Alma talking to herself. That relationship with the viewer is paramount. Because it’s for older preschool, there’s no expectation that the audience is going to reply; we don’t pause for that. [Laughs] I was watching a lot of Fleabag when Sonia and I started talking in 2016! I just related to that immediacy of the relationship. Also, Insecure. Both are really about a grown woman’s relationship with herself. Those ideas trickled down into how we thought about Alma.”

Kids are watching adult television with their parents, Manzano added. “So they have a sense of what’s hip and happening in the television world, so it would behoove us to be inspired by what’s going on in adult television.”

Social-emotional learning is central to Alma’s Way, as with all Fred Rogers productions, Doherty explained. “Also, showing those loving family and friend relationships, showing good neighbors, that resonates.”

On how cultural representation in kids’ TV has evolved, Manzano noted, “When I began my career, there were no people of color on television! We were invisible. I grew up watching a lot of television in the Bronx and wondering where I fit into this society that I was invisible to—they didn’t see me. When I got the opportunity to be Maria on Sesame Street, it was, wow, I’m representing myself finally! I was for other children what I needed to see myself when I growing up. I know how important it is. We’ve come a long way, but we have to go much further. I want the legacy of Alma’s Way to be: After that show aired, there were a million shows about diverse people in the U.S. And not just people of color policing the content, but actually people of color creating the content.”

Doherty noted, “It is far too shocking to me that it’s taken as long as it has to make the progress that has been made, which is not enough. Alma’s Way is about great stories. It’s not just checking a box about something. It’s authentic storytelling and world-building that is hugely relatable. I hope there’s more diversity behind the camera, with creators, within the writers’ room, giving people opportunities, being thoughtful about all the choices we make throughout the day and where we include and where we exclude.”