{"id":18367,"date":"2020-04-10T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2020-04-13T13:40:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T17:40:33","slug":"9-storys-vince-commisso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Story\u2019s Vince Commisso"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vince Commisso, the\u00a0president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group, talks to <\/em>TV Kids about the continued selling power of kids\u2019 comedy and the importance of having character-driven stories like those found in <\/em>Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum in appealing to children\u2014and parents\u2014of all ages.<\/em><\/p>\n

Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum<\/em>, a show for which 9 Story Media Group teamed up with PBS, is based on a book property called Ordinary People Change the World<\/em> from Brad Meltzer. In the TV series, Xavier Riddle and his pals journey back in time to meet iconic historical figures like Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks and Amelia Earhardt\u2014not as the icons they became, but as kids brimming with the potential that foretold their futures. According to Commisso, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum<\/em> works because \u201cXavier, his sister Yadina and their friend Brad are ambassadors for the audience at home. There\u2019s a funny dynamic between the three of them and it gets funnier when they interact with the other characters.\u201d He adds of the entertaining educational series, \u201cAll the comedy is driven by the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

This interview was conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV KIDS:<\/strong> What is the overall demand for kids\u2019 comedy? Does comedy sell better than other genres?
\nCOMMISSO:<\/strong> Kids\u2019 content in general is selling really, really well. There\u2019s a great demand for kids\u2019 comedy from the OTT world and the SVOD world. Of course, there are still major kids\u2019 channels around the world that look for content. And the demand has never been greater than it is today. I actually don\u2019t think you can make any kind of kids\u2019 content these days without there being a comedic element to it. Kids always want to be entertained with a smile, with a giggle. You can engage them through some other ethos\u2014creativity, friendship, family, empathy\u2014but if there\u2019s not a comedic element to it, you won\u2019t succeed.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS: <\/strong>What role can comedy play in curriculum-driven\/educational content?
\nCOMMISSO:<\/strong> If you think about doing educational content today, you have to actually lead with the entertainment and with the comedy and then deliver the education in that construct because that\u2019s what sticks. If you even think about when you were a child and all of the shows that you watched when you were a kid, the things that resonate with you today are the things that you learned from\u2014the things where you learned life lessons from or some hard data. You wouldn\u2019t have learned them or gotten that unless you were entertained or compelled by the content.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> Are you finding slapstick humor or character-driven humor more popular these days?
\nCOMMISSO:<\/strong> I feel like it\u2019s all character-driven. But when you start talking about ages, you have to deliver the comedy a little bit differently. If you\u2019re dealing with 2 to 5, preschoolers, the comedy has to be gentle, deliver a giggle and maybe a little, What do you think that means? And the answer is, I don\u2019t know! And the audience will laugh, right? And that\u2019s kind of soft, gentle comedy and you can deliver that and it makes the kids smile at that age, makes them laugh. We\u2019re doing Blue\u2019s Clues<\/em> & You!<\/em> with Nickelodeon for a very young audience, and so much of the comedy comes from when Josh [Dela Cruz] on screen is looking for something, the clue, and it\u2019s right in front of him and he doesn\u2019t know where it is. The kids are watching and going, It\u2019s right there! He picks it up and goes, Oh it\u2019s right here, nobody told me! And the kids laugh really loud because they know they just told him. You engage them through that entertainment element.<\/p>\n

When you get a little older, it becomes more character-driven. You start to get a little bit more into what it\u2019s like for the characters, who like each other, but when they interact with each other, they do things that are unexpected or say things that are unexpected. You start to get comedy that\u2019s a little bit bolder. Then, if you get a little bit older still, it gets to be kind of wise-cracky and slap-sticky. You could have slapstick when you\u2019re younger, but that\u2019s got to be more seasoning than the essence of it. When you\u2019re older, it\u2019s always got to be character-driven [and] you can do a little more, be a little more liberated with the visuals and the extremes of the characters.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What about live-action comedies versus animated?
\nCOMMISSO: <\/strong>Everything has to deliver comedy for kids, and live-action comedy really is about a link to the characters. That absolutely has to be character-driven. The comedies that work, the shows that have worked in live-action for kids usually have a main character that has two layers\u2014one that\u2019s relatable and one that\u2019s aspirational. Their everyday life is relatable and then they have something about them that is superstar-like or unattainable, but it\u2019s fantasy. We\u2019ve seen plenty of examples of that. That relatable piece has to involve humor, has to connect with other characters in a construct that\u2019s very similar to the audience\u2014like a family construct with a wise-cracking brother.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS: <\/strong>Are family-viewing shows with jokes for everyone having a moment?
\nCOMMISSO:<\/strong> What you\u2019re seeing now\u2014because things are available on-demand, so you can get them anytime you want\u2014is [demand for shows] for families to sit and watch together. They used to be driven by schedules, like when we were watching linear television. What was on at 8 o\u2019clock or 9 o\u2019clock that the family could watch together? A lot of that was the reality shows and music shows like American Idol<\/em> and things like that that everybody could watch together. Now it\u2019s broader because you can watch anything. You can put on whatever compels you to watch as a family. Often that\u2019s a family movie, but sometimes there are series that you can watch with your kids and your family that are for everyone that will go on serialized. We\u2019ll watch one tonight, we\u2019ll watch one tomorrow night. And that, depending on the children\u2019s ages, works really well.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What do shows need in order to appeal to the whole family?
\nCOMMISSO:<\/strong> You have to have entry points for all of them that they can relate to. You assume that there\u2019s a family watching at home. You generally have to deliver them a family construct and then you have to say, This person is relatable in his or her role inside the family to someone in the audience at home. And then you have to create a conceit around that that\u2019s compelling. Even the early Steven Spielberg movies\u2014E.T.<\/em>, and he did one recently called Super 8<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s always about kids and families that have become empowered. That movie works for all audiences. We\u2019re seeing more and more content created in that mindset rather than a movie or limited series and even high-end limited series because there\u2019s no bigger win for the platform than to have everybody in a home watching this show.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS: <\/strong>What kind of comedy travels best? And what are the potential challenges of translating humor?
\nCOMMISSO:<\/strong> Comedy that travels best tends to be character comedy. When there\u2019s a character that compels you because he or she is funny. SpongeBob is a great example. SpongeBob is a hysterical character who has unbridled optimism. That\u2019s something you can appreciate all over the world. His take on things is simplistic and unique. And he\u2019s very transparent as to what he is and that\u2019s appealing. That\u2019s going to work. The challenges sometimes are either in cultural or dialogue nuances. When you make a joke in a certain language that you have to translate into another language, the joke doesn\u2019t land because of the translation. Or, if you make a joke that is about pop culture or any kind of specific cultural reference, it\u2019s only funny in that culture. Laughter is universal but sometimes comedy isn\u2019t and you have to make sure that your comedy is universal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president and CEO talks about the continued selling power of kids\u2019 comedy and the importance of having character-driven stories in appealing to children\u2014and parents\u2014of all ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1033,"featured_media":18368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[221,598],"class_list":["post-18367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-9-story-media-group","tag-vince-commisso","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n9 Story\u2019s Vince Commisso - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"9 Story\u2019s Vince Commisso - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The president and CEO talks about the continued selling power of kids\u2019 comedy and the importance of having character-driven stories in appealing to children\u2014and parents\u2014of all ages.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-10T13:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-13T17:40:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/2020-04-09-Vince-Commisso.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"331\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/\",\"name\":\"9 Story\u2019s Vince Commisso - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-10T13:00:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-13T17:40:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/9-storys-vince-commisso\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"9 Story\u2019s Vince Commisso\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\",\"name\":\"Chelsea Regan\",\"description\":\"Chelsea Regan is the managing editor of World Screen. 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