Fabulous Shot of Kid watching THE UPSIDE DOWN SHOW

Remember When: Laugh

It still breaks my heart that we weren't able to make more of these shows. THE UPSIDE DOWN SHOW was truly a breakout concept built around the educational benefits of imaginary play. Which of course, our achievement/results driven culture needs desperately.

It's a crying shame to lose all that laughing.

"Just Press Play" on your Palm Pilot?!

If you know a preschooler who watches The Upside Down Show , the fact that little kids love to play with the imaginary Remote Control will not have escaped your attention.


Palm is offering freeware for download from their website that will put "Just Press Play" (the phrase typically uttered by Shane and David on the show) on your Palm Pilot.Just Press Play v5.1a freeware

Now there is a picture. A rabid, 3-year-old Upside Down Show fan with your Trēo in his hand, refusing to cede control. Sounds like a tantrum waiting to happen!

"Life With My X-Men" - A blog about the Upside Down Show

Kristie Meyer, describing her boys and their love of the Upside Down Show, writes "We used to have to get a napkin out for Shane and David at supper. Thankfully they started taking their meals elsewhere." Read her whole entry here: Life With My X-Men: Adventures of Shane and David:

Toddlers Demand The Upside Down Show!

I have programmed a "Google Alert," so that I'm notified when items about The Upside Down Show appear on the Internet. I receive an average of two to three alerts daily, and almost always they are parents blogging about their toddler's connection to the show.

I thought this one was worth sharing. A Toddler Obsessed

Mourning THE UPSIDE DOWN SHOW

One of my most enjoyable creative experiences in recent years was traveling twice to Australia to oversee production of the pilot and then the early episodes of The Upside Down Show. This extraordinary show teaches creativity via imaginary play (with powerful literacy, vocabulary, and mathematical concepts thrown in along the way) for preschoolers. Actually, describing the audience as "preschoolers" sells it far short. Creators and performers David Collins and Shane Dundas are so uniquely talented that these episodes tickle older brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents as well! And the awards reflect this success. The Upside Down Show has won an Emmy Award, a Parents' Choice Award, and Australia's Logie (the equivalent of the Emmy) for "Best Children's Program."

Sadly, although at its debut it was instantly one of Noggin's top-rated shows, this brilliant program is caught in the politics and economics of the increasing consolidation of the children's media industry. Nickelodeon/Noggin do not own the show outright, as it is partially financed and owned by the company that created it, Sesame Workshop. My hunch is that Nick is simply not willing to put their powerful promotional machine behind making a hit out of a property that they do not own outright. Sesame Workshop, on the other hand, is too uncomfortable with any kind of conflict to take the kind of aggressive approach that I believe it should to reclaim those rights and find another way to finance and continue to produce the show. And so, this exceptional piece of educational programming (in my opinion as radical and ground-breaking as Sesame Street was back when it was created back in 1968) will disappear with just the barest hint of a whimper.

The Upside Down show airs on Noggin daiily at 7:30 am and 3pm ET/PT. Since the folks at Nickelodeon show no sign of getting it out on DVD, I'd strongly advise that you tape it and keep it for posterity (as well as any occasion when you might want to entertain and stimulate the imaginations of young children).

I recently stumbled across this long chain of parents talking about the show and how it has benefitted their children. In particular, check out the July 8 entry re child with Asperger's Syndrome. Although the show is not going to have the longevity it so richly deserves, at least, reading these words, I know that we accomplished what we set out to do.
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