Dragon Tales is a Canadianâ€"American animated fantasy adventure
children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker,
and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and
Elana Lesser. The story focuses on the adventures of two ordinary
kids, Emmy and Max, and their dragon friends Ord, Cassie, Zak,
Wheezie, and Quetzal. The series began broadcasting on PBS on their
PBS Kids block on September 6, 1999, with its final episode airing on
November 25, 2005, with 3 seasons and 94 episodes during its 6-year
run. Following the series finale, reruns remained on the block as well
as on a channel related to it named PBS Kids Sprout (renamed Universal
Kids) until August 31, 2010. Yearim Productions was responsible for
the animation for all seasons (Sunwoo Entertainment and Wang Film
Productions only did animation for season 1), with the exception of
Koko Enterprises, which recorded the show, and The Corporation for
Public Broadcasting, The U.S. Department of Education, Kellogg's, and
greeting card manufacturer, American Greetings were responsible for
the funding.The show was close-captioned by the National Captioning
Institute when seen on PBS Kids in America and CBC in Canada during
its original run.Dragon Tales is based on characters created in 1978
by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator Ron Rodecker.
Rodecker was recovering from a coronary artery bypass graft when he
began sketching dragons as a means of symbolizing forces in life that
were too big to control. In 1995, Jim Coane, then a producer at
Columbia TriStar Television, found the artwork and developed it into a
television series with several writers. The project was considered
something of a risky venture, because it was not based on a well-known
franchise like many children's television programs, such as Arthur or
Paddington Bear. The series was immediately shipped to PBS member
stations at the suggestion of PBS, but all originally passed at the
time. In October 1995, Jim Coane met Marjorie Kalins, senior VP of
programming and production at Children's Television Workshop, and
showed her the idea for the series. Kalins, who loved the idea,
brought the series to Children's Television Workshop, who agreed to a
partnership with the Columbia TriStar Television Group. Kalins helped
him and Columbia TriStar Television obtain an $8.5 million grant from
the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. The grant proposal was written by Wesley Eure. Coane
stated that there was never any consideration of trying to shop the
program to a commercial broadcast network and that PBS was, in his
mind, the only destination for the program. As Columbia TriStar was
the TV division of two major Hollywood film studios, which in turn are
owned by the Sony Pictures Entertainment division of Japanese
multinational conglomerate Sony, Dragon Tales became one of the few
PBS Kids and Sprout programs to be co-produced by a major Hollywood
studio's TV subsidiary; The other PBS shows were Bill Nye the Science
Guy (made by Walt Disney Television) and Curious George (produced by
Universal Television). In 2002, C-T was renamed to Sony Pictures
Television, a company that would co-produce the third season of the
program.After a tour of the lot of Sony Studios, Wesley Eure created
the first treatment of the show, including the initial conception of
the two-headed dragon Zak and Wheezie, back then known as "Snarf and
Bugger." The series received a massive multi-million dollar grant from
the federal government, beating out The Muppets and Sesame Street for
the request. As part of the conditions for the grant, Eure was
required to create a companion series for the program, which he titled
Show and Tell Me, based on his own lecture series known as "Anyone Can
Write a Book." Though the companion series was never actually created,
Eure remains hopeful that it will one day be produced. Eure's name was
not included in the initial credits for the series, forcing him to
hire an attorney to ensure that he received credit.
children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker,
and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and
Elana Lesser. The story focuses on the adventures of two ordinary
kids, Emmy and Max, and their dragon friends Ord, Cassie, Zak,
Wheezie, and Quetzal. The series began broadcasting on PBS on their
PBS Kids block on September 6, 1999, with its final episode airing on
November 25, 2005, with 3 seasons and 94 episodes during its 6-year
run. Following the series finale, reruns remained on the block as well
as on a channel related to it named PBS Kids Sprout (renamed Universal
Kids) until August 31, 2010. Yearim Productions was responsible for
the animation for all seasons (Sunwoo Entertainment and Wang Film
Productions only did animation for season 1), with the exception of
Koko Enterprises, which recorded the show, and The Corporation for
Public Broadcasting, The U.S. Department of Education, Kellogg's, and
greeting card manufacturer, American Greetings were responsible for
the funding.The show was close-captioned by the National Captioning
Institute when seen on PBS Kids in America and CBC in Canada during
its original run.Dragon Tales is based on characters created in 1978
by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator Ron Rodecker.
Rodecker was recovering from a coronary artery bypass graft when he
began sketching dragons as a means of symbolizing forces in life that
were too big to control. In 1995, Jim Coane, then a producer at
Columbia TriStar Television, found the artwork and developed it into a
television series with several writers. The project was considered
something of a risky venture, because it was not based on a well-known
franchise like many children's television programs, such as Arthur or
Paddington Bear. The series was immediately shipped to PBS member
stations at the suggestion of PBS, but all originally passed at the
time. In October 1995, Jim Coane met Marjorie Kalins, senior VP of
programming and production at Children's Television Workshop, and
showed her the idea for the series. Kalins, who loved the idea,
brought the series to Children's Television Workshop, who agreed to a
partnership with the Columbia TriStar Television Group. Kalins helped
him and Columbia TriStar Television obtain an $8.5 million grant from
the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. The grant proposal was written by Wesley Eure. Coane
stated that there was never any consideration of trying to shop the
program to a commercial broadcast network and that PBS was, in his
mind, the only destination for the program. As Columbia TriStar was
the TV division of two major Hollywood film studios, which in turn are
owned by the Sony Pictures Entertainment division of Japanese
multinational conglomerate Sony, Dragon Tales became one of the few
PBS Kids and Sprout programs to be co-produced by a major Hollywood
studio's TV subsidiary; The other PBS shows were Bill Nye the Science
Guy (made by Walt Disney Television) and Curious George (produced by
Universal Television). In 2002, C-T was renamed to Sony Pictures
Television, a company that would co-produce the third season of the
program.After a tour of the lot of Sony Studios, Wesley Eure created
the first treatment of the show, including the initial conception of
the two-headed dragon Zak and Wheezie, back then known as "Snarf and
Bugger." The series received a massive multi-million dollar grant from
the federal government, beating out The Muppets and Sesame Street for
the request. As part of the conditions for the grant, Eure was
required to create a companion series for the program, which he titled
Show and Tell Me, based on his own lecture series known as "Anyone Can
Write a Book." Though the companion series was never actually created,
Eure remains hopeful that it will one day be produced. Eure's name was
not included in the initial credits for the series, forcing him to
hire an attorney to ensure that he received credit.
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