WGBH and Discovery Kids have announced that they’re co-producing a brand new time traveling series, Time Warp Trio, which is slated to arrive in households via Discovery Kids on the NBC morning block July 2. The program will also air weekly at 10.30 a.m. (ET) on the Discovery Channel as well. Boston-based pubcaster WGBH coproduces the educational era-hopping Time Warp Trio in association with Boston-based toon shop, Soup2Nuts (O’Grady, Home Movies).
Based on Jan Scieszka’s (The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs) popular book series of the same name, Time Warp Trio plunges into the adventures of three curious boys who are transported back to dramatically different places in history such as the gladiator era in ancient Rome, samurai battles in Shogunate Japan and the swashbuckling pirate ships on the open seas. And it doesn’t stop with the trips back to history, as they are also launched into the future where they meet their own great-granddaughters. In each episode the boys struggle against formidable enemies, trying to warp back home, and learning tons of history along the way. Full of action and cool tidbits (i.e. Mongolian nomads sniffed each other as a greeting rather than shaking hands!), the toon promises to offer a fun way to pique young viewers’ interest in history.
"Time Warp Trio has just the right mix of kid humor and cool facts, rooted in real history, that will appeal to kids and is in keeping with our mission to help kids explore the real world as only kids can," says Marjorie Kaplan, exec VP and general manager for Discovery Kids.
Major funding for Time Warp Trio is provided by a grant for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Carol Greenwald is executive producer for WGHB, and Martha Ripp and Jim Rapsas are Discovery Kids’ executive producers.
