How ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’ Creators Make Preschool Shows Watchable for Adults

And why CatRat is “the heart of the show” despite being such a jerk sometimes

Gabby's Dollhouse
Netflix

“Gabby’s Dollhouse” is among just a handful of shows for preschoolers to land on Netflix’s publicly shared Top 10 Most Popular TV list. That means not only are parents choosing it for their children under 5, they’re letting it play (and play, and play).

This writer, a parent who has sat through hundreds of hours of preschool TV, can say with confidence that “Gabby’s” could not make the most-streamed-hours list if the older kids and adults in the house didn’t enjoy it a bit as well — so we asked creators Traci Paige Johnson and Jennifer Twomey for the secret to making preschool shows that can entertain grown-ups too.

“We’re parents as well, and certainly kids at heart. A goal Jen and I are always trying to create in our shows is certainly to have heart, but also to be quirky and clever,” Johnson said. They also want to be “different visually, content-wise — as well as musically,” she continued, acknowledging the use of disco and other genres not typically heard in kids’ TV shows.

“We don’t like to have that saccharine-y sweet music,” Johnson said. “We hire real musicians to create real songs.”

Johnson and Twomey also make a point of using real kids’ voices: “Nothing too fleshed — it has kind of that home-based feel to it,” as Johnson put it.

The craft projects that often accompany an episode are for the parents, the duo said. For the kids, the projects help infuse some “cuteness” into both the characters and the storylines. “Preschool is our niche, and we really have a huge respect for our preschool audience. And our goal is always to engage and delight them,” Twomey said. “We know where they are developmentally, so we’re able to write and design the show to spark the imaginations of preschoolers and really encourage them to think, laugh and play.”

Twomey and Johnson, who work out of New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, certainly had experience in the space: They both served as producers on “Blue’s Clues” and “Blue’s Clues & You” (and Johnson even voiced the animated puppy Blue). But they wanted to do something different with “Gabby’s.” When they saw kids watching YouTube videos of other kids unboxing toys (every parent knows this one, too), they decided on an approach for their next show: “Instead of unboxing a product, unbox a story,” Johnson said.

Each episode of “Gabby’s Dollhouse” starts in live action with the titular girl, played by child star Laila Lockhart Kraner, in her bedroom. After getting a “dollhouse delivery,” Gabby puts on cat ears, sings a catchy jingle with her favorite stuffed animal Pandy Paws (voiced by Tucker Chandler) and shrinks down to play in her dollhouse.

From there, the majority of the episode follows Gabby’s animated adventure with her toys.

“We know the power of the live-action, real person looking into the camera and inviting you to play,” Johnson said of the format. Add in DreamWorks Animation work, she continued, “it fulfills every childhood wish/dream of shrinking down and playing in your own dollhouse. What could be more magical than that?”

Johnson and Twomey drew on their own childhood favorites. Twomey was the “huge dollhouse kid” of the duo; Johnson loved miniatures. Both loved cats. “So we just started talking about all of the things we loved as kids and how we could bring those ideas together,” Twomey said. “We just started to cat-ify everything.”

Did they ever. As a result, all of the characters living in this fantastical dollhouse are “part-something, part-cat,” she continued.

One exception is Floyd, the show’s lone live-action cat. In casting the role, Johnson said they “only” had 10 cats read (er, purr?). “The secret is he is a she: Floyd is Amelia,” Johnson said. “She was the only cat that would actually just sit there, and that is she sole reason why she got cast as Floyd — because she was just so malleable. She would just sit wherever and was a happy, fat cat.”

Here’s another secret: Floyd does have a stuffed double, who appears in the background when that area is out of the camera’s focus.

While Floyd (well, Amelia) is just too, too sweet, you know who’s not? CatRat (voiced by Donovan Patton). We straight-up asked Johnson and Twomey why CatRat seems like such a jerk. “He’s a small cat with a big head, figuratively and literally,” Twomey said.

“CatRat is really a softie and has a big heart,” Johnson added.

“In many ways, CatRat is the heart of the show because while he protests about jumping in on the antics, he really ends up coming up with great ideas,” Twomey said. “And in the end, he’s so sweet and when you have that hugging CatRat moment — you feel like you’ve worked extra hard for it. You feel even better.”

Johnson added that the character serves a useful function. “Sometimes characters in kids’ shows are all one-note, and CatRat gives us that ability to play different dynamics and be the foil of the story sometimes,” she said. “We’re all complicated, but we’re all lovable.”

The fourth season of “Gabby’s Dollhouse” debuted this week on Netflix.

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