5-Minute Time Out: Mark Mothersbaugh
The Devo founder on his Yo Gabba Gabba gig.
by Gwynne Watkins
October 17, 2008
Watching "Mark's Magic Pictures," I remembered all the other shows that I watched as a kid that taught me how to draw, like Picture Pages and Uncle Floyd. Why is it important to encourage kids to draw?
Well, it's a very easy, fundamental way to exercise all sorts of different things at once: your motor skills, your creativity, your understanding of the world around you. It's a really easy way to go into our fantasy world. And it's also a good communication tool. My oldest daughter, who had never heard the English language before we adopted her [from China] when she was five and a half — she was drawing and making little books and making stories that communicated with us before she was really fully talking English. Although it's kind of shocking how fast a child can learn another language; my wife speaks Chinese, but nobody else does very well. We were all kind of, "Ni hao!"
Your first children's TV gig was scoring Pee Wee's Playhouse. How did you get involved in that?
Paul [Reubens, aka Pee Wee] asked me. He was a Devo fan. And Paul had asked me to do his film, but Devo was really busy at the time. And he had asked me before that to do his stage show, when he had Pee Wee as a stage show. But I was always on tour, and so by the time he asked me to do the TV show we were kind of on a hiatus. Like a cocoon, siesta state. So I gave it a shot and it was fun. It was addictive, because rather than spending all year writing fifteen songs, then touring for six months, then coming back and doing it again, I had to do an album's worth of music every week or so. Then I'd see it on TV. I'd write the music on Wednesday, send him the music on Thursday, and then watch it on Saturday morning on TV. That was kind of exciting.
"Maybe if I'm homeless some day you'll let me sleep in your garage."
I think the Rugrats theme song is like "Chopsticks"
for my generation. It's the thing that everyone sits down at the piano and plays even if they don't know how to play the piano.
It does have a Pavlovian quality. [Laughs]
It's in our brains forever.
Good! Well, maybe if I'm homeless some day and need a place to stay you'll let me sleep in your garage.
Anytime! After all these years of scoring films and commercials, why do you keep coming back to children's TV?
I don't get a lot of censorship when I work on kids' stuff. For me, the kids' arena is great because kids come unfiltered, and the idea of a cha-cha mixed with hip hop with, you know, a classical string quartet on top of that is totally acceptable and they're open to the experience. I've got to say, Yo Gabba Gabba is probably closest thing to what Pee Wee's Playhouse was to its generation that you can get right now on TV. I think it's the freshest thing. It has the most interesting take on entertainment and education for kids right now. That's my word of encouragement about that lowly little show with a small budget.
©2008 Gwynne Watkins and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Gwynne Watkins was Babble's founding Senior Editor. She has written for a variety of web and print publications, and her theatrical work has been produced throughout the New York area. Her new family musical, Tea with Chachaji, will premiere in early 2010. |
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