Below are the series for which I composed the themes and where possible a corresponding video for each. Enjoy!
Jim Henson's Muppet Babies - with Rob Walsh
Fievel's American Tails - with Robert Irving
Rude Dog and the Dweebs - with Robert Irving
National Geographic's GeoKids - With Robert Irving, also ten songs, four additional themes and background score.
At the end of the second season, Jim wanted to create a Muppet Babies record album using the highly-praised songs from the show. And so Rocket To The Stars was born, named after a song Rob Walsh and I wrote during the season. Half-way through production, which was hard because few of the voice actors were strong singers and we were doing full length versions of these songs, it was decided to make it a story album with a full-blown radio drama of Muppet Babies weaving the existing songs into the libretto. As it turned out, creating a radio show with full stereo effects and visual sound-imaging was horrifically time-consuming, and engineer Scott Brownlee and I took bets on who would end up in the hospital first. Below is the title song, as seen in the show.
Having written successful themes for Muppet Babies, The Monster Bed and Rude Dog and The Dweebs, in addition to composing the score for the last two seasons of Muppet Babies and the underscore library for Rude Dog, Robert Irving and I were put into contention for the theme to Fievel's American Tails, another CBS animated series, only this one required an instrumental theme. Several composer teams were up for the job. Somehow our theme was chosen though I distinctly recall it may not have been Steven's favorite. See what you think. We tried to combine classic western with some of the silliness of a cartoon.
Robert Irving and I had fun with this one, setting up the backstory of the show through the lyrical content, almost like the old Beverly Hillbillies theme. The high-voiced little character is me as Tweek, who turned out to be a series regular and a favorite of kid viewers.
Everything about GeoKids happened in my head at the same time. I approached National Geographic about doing a toddler show using animals and their habits as fodder for kids learning everything else. I wanted to create a safe haven in the rainforest akin to the thicket in which Bambi and his friends existed in the forest. I had a very dense, fast-paced format in mind so kids could watch it a hundred times and each time learn something new. I wanted to have it loaded with nursery rhyme-type nature lessons, humor, sudden sounds, likeable characters and songs that didn't cause parents to want to run from the room. The series, initially made for home video, turned out quite well and has received over 80 awards for excellence in children's programming. Surprisingly, I found much of it on You Tube and, while the quality of the picture is not the best, the charm and joy of the show shines through. Try it on your kids. The theme, which occurs twice in the video below, was written by Robert Irving and myself from a melody and lyrics that came to me while driving to his studio.
The Uncle Balzac character, the old man, and diminunitive Sunny Honeypossum were voiced by me. Julianne Buscher and Kevin Carlson voiced and puppeteered Bobby Bushbaby, our instigator, for three shows each. There were eight or nine puppeteers in all hidden in the rainforest operating these three characters.
This promo clip starts with a bit of the theme, then goes into announce, then promotes Really Wild Animals, the other Geographic show for older kids, and then features the Geokids with the full theme. I figure you'll like all of it, so ... take a look.
