Daniel de Lara, a junior at Emerson College in Boston, doesn't usually watch TV meant for preschoolers. But he's hooked on "Yo Gabba Gabba!,'' a Nickelodeon show that features music from such indie-rock bands as The Shins, retro graphics in the style of '80s video games and a tie-in with a line of hipster toys.
" 'Yo Gabba Gabba!' is ill," de Lara recently posted on his blog.
He's not the only non-preschooler to discover the kid-network hit. Brad Searles, 38, an Allston, Mass., drummer and music blogger, can't wait until his 7-month-old son is old enough to watch — and in the meantime, he tunes in anyway. "We watch it under the guise of 'research,' " he said.
In the competitive world of preschool TV, appealing to parents has become a widespread goal. But "Yo Gabba Gabba!,'' which premiered on Nickelodeon's "Nick Jr." programming block last August, is something different and potentially more valuable: a show with enough cool-guy credibility to cross into the mainstream.
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Nickelodeon tracks Nielsen ratings only for children, and those are strong. "Yo Gabba Gabba!'' draws 683,000 2-to-5-year-olds per week — not enough to eclipse the cable channel's "SpongeBob SquarePants" or "Dora the Explorer,'' but enough to win its weekday time slot for children of that age.
Producers know the show has older fans, as well. Sales have soared for adult-targeted "Yo Gabba" T-shirts and figurines produced by Kidrobot, an upscale merchandiser with hipster credibility. And some 20.1 million clips from the show have been streamed from the Nick.com Web site.
While it's unclear who's doing the downloading, "I have a strong suspicion that it's not your 3-year-old," said Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of Wildbrain, which produces the show and owns Kidrobot.
No, it's far more likely to be someone like de Lara, 20, who heard about the show through a colleague at a campus radio station. Or like Dan Goldberg, 34, who works at the Newbury Comics store in Newton, Mass., and discovered the show when a friend e-mailed a clip of rapper Biz Markie teaching children how to mimic the sound of a beatbox. He has recorded every episode and bought a collection of "Yo Gabba Gabba!'' vinyl figurines.
"There's no doubt in my mind that I'm watching a children's show, but it's a really interesting one, you know?" he said. "They kind of take it to a different level.''
The "Yo Gabba'' creators, 36-year-old childhood friends Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz, said they didn't make their show with hipsters in mind. They were aiming for something they could watch with their own children. So they created a bright, low-budget world in which a set of toys — a red cyclops, a yellow robot, a blue cat — come alive and learn lessons through song and dance. (The songs have such titles as "Please Don't Throw Things at Friends.'')
"It's really a hybrid of so many shows, from 'The Electric Company' to 'Pee-wee's Playhouse' to 'H.R. Pufnstuf' to 'Sesame Street' . . . all the things we really loved watching as kids," Jacobs said. "We definitely wear our influences on our sleeve. But we hope that we're not parodying them or ripping them off, but rather paying homage and trying to do something new.''
Jacobs and Schultz developed "Yo Gabba" on a shoestring, cobbling together money from friends and relatives, painting sets in their backyards.
On TV
"Yo Gabba Gabba!" airs at 12:30 p.m. weekdays on Nickelodeon.
