|
|
Daily News
|
|
Bosley to School Betsy
As a grandfather now celebrating his sixth decade in the business, it seems only natural that Tom Bosley should provide a voice of reason for the kindergarten set.
Friday, May 27, 2005
By Lisa Johnson
|
|
|
NewYorkSocialDiary.com
Photo
|
|
Bosley and Marion Ross, circa 2003
|
|
Last year, Mr. Cunningham - the character played by Tom Bosley on the classic 1980s sitcom Happy Days - was ranked ninth on TV Guide's list of The Top 50 TV Dads of All-Time.
Certainly, Bosley is one a few remaining small screen legends to span the entire length of the medium's history, continuing to work steadily at an age when mosts of his contemporaries are simply searching for the clicker. Currently, the 77-year-old Chicago native has a new animated feature coming up, Geppetto's Secret, co-starring the voices of Edd Hall and Eric Roberts, as well as this spring's thriller Confession and the Robert Wagner-Casper Van Dien action fantasy The Fallen One.
With industry executives constantly on the lookout for the next Blue's Clues or Dora the Explorer with which to profitably connect to the ages 1-to-6 target demo, Bosley has been enlisted along with a gaggle of others for a Corner Stone Animation educational TV series entitled Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures. Joining him will be the voice talents of Fred Willard, Nancy Cartwright, Sally Struthers, Vicki Lewis (Finding Nemo), Daveigh Chase (Lilo & Stitch), Bess Armstrong (That Was Then), Cree Summer ( X-Men Legends), and Richard Horvitz (Power Rangers).
Bosley will appear in the third and subsequent episodes of the new series, told from a five-year-old's perspective and designed to help solve some of the problems related to a child's transition from the home to a school environment by making kids interested and excited about the kindergarten experience. Each episode will focus on the concepts of teamwork and life lessons, re-affirming these strands with the inclusion of both academic and behavioral lessons.
Somewhat surprisingly, TV's number nine dad never won any awards for his patriarchal small screen work, although he was nominated in 1978 for an Emmy. However, many years before becoming known as Mr. C., Bosley was celebrated on Broadway in the late 1950s as Mr. G., a.k.a. Mayor Fiorella La Guardia, in Fiorello. More recently, he played a dad in the Disney Broadway presentation of Beauty and the Beast.
Michael Pietrzak is producing the series, which was created by preschool teacher and author Betsy Quinn and will be directed by award- winning animator Fred Crippen; executive producers are Charles Picerni, Dale Scales and Reed Clevenger.
|
|
|
|
|
 Email
|
 Print
|
|
|
|
|
|