The new PBS Kids animated series Carl the Collector (premiering Thursday November 14th) is about a kid raccoon who has autism. He loves collecting things and sharing his enthusiasm for collections and activities with his friends and family. CTC is created by Zachariah OHora (of the Fuzzytown book universe). Lisa Whittick is the show’s director. This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity. (Images Courtesy: PBS Kids and Fuzzytown Productions)

Jackson Murphy: Zachariah, I love that Carl is sincere, honest, knowledgeable and passionate. Tell me about creating this lead character.

Zachariah OHora: I’ve always been obsessed with raccoons… looking for raccoon characters and putting them in my stories. I had the idea for Carl to be a collector — I’m a collector as well — some years ago. But I didn’t really have a story with it. When PBS came to me… we started working on developing Carl. At the same time, my kids were going to an inclusion school, which I wasn’t familiar with. It was a new concept to me. A democratic idea of every kid in the district, no matter what their needs are, gets to go to school and have the same classroom time, same social time with other kids, same interaction with teachers and access to education (time out of the classroom every day, be able to wear headphones to not feel overstimulated or have an aide in the class).

Zachariah OHora: I went to visit my kids’ school. I visit a lot of schools for book tours, so I see all kinds of schools. I noticed all the kids didn’t see any difference between them. A real lightbulb moment for me. When you’re at this age and exposed to the full spectrum of humanity, the more that everyone gets exposed to it and it’s normalized, everyone benefits from it. A vehicle for more exposure to kids, especially in the form of a television show… for neurodiverse kids to see themselves and also neurotypical kids to be introduced to the neurodiversity that’s out there was a crucial thing.

JM: The messages are wonderful. The interactions these kids have with each other are fantastic. Lisa, this a great community of animal kids. The conversations feel so grounded and real.

Lisa Whittick: We took a lot of inspiration from the Peanuts specials. The voice actors were children, and that was one thing we decided on early on. That brings a whole element of reality. We use their pacing. We don’t edit their voices a whole lot. We also drew from the autistic community to get our lead character, Carl, as well as some other characters. We try to show kids as they are and not try and sugarcoat relationships and make it all happy and fun. Usually by the end of the episode there’s a resolution of some kind, but we show the real process of getting there — the arguments that take place and the hurt feelings. You don’t see a lot of shows like that out there. I’m really proud that that’s coming through in the episodes.

JM: You are on the money when it comes to Peanuts. Zachariah, the tone makes this show feel like it’s a cousin or a companion piece to the Peanuts universe.

ZO: I love it. My grandma really gave me the love for the Peanuts. The whole Peanuts vibe… is really close to my heart. To see it translated in a new way for a new generation on this new show feels great.

JM: There are a lot of collections. Lisa, how did you want to come-up with them and the unique ways you present them to audiences and to these characters?

LW: Carl loves to collect absolutely everything. I’m on the animation part of it, so we usually get the scripts with all these amazing ideas of what he’s gonna be collecting and how he’s gonna use his collections to maybe solve a problem or relate to someone else through his collections, which a lot of autistic people tend to do. They use their passion and try and interact with people through that passion. Carl definitely does that a lot. The collection jars… work out really great because you can always see what’s in the jars. (laughs) His room is absolutely filled with jars and shelves. It allows for some beautiful visuals on screen.

JM: The show has a great look. Zachariah, watching these episodes made me think about how important collections are to people — about memories and organizing them. How personal did this experience get for you as far as that?

ZO: Collecting is really personal to me. My older son was in such a collector phase when we were coming up with this. We pull from everyone’s experiences on the show. One of the other general guidelines we had for the collections was: we didn’t want it to just be, ‘Here’s this spoiled kid whose mom buys him a bunch of crap and he collects stuff.’ It’s leaves, things in nature, wingnuts, dinosaurs made out of lint from the dryer.

JM: The episode about moustaches uses them for problem solving. Lisa, in working with PBS Kids, what’s the educational component to this series — the next-level lessons?

LW: The writer will start with an outline of a story idea they might think is fun and it will then go to advisors, PBS and a whole team of people who weigh in and say, “This story would really lend itself well to teaching this lesson about how a child can work through certain emotional triggers or situations they maybe wouldn’t have tools for.” We’re teaching kids actual strategies on how to calm themselves down, how to deal with anxiety — breathing techniques… it’s very unique that way.

JM: Lisa, this is an important show for the here and now.

LW: It’s… a really entertaining, funny, fun show for everybody. There’s little bits and pieces that anybody watching is going to watch and think, “Wow. I really relate to that.” Especially to parents.

JM: Zachariah, how does this fit into — or shake-up — your Fuzzytown world?

ZO: Yowza! [Animation], Lisa and everybody did such an amazing job translating my Fuzzytown world with 2D and books to animation and movement. That’s a huge shift for me. To see how it went and how it turned out to be — it feels exactly like the world I’ve created, and the characters seem like they live in that world. It’s a very believable space to explore endlessly. I’ve been blown away by everybody’s work on it.