If you’re looking for a fresh new family-friendly activity, you're in luck. Local kid’s entertainment specialist Troy Ganser has partnered with digital creator Rod Ovitt to produce an educational children’s program for kids ages 3 through 9.
Weekly episodes of the show, appropriately called Fun Farm, are available on You Tube.
With a belief that when you create the right environment to be entertained, you unlock imaginations to wonder and dream, the goal is to unleash this imagination in all of their clients.
Each program immerses young viewers in life on the farm from many wholesome and creative angles, as well as a magic form of travel that can transport them around the world of make-believe as they learn new values, virtues and behaviors.
And at the heart of their work is the premise that all entertainment should be pure, uncomplicated, enjoyable, and safe.
Here, WBOI’s Julia Meek discusses the scope and focus of the project with the Troy and Rod, and how things are shaping down on the farm.
You can connect with Farmer G and friends at the Fun Farm Studios website.
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Troy Ganser, Rod Ovitt, welcome.
Troy Ganser: Thanks.
Rod Ovitt: Thank you.
Julia Meek: Now, Troy, you have been working your tag art magic for 25 years from your farm in New Haven. You have always said that you're living the dream. So how did that dream begat this Fun Farm dream that begat the Fun Farm Show?
Troy Ganser: I'm constantly raising my own bar. I just want to see what's the most potential that can be developed in this lifetime.
Use every bit of the talents God has given me and leave nothing on the table. So the dare to dream of, well, now we have the space. Now we have a village.
Now the company is growing well, and what else should we be doing in the spirit of service?
How about a TV show? Yeah, that sounds smart. Let's do that. (all chuckle) So, I am achieving every goal I've ever set since I was seven years old.
Julia Meek: Good for you. And of course, you're doing it with Rod in tow now, that is amusing, and you are all about unleashing that imagination. Your own has been working overtime, you're proving. So, how did you and Rod together come up with this crazy premise?
Troy Ganser: It was just a beautiful connection. I saw an article that he was involved with the project for the late superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools, and reached out to the station as who is this guy?
I think he can do what I need to have done. And initially it was the getting to know each other, and here's some things we can work on together.
And then part of me was, if I can really be honest with you, Rod, I have this little idea, this dream, and, and it was, yeah, that's great. Yeah, me too. And just kind of meeting your best friend all of a sudden, and you just click, click, click.
Julia Meek: The bro.
Troy Ganser: Yeah, kindred spirits, unicorns meeting unicorns. And, okay, we're doing this. So, it's surreal. It really is.
Julia Meek: That's wonderful fun. Rod, do you vouch for everything you just told us?
Rod Ovitt: Yeah, it was really surreal. Went out there, we were doing some videotaping. I think we had drones flying and, you know, cannons blowing. (all chuckle)
We had all this going on and then he takes me over to this barn place and shows me this puppet and then tells me his dream. And I said, we can do that. I was already in the video business and animation, so I knew I could see this happening, and we haven't looked back.
Julia Meek: So, you did come at this collaboration through your own Luminous Productions. And you're well versed, well skilled in the various things that you were offering there. What did you, what could you envision as Troy unfolded more of these dreams? Was it an instant click and a match in a set? And that was it?
Rod Ovitt: Absolutely. I think we didn't take long at all to write the first scripts get in there. He already had his son, Michael, who would be the puppeteer. Troy has a million voices, a million faces. (all chuckle)
And so, we knew that we could develop the program. We had the same ethos. We knew what we wanted to bring. We wanted to bring children, hope, security.
We wanted to bring the virtues that are out there in the world, about six basic virtues that everyone in the world wants their kids to know. And that's our format.
Julia Meek: It's a grand one, and it's a, it's a solid goal. Tell us, Rod, why is this format, that very show that you describe, so needed these days?
Rod Ovitt: There's been a lot of study. I had a granddaughter that suffered a bit with over-saturation and over-stimulation, and there's been now numerous psychological studies that we've uncovered, and a lot of magazines are uncovering now, that show that kids have been overstimulated by a majority of the children's programs.
They're too fast, they're too furious, they're too bright, and they are affecting these children. They're losing memory space. They're doing all kinds of things wrong. So, we have a deliberate conversational pace, a Mr. Rogers type of thing. And you talk to anyone that's ever watched Mr. Rogers, and they all just go, Ah, it slows it down. Talk to me.
Julia Meek: Yeah, the intimacy. Yes, that's most interesting. Now, you have each had real life experiences from your own perspectives in the kid-friendly entertainment business.
So, how do all of these windows stretch, change, maybe alter completely when it's live action, often with a cartoon character, interacting with an imaginary audience. Troy, you got to keep it all going and Rod, you got to keep it all written and moving. Any leaps there for you two?
Troy Ganser: It's wonderful to be able to commit to the dream. And the things that we've done over the years with the company and the variety of the wonderful developments, the services, the characters that really, it's just allowing ourselves to stay in one lane.
And so, it's not a real stretch of my abilities to imagine the relationship, to imagine an audience, to imagine that the puppet is real. It's just being the full character, without any of the stress of maybe the weather not cooperating, or there's some noise in the background, or whatever, the Murphy's Law.
So it is second nature to me, and it's something I've just always enjoyed doing, and now it's just in a different format.
Rod Ovitt: And what I would say, having been a producer and worked with a lot of video, Troy is extremely talented, and he's a one of a kind, and he's unabashed. That's part of it.
He does things that no one would do. I mean, he'll look and wink at the camera. I mean, he's just unabashed. He just eats up the camera.
And then Michael, who's hung around him for so long, I guess, picked up the same (all laugh) Yeah, that turtle just comes alive. And it's really fun watching it.
Julia Meek: Right there! It pops at all the right places, it sounds like.
Troy Ganser: Yeah, pure creativity.
Julia Meek: Okay, each weekly episode is 8 to 10 fun filled minutes, which is a long time when you're in front of a camera and trying to amuse all the kids that happen to be out there wanting to be there on the Fun Farm. Would you step us through an episode?
Rod Ovitt: We purposely are doing things that are repetitive and that kids can anticipate. So, we have this kazoo. (chuckles) We morph, we move around the farm, okay? When we want to go to locations, we have this magic kazoo.
So Troy will go, doot-doodle-loot doot and then he tells boys, kids and kiddos join us--you gotta say it, Kazoo! And then we drrrhhhh. we morph to the next spot. We do that three times in that 10 minutes.
We've watched children watch this program. There was one, the kids are going KAZOOO! (all laugh)
Julia Meek: And they get it. They get you, that's fantastic.
Troy Ganser: Yeah, we're all having fun together. We can't succeed unless we do it together. It's teamwork, and it's fun. Absolutely.
Julia Meek: And all of Troy's Fun Farmer attributes, how do they come across? You know, what are you able to teach in the beatitudes, in teaching a trait, in teaching something one show, one bit of really good behavior or cessation of a bad behavior. How do you do that?
Rod Ovitt: TJ is a turtle, and he's the consummate child with all the behavioral issues. The pouting, the mad, I don't get it, he cheated, you know, all these things. (all chuckle)
Fun Farm Audio Clip: And Kirby, my younger brother...yeah...was supposed to get the picnic basket...the basket, sure...the food...sure. So, after my dad said, Kirby, don't forget the basket. Kirby, don't forget the basket. Kirby, don't forget--he forgot the basket...Oh no...he forgot the basket...Oh no...So we couldn't have the picnic.
Rod Ovitt: And Troy takes the place of parenting in that he is the caretaker. So we're not talking mom and dad, we're just talking caretaker here, so it fits everyone's model.
And then he walks him away from the cliff, he soothes the wounds, he pushes him along, and he gets stern sometimes, but the lessons are there. And TJ comes around.
Fun Farm Clip 2: I don't think Kirby did that on purpose. Maybe he was just distracted. Maybe he was thinking about something else. Uh, maybe he needs to work on listening...Maybe he does. And I know we need to be patient with our little brothers and sisters, because they're learning things that we've already learned...Yeah.
Rod Ovitt: So, every kid can learn from this.
Julia Meek: It's achieved at the end. There's always success.
Troy Ganser: There's resolution, and it's peaceful and good role modeling, and it's a constant state of programming. I mean, these voices, these messages, cannot be delivered enough.
We are certainly overwhelming children with all the other wrong kind of voices and perspectives and opinions and intensities, and enough is enough.
Julia Meek: Go to that bottom line, okay, being relevant in the 21st century. This is the oldest fashion in the most wonderful way of values and teaching it in a high-tech way, in high tech terms, the simplest, most wonderful fun there, right? Is that a natural fit. Does that all make perfect sense as it's coming out?
Troy Ganser: Oh absolutely! And it's a sadness, because I don't think that people know that they can have this option. They've been almost addicted to what is just being thrown at them. It's a visual diabetes that we're developing.
It's just loud and intense and colorful and noisy. And you wouldn't have a relationship with anybody start that way. Nobody comes up to you and says, HI, I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND! YAAHHHHH! You know, just screaming in your face. I mean, what? Who would do that?
And this is the natural way. It's primal. We want to have good relationships. We're social creatures or pack animals. We want to relate, and we want to enjoy it and savor it and slow down. You know, all the great things that we can attribute in our society, we're not just instant.
You know, Mona Lisa took four years. All the great things, they're not instant gratification. So it's something that we need to pull people back to how things really are in life in our world, not what we're forcing them to be.
Julia Meek: And the pace as well, too fast of a pace. Now, one thing in the 21st century, less people of all ages have ever been on a farm, because there are less farms, right? So what kind of a learning and teaching experience do you think you're offering by bringing it back to this wonderful Fun Farm?
Troy Ganser: Well, there's so much richness. And I love where I live. It's my idea of heaven. And there's so much richness. Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, there's something to see. And we've had guests out on our place who will be just enamored with the simplest of things.
I'll never forget one young child, and she saw a big spider, and she was like, I've never seen a big spider. Like, you've never seen a spider. I mean, that blew her mind. And there was so much more to the land and the property and nature in our world, we're just not slowing down and observing and enjoying it.
It's such a rich existence. So, in a way, it's causing me to continually lower my standards. And that's a weird statement, but you don't have to give a child or anybody for that matter, all of this, you don't have to overwhelm them with a buffet of options. You can just savor one meal visually or auditorily. You can have one simple experience.
Julia Meek: And the less is more.
Troy Ganser: Yeah, absolutely. My son still remembers an innocuous encounter that my uncle took him and he showed him a frog. We were just wandering around my grandparents' property, and saw a frog, and my 26 year old son still remembers seeing a frog.
That's it. There was no magic frog. The frog didn't sing and dance. There wasn't an explosion. It wasn't, it was just, ooh, a frog, burned in his brain. That's what we need more of.
Rod Ovitt: And I might add that because the magic that's involved in the show, we go other places. We just did an episode where we went to an island on the ship, and there was a captain involved, Captain Whitebeard.
Troy Ganser: Aaarrrrgggghhhh!
Rod Ovitt: (all chuckle) Yeah, that was Troy.
Troy Ganser: Come along with me, (all laugh) I'll show you behaviors!
Rod Ovitt: Yeah, it was a hoot. And of course, what we do, we make that character Mr. G. So, how do we get from the boat to the island. It goes back to we have a magic kazoo.
Troy Ganser: I've got me kazoo here! (all chuckle)
Julia Meek: Oh, that's right! How fortunate for all of you. (all laugh)
Rod Ovitt: So, we know we're going to be going to the big city. We know we're going to hit other venues. We're not going to just stay on the farm.
We will always anchor to the farm, but there will be episodes where we'll go to a city, we'll go to a concert hall. That's all in the future. We plan on bringing all of those activities.
Julia Meek: And for those of us raised on Captain Kangaroo and Sesame Street and all the wonderful shows, Romper Room and whatnot, in the middle of things, how does this format and Troy's content follow that lead and what new friends are evolving down on that farm?
Troy Ganser: Mmhmm. And that's a great point. You think about the characters that shaped us, our role models, your Walt Disney, your Jim Henson, your Bob Ross, your Steve... They're all dead. Who do we have shaping our young?
We have cartoons. They're not real. We don't have any people showing our children examples of how to be or help guide them or help reinforce good parenting. I want to be that. I want to be Mr. Rogers for this generation. I want to be the change I see in the world.
So, all the characters that we'll continually introduce, and there are several that are still coming, so get ready! (chuckles) There are plenty more that will all just enhance and enrich what we've established with our foundation.
Julia Meek: One obvious question, what has your response been so far, and where could all of this go next, out into the world?
Rod Ovitt: The response has been very, very enlightening. It's been good. We're out on YouTube. We've recently had 100,000 clicks on Facebook from the Philippines alone.
Yeah, you know we're getting, yeah, we're in the Far East, we're in England, we're in Canada, US, and we're growing. It's a slow growth, but it's a positive growth.
And we obviously have a web page, but we also have the YouTube page. We plan on building that up, and we'll see where it takes us. If someone notices it, who knows where it goes?
Troy Ganser: Yeah, enormous potential. And the things that I cling to is that everybody who has seen this show has not said, Oh, that's nice. Oh, that's cute. It's always been, amazing! That's phenomenal!
We've even had people say, you know, you should really reduce your production because you're spending too much time on this. It's too good. Even people in our lives who are really critical, the ones like, I really don't want to hear your opinion, but you're going to give it to me anyways.
And they've said, amazing, fantastic, phenomenal. This is what we need. I mean things that we're not soliciting. They're just giving it.
Julia Meek: Great, you deserve it, and you need the input, and you need to go forward with it, of course. And it sounds like you are. I am curious, as you seat it so nicely into your life on that farm, via this program or not via this program, what does it feel like to go back face-to-face with the immersion you know there, as opposed to being down at the Fun Farm for everybody to join you.
Troy Ganser: I see all of the things that I do as a service, you know, really being the change I want to see. And it's with humility. I don't have delusions of grandeur.
If fame comes about as an indirect result of this, which it may be inevitable, but I'm not seeking it. I abhor the potential for paparazzi or entourages or whatever else. It's just not something I dream about. I dream of making a change.
I dream of engaging children in the sense of wonder and preserving that and fighting cynicism. They develop it way too early.
And so, whether it's in person or on screen or wherever else this may go, I intend to be exactly the same across the board, and whatever we can eliminate that prohibits that, any kind of invasions that seem to take place when people see you doing something good and they naturally want to hurt you, which is sad. There's a lot of evil.
Julia Meek: Of course, of course. But you'll take it and run with it. You already are. And Rod, at the end of the day, what is your biggest challenge looking at, well, the concept is wonderful, and the next episode is right around the corner, and the next to the next and the next, the good, the bad and the ugly of all of that? What does that mean to your head?
Rod Ovitt: I think, number one, the good thing is, Rod and I think so much alike. Our efforts, when we film, we laugh. It's hilarious. We get it. And part of what we do, we write scripts, but we don't read scripts.
These are grown people. They're actors. They can ad lib, and it might take a few cuts, but what ends up is phenomenal. I mean, you can hear me shouting from the director's chair, Ah, that's great. It's perfect.
So the challenges would be developing more stories, watching the landscape and seeing where it takes us. Where does the internet take us? What are the kids want? This club that we're developing is phenomenal opportunity.
We have a club that we're going to start pushing to let kids join, and in that club, they're going to have downloadable pages to color, and they're all out for different age groups, pre-K, K, and elementary school.
The parents are going to be able to have a lesson with their episode, so they can even enforce the moral value, the virtue that is in the programming.
And we have charts that they can hang on the wall and check the behavior when we go through the "Bee-attitudes," and we're going to be introducing a little zzzzz, Bee that is going to teach the kids the beatitudes, and we're not sure if he's going to talk Bee talk and T, J can interpret. We're not sure yet.
Julia Meek: Okay now, that's worth continuing watching, just for that. (all chuckle) And the coolest thing is that you are both so much into it and cannot do it without each other, yet with each other, sounds like the sky's the limit.
Troy Ganser: Rod is a fantastic coach and director and producer, and it's much needed, because you've got to have someone who's the string to your balloon. (all laugh)
Julia Meek: Fantastic. And last question, guys, that dream you are living now, Troy, and that you have tapped into, Rod, what do you want every kid and every parent and every Fun Farm fan to take away with them after every show and keep forever in their heart.
Troy Ganser: I want them to know that we're not going anywhere, and it's not going to be something scandalous.
Rod Ovitt: Yeah, and I want them to know they're not alone. They're not alone. There is help. There are adults that want to guide, and there are virtues that have been here forever, and they will be the light to your path.
Julia Meek: Troy Ganser and Rod Ovitt are cofounders and co-producers of Fun Farm Studios and the Fun Farm children's show. Thank you for making this story, sharing this story, guys, keep up the great work. Do carry the gift.
Troy Ganser: Thank you.
Rod Ovitt: Thank you.
