Obama the Builder: Can We Fix It?
Writing for Children, Writing for the World
by Jaden
“Yes we can!” Obama said several times on the historic night of November 4th, 2008, as he spoke after his landslide win for President of the United States. Whether he injected that into his speech himself or his writers did, someone was watching TV with their small children.
All I could think of was Bob the Builder, a program for young children. Throughout the show and in the intro jingle, the chorus sings, “Can we fix it?” and all the tractor machines say, “Yes we can.” One tractor always says, “Um, I think so.”
I can still remember many of the plots from the cartoons I watched when I was a kid — mostly all violent blow-up-each-other sort of stuff: Road Runner, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, and poor stuttering Porky Pig. And hey, look at me, what a stellar upstanding citizen I am… with a twisted sense of humor.
Bob the Builder is one of the most positive and educational shows for children. If there were shows like this available when I was a kid, I missed them.
At some point, construction worker Bob was just an idea in a writer’s mind to teach and educate children. Now, this writer’s words are an important part of history. Keith Chapman is credited as Writer / Producer of Bob the Builder. As television shows have many writers, I can’t say definitively whether he actually penned the “yes we can” part. Roland Lee is credited for the music.
If you are the bud of all your family’s jokes for being the weirdo eccentric writer, just think, someday, something you write could be part of a colossal historical moment. Don’t expect to get credit for it. This is the life of a writer: to be a humble servant to the people — albeit a totally narcissistic self-absorbed one.
Some other great writing for children that deserve honorable mentions, while we are on topic, are:
TELEVISION
Jakers and Piggley Winks
It’s a Big Big World
FILM
Finding Nemo (2003)
Toy Story (1995)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Mary Poppins (1964)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
If you are interested in writing for children, study these closely. Although Willy Wonka terrified me as a child, it was a good terrify, the kind that teaches kids important lessons about behaving well; still, I pouted quite a bit over wanting candy, successfully, I might add.
What are your favorite children movies, television shows, and jingles?
BOB THE BUILDER
Writer / Producer: Keith Chapman
Music: Roland Lee
aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
(Take your places)
aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Can we fix it?
Yes we can!
(chorus)
Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes we can!
Scoop, Muck and Dizzy
and Roley too.
Lofty and Wendy
join the crew.
Bob and the gang
have so much fun.
Working together,
they get the job done!
(chorus)
Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes we can!
Time to get busy.
Such a lot to do!
Building and fixing
’til it’s good as new.
Bob and the gang
make a really good sound.
Working all day
till the sun goes down.
(chorus)
Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes we can!
Can you fix it?
Right.
Left a bit.
Right a little.
Ok, straight down.
We can tackle any situation
Look out, here we come
Can we dig it? Yes!!!!!!
Can we build it? Yes!!!!!!!
Can we fix it? Yes!!!!!!
(chorus)
Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes we can!
Digging and mixing
Having so much fun
Working together
They get the job done
Can we dig it? Yes
Can we build it? Yes
Can we fix it? Yes
Bob the builder! Hey!!!
Bob the builder! Altogether now
Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes, yes we can!
We’d better get some work done!
Bob the Builder Official Website
Bob the Builder Little Toons Site
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14 Responses to “Obama the Builder: Can We Fix It?
Writing for Children, Writing for the World”
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Charlotte’s Web was a big favorite – I read the book and watched the animated film over and over and over. In fact, I think that book is one of the reasons I grew up to be an animal welfare advocate. Also – and this isn’t necessarily for kids – Solid Gold was one of my favorite shows when I was school-aged. They should really bring that back. Heh.
Melissa — Laughing here. Solid Gold was one of my favorites too. Shimmering outfits and limber ladies doing crazy dances; can’t go wrong with that. Yes, Charlotte’s Web is an important one.
The Elephant Show was a staple in my morning, cereal-eating, television watching days of grade school. The skin-na-ma-rinky-dinky-dink song is still stuck in my head, and my heart, whenever I think of the words “I love you”. The song plays like a poem I would write to Jaden if she was ever feeling blue:
Skinnamarinkydinkydink. Skinnamarinkydoo. I – Love – You!
Skinnamarinkydinkydink. Skinnamarinkydoo. I – Love – You!
I love you in the morning and in the afternoon.
I love you in the evening, underneath the moon.
Skinnamarinkydinkydink. Skinnamarinkydoo. I – Love – You!
Skinnamarinkydoo, I – Love – You — Too!. (Boop, boop, ee-doo)
Power Rangers were my thing for a while, as well. In retrospect, I cannot fathom how one of them turned out to be a murderer; dumping bodies in a lake somewhere. Oh, the trauma!
Shane — Good heavens! How is that elephant song for children? It sounds like a sex song about European hot dogs with all the fixins… if you catch my drift. I promise to always feel yellow so you don’t feel compelled to pull that baby out of your arsenal again. (Can’t stop laughing. Have never heard that song.)
…My brother watched Power Rangers, I did not; is it true, one was dumping bodies? Geeze, seriously disgruntled children’s writer.
I’m not sure where to begin… Well, I started watching Power Rangers when it first came on. Dumping bodies? I’m not sure what that means…
But I’ve watched cartoons and grew up with them for years and I’m still influenced by them today. But my childhood favorites? Hard to narrow down, but here’s an attempt. “A Goofy Movie” … “Aladdin” … Actually most animated Disney movies starting with the “The Little Mermaid” up to “The Incredibles” I think… I’m still catching up. And TV cartoons, Bugs Bunny of course… Winnie the Pooh was big with me when I was wee. Animaniacs had and still has a big influence on me. My cartoon idol is Yakko Warner. This is probably why I like the Marx Bros so much now. And jingles? I’m going to go with the first couple I remember:
do-do-do-do-do Always Coca-Cola (It’s much longer, but I’ll spare you.)
and then…
ba-ba-ba-ba-ba The Joy of Pepsi (again, it’s longer, but it’s better with music)
And just because my mom used to sing it to me, I’ll add
Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is! (That’s all she would sing, but thanks to TV Land, I saw the whole commercial.)
t.sterling — Thanks for chiming in on this one. Yes, THE INCREDIBLES is fantastic! Forgot that one.
As for Winnie the Pooh, the name really disturbed me as a child, that anyone would be called poo, I couldn’t deal with it. Now, Mr. Hanky on South Park is another story.
Per your jingles, I guess the soda marketing teams hit the target with you; sure, I guess we can include those as writing for children, as that is exactly what they were doing, albeit with purely financial motives.
Yes, “plop plop fizz fizz” has to be the ultimate in best jingles of all time. Thirty years later and the thing is still ringing in my head.
No no no no no. I didn’t meant that they dumped bodies on the show – take a look at this:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/07/yacht.killings.trial.ap/index.html
After the show was said and done, this guy was tying people up on yachts.
Does anyone remember David the Gnome? The 399 year old gnome that was the healer of the forest using acupunture and hypnosis? Heavy stuff for a child. I don’t recal the words to the theme but, man, it was hypnotic.
Then there’s always Reading Rainbow!!! Sing along with me, if you remember:
Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high
Take a look, it’s in a book – Reading Rainbow.
I can go anywhere!
Friends to know and ways to grow – Reading Rainbow.
I can be anything!
Take a look, it’s in a book – Reading Rainbow.
Childhood was the best.
Just wanted to add that Solid Gold was not only one of my favorite shows, it was one of my favorite activities. I used to get all dolled up in my leotards and leg warmers, and oh – we could not forget that essential 80s headband! I’d put on Solid Gold and pretend like I was on the show too. Hey, I was only about nine years old! But seriously, I’ve got to give that show some credit because it’s pretty much how I learned to dance. Hehehee.
@Melissa, Solid Gold was probably a bit more of my sister’s thing… I can imagine her doing something like that, and she probably has. Most of the 80’s I wasn’t really around.
@Shane, since you mentioned Reading Rainbow, it opened a door of childhood memories that I now cannot close.
Thanks again to my sister, her and I would watch Lamb Chop together and “The Song That Never Ends” would’ve probably been on our iPods if such things were around back then. Nevertheless, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the song sung during school field trips on the bus.
As for a few more jingles, there was a popular game (at least in my neigborhood) called Crossfire where you shot marbles across a board to knock some “thing” into your friend’s bin. I can’t really explain, but I loved the commercial because it was some dude singing his heart out:
Crossfire!
You’ll get caught up in the..
Crossfire!
Crossfire, Crossfire, CROSSFIRE!
And there’s the game Operation! and Perfection! I can’t remember the words, but I loved how some of these jingles explained how to play the game. Crossfire might’ve had it too.
Oh yeah, and the name of Winnie the Pooh just became a joke later in life despite having a warm snuggly place in my childhood heart. Now that I think about it, I guess his name is really Winnie and he is a Pooh, or a Pooh Bear. What a Pooh Bear is, I’ve never been sure. But that’s where my childhood innocence lived, or lives.
I really can’t get that Reading Rainbow song out of my head now…
The first movie I saw was Disney’s Peter Pan. It was 1974, I was 4 years old, and our local drive-in was showing it (I have no idea why, since it was made back in the fifties.) I fell in love! With Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, with the Tic-Toc Croc and Tiger Lily, with the Lost Boys and Neverland…with movies. With stories.
This was back in the olden days, before VCRs and DVD players, before you could actually own any movie you wanted and watch it a billion times. Once a movie was out of the theater, that was it. (Unless a local drive in happened to replay it 20 or so years later for unknown reasons). All my mom could do was buy me a See-Read-Hear version of it, the kind with the record that narrates the story while you read the book. (“You will know it’s time to turn the page when Tinkerbell rings her little bells like this…”)
I wore that record out, then read the book on my own so many times that the thing fell apart. But every time I heard the story, or read it for myself, I felt just like I did the first time I saw it in the theater. I have to say, there’s a part of me that misses that. Movies seemed more magical to me then. I appreciated them more.
That didn’t stop me from buying Peter Pan on DVD as an adult, of course. And each time Peter says, “Come on everybody! Here we GO-oooo…off to Neverland!!!” I feel just like I did the first time I saw it in the theater.
Jaden, yes we can! Recently, I’ve been revisiting chiidren’s stories with a new appreciation for the great writing, plot lines and always uplifting messages. NaNo has given me perspective and childrens’s stories must communicate ideas, thoughts, plots in easy to understand language while still holding the interest of a child (tough audience!). Last week it was the Little Engine that helped me chug along, thanks to you Bob’s my guy this week! Yes we can!
Has anyone heard from Jaden? I’m getting pretty worried about her. I hope she’s okay and merely writing a well written screenplay about the way her blood simmers to an overflowing boil whenever she thinks of me.
Either way, I just hope she’s okay! Someone go check on her.
– Shane — Aaaaaaah… They got me. (dying choking sounds)
Sorry for my delayed responses here. The days go by too fast. Moving is the biggest reason for my inactivity. Amongst many other things, I’m also working on some holiday treats that I am pretty sure you will enjoy, which I will upload soon.
That yacht killing story is crazy. How did Deleon think he would get away with that? Couple mysteriously missing the day the yacht is signed over to a guy who has no money? It is so moronic that if it was in a movie, it would simply be the beginning of the story — during the rest of the movie, some smart cop would figure out how and why Deleon was framed. Unfortunately, in the real world, there are just really stupid and ruthless people.
– Melissa — When Solid Gold was on, it was actually hip to be flat chested — they had to be in those slinky outfits they wore and with the moves they did. Gone are the good ol’ days. Now it is all about plastic fantastic.
– t.sterling — I bet you can find your ‘Song that never ends’ on the Internet somewhere. Someone else loves it just as much as you out there.
Crossfire? Sounds like a Jim Hendrix ditty to me.
– RJ Keller — I have not seen Peter Pan in ages. I think I am due. There are some hilarious photos online of this guy dressed up as Peter Pan. It’s been years since I have seen those as well.
The last drive-in theater near where I grew up turned to porn, since it wasn’t getting anymore customers for the regular movies once video was all the rage. So you’d be a little kid in the back seat driving down the country highway and see some serious sex action; it was jaw-dropping. We’d always try to sneak a peak.
Oh, yeah, I had some of those Disney records with the book. Used to sit at the base of the record player, flipping the record, playing it over and over again. Good stuff. Long gone.
– Karen Swim — You are Queen of Inspiration; I am glad I could send some back your way.
My favourite shows are a kid were Mr. Dressup, Fred Penner, The Poka Dot Door, The Elephant Show and Fraggle Rock. By watching The Poka Dot Door, I learned how to tell time in English (at the time, I only knew how to tell time in French). Have any of you heard of any of these shows? I think they’re all Canadian except for Fraggle Rock.