By Jessie Scanlon
Big Bird fans have something big to look forward to: Between the Lions. The show is the first product of Sirius Thinking Ltd., an educational programming company founded in 1994 by ex-Apple CEO John Sculley (above), along with Christopher Cerf, Michael Frith, and Norman Stiles - a creative trio whose combined résumé includes Sesame Street and Jim Henson Productions.
Like the classic children's show, Between the Lions offers the nuts and bolts of reading and phonics in the form of fantastical stories and animal characters. Unlike Sesame Street, however, the Sirius production uses sophisticated live action, animation, and 3-D rendering technologies and will exist in multiple media. Theo (above left), Cleo, and Click the Mouse will début on TV in 1999 - and then move on to the Web, books, and, as Sculley promises, "any media that words can be printed on."
ELECTRIC WORD
Sesame Street, The Next Generation
