Janice Burgess, the longtime television executive behind some of Nickelodeon’s most adored shows for young children and the creator of The Backyardigans, died in hospice care in Manhattan on March 2. The two-time Emmy winner was 72. Her former Nickelodeon colleague Brown Johnson confirmed her death from breast cancer, the New York Times reported. “We are saddened to learn of the passing of one of the great architects of Nick Jr. and creator of the globally beloved series The Backyardigans,” Nickelodeon said in a statement to Vulture. “Janice was one of the greats — inherently creative and kind, and dedicated to the preschool audience everywhere.”
The Pittsburgh native first dipped her toes into the TV business after graduating with an art-history degree from Brandeis University in 1973. She rose from jobs in craft services at Pittsburgh’s WQED station to roles at the Children’s Television Workshop, now known as Sesame Workshop, as a project manager for Ghostwriter and an assistant travel coordinator for 3-2-1 Contact. In 1995, Burgess joined Nick Jr., where she oversaw the production of tender preschool fare like Blues Clues and Little Bill, winning an Emmy for the latter, and even created a show based on her own childhood memories. Running from 2004 to 2010, The Backyardigans followed a group of five animal kids who imagine entire worlds in their backyards as they sing and dance to musical-inspired tunes. The show received eight Daytime Emmy nominations and won in 2008 for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. The show saw a second life with nostalgic members of Gen Z when songs such as “Into the Thick of It” inspired viral dance-challenge fare in 2020, cementing Burgess’s legacy online as well as on TV screens.
Zoe Guy , 2024-03-05 22:50:36
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