American brothers Chris and
Martin Kratt seem to have found a
magic formula for enthusing not
only young audiences but also
parents and educators. Zoologists
by training, they built an award-
winning family entertainment
brand based on their fascination
with animals and now their
wildlife programmes are aired in
close to 150 countries. We asked
Chris Kratt what made two
scientists embark on a career in
children’s TV
e have loved animals and
the outdoors all our lives
and after graduating we
wondered what to do next,
like going into conservation
or research. There seemed to
be no wildlife documentaries
for kids despite kids being the demographic group
which likes animals more than any other, so we
decided to make a kids’ show that would be really fun
to watch. We got a little camcorder from the local video
store and went to Costa Rica to try our hand at making
wildlife videos. We put ourselves into the shoes of an
eight‐year‐old child and focused on making videos that
were a “creature adventure” in progress. Everything
became an adventure: going to the beach at night,
waiting for 40,000 sea turtles to emerge from the sea
and, ultimately, experiencing their arrival and the
laying of their eggs in the sand.
We brought our early videos into schools and did
assemblies – our form of market research. Kids really
loved them. So we sent the footage to producers and
broadcasters but ended up getting lots and lots of
rejections. Still, encouraged by kids’ reactions, we kept
going and after five years, a producer from PBS asked
us to make a series for them, which went out in 1994.
Then everything took off: our programmes have won
many awards and are broadcast internationally in close
to 150 countries.
What is the secret of your success?
Most important are good stories and good characters,
that’s the key to any good TV programme. Our shows
are a real mix of humour and adventure. As far as
animal content goes, we try and dig up the little known
facts. We like to show animal species that people have
never heard of and unique nuggets of information. We
go for the “WOW” factor.
But one of the themes that carries through all our
CREATUREADVENTURING
W
