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The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 64

Location:
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Issue Date:
Page:
64
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

NewsEXTRA BQQ6. fe ops mm 4 MIDAS TOUCH Helena Harris (top) gave the world Bananas In Pyjamas (above left) now she's changed her focus to developing a pint-size band (above right) called Hi-5. She created B1 and B2, OIlie, Millie and now she is the driving force behind the new pop icons, Hi-5. Christine Sams reports. WHEN Amy and Morgan Harris argued over the ownership of a pink cup, their mother didn't get cranky with them.

Instead, she put them on television. Turning family tiffs into TV shows delighting millions of youngsters is part the everyday life of Helena Harris, the original creator and producer of the Bananas In Pyjamas series and the woman jointly responsible for the latest sensation in children's television a young, funky group called Hi-5. If her children's names sound familiar, it's no accident Amy and Morgan are two of the main characters on Bananas, and their friend Lulu didn't miss out either. That was back in 1992 when, as an ABC staff member, Harris suggested a kids' show which could bring to life all the toys from Playschool Bananas In Pyjamas was created by Englishman Carey Blyton (nephew of Enid Blyton) in 1971 and the song was a favourite among a generation of Playschool watchers from 1976. It was Harris who ultimately turned the Bananas from a poem into a supershow.

She is no longer at the ABC, but her concept which she narrowed down to a show about Bl, B2 and their friends has turned into one of the greatest phenomenons of children's entertainment Seven years later Harris is still turning ideas into gold with friend and business partner Posie Graeme-Evans. Together the women formed their own company in 1997 called Kids Like Us. There is no doubt kids do like them, and so do television executives and marketing managers. In fact, men in upper management positively love them. The women have come up with three television concepts so far.

Jhe first was Hi-5, which was snapped up by Channel 9 within days of it being told the concept. The other two are yet to be released. Amid the bright surrounds of her home office at Elanora Heights, asked. "Doesn't that one look sweet? "With Bananas, we were hardly inundated by people wanting to do merchandising. In fact it was completely the other way around because we had to chase them.

"Now Bananas has changed things forever and with Hi-5 it a totally different story. So many manufacturers want to be involved, we're being really picky." With a gleam in her eye, Harris mentioned a manufacturer's recent suggestion to produce a range of Hi-5 dolls. "We don't want a pointy-breasted, skinny-waisted thing. Unless we can get dolls that are more anatomically correct, we won't do it "It's a very, very powerful position to be in." WHAT else can this very clever woman come up with? Olympic mascots, for a start Games organisers recognised a kids' guru when they saw one and approached Harris to be a creative consultant. She went in and Syd, Oily and Millie came out For Harris, the whole experience was an amusing sideline to her usual career.

"I did feel kind of like there wasn't a word I could say that was wrong. I had advertising executives hanging off my every word which, believe me, doesn happen in television!" As a result of all Harris's success she should be a very rich woman indeed. Surely she must be rolling in bucketloads of cash? No. Because she was an ABC staffer when Bananas was created, the royalties, worth millions of dollars, were never hers to own. She displays no bitterness, but you can be sure she holds the international rights to Hi-5.

"We've already had offers from England and the States and we haven't even created an international launch yet" she said. "It seems extremely promising, but you should never be too cocky, just in case." Throughout all her hectic days of production and promotion, Harris remains the warm sort of woman who picks out random cards from a "lucky bowl" on her desk to inspire her day. The first card picked from her pile had "giving" written on one side, but later Harris couldn't resist the temptation to dip her fingers into the bowl again. The second card read "creativity" and she laughed. Harris showed distinct pride in the new show that has again won the hearts of under 10s.

"Kris Noble (Nine's head of drama) has a five-year-old daughter and he was really enthusiastic about the whole thing. Within two weeks we had a contract which from any network is extraordinary." Extraordinary, too, is the midas touch of the woman who 30 years ago, at the age of 16, migrated to Australia with her family. Even she couldn't have dreamt the impact her ideas would have on Australian entertainment So are the raw reactions of children her secret weapon? She laughed. "Let's just say Hi-5 could be the first show approved by the executives' kids. "Then again, the success of Bananas has changed the minds of a whole lot of network heads, I imagine." The children involved deserve a pat on the back because since Hi-5 was formed last September, the group has captured an avid audience.

Its first commercial video, Move Your Body, sold more than 80,000 copies and there are high expectations for Hi-5's first album, due out on September 27. Harris doesn't shy away from the overwhelming influence of her own kids on the TV creations. Despite an already successful TV career, she became interested in producing created with Graeme-Evans worked to perfection. "When we gathered the final five around the piano to teach them the theme song, they really sounded like a band. It was goosebumpj stuff, even though they had never met" So what was the formula exactly? "We weren't looking for stunningly beautiful people; in fact we wanted to make a statement against the whole Barbie look.

"Anyone with long blonde hair had a point against them." "If we had found a fat boy or girl who had the talents of these people, they would have been in." Despite best intentions, the final five ended up slim, toned and good-looking. So are you thinking what I'm thinking, Bl? Hi-5 is not just an entertaining idea for kids, but a brilliant way to make money from associated products videos, CDs and a clothing range. Everything looks pretty normal inside Harris home office from the brightly coloured couches to the friendly dog called Daisy but a rack of pint-sized Hi-5 clothes gave her game away. A bright-eyed and bubbly Harris rushed over to finger the clothes and show off the bright new range destined for Target stores across the nation. "Isn't this one gorgeous?" she children's shows when they were young.

There are no more characters named after Morgan, now 10, or Amy, nearly 15, but both kids are credited with writing lyrics for the new album. The creation of Hi-5 has turned Harris's own talents from fruit to Spice. Using set criteria, she and Graeme-Evans auditioned hundreds of young people for the all-singing, all-dancing roles in the show and settled happily on a perfect final five who would make up "the THEIR chosen stars are Kathleen De Leon, Nathan Foley, Tim Harding, Kellie Hoggart and Charli Robinson a group resembling a clean-cut, cheerful version of the Spice Girls and Take That combined. The selection process also resembled the factory-line methods used by the Spice Girls creators, but Harris insisted the motives behind Hi-5 were based on talent, rather than sales. "The chances of five people with that amount of talent ever finding one another and coming together as a band are just so unlikely," she said.

"Even The Beatles only really had two phenomenally talented people in their band." Harris believes the formula she THE SUN HERALD www.tunherald.com.au September 5, 1999 69.

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Pages Available:
2,319,638
Years Available:
1831-2002