Who is Gerbert?
Gerbert is a small kid that captures the innocence of childhood. Created to teach and entertain, Gerbert encourages children to become comfortable with who they are today and to believe in who they can become tomorrow. Gerbert helps children explore their minds, hearts and feelings, and the world around them.
Gerbert is a voice for the young child that has yet learned to express their feelings and a voice to the parents and Grandparents to explain what a young child is thinking but is not yet able to express their thoughts or feelings.
Gerbert is a child whose world is like any child’s. It consists of his room, his home, his school, his family and friends, and his wonderful imagination. Like most children he experiences frustration of being little, the fear of friendship, and the simple wonder of life. Through watching Gerbert, children gain a strong sense of self-worth, understanding their emotions, and develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
“Gerbert doesn’t teach, he experiences. Other children can experience with and through him. Children learn through seeing situations and feelings Gerbert is going through, because he is one of them. Gerbert has no nationality, race, color, or creed, he is simply Orange, and his parents are heard but never seen. Gerbert is someone every kid in the world can relate to.”
“Gerbert IS the personification of childhood.”
History and Facts about The Gerbert Show
In the days when Sesame Street was the only pre-school national TV show, Tim Robertson and Chris Christian, who both had pre-school children, felt there should be a TV show that would reach small children with a hero they could relate to that would instill good morals and values encouraging them to live with love, kindness, and forgiveness, but also to let them understand through watching Gerbert how to feel and react to many of life issues when they happen. Issues such as peer pressure, divorce, challenged friends, bullying, sadness by being hurt by a friend, dishonesty, etc. Small Children can’t express how these things affect them, but Gerbert can express what they are feeling for them. This not only makes the child feel someone understands but lets the adult watching understand what their small child might be feeling but can’t express when they face one of life’s issues.
The Gerbert show combines live action, computer animation and emotions of the heart that teach children about the real issues of life. The music is written and produced by Grammy Winning Producer Chris Christian and “Gerbert” is constructed by Kermit Love (known as Jim Henson’s puppet maker and the namesake of Kermit the Frog).
All episodes are filled with original songs, poems, music videos, finger puppets Dot and Dash (finger puppets that speak through sounds, not words so every child around the world can understand), a Children’s Hymn and Gerbert’s charming humor and hopeful spirit that tickles the funny bone and teaches valuable life lessons.
There is a summary lesson by Gerbert at the end of each show to review the lesson learned in each show, ending with a warm encouragement:
“Keep Dreaming, Keep Learning, cause that’s how you grow.
See You Later Alligator”
Relaunch of Gerbert
In preparation of a re-release of the Gerbert Show franchise, the past few years have been spent digitally transferring all the masters, B rolls, outtakes, bloopers, PSA’s featuring many celebrities, intro and exit bumpers, and over 100 of tapes of the original footage. Most of the original footage has never been seen before by the public.
There are over 50 Gerbert 30-minute shows, an additional 10 compilation shows of music videos and educational curriculum, and over 200 songs that have been seen and heard around the world for decades. Between the years 1986 and 2016, The Gerbert show was either internationally distributed by Westinghouse or seen nationally on PSB, ABC Family Channel, TBN, CBN, and many other networks. Gerbert was one of the Top 10 ranked children’s shows by TV guide along with Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and has been one of the top selling Pre-School shows in Walmart, Childrens stores, Blockbusters, and other outlets.
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