I watch lots of kid’s television because I have two year old twins. I know Dora, I know Deigo, I know Blue, I know the Wonder Pets by name and Caillou is a friend of mine. I draw the line at Barney. I draw the line at Elmo. They creep me out. We watched all of these shows this summer during Washington’s sticky heatwave. So, when I first saw the commerical for a new show starting August, 20th, called “Yo Gabba Gabba,” I kinda freaked out.

“Oh my god, they know I am watching,” I thought. Because Yo Gabba Gabba is a show made for me. Not just my kids, but me. The cool urban, youngish parent who has lived her twenties on a steady diet of Kid Robot, anime and Indie Pop.

I set the DVR for yesterday’s premiere and was ready to be wowed. I was not at all disappointed. The minute that DJ Lance in his orange suit and furry hat brings his monsters to life by taking them out of a boom box and putting them in the diorama and yelling, “Yo Gabba Gabba,” I was hooked.

The episode’s themes went from eating all of the food on your plate (“There’s a party in my tummy!”) to cleaning up to trying a snack even if you don’t think you will like it. The songs are modern and rad and memorable. The kids that jump around are cool and real and not made up like corpses like the kids on Barney. Then what came next just blew me away! Dude, Elijah Wood shows up in a bright yellow t-shirt to teach us to dance. For real.

Reading an article on the show, I also found out that in future episodes we will see none other than Biz Markie and the Shins. All of this brilliant goodness comes from novice TV producers Scott Schultz and Christian Jacobs. The story of how they got the show made is pretty cool. A quote from this article in the Mercury News:

One of the duo’s wildest ideas was to have the Clown Prince of Hip-Hop, Biz Markie, teach kids beat-boxing on the show. The two tracked him down, and it turned out he was going to be in Los Angeles the same week they were shooting the pilot.

The resulting “Biz’s Beat of the Day” segment was key in generating online interest in the pilot, and it has become a recurrent feature on the show’s first season.

Now, my two year olds haven’t yet warmed up to Yo Gabba Gabba as much as I have, but I have hope. No matter what, I am going to watch it. Anyone who thinks this show is too weird for their little ones, but Barney and his plastic corpse-looking made up kids are ok is just lame.

Check it out!

Yo Gabba Gabba! When 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. weekdays on Nickelodeon and Nick 2. 6, 6:30, 8 and 8:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday on Noggin.