From The L.I. Catholic, December 19, 1999 Children’s show first shown on Telecare extending reach by Pete Sheehan Westbury — Long Island locations, such as Jones Beach and the Hewlett Fire Department, are now becoming familiar to children around the country, thanks to the children’s television show, “Zebby’s Zoo.” “Zebby’s Zoo,” which first aired on Telecare, the diocesan television channel, is being carried by one national channel, cable systems in various parts of the country, and on public television. “I’ve been impressed with the positive energy of the show and the people behind it,” Nicholas Frazer, program manager for WLIW Channel 21, Plainview, Long Island’s own Public Broadcast Service (PBS) channel. This fall, Channel 21 began airing episodes of “Zebby’s Zoo” at 7:30 on Saturday mornings in their children’s slot, Mr. Frazer said. “We’ve been hearing good feedback,” Mr. Frazer said, and the show occasionally even showed up on the ratings scale. “It has potential for more.” The program airs on Telecare several times a week both mornings and evenings (check Telecare listings on page 4). The growth of “Zebby’s Zoo,” which features such talking animals as Zebby the Zebra as well as a style of rock music designed to appeal to parents as well as children, has surprised even its creators. ‘Life of its own’ “It’s taken on a life of its own,” said Tim Wahl, who has left his toy business to manage the music, merchandise, and message of “Zebby’s Zoo.” The animals of “Zebby’s Zoo,” along with humans Captain Cadence and Fireman Rick, foster kindness, the golden rule, friendship, perseverance, and safety. The idea for “Zebby’s Zoo” was conceived in the spring of 1996 out of a collaboration of two Wahl brothers, one a musician and the other a toy marketer, who grew up in Farmingdale. “I have a background in marketing and I owned a toy wholesale business,” Tim Wahl said. “I was selling other people’s lines of toys, and I thought I might as well come up with my own.” His brother, Ed, a police officer and a musician, has played in local rock bands and wrote advertising jingles for Tower Records and other area businesses. “We went through the alphabet,” Tim said, looking at various animals to model their characters. “Mice, bunnies, frogs, dinosaurs, and others were already taken, so we went all the way to Z,” he said. So Zebby the Zebra was created, along with his zoo — the cool motorcycle-riding “Lazy Lion,” “Stomper the Elephant,” described in the music as “the biggest friend you’ll ever have,” and Oscar the Orangutan, the would-be rock star. The Wahl brothers, however, were not merely interested in creating another line of toys. Ed Wahl said the music they wanted to speak to kids but at the same time be more modern than music usually presented for children. “Kids are a lot more hip than they were when I was a kid,” he said, so the music rocks. The music would also be important for helping communicate certain values that the brothers wanted to associate with their new line of toys. “We felt there is a void out there. Obviously, there is a lot of violence in children’s shows and toys,” Tim noted, “but there are also over-fluffed characters out there, too, not to mention any names.” Continue