From The N.Y. Times, July 2, 2000
Watch Out Barney! Here Comes Zebby.
By Marcelle S. Fischler

Young children like to watch the same videos and listen to the same music cassettes over and over again. But repeatedly hearing their syrupy songs often makes parents cringe.

Enter Tim, Ed, Matt Wahl and Nora Wahl Firestone, siblings nurtured on the music of Van Halen, Madonna and the Grateful Dead, raised watching ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Electric Company.'' If a purple dinosaur named Barney could capture the hearts -- and ears -- of millions of children, why couldn't they come up with a character who could enchant grown-ups too?

Four years ago, Ed Wahl, 33, a Nassau County police officer, and Matt Wahl, 26, an officer with the New York Police Department, wrote a rock 'n' roll soundtrack, using the same beat as the music they loved growing up in the Plainedge school district. Canvassing the alphabet, the Wahls chose a zebra as their star. Why? It was the only animal they could think of that wasn't already a known character.

The strategy worked. Recently, ''Zebby's Zoo,'' believed to be the first nationally syndicated children's program conceived and produced on Long Island, was picked up by America One, the cable and satellite network. Added to Telecare, where the show has been broadcast twice a day, five times a week since its inception, and WLIW where it airs Saturday mornings at 7:30, ''Zebby's Zoo'' can now be seen in 62-million homes nationwide.

''It's 'Sesame Street' on steroids,'' said Tim Wahl, 32, who produces the half-hour show and runs the business end of the fast-growing ''Zebby Zoo'' empire out of his Westbury home. ''It's very simple, but it's what the kids love; it's what the kids want to see,'' he said. ''It's very upbeat. It's something that the parents could really relate to. It's something that's easily tolerated.''

Even by their mother. There was Karen Wahl, 56, on the stage at the Nassau County Fair in Uniondale recently, dressed in a Zebby the Zebra costume, dancing her way across the stage.

From across the midway, by stroller and on foot, came the toddler and kindergarten set, gathering at the foot of the stage to sing and dance along with the zebra. ''Do the Zebby, do the Zebby. . . .'' blared from the speakers. While Zebby and a friend, the Lazy Lion, hoofed, Tim Wahl pulled out a table laden with Zebby T-shirts, audio and video cassettes and Beanie-Baby knockoffs of Zebby.

Merchandising, after all, is what ''Zebby's Zoo'' is all about.

The children's entertainment program started with online sales of music cassettes. The characters weren't brought to life until the Wahls created the television show. By then, thousand of videos, cassettes and stuffed animals had been sold.

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