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Janice Burgess, a longtime Nickelodeon television executive who sought to promote children\u2019s curiosity and sense of play for decades, overseeing popular shows like \u201cBlue\u2019s Clues\u201d and \u201cLittle Bill\u201d and creating her own musical children\u2019s show, \u201cThe Backyardigans,\u201d died on Saturday in hospice care in Manhattan. She was 72.<\/p>\n
Her death was confirmed by Brown Johnson, a longtime friend and the creator of Nick Jr., who said the cause was breast cancer.<\/p>\n
In \u201cThe Backyardigans,\u201d five cartoon animals \u2014 Tyrone, Tasha, Pablo, Austin and Uniqua \u2014 imagine their backyard as a place of adventure, traversing deserts, oceans, jungles, rivers and outer space while dancing and singing to music.<\/p>\n
With the series, Ms. Burgess hoped to help children use their imaginations to have fun. In 2004, Ms. Burgess said in an interview with The New York Times<\/a> that the idea for the show stemmed from memories of playing in her own childhood backyard in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI really remember it as a wonderful, happy, safe place,\u201d she said. \u201cYou could have these great adventures just romping around. From there, you could go anywhere or do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The series became a favorite of American preschoolers after it premiered on Nickelodeon in 2004. It was adapted into a live show<\/a>, \u201cThe Backyardigans Live! Tale of the Mighty Knights,\u201d in 2008.<\/p>\n In 2021, several \u201cBackyardigans\u201d songs, including \u201cInto the Thick of It!<\/a>\u201d and \u201cCastaways<\/a>,\u201d found a large and nostalgic audience on TikTok, years after their original release in 2005.<\/p>\n \u201cJanice really taught me about representation in kids\u2019 media and how important it was for kids to not only see themselves, but hear themselves,\u201d Ms. Johnson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Burgess made sure to cast children of color, and the roles were recast every few years as their voices changed, Ms. Johnson said. Ms. Burgess wanted their voices to sound natural and \u201cnot Broadway,\u201d she said. Ms. Burgess, a music lover, included 80 distinct musical genres in \u201cThe Backyardigans,\u201d Ms. Johnson added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like writing a musical every week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The music was composed by Evan Lurie, who said in an interview that Ms. Burgess\u2019s \u201cability to cut to the meat of what needed to be done was just astonishing.\u201d<\/p>\n Janice Burgess was born on March 1, 1952, to John Wesley Burgess and Alma Naomi (Thomas) Burgess. She grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and attended the Ellis School, a girls\u2019 college preparatory school. She graduated from Brandeis University in 1974, according to the university\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n She worked at WQED, the public television station in Pittsburgh, and Sesame Workshop before joining Nick Jr. in 1995. Working at Nick Jr. taught her everything she needed to know about creating a television show for young children, she said at a National Press Club luncheon in 2006<\/a>.<\/p>\n At Nick Jr., she oversaw the production of \u201cBlue\u2019s Clues\u201d and \u201cLittle Bill,\u201d which went on to win Peabody and Emmy Awards. She won a 2008 Daytime Emmy Award<\/a> for outstanding special class animated program for her work on \u201cThe Backyardigans.\u201d In a statement, Nickelodeon called Ms. Burgess \u201cone of the great architects of Nick Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Burgess is survived by her mother and a brother, Jack Burgess.<\/p>\n