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Disney Jr. · Four Shows · One Big Idea
⭐ ✨ 🌟 💫 🎉
DISNEY JR · ORIGINAL PITCH · CONFIDENTIAL
Four Shows.
One Big Idea.

Centering children of early childhood in play, STEM, craft & social-emotional learning. Ages 2–6.

🧪 Maynard & Journi
🦕 Darnell & the Prehistoric Dig
🎵 The Pierce Freelon Show
✂️ Make, Explore & Play
THE FRAMEWORK · AGES 2–6
Raising whole children through
making, exploring & playing.
Between ages 2 and 6, children are not passive learners — they are active sense-makers. When they build, discover, and play simultaneously, they develop language, spatial reasoning, emotional regulation, and cultural identity all at once.

Each show is grounded in this developmental truth — designed to meet children where they are across every platform and format.
🎨MakeHands build what
the mind imagines
🔭ExploreCuriosity reveals
hidden logic
🎮PlayJoy integrates
everything learned
💚SELFoundation
beneath all three
Social Emotional Learning — the root system every episode grows from
📺 Broadcast
▶ Streaming
📱 Short-Form
🎮 Games
📚 Curriculum
🌐 Online
SHOW 01 · LIVE-ACTION · DISNEY JUNIOR
Maynard & Journi
Play. Exploration. STEM. A real father and daughter — and a kitchen table that becomes a launch pad.
7.3M+
YOUTUBE VIEWS
Ages 2–6
AUDIENCE
Live-Action
FORMAT
SHOW 01 · LIVE-ACTION · AGES 2–6
Maynard & Journi
PLAY · EXPLORATION · STEM · DISNEY JUNIOR
🔬
The Representation Gap
Children of color not seeing scientists who look like the people at their kitchen table are told through absence that discovery is not for them. Maynard & Journi close that gap — not with a message, but with a mirror.
🏡
STEM at the Kitchen Table
Every episode: a question at the kitchen table → Journi field trips into the community → they build something together. The kitchen table becomes a workshop. The workshop becomes a launch pad.
👨‍👧
Real Relationship on Screen
Maynard is Journi's real father. Their off-screen relationship IS the show. Trust that is real cannot be manufactured — and children ages 2 to 6 know the difference.
"Research is clear: STEM engagement in early childhood is not preparation for school. It IS development itself. Maynard and Journi put that truth on screen."
7.3M+
MayNERD YouTube Views
Ages 2–6
Target Audience
1
Real Father-Daughter Pair on Disney Jr
Miss Rachel
Reached Out After Jennifer Hudson Show
SHOW 01 · MAYNARD & JOURNI · WHO THEY ARE
Play.
Craft.
Explore.
Maynard and Journi
🎓
Maynard Okereke
Civil engineer turned science communicator. The "Hip Hop Scientist." Creator of MayNERD's Wild World of Science. Featured on Netflix, Science Channel, Shark Tank, Scientific American. Ebony Power 100 · NSBE Entrepreneur of the Year · National Geographic Kids collaborator.

He is warm, funny, and genuinely curious. Children respond to him the way they respond to a favorite teacher — one who makes them feel like the smartest person in the room.
⭐
Journi — The Heart
Journi is Maynard's real daughter. She is the reason a field trip to an ice cream shop becomes a scientific expedition. She is not a co-host performing childhood — she is a child living it.

Audiences ages 2 to 6 will see themselves in her — not because she performs, but because she IS. The show's greatest asset: their trust is real, and it cannot be manufactured.

Jennifer Hudson Show appearance → Miss Rachel reached out directly.
SHOW 01 · MAYNARD & JOURNI
See It in Action
A pilot episode — kitchen table question to discovery
▶
Watch Maynard & Journi — Pilot Episode
Opens on YouTube · Click to watch ↗
11 min
RUNTIME
Ages 2–6
AUDIENCE
Disney Jr
PLATFORM
🌿 🍃 🌱 🌿 🍃 🦕 🦴 🦶 🦶
SHOW 02 · ANIMATED SERIES · DISNEY JUNIOR
Darnell & the
Prehistoric D.I.G.
The DIG Squad
0
SHOWS LIKE THIS ON DISNEY JR
Ages 2–5
AUDIENCE
Animated
FORMAT
SHOW 02 · ANIMATED SERIES · AGES 2–5
Darnell & the Prehistoric D.I.G.
DINOSAUR INVESTIGATION GUILD · DISNEY JUNIOR
0
Disney Jr shows centering a Black boy in STEM adventure, ages 2–5
~14%
Of animated leads are Black — yet Black children are ~15% of US kids under 18
Age 5
When children form beliefs about who belongs in science
"Darnell is a five-year-old Black boy from Oakland who believes dinosaurs are still out there — so he starts the D.I.G., finds a magical prehistoric amulet, and discovers a hidden world beneath his city where they still exist."
🧒🏿
Black Boys on Disney Jr.
No Disney Junior show currently centers a Black boy in a STEM adventure series for ages 2 to 5. Darnell is the first. That's the entire argument.
🔬
Real Science Framework
NGSS + CASEL research frameworks baked in. Every episode: real paleontology, real inquiry cycle, real emotional regulation. Disney stands behind every episode.
🦕
Clear Lane, No Competition
Gigantosaurus and Dino Ranch exist. Neither centers a Black boy. Neither is set in a real city. D.I.G. has a clear lane — and no competition in it.
SHOW 02 · DARNELL · EPISODE FORMAT
Same clues. Bigger journeys. All explore.
Every episode a new discovery — same structure, wildly different world. The ritual holds children safe. The adventure blows their minds.
01
The Clue — D.I.G. HQ Above Ground
Same launch point every episode. A clue found. Active question in the first 30 seconds. Audience sorts, counts, and compares alongside Darnell. Tactile play mirrors the screen immediately.
02
The Portal Jump — Benny Initiates
Benny initiates. The amulet activates — only when a clue is solved, not by wishing. Darnell says the phrase with the audience. D.I.G. field gear transforms. One jump per episode. Together in, together out.
03
The Investigation — Inside the Taguan
A vast prehistoric ecosystem beneath Oakland — ancient jungles, underground rivers, living dinosaurs. Inspired by Son Doong, the world's largest cave. New dinosaur species every episode. Audience helps identify it.
04
The Close — Notebook Shut, Camera On
One new piece of information about Benny's herd. Darnell documents it. "You saw it too. That means YOU are officially in the D.I.G." Points at camera. Same time tomorrow.
SHOW 03 · LIVE-ACTION VARIETY · DISNEY JUNIOR
The Pierce Freelon Show
Beat. Build. Belong. The live-action variety show children of color have always deserved.
Grammy
NOMINATED
Emmy
AWARD-WINNING PBS
Ages 2–5
AUDIENCE
SHOW 03 · LIVE-ACTION VARIETY · AGES 2–5
The Pierce Freelon Show
BEAT · BUILD · BELONG · DISNEY JUNIOR
Disney Jr has never had a Black male lead in a live-action variety show. Pierce brings jazz sensibility, hip-hop energy, global craft traditions, and genuine play — and centers children of color as the creative leaders of that room.
A GREAT & LIVING TRADITION
Mickey Mouse Club
1955–1996 · ABC/Disney · The variety show template for generations. Pierce's direct ancestor.
Yo Gabba Gabba!
2007–2015 · Nick Jr. · DJ Lance Rock as Black male host. The closest modern comp. Pierce is the evolution.
The Electric Company
1971–1977 · PBS · Morgan Freeman. Proved Black joy belongs on screen. Pierce continues that work.
Sesame Street
1969–present · PBS · Proved representation works. Pierce is built on this foundation.
Romper Room
1953–1994 · Syndicated · The original warm, host-led preschool variety show.
ZOOM
1972–2005 · PBS · Kids creating content for kids — games, crafts, science, play. Pierce takes this further.
SHOW 03 · THE PIERCE FREELON SHOW
This show lives in five worlds.
Pierce moves through all of them.
♪Singing & MusicPierce performs original songs live — layering jazz runs, hip-hop beats, and global rhythms. Kids call back and discover music lives inside them.
💃Dance & MovementStructured and free-form dance rooted in African, Caribbean, and hip-hop traditions. Every child's body belongs on this stage.
🎭Puppets & CharactersCharacters drawn from Afrodiasporic storytelling and jazz archetypes. Each carries a different emotional world.
🔨The BuildDIY craft using real materials, real kids, and real mess — rooted in making traditions of communities around the world.
✦The Mirror"You are creative. You are brilliant. You belong here." Pierce says it directly to camera. Every episode. No exceptions.
SHOW 03 · PIERCE FREELON · WHO HE IS
Pierce's whole career has been
rehearsal for this exact stage.
🎵
Jazz Sensibility — Grammy-nominated musician, producer & children's recording artist
Improvisation, call-and-response, the freedom to follow the music wherever it goes. No two performances alike. The show's structural language IS jazz.
🎤
Hip-Hop Pedagogy — Beat Making Lab, Emmy Award-winning PBS web series
Beat-making, layering, and sampling as teaching tools. The show thinks like hip-hop. Beat Making Lab took this pedagogy around the world and proved it works at scale.
🌍
International Craft Memory — Blackspace Makerspace Founder · PBS Kids: Alma's Way & Work It Out Wombats!
From kente weaving to Japanese origami to Caribbean metalwork — every Build segment connects to a global making tradition. Pierce is already inside the PBS Kids ecosystem.
🚀
Afrofuturist Imagination — Collaborated with Questlove, Common & the Obama White House
Every episode imagines a world where Black children lead and define what comes next — not as aspiration, but as present reality. Pierce moves at the highest level.
SHOW 04 · 11-MIN EPISODIC · 6 ROTATING HOSTS · DISNEY JUNIOR
Make, Explore & Play
Six real-world creators. One shared mission. Every child a maker, every episode a discovery.
6
ROTATING HOSTS
11 min
PER EPISODE
Ages 2–6
AUDIENCE
SHOW 04 · 11-MIN EPISODIC · 6 ROTATING HOSTS · AGES 2–6
Make, Explore & Play
"What happens when you build something, discover its secrets, and then let yourself play with it?"
🏆
Shattering the Aspirational Ceiling
Black and Brown children as architects of the future — not spectators of innovation. Every host is a working creator who naturally lives Make, Explore, and Play.
🔬
STEM Through the Lens of Joy
Science and discovery presented as play — breaking the myth that STEM is not for them. Three questions per episode: "What can we build?" · "How does it work?" · "What happens when we try?"
👨‍👩‍👧
Parents & Kids in the Same Room
Designed for co-viewing. Hosts speak to children. The framework speaks to parents. Whole-child development, multimodal engagement, cultural identity. Both win.
🌍
Craft as Universal Language
Every culture makes. Every child plays. From Gee's Bend quilts to Haitian metal sculpture to Japanese origami — craft is how communities pass down knowledge, identity, love, and survival.
11
Min/episode
6
Rotating hosts
3
Pillars/episode
∞
Scalable verticals
SHOW 04 · MAKE, EXPLORE & PLAY · THE PHILOSOPHY
Every culture makes. Every child plays.
Craft is not a hobby. Across every civilization in human history, making things by hand has been how communities pass down knowledge, identity, love, and survival. This show honors that truth — and puts it in front of children ages 2 to 6.
🏔️
Indigenous Communities
Land, Story & Hand
Weaving, beading, land-based building — making as ceremony, memory, and living knowledge passed across generations. Navajo Nation, Haudenosaunee, Pacific Coast peoples.
🧵
African American South
Quilts, Clay & Community
Gee's Bend quilting, sweetgrass basket-weaving, ironwork — Black Southern makers encoded history and resistance into everyday objects.
🎨
Caribbean Traditions
Metal, Carnival & Color
Haitian metal sculpture, Jamaican carnival construction — making as celebration, defiance, and pure creative joy. Every object is a story and a stance.
🌍
Global DIY Traditions
A World of Makers
Japanese origami, West African kente cloth, Mexican alebrijes — every culture has always made meaning by hand. A Zulu child and a Cherokee child weave the same knot.
SHOW 04 · MAKE, EXPLORE & PLAY · THE TALENT
Six Real-World Creators. One Shared Mission.
MO
Maynard Okereke
LEAD STEM EXPLORER
Civil engineer · MayNERD's Wild World of Science · 7.3M+ YouTube views · National Geographic Kids · Netflix · Shark Tank · Scientific American · Ebony Power 100
Make · Explore · Play
PF
Pierce Freelon
LEAD CREATIVE MAKER
Grammy-nominated · Beat Making Lab (Emmy Award-winning, PBS) · Blackspace Makerspace founder · PBS Kids: Alma's Way & Work It Out Wombats! · Questlove, Common, Obama White House
Make · Explore · Play
MM
Ms. Monica
EARLY CHILDHOOD GUIDE
Circle Time with Ms. Monica · 1.2M+ YouTube subscribers · Certified early childhood educator · Founder, Preschool Explorers
Explore · Play
KB
Kaitlin Becker
CREATIVE PLAY ANCHOR
Creator of Meekah (Blippi franchise) · Disney+ & Netflix · Two-time Emmy-nominated · Kidscreen Award winner · Musical theatre performer & songwriter
Make · Explore · Play
TB
Tabitha Brown
SOUL & PLAY AMBASSADOR
Emmy Award-winning actress & host · Tab Time (children's series) · 3x NYT bestselling author · 13M+ followers · America's Mom
Make · Explore · Play
EC
Emmanuel Carter
SONG, DANCE & DISCOVERY
Emmy Award-winning host, actor & choreographer · Noggin Knows (Nickelodeon) · Original songwriter — Reading Rainbow meets Mister Rogers meets Magic School Bus
Make · Explore · Play
Why These Shows.
Why Now.
Why Disney Jr.
Four shows. Four lenses. One unified belief: when children ages 2 to 6 create together — regardless of where they come from — they discover the impulse to make, to wonder, and to play is the one thing they already share.
🧪 Maynard & Journi
🦕 Darnell & the Prehistoric Dig
🎵 The Pierce Freelon Show
✂️ Make, Explore & Play
📺 Broadcast
▶ Streaming
📱 Short-Form
🎮 Games
📚 Curriculum
🌐 Online
Confidential · For Development Purposes Only