The Fresh Beat Band (originally known as The JumpArounds) is an American live-action musical children's television series created by the husband-and-wife duo of Scott Kraft and Nadine van der Velde and developed by Kraft, van der Velde, and Alice Prodanou for Nickelodeon. The show stars Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Thomas Hobson, Shayna Rose (later Tara Perry), and Jon Beavers as the "Fresh Beats" (Kiki, Shout, Marina, and Twist), described as four best friends in a band who are determined to follow their dreams. Kraft and van der Velde additionally serve as executive producers of the series.
The Fresh Beat Band | |
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Also known as | The JumpArounds |
Genre | Musical fiction Children's television series Comedy |
Created by | |
Developed by |
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Written by |
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Directed by |
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Starring |
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Opening theme | "The Fresh Beat Band!" |
Ending theme | "The Fresh Beat Band!" (instrumental) |
Composers |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 60 + 1 stand-alone special[1] (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Production locations | Paramount Studios, Hollywood |
Cinematography |
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Editors |
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Camera setup | Multi-camera |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Production company | Nickelodeon Productions |
Original release | |
Network |
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Release | August 24, 2009 December 7, 2013 | –
Related | |
Fresh Beat Band of Spies |
During the first season, Dan Danko and Tom Mason served as the head writers and wrote a majority of the episodes, with additional contributions from Prodanou (who also served as developer and story editor), Bradley Zweig, Matt Sheppo, John Ritchie, Amy Keating Rogers, Laurie Israel, Rachel Ruderman, and Kerri Grant. Kraft and van der Velde were only credited for developing the series for TV during the first season. Beginning with the second season, they took over the writing positions from Danko and Mason, who departed to work on other projects, while Prodanou retained her position as developer, with the story editor credit being dropped. Kraft and van der Velde ended up co-writing all of the episodes for the second season alongside Carla Banks Waddles, Kim Duran, Heather MacGillvray, and Linda Mathious. In addition, new writer Tom Saunders, as well as Kraft and Duran's eventual PAW Patrol collaborator Ursula Ziegler-Sullivan, were each credited for co-writing one episode. Kraft, van der Velde, Duran, MacGillvray, and Mathious all returned to write the episodes for the third season. Banks Waddles also returned to the writing team, but could only do so on occasion due to her commitments with other projects; she was credited for writing only three out of the 20 episodes. Calvin Leung, who additionally serves as script supervisor and coordinator with Grant, Linda Ota, Jennifer Farmer, and Dawn Dreiling, was hired to co-write one episode for the third season as an additional writer, alongside Duran, Kraft, MacGillvray, Mathious, and van der Velde. Additionally, beginning with their addition to the writing staff in season 2, MacGillvray and Mathious serve as consulting producers with Duran as executive consultant. Susan R. Nessanbaum-Goldberg serves as producer, and Jim Kukucka and Chris Robinson alternate as line producers.
During season 1, the majority of the episodes were directed by Linda Mendoza, Neal Israel, Jonathan Judge, or Henry Chan. Judge, Israel, and Chan all returned to direct episodes for season 2, joined by James Wahlberg, Jody Margolin Hahn, and co-creator, co-writer, and co-executive producer Scott Kraft. Season 3 marked the return of Mendoza to the directing crew after a hiatus from the show, as well as Judge, Wahlberg, Chan, Kraft, and, briefly, Israel. Animator and cartoonist Savage Steve Holland also joined the directing team for the third season.
In addition to serving as creators, developers, executive producers, and co-writers, Kraft and van der Velde also served as lyricists for a majority of the show's songs, including the opening theme, the closing theme "Great Day", "Bananas", "Get Up And Go Go", "Friends Give Friends A Hand", "Let's Play", "Let's Dance, Everyone", "School Day", "I Can Do Anything", "No Problem We Can't Solve", "Loco Legs", "Stomp The House", "Tap It Out", "Bounce!", "Freeze Dance", "Rock This Ride", "Shine", "Drum Party", "Good Times", "Cheer", "Here For You", "Fresh Start", "DJ Get The Party Started", "Every Little Thing", and many others. Kraft and van der Velde mainly worked alongside the composing trio of Christopher "Chris" Wagner, Dan Pinnella, and Ric Markmann, collectively known as Matter Music. In addition, Peter Zizzo, Andrew Schlesinger, Matthew Gerrard, Elizabeth Ashley Saunig-Gerrard, Chip Whitewood, and Phil Galdston wrote and produced several other new songs for season 3: Gerrard, Saunig-Gerrard, and Whitewood provided "Here We Go" (the successor of "Get Up And Go Go"), "Reach For The Sky", and "We're Unstoppable"; Zizzo wrote "A Friend Like You", "Another Perfect Day" (the successor of "School Day"), "Music (Keeps Me Movin')", and "Surprise Yourself"; Schlesinger wrote "Just Like A Rockstar"; and Galdston wrote "Born Ready".
The series aired from August 24, 2009 to December 7, 2013. In 2015, an animated television series, Fresh Beat Band of Spies, premiered on Nickelodeon. All four members of the band at the time (Gonzalez-Nacer, Hobson, Perry, and Beavers) lent their voices to their respective characters in the spin-off.
Also, in 2010, Gonzalez-Nacer, Hobson, Rose, and Beavers appeared in the Nickelodeon Mega Music Fest.
All episodes follow the same basic structure:
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
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First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 20 | August 24, 2009 | May 28, 2010 | |
2 | 20 | August 30, 2010 | July 24, 2011 | |
3 | 20 | June 24, 2011 | December 7, 2013 | |
Special | April 21, 2013 |
During the buildup to the show's debut, the band was initially advertised as The JumpArounds. Commercials promoting the band under that name were in heavy rotation on Nickelodeon prior to the series debut. The change occurred approximately in mid July 2009. The name was revealed on NickJr.com, then made its debut on television.[3]
The show's main characters are:[4] |
There are also four children known as "The Junior Beats" who are essentially the child equivalent of their grown-up counterparts. They sing, dance, and dress as a corresponding character.
The Fresh Beat Band: Music From the Hit TV Show was released on January 31, 2012.[5] The album sold 189,000 copies in the US that year.[6] A second collection, Vol 2.0: More Music From The Hit TV Show, was released 10 months later on October 9, 2012.[7] The soundtracks contain songs from multiple episodes of the series, as well as songs that did not get performed in the episodes. Most of these songs, including the opening and closing themes, were composed by the trio of Ric Markmann, Dan Pinnella, and Christopher "Chris" Wagner (collectively known as Matter Music), with lyrics by the series' creators and executive producers Scott Kraft and Nadine van der Velde. Other composers, lyricists, and producers included Matthew Gerrard, Elizabeth Ashley Saunig-Gerrard, Chip Whitewood, Peter Zizzo, Andrew Schlesinger, Shelley Rosenberg, Michael Smith, Matthew Tishler, and Phil Galdston.
Four singles were released to iTunes; "Great Day" was released on February 2, 2010, "Here We Go" was released on June 28, 2011, "A Friend Like You" was released on September 13, 2011, and "Just Like a Rockstar" was released on November 29, 2011.[8][9][10][11]
Music from the Hit TV Show | ||||
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Studio album by The Fresh Beat Band | ||||
Released | January 31, 2012 | |||
Recorded | 2009–2011 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:13 | |||
Language | English | |||
Label | Viacom International Inc., Legacy Recordings, KRU Music, Varèse Sarabande | |||
Director | Thomas Hobson Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer Zendaya | |||
Producer | Norman, Yusry, Edry | |||
Compiler | Arena Wan | |||
The Fresh Beat Band chronology | ||||
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Singles from The Fresh Beat Band | ||||
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No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Fresh Beat Band Theme Song" | 0:49 |
2. | "Here We Go" | 1:53 |
3. | "A Friend Like You" | 2:19 |
4. | "Just Like a Rockstar" | 2:02 |
5. | "Reach for the Sky" | 1:55 |
6. | "I Can Do Anything" | 2:01 |
7. | "Bananas" | 1:47 |
8. | "Music (Keeps Me Movin')" | 2:09 |
9. | "Good Times" | 2:00 |
10. | "Loco Legs" | 2:37 |
11. | "Get Up and Go Go" | 2:08 |
12. | "Another Perfect Day" | 2:12 |
13. | "Shine" | 2:19 |
14. | "Stomp the House" | 2:15 |
15. | "Surprise Yourself" | 2:10 |
16. | "We're Unstoppable" | 2:06 |
17. | "Friends Give Friends a Hand" | 1:20 |
18. | "Freeze Dance" | 1:53 |
19. | "Great Day" | 2:08 |
20. | "Sun Beautiful Sun" (Bonus track by the Bubble Guppies) | 2:10 |
Name | Release Date | Number of Episodes | Episode Titles |
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The Wizard of Song | August 14, 2012 | 3 |
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Name | Release Date | Number of Episodes | Episode Titles |
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Season 1 | March 6, 2012[12] | 5 (Disc 1) 5 (Disc 2) 5 (Disc 3) 5 (Disc 4) |
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
Disc 3:
Disc 4:
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Season 2 | March 6, 2012[13] | 5 (Disc 1) 5 (Disc 2) 5 (Disc 3) 4 (Disc 4) |
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
Disc 3:
Disc 4:
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Season 3 | April 10, 2014[14] | 5 (Disc 1) 5 (Disc 2) 5 (Disc 3) 4 (Disc 4) |
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
Disc 3:
Disc 4:
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Name | Release Date | Number of Episodes | Episode Titles |
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Nickelodeon: Rootin' Tootin' Wild West | January 29, 2013 (Walmart) August 6, 2013 (retail) |
1 |
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Nickelodeon: Once Upon a Rhyme | April 30, 2013 |
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Nickelodeon: Celebrate Fall! | August 18, 2015 |
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Name | Release Date | Number of Episodes | Episode Titles |
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To School We Go! | August 16, 2010 | 1 |
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Haunted Halloween Vol. 3 | October 25, 2010 |
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Bundle of Love Vol. 2 | January 31, 2011 |
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Move to the Music | June 6, 2011 |
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Let's Learn Music | November 12, 2012 |
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Let's Learn Science | November 12, 2012 |
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Let's Learn Weather | November 12, 2012 |
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Circus | March 4, 2013 |
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Let's Drive! | April 15, 2013 |
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Royal Playdates Vol. 1 | July 8, 2013 |
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Let's Go to the Rainforest! | July 29, 2013 |
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Back to School | August 13, 2013 |
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Happy Halloween | October 23, 2013 |
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Treasure Hunt Vol. 2 | March 31, 2014 |
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Bedtime Stories | September 29, 2014 |
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Drew Magary of Deadspin describes the show as "pure evil, as much as an innocent and friendly show about good friends can be pure evil".[15]