Mar 5, 2024

Janice Burgess, Nickelodeon executive and creator of "Backyard Degans," dies at 72

Janice Burgess, former Nickelodeon executive and creator of the popular children's television series "Backyard Guns," has died in Manhattan at the age of 72. [According to the New York Times, the cause of death was breast cancer. [Born on March 1, 1952, Ms. Burgess grew up in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she attended the Ellis School. She later earned a degree in art history from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, but soon realized that the art world was not for her.

She then took a job at WQED, a public television station in Pittsburgh, where she developed a love for the creative side of children's entertainment. There, she took on any chore that would get her closer to the production side of the industry and volunteered for technical service on WQED's shows.

Speaking to Investor's Business Daily in 2009, she said of her early days:

I got to know the schedule, making sure the caterers came at the right time and the tables were set I did that. When I was starting out, I didn't have a glamorous job. The nice thing about being young is that you have less pride and less money."

She later moved to New York City to work at the Children's Television Workshop, known today as the Sesame Workshop, where she worked on such acclaimed shows of the day as "3-2-1 Contact" and "Ghostwriter."

In the mid-1990s, Burgess heard about a job opening at Nickelodeon and thought she would be a good fit. She joked that she had been interviewed "about 11,000 times" before finally winning the role in 1995.

After joining Nickelodeon, Burgess oversaw the production of several Emmy and Peabody Award-winning children's shows, including "Blue's Clues" and "Little Bill." On Tuesday, Nickelodeon said in a statement, "We are saddened to learn of the passing of one of the great architects of Nick Jr. ...... Janice was one of the greats, inherently creative, kind, and dedicated to preschool audiences everywhere."

According to Burgess, in the late 1990s, when top-tier talent was not interested in producing preschool programming, she and fellow Nick executive Chris Gifford were asked to develop ideas for new preschool programming, and permission to produce one of those ideas was

Two people were asked to be involved in the production of the show.

The assignment given to the two proved very fruitful for Nickelodeon, and Gifford produced Dora the Explorer. Burgess' idea was a pilot called Me and My Friends, a full-body puppet show with a musical twist. The show was never produced, but four of the five characters developed for Me and My Friends ended up appearing in The Backyardigans.

Six months after the development challenge, Brown Johnson, vice president of Nick Jr. asked Burgess to revisit her idea as a CG-animated show rather than a live-action puppet show. Nickelodeon teamed up with Canada's Nelvana for the production.

In a profile in Investor's Business Daily, Johnson explains how unique it was to have an executive who was also such a talented creator:

She was a creator and a producer. She combines the magic of being a creator and a producer. She is both very left-brained and right-brained. She is smart, funny, perceptive, and a really deep thinker.

Speaking about the diversity of children's television programming at a 2009 National Press Club event, Burgess explained where the idea for "Backyard Giggans" came from: "I thought, 'Well, I'm a kid. I thought about my childhood, but I thought more about what I like now. I'm a big fan of big, stupid movies. Car chases, dinosaurs rampaging through the streets, people flying through space. Another thing I love is music and dancing. I can't sing, I can't play an instrument, and I can only dance around the house. But I enjoy doing those things and watching people do them.

Burgess said he was able to materialize the idea for "Backyard Gigans" by combining his childhood memories with what he loved as an adult. The show premiered in 2004 and ran for four seasons.

In a discussion at the National Press Club, Burgess talked about the good and the bad of creating your own TV show:

You have to be a little careful what you wish for. I've always wanted to be a show creator, and frankly, it's really hard work. But on the other hand, making "Backyard Gigans" has also been something of an adventure that I've had with friends. We get paid, of course, but we work at our leisure, we enjoy each other's company, we play a lot, we travel a bit, we build things, and sometimes we sing and dance.

My colleague Fracaswell Hyman wrote about his friendship with Burgess in an Instagram post:

I met Janice Burgess early in my career when I was the head writer for GULLAH GULLAH ISLAND and she was the production executive in charge of the project. This is the person the network sends to the set to make sure no money is wasted.

Janice had a sharp tongue, wore a flowing Hermes scarf, and always smoked. She became a friend, not a director. She noticed my magic before I did and made sure I was in the room and taken care of for many of my shows, including "Little Bill" and "TAINA".

Janice created "THE BACKYARDIGANS" and directed countless shows for Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, Disney, and Apple TV. Her critiques of scripts and stories are sharp, clear, constructive, and truly appreciated.

Janice, Maria Perez-Brown, and I developed shows together, gossiped together, and laughed at how much. I will miss my dear friends, RIP... oh, how we laughed...