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The Fresh Beat Band | |
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Also known as | The JumpArounds |
Genre | Musical fiction Children's television series Comedy |
Created by |
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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) |
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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) |
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Producers |
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Production locations | Paramount Studios, Hollywood |
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Camera setup | Multi-camera |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Production company | Nickelodeon Productions |
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Release | August 24, 2009 December 7, 2013 | –
Related | |
Fresh Beat Band of Spies | |
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
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.
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. Ultimately, most of the episodes for the second season were written by Carla Banks Waddles, Kim Duran, Kraft, Heather MacGillvray, Linda Mathious, and van der Velde. 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. Banks Waddles had to step away from the writing staff for four episodes this season due to conflicts and commitments with other projects, and Duran, Kraft, MacGillvray, Mathious, and van der Velde wrote several episodes without her. MacGillvray was also absent for one episode, leaving the writing staff down to four: Kraft, van der Velde, Duran, and Mathious. For the third season, Kraft, van der Velde, Duran, MacGillvray, and Mathious all returned to write the episodes. Banks Waddles also returned to the writing team, but could only do so on occasion due to even more commitments with other projects; this time, 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 Chan, Wahlberg, Judge, 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.