Welcome to June, everybody! 

In lieu of a personal essay, please enjoy an interview with Tim Bain. He’s written for shows like Bluey, PJ Masks and Bob the Builder, and is the creator of the brand-new animated preschool show Let’s Go, Bananas!, which you can stream on CBC Gem right now. 

The show follows three families: the Bananas, made up of two dads — a gorilla and a chimp — and their daughter Apple; the Crockers, with solo mom Mama Crocker and her two sons Josh and Jamie; and the Tiger-Zelles, a mixed family of tiger and gazelle, with Mom, Dad and kids Stellar and Piper. 

Raising CBC Kids: Let’s Go, Bananas! is new, so not everyone who is reading this right now has heard of it or watched it. How would you describe it? What does it mean to you?

Tim Bain: It’s first and foremost a comedy. Secondly, a family show. We all find our brothers and sisters and mums and dads hilarious, and this is a show that celebrates and finds the funny in everyday family situations. 

But for me? It’s an outlet for all of the bonkers, bananas stuff that goes on in my household. As a dad of three children, just all of the silly, off-the-wall stuff that happens in our house has been squeezed into this show. 

RCK: Like what? 

TB: I crammed about 200 things into the show. 

There’s the episode “Happy Snaps,” where Apple asks her dads for a complex “triple unicorn horn” hairstyle. The fact is, my husband and I struggled to do our daughter’s hair for the first couple of years, until we did loads of Internet research and [watched] YouTube videos.

RCK: I like how the show approaches reality in that way, and I think that realism finds its way into so many parts of the storytelling, like who the show represents. How important was having these families as they are on the show? 

TB: Very important. 

I also didn't find a lot of great representation on TV and kids TV growing up. I remember thinking, I don’t think as a gay man that I’ll be able to work in kids TV. But when I got here, you know, it’s a very, very diverse, wonderful crowd. 

I was a young dad when I first created Let’s Go, Bananas! I had twins who were about two or three years old, and we were watching a lot of preschool television. And again, there wasn’t a lot of representation. There weren’t families that looked like our own, or like so many families from my kids' preschool. 

So, I thought this show was a great opportunity to have these wonderfully diverse families upfront as central characters, rather than supporting characters, which had often been the case at the time. And now I get to work with incredibly talented people who get to bring their experiences growing up in a biracial family, or being raised by a single parent, to these characters. 

RCK: Let’s talk about that a bit more. From where you started to where you are now, do you think it’s easier to tell these kinds of stories? 

TB: I remember pitching a Bob the Builder episode. Now, this was pretty much 10 years ago. In this episode, Bob renovated a castle for a wedding, and there were enthusiastic discussions between myself and the producer about having it be a gay wedding. This was, you know, very much being made for Americans, and it was a year before the Supreme Court passed gay marriage through. So, I remember he put an end to it because he thought there was going to be too much pushback in America. He felt it just wasn’t the right time, so it became a heterosexual wedding. 

Then it was about five years later, and after having been married myself and having two children, I started pitching this show. 

I remember [being] at an international conference, after a day of pitching, and just getting so much delighted enthusiasm from broadcasters around the world. It just felt like the right time. 

RCK: Speaking of the right time, I think it’s now the right time to talk about Father’s Day, which is this weekend. “Double Daddies Day” is the first episode of the series, and it explores Apple trying to plan an epic surprise for her dads for Father’s Day. So, what’s Father’s Day like at your house?

TB: I'm going to be honest about this. Without a mom in the house, we forget that it's Father's Day. It also doesn’t help that Father’s Day has different days on the calendar in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. So, that’s what happens in the episode: the dads have forgotten that it’s Father’s Day. 

RCK: I think that’s going to be really real for a lot of parents. I know parents who forget their own birthdays fairly often. Now, any Pride plans? 

TB: We live near central London not far from where they have magicians, performers and drag stories for families. It’s a great way to meet other families. And before that we used to go to the very famous Sydney Gay Mardi Gras and watch from the sidelines. You’ve got the Harley Davidsons and these spectacular, colourful floats. I mean, for the kids, it’s just cool. 

RCK: OK, last question: what do your kids think of Let’s Go, Bananas!?

TB: In the series, parents are hit in the face with pies and so forth. Those are big laughs for my kids watching. 

But you know, it’s balanced out by showing parents are also intelligent, loving, emotional beings who would go to the ends of the earth to protect their children.

Watch Let's Go, Bananas! on CBC Gem.