DUDES, ANIMALS ARE TOTALLY COOL!

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

The shuffling harmonica sounds like it could be background music for Hee Haw, and host Martin Kratt is all got up in cowboy boots and a bandanna just like the country show's star, Roy Clark. This episode, Kratt explains in a humorously fake Western accent, will focus on bovines, "the puurtiest darn cows I've ever seen." But he's not talking about barnyard animals, and his brother and co-host Chris waddles onto the scene to set things straight. The show is actually about sea cows. What are sea cows? Ah, that's the fun on Kratts' Creatures--finding such things out.

Hailing not from the wilds of Big Sky Country but rather from the suburbs of New Jersey, Chris and Martin Kratt have added the element perennially missing from TV wildlife shows: wit. At the same time, they have deleted other elements usually all too evident: the funereal music, the somber voice of an offscreen narrator, and the snooty self-importance. Airing weekdays on PBS, the half-an-hour series is aimed at six-to-11-year-olds, but the hosts' offbeat affability and unpatronizing tone have made it a favorite among grownups too. In many areas ratings for Kratts' Creatures have doubled since its debut in June, fan mail for the brothers swarms into PBS offices daily, and CBS and Fox are already hankering to steal the show away.

This week network executives were scheduled to meet with the President at the White House to discuss ways to improve educational TV shows for children. Series like Kratts' Creatures and the equally inventive Bill Nye the Science Guy on PBS stand out as models of the stylishly energetic kind of programming TV ought to be aiming for.

Each episode of Kratts' lands the brothers in a different part of the world--the Caribbean, South Africa, the Everglades--to study local animal life. Study is the wrong word, really; what the Kratts do best is hang out. They strap on diving gear and swim with manatees (they're the sea cows), giggling as they scratch the animals, because manatees, we learn, love to be scratched. In another episode, the brothers roll around in the mud with hyenas. When the Kratts travel to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which they describe as "the world's greatest construction site", we watch as a sea cucumber (an animal, actually) eats its lunch. Interspersed throughout the episodes are amusing bits of animation like "Stupid Things Not to Do with Animals" (example: "Never wear a poisonous snake as a necktie").

But what makes the show so appealing is the Kratts' ironic manner, which suggests Keanu Reeves auditioning for a role as Marlin Perkins. The brothers' commentary is full of "whoas!" and "awrights!" but their breeziness never belies their smarts. Chris, 27, studied biology at Carleton College in Minnesota; Martin, 30, majored in zoology at Duke. Seven years ago, the brothers took a semester off from college, packed a Hi8 camera and traveled to Costa Rica to record wildlife adventures. After graduation, Chris received a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for study abroad and expanded the project. Eventually the brothers took their footage to Leo Eaton, a producer at Maryland Public Television, who knew the Kratts were series worthy when his four-year-old son asked to watch their grainy, homemade films over and over.

The Kratts have a gift for talking to kids on their own level. "Children think the Kratts are their own age," says Eaton, who recently witnessed an eight-year-old girl asking them if they had to get permission from their "mommy" to play in the mud with hyenas. "Kids are smart," says Chris, "and we really try to respect their intelligence."

So, will the presence of living, breathing, endearing animal life make children forget the TV realm's reigning king of beasts, Barney? Perhaps not, but the Kratts may soon be as ubiquitous in the marketplace. Videos, CD-ROMS, and a book set based on the series are due to begin rolling out in October. Moreover, Paragon Entertainment, a TV and feature-film production company and a partner in the production of Kratts' Creatures, intends to spin the show into a product line of shoes, knapsacks and other paraphernalia.

Meanwhile, the Kratts are taking a break from continent hopping to make a tour of five U.S. zoos, bringing their brand of slacker science to children across the country. Eventually, says Chris, they would like "to do prime-time programs for families and show them how cool the animals are that we share the planet with. We want kids to make decisions that will keep animals around." Groovy