The Jim Henson Company's Wilson & Ditch Explore America Online

The Jim Henson Company and PBS Kids are partnering to produce an all-new original webseries to teach history, culture, and geography. "Wilson & Ditch: Digging America" will launch this fall on PBSKIDSGO.org. Produced by The Jim Henson Company, the series invites kids ages 6 to 10 on a cross country adventure with two comical gophers as they explore America's most famous (and perhaps not-so-famous) destinations. While learning about American culture, history and geography, brothers Wilson and Ditch ride in style in their green-powered van, sharing experiences and real world resources for families as they visit some of the country's top cities, national parks and attractions.

Animated webisodes will star Wilson and Ditch (performed by Brian Henson and Paul Rugg) and will be brought to life using the Emmy Award-winning Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, the proprietary technology that allows performers to puppeteer and voice digitally animated characters in real time. In addition to the webisodes, travel blog and on-location audio podcasts, Wilson and Ditch's new site will also feature original comics from the brothers' adventures.

"Wilson & Ditch: Digging America" was created by Joe Purdy and Craig Bartlett. The web content will be written by Purdy and the HDPS-animated segments will be directed by Bartlett. Bartlett will also create the site's original comic strip material.

I will be sure to keep you updated as details on this exciting new Henson project as more information becomes available.