New Zoo Revue Interview: Doug Momary & Emmy Jo Peden Reflect On Revolutionary Children's Show (2024)

Though it ended in 1977, the half-hour children's program New Zoo Revue is still revered today for its fearless and innovative tackling of issues that children need help dealing with. The show was musical in nature, with creator Douglas Momary writing over 600 original songs for the 196 episodes that aired. The series came into being with the help of Barbara Atlas, a toy company executive who commissioned Momary to craft a show around Freddie the beanbag frog. From there, Momary went on to pinpoint a title, write a theme song, and add the characters of Henrietta the Hippo and Charlie the Owl (who was originally a giraffe).

New Zoo Revue's success was also in large part due to his wife, Emily Josephine Peden, who joined him onscreen as zoo helper Emmy Jo. Their chemistry and communication helped reach millions of children across the country — not to mention the world, as the show was translated into Japanese and Mandarin — and build a legacy that has lasted as long as their now 50-year marriage. However, it wasn't until recently that they recognized the impact of their work, thanks to their daughter Joanna hosting a Facebook page called "The New Zoo Revue" in its honor. Since then, they've participated in several Facebook lives with fans and even been uproariously welcomed at San Diego Comic-Con.

Screen Rant spoke to Doug and Emmy Jo about their fondest memories of filming New Zoo Revue, their feelings upon discovering the scope of its influence, and their hopes for restoring old episodes as well as crafting future ones.

Doug & Emmy Jo Talk New Zoo Revue

Screen Rant: I think you guys have one of the most amazing ahead-of-its-time children's shows out there, and also one of the most memorable theme songs. New Zoo Revue just gets stuck in your head as it is. The show was definitely ahead of its time in helping kids focus on feelings and relationships. It was a mixture of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Doug, what sparked the idea for New Zoo Revue and how did you conceptualize characters like Freddie the Frog, Henrietta the Hippo, and Charlie the Owl?

Doug Momary: Yeah, Henrietta was one of our favorites. Really, it all happened while I was going to school at Cal State Fullerton, and I was just like any other theater kid, just out there doing my thing. And my mom worked at a toy store in Whittier, California, and the owner of that toy store had a beanbag frog named Freddie and some contacts in LA. So she told my mom, "I really want to do something with this beanbag frog. Do you know anybody who could help?" My mom, being a good mom, said, "Well, my son is in theater. He could help you write it."Actually, I was a playwriting major, so I thought, "Wow, man, do I want to do this instead of all this other cool stuff I'm doing?" But I went and met with her and she said, "Can you create something around this frog?" I said, "Yeah, let me see what I can do." I went back, started playing the guitar, came up with a theme song, sketched out the sets, named the beanbag Freddie, and we actually had Henrietta Hippo. I thought, "Man, it'd be great to have a hippo on this." And I actually came up with Charlie the Giraffe. It was the first draft of this, and we decided that's not going to work on a set because you're going to have to have a wide shot the whole time.I went in and played it for Emmy Jo, and she just thought it was great.Emmy Jo Peden: I flipped out.Doug Momary: And the next thing we knew, we were auditioning for Mattel Toys.

Emmy Jo, let me ask you this. Can you share some of your favorite memories from New Zoo Revue?

Emmy Jo Peden: Well, it was just wonderful. It was an honor for me because I have a theater background. I don't have a background in television at all. And to work with the people that we worked with because we had some of the best in the business, and so they were so helpful in helping me learn the ropes because it's very different performing on television than in a big theater. And it was just great.I loved Henrietta Hippo. Oh my goodness. Larry Thomas, who was in the costume, was one of the most famous dancers in Hollywood. And then Sharon Baird, who was in the Charlie the Owl costume, was one of the original Mousketeers, and I used to watch her on the Mickey Mouse Club.It was fun. It was a wonderful group of people, and we just had lots of fun together.

I didn't know that Chuck Woolery was in your first season, which is incredible.

Doug Momary: Yeah. Well, we felt we needed an older guy, so we dressed Chuck Woolery as an older postman, and it was Mr. Dingle, and that was his first acting gig, so we got a little claim to fame there.

Doug, what were some of the most challenging aspects of bringing educational content to life in a children's show?

Doug Momary: Well, we wanted not to do 1-2-3, A-B-C. I mean, that was already being done by Sesame Street and others, The Electric Company and the like. So I wanted to concentrate, like you said, on relationships, on emotion. How do you deal with your mom, dad, your cousin, your brother, sister?And I always wanted to do a musical comedy on Broadway. So I thought, "Let's have a musical comedy for kids where the last song is going to teach a moral lesson." And that's what the whole thing was, was each song furthered the plot like a musical and told a little something about the character, and then we summed it up at the end like, "Tell the Truth."That was kind of the whole point of the show, and we had no idea, Joe, how this resonated with kids out there until we actually have this Facebook page now.

I feel like New Zoo Revue is just as relevant now as it was in 1972 through '77, if not even more so now. I was just watching one of the ones about bullying, and I was like, "Wow, how relatable to kids nowadays that they would just consume it and they would understand it in a way that was told to them." You guys started this Facebook group and went live with 50,000 people watching. What was that like for you to see the fanfare that New Zoo Revue still has?

Emmy Jo Peden: Well, first of all, we actually didn't start the Facebook page. I don't know if you've heard that story yet, but our oldest daughter, Joanna, started the Facebook page. She came over on New Year's Eve and she said, "Mom and dad, I think you need to have a Facebook page."It was just this last year. And we were just like, "Well, okay." And it has just taken off. Joanna manages it, and she puts all of the clips and things up, and it's just been wonderful because it's given us an opportunity to meet the kids that were young and saw it, and now they're grown up. They call themselves The New Zoo Kids, and it's just a big family reunion on there, honestly.Doug Momary: You see the impact it had. I mean, we were at Comic-Con and just couldn't believe we got invited there. Joanna worked that out. And we had grown men crying, Joe, just saying, "You were part of my childhood. You gave me a moral compass." And to me as a writer, I'm like, "Really? I had that effect on you?" And they said, "Yeah, you did."Emmy Jo Peden: And some of those people, some of the people that were so emotional, it was the memory that it evoked. One gentleman came up and said, "My mom passed away not so many years ago, and I just remember I always watched New Zoo Revue sitting on her lap." So it has touched people very, very deeply, and we've met people who've come up and told us that they had very challenging childhoods and that our show was a comfort to them. And it is been very rewarding. And I just love every single one of them. I really do.Doug Momary: For years, we kind of forgot about the show almost because I had a career in Las Vegas. I opened my own television production company. We were doing commercials and raising our kids. New Zoo was just something we did in the past.Emmy Jo Peden: Yeah, we had no idea that there were people out there who remembered it and loved it. It's been quite a shock.Doug Momary: We're just so gratified with that. You were talking about the messages, how they relate now, and I really see that because we took broad-scope messages. I didn't want to talk down to the kids. I wanted to talk to the kids, and I think that we accomplished that. But boy, we didn't know it back then.

Have you guys actually thought about reviving the show at all?

Emmy Jo Peden: Yes, we'd love to.Doug Momary: We definitely have, and we really want to bring it back. And there's been a real outcry for it because I do think it could be relevant now. I don't know if you've seen the Facebook page, but an animator got in touch with me who grew up on the show and did a little animation, and I thought, "Well, wow, that's really cool. Can you animate the whole theme song?"He and I worked together, and man, it came out great. And I thought, "What a great way maybe to bring this back," even by using some of the same songs, but just using today's animation to do that. So, that's a way we're thinking about doing it. There could be a live-action element, but we want to keep it simple, and we want to have that gentleness of spirit that we had in the first show because I think that's lacking today in kids' shows.

Physical media is still a thing; DVDs and Blu-ray. Have there been any talks about doing physical media for New Zoo Revue at all?

Doug Momary: Well, that too is out there. There was a set that was produced years ago of 59 episodes, and I think it's still on eBay and around, but we want to do a whole new repackaging. And right now, I put 14 old episodes up on Prime Ticket where I was able to go in and redo the audio and color it a little bit better, and they look pretty cool out there.We're trying to put everything up there where kids can get to it because we have 196 half-hours. I composed over 600 songs for the series.

That is an incredible feat. Emmy Jo, what was it like doing that first Facebook Live? What did you think the initial reaction was going to be? And were you excited by that?

Emmy Jo Peden: Yes, I was so excited, but I didn't know. I mean, 50 years have passed, and so I was nervous, and our daughter is just wonderful, and she kept saying, "Mom, you're fine. You're fine. Just be yourself. Be yourself." I said, "Okay, okay, be myself."The reaction was just unbelievable, and I get emotional because I'm proud of our New Zoo kids. They have grown up well, and the ones that we have met through either our live events or wherever, or the comments that they've made to us, they are contributing. They've taken not just what we learned, but maybe what their parents, wherever they got it, but they're contributing. We've got librarians, educators, artists. It's just amazing to me. They're wonderful. I just want to hug every single one of them.Doug Momary: Well, the dentist that worked on me, "Hey, you're Doug from The New Zoo Revue? I became a dentist because of you." I'm like, "What?"Emmy Jo Peden: You don't expect something like this. Honestly, I've been living my life completely differently. I didn't forget, we didn't forget about the show, but we didn't think it was important to anybody. And so just now, I have a whole different thing going on in my life that I just love and all these new people that are in our lives, and it's wonderful. It's a real blessing.

Doug, I feel like kids face a lot more problems than I may have faced when I was growing up. There's so many new things that they have to go through. When you're conceptualizing New Zoo Revue, the animated one that you guys want to do, would you guys be tackling some of those issues as well?

Doug Momary: I really would. I think we would need to because they're out there and it'd be not good to ignore that, but I would do it in a way that's positive. We need to have love and respect and those kinds of values out there. So anything that kids are facing now, if you approach it from that perspective of respecting each other and loving each other and treating each other with kindness, I think you can tackle any subject.Emmy Jo Peden: I think that's been really the most important theme, I guess, in our show is, and I've seen this actually on Facebook in a little, I guess you'd call them memes, but if you can only be one thing, be kind. Just be kind, be respectful of the other person, and I think that's really the message of our show.Although, I will say Doug was very skillful because with a theater background, I'll just mention this, I don't know if you're aware of this, but he wanted to do a show on Shakespeare and that didn't go over too well. And he talked him into doing a show on Shakespeare because children should be exposed to good literature. And there were just a number of shows that you worked pretty hard to get those shows.Doug Momary: Because all of the scripts had to go past inspection, especially in the first season with Mattel Toys. So I wanted to do a show on greed. "Hey, kids, be happy with what you have. Be thankful for what you have." Well, when I presented that script and the songs, they're like, "Wait, we're a toy company. We don't want kids to be happy with what they have."But we fought, and we got it on. And Charlie the Owl sang a great tune called "I Got What I Need." It was a honky-tonk piano song and it was just very cool.

Emmy Jo, what impact do you think New Zoo Revue had on children's education and entertainment?

Emmy Jo Peden: Well, I don't know because I don't know what they were teaching in the schools, whatever. I think the impact really was on a personal level. That's what I think because we focused on issues, things that unite us, unite us as a people, unite us as humans. And if it encouraged students to go to school and not bully one another, that's a big success. If it encouraged a child not to throw his roll in the soup like Freddie did, that's a plus.

Doug, this last Comic-Con was the first time I actually got to moderate panels as well, so it was a big deal for me. But I can only imagine for you guys walking into this giant pop culture event, it can be overwhelming to a lot of people. Talk to me about your Comic-Con experience and getting to meet your fans face to face.

Doug Momary: Oh, it was just amazing. Just the fact that we were there with all the other characters and the people that came up. They actually invited us for a third day, which is unheard of, I think.Emmy Jo Peden: I just was out there passing out hugs and meeting this person and that person, finding out where they were from and, "Well, what have you done for the last 50 years?" And hearing about what their life has been like since they were four years old, and seeing all the costumes. I mean, it's just wild out there. It was just great. It was just so fun.Doug Momary: But it was our first one, I guess, and people have told me, "Well, you started out pretty big." It was very cool because we had employees say, "You're going to be here tomorrow?" Because they had to go work and, "I grew up with you. I'm here because of you."Emmy Jo Peden: Everyone there, the whole staff at Comic-Con, was so kind to us and so helpful. It was just wonderful. And I was excited because I got to meet a police dog, and I'm a real fan of animals, and that was just kind of a thrill for me. I was very respectful. I said, "May I approach? May I touch?" She said, "Sure." So, I petted the dog, and got my picture taken with the dog.Then Joanna, knowing how much I love dogs, said on the Facebook page, "Mom would really love to see pictures of your animals," and so we've gotten all these wonderful pictures of people with their fur babies.

Doug, do you plan on doing more convention appearances?

Doug Momary: Yes, absolutely. Joanna's working on a whole schedule for next year.Emmy Jo Peden: I don't know what she's planning up there, but I tell people, "She's my manager." We don't have a contract, but she's always thinking, and I know she's in contact with a lot of people. And yes, we are going to Philadelphia. We know about that one. December 2nd.

Looking back on the legacy of television and children's television, Doug, do you feel that New Zoo Revue is ahead of its time and it is like an alternative to Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers in that era?

Doug Momary: Yeah, I feel it was, but we didn't consciously do that. We were just thrilled to be in entertainment and doing what we love to do, and I was thrilled to be writing and producing and doing the show. So we didn't really think about that. But as we've seen, it did have an impact, and it was in a niche that wasn't filled at the time, and that really is satisfying to us.

Have you started conceptualizing any other characters that may join Freddie, Charlie, and Henrietta?

Doug Momary: Actually, we have. We're working on that right now. And I also have some other kids shows rattling around in my brain too that we're looking to get produced. There's a lot out there, and I feel like we have a really good future ahead of us.Emmy Jo Peden: I might mention, just while we're talking about this, that our Facebook page is "The New Zoo Revue." There's a lot of other Facebook pages that we don't have anything to do with, but the one that Joanna started is The New Zoo Revue.

About New Zoo Revue

The New Zoo Revue is a live-action musical comedy series that uses songs and stories to teach children how to respond with kindness and respect towards all. It ran in first-run syndication from 1972 to 1977.