5 Takeaway Points From Disney Channel’s Big City Greens Kid Show

Big City Greens is a new show coming to Disney Channel this week. Learn about the show, and why brothers, Chris and Shane Houghton wanted to bring this story to life! 

Photo credit: Marybeth Hamilton/Babysavers

5 Takeaway Points From Disney Channel’s Big City Greens Kid Show

There’s a new kid show coming to Disney Channel this summer! During our Incredibles 2 event, we got a chance to screen two of the first episodes (see video below), as well as interview the brothers, Chris and Shane Houghton. 

Photo Credit: Disney

About Big City Greens

Disney Channel’s new animated comedy series “Big City Greens,” which follows the offbeat adventures of 10-year-old Cricket Green, a mischievous and optimistic country boy who moves to the big city with his wildly out of place family – older sister Tilly, dad Bill and Gramma Alice. Cricket’s curiosity and enthusiasm leads his family on epic journeys and into the hearts of his new neighbors. 

Photo Credit: Disney

Big City Greens Cast

The voice cast is Chris Houghton as Cricket Green, Artemis Pebdani (ABC’s “Scandal”) as sweet Gramma Alice, Marieve Herington (“How I Met Your Mother”) as quirky older sister Tilly Green and Bob Joles (“Puss in Boots”) as a hard-working father, Bill Green.

The series hails from comic book creators and brothers Chris and Shane Houghton (“Harvey Beaks”) and influenced by their childhood growing up in the small rural town of St. Johns, Michigan, with many of the locations and characters inspired by their real-life family members and townsfolk.

My views on Big City Greens

One thing that I thought was cool was our Michigan connection. The brothers grew up just 30 minutes from me in St. Johns. 

As mentioned above, many of these characters are based on family members and people they grew up with on their farm in Michigan. For example, the character Grandma Alice resembles their grandmother. Grandma Alice is sweet but sour. Although she has passed, they feel that she would have loved this show and would be proud of their accomplishments. They mentioned how much support they have from their parents and family. 

Photo credit: Marybeth Hamilton/Babysavers

The brothers wanted to create a show that was two parts funny and one part heart. I thought that was interesting, but after thinking about the first two episodes, I can see that theme distinctly throughout those clips. It’s a funny, cute show for kids ages 8-12. I think Zayd’n (almost 13) would probably watch it and get a kick out of it. 

Another interesting piece of this show is that Bill is a single dad. I asked the brothers why they created this show with a single dad and not a 2-parent home. They stated they wanted to make this show feel normal. There are many children growing up in single-parent homes that are not always just the mom. In today’s society, a family make-up looks a lot different than it did 10-15 years ago. They wanted to reflect today’s society and what they know by having a single parent home from a dad’s point of view. And Bill and his kids are living with Bill’s mom, Grandma Alice, versus the Grandparent moving in with their kids. Bill is doing his best, overwhelmed, but trying to be the best dad he can be (kinda of like Mr. Incredible in a role-reversal). 

Remy is the best friend of Cricket. Remy is a different skin color than Cricket and his family. He also comes from a sheltered, well-to-do household with two parents, and is the only child. I also thought this was interesting, considering that a lot of the stereotypes you see for African-American kids are usually the opposite. 

Photo Credit: Disney

This kid-friendly show on Disney Channel has a lot of character. Cricket has quite the imagination but has a good heart. He only wants the best for his family and will find a way, no matter how hard or how long it takes. Chris and Shane spent two years developing the plot of this story. They wanted to bring something different, something for viewers to chew on. Yes, you will find it humorous at times, but there is a takeaway message in each episode. You don’t see a lot of kid shows on T.V. from this point of view. 

One question I didn’t ask was, will they address where the mom is? Or does that matter? Maybe they won’t. Maybe they want us to stop always thinking about where’s the mom, where’s the dad, because that’s what we’ve perceived as normal for years. Hmmm, interesting thought, huh?

Big City Greens debuts on Monday, June 18th (9:30 a.m. EDT/PDT), on Disney Channel, DisneyNOW, and Disney Channel VOD. The series premieres with a week of new episodes rolling out daily, Monday, June 18 – Friday, June 22, as part of Disney Channel’s GO! Summer that super-serves kids and families all season with new programming. Following the debut week, new episodes will premiere throughout the summer on Monday and Wednesday mornings (10:00-10:30 a.m. EDT/PDT).

Photo Credit: Disney

Check out a sneak peek of the first two episodes: