Since the summer of 2012, we've been working hard to complete 13 episodes for television. Here's how we're doing!
Making TV Episodes
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Television photo gallery.

Fred and Susie on the first day of filming show 13, our final episode of season 1. Ironically, they are filming the very last scene of the episode first!
Since we needed 13 knock knock jokes for our series, we shot them all on one evening during the summer of 2012. Here are the kids posing with Fred and Susie after completing the shoot.
The boat set is one of our favorites. We built it for show 2, but managed to use it in episode 9 as well for the song, Let Your Yes Be Yes.
Chris (Fred) and Jill are hard at work filming a scene from show 9 in the fall of 2012. Fred can't seem to remember to put his stuff away in this episode, no matter how many times he promises.
Craig and David film the final Memorize It! segment for show 13 on a hot summer night in August of 2013. Because Edward is green, we have to shoot him on a blue background.
Filming for Fearless Fred, episode 7, is underway. Here Fred has just messed up his lines (again), and Craig, playing Sherman rubs his head as though it hurts (also again).
Chris as seen on the Pig Rhymes set in this view looking out towards the camera. We use TV monitors for the puppeteers on our sets so they can see what their characters are doing at all times.
This is also the Pig Rhymes shoot, but now from a different angle. Chris is playing Baxter in this shot, while David runs Bruce the Bunny. Baxter is about to lose his hard-won carrot!
Continuing on the theme of carrots, David is running Sherman and Sam for a take on the Happy Carrot song. Running two puppets at the same time takes a lot of concentration, as they have to appear to be individuals. Chris runs Fred in the background.
Jill's mom, Cheri, is seen here wearing puppet hands and arms for a close-up shot. In show 13, Fred needs to do a little knitting, so Cheri is Fred's "stunt double" for the scene. Yes, it's difficult to knit this way!
Fred and Susie team member Julie Wilson runs camera for a shoot for show 13. Julie also is part of our puppet team, but like everyone on this project, she does a lot of other things too!
On a summer day in 2013, the kids are back, this time to record a segment for Memorize It! The Fred and Susie kid team is comprised of some of Ingrid's piano students and other children from the neighborhood.
Fred and Lacey perform a scene from show 7. Julie and Jill are both working as "right handers" for this scene, which simply means they are running the right hand and arm for the puppets. The bright lights make the sets very warm, so we're all wearing shorts.
In taking the show to television, we needed to build a lot of new puppets to fill out our cast. Here is Edward and his four new cousins, Molly, (Edward), Dave, Blueberry, and Frankie.
In episode 12, Fred has a dream that his pet cactus, Carl, has come to life. That meant we needed to build Carl the Cactus. Carl has wonderful snake-like arms that can bend and flex in all sorts of cool ways.
Show 8 has Fred's Song for the Letter G in it. We built the goat just for the song, but he also makes a brief appearance in show 13's pig segment. The goat is fun to run because he has a very expressive mouth.
Episode 5 tells part of the story of Elijah, so we needed to make a couple of crows. Mr. and Mrs. Crow have Cockney English accents and are made to be filmed either walking around or flying.
Episode 7 covers the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den, so we needed a lion. Chris built this puppet, and he's the largest one in our cast. He also has live-hand paws so he can grip things, which requires two puppeteers to operate.
Kelsey is the nicest puppet on the cast. She was built for the show 12 story about the Maidens and the Lamps. She will appear as one of Fred and Susie's regular neighbors in season 2.
We get all kinds of visitors to the set. Here, Sherman and Jill are entertaining one of our smallest Fred and Susie fans!
Sherman has been doing some PR work for us lately as well. Here's Sherman and Craig at a Fred and Susie event in September 2013. Sherman is a bit nervous, as he has to speak to a bunch of families in a minute.
Here's Sherman and Craig talking with pastor Helen at Southbrook Church in Franklin, Wis., at a Family Fun-Time event. Sherman is introducing Fred and Susie's Good Banana story about bullying.
In episode 9, Fred has a daydream about captaining a submarine and looking for Great Blue, the ocean's most dangerous card shark. Here's Fred and his crew, first-officer Squeezy and ensign Tim, dressed and ready to film.
Episode 11 is called "The Secret Life of Mrs. Henry" and has a big music number with elaborate sets. Here's the nighttime city set under construction in the workshop. The mailbox door actually opens so "spys" can hide in it!
Julie films Fred and Sherman in a scene from show 13. Since Craig was unavailable to film this day, David plays Sherman for the shoot. Craig's "Sherman" voice will be added later in post production.
In episode 10, Susie's craft project is making healthy muffins, which are really tasty! The Bible story for the show is about Daniel and his friends' decision to follow God and eat healthy food. You can find Susie's recipe in the Free Stuff section on our website!
Chris and Jill lose control of things while recording character voice-over dialog. We often record the lines for puppet scenes in advance, making it easier to film the action later. Sometimes you just get the giggles, though, which is the case here.
Chris and David film "Edward's Cousins" on the set for the show 9 song, Let Your Yes Be Yes. There are a total of 7 puppets in the song, but Chris and David filmed them in separate groups, to make it easier to get the action recorded correctly.
Susie and her bugs, from episode 6. For those of you that have seen our very first DVD, you'll recognize the project. We filmed it again for the television episode to make it match our latest production values. The bugs are just as fun, however!
Chris, David, and Fred are seen here filming a promotional video for our Kick Starter project to raise money for closed captioning Fred and Susie. More than 3 million children in the US have a hearing disability, and we want F&S to be available to everyone!
Behind
theĀ 
scenes!
Making Television!

We started production of our first full season of Fred and Susie television episodes in the summer of 2012, and by the end of summer 2013, they're almost finished! We've shot some great pictures along the way, and we thought you'd like to see them. Click any of the photos above to launch the gallery, and enjoy Fred and Susie's behind-the-scenes adventure!