Video: Kerry Butler and Joey Mazzarino Launch New Kids’ Series CHICKY BAWK BAWK’S FLYING FARM

Joey Mazzarino, the 22-time Emmy-winning writer, director and puppeteer who spent more than two decades at Sesame Street, has teamed up with his wife, Tony Award-nominated Broadway actress Kerry Butler, for Chicky Bawk Bawk’s Flying Farm, a new children’s digital series combining puppetry, original music and comedy.

At the center of the series is Chicky Bawk Bawk, an enthusiastic blue chicken with a big dream: he wants to fly. When being a chicken makes that difficult, Chicky and his friends come up with another solution, engineering a farmhouse that can fly. Together, they travel from adventure to adventure, meeting an ever-changing cast of characters along the way.

Among them is Bella Broadway, played by Butler, the Flying Farm’s lone human resident and a larger-than-life theater diva forever preparing for her next starring role. Her supposed credits include Cat in a Hot Bowl of Soup, playing the letter “I” in The King and I and appearing as a crustacean in Fiddler Crab on the Roof. Despite her insistence that she is a world-famous actress, Bella has made her home in a small room in the back of Chicky’s farmhouse. For pre-school aged viewers, episodes will be released every Saturday. The series premiered September 26 and is now streaming on YouTube.

Inspired by the weirdness of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the kindness of Mister Rogers and the anarchic comedy of Jim Henson’s Muppets, Chicky Bawk Bawk’s Flying Farm follows Chicky and his friends through musical adventures that bring together humor, imagination and lessons about friendship, empathy and helping others.

Behind the humor and imagination of the series is a deeply personal story. Mazzarino first imagined Chicky’s world in 2020 following the death of a friend and former Kidding colleague, with whom he had shared a writing office on the Jim Carrey series. While grieving the loss of his young friend, Mazzarino found himself thinking about how much he wished he could have helped her fly as high as she had dreamed. That thought became the foundation for Chicky—a chicken who can’t fly on his own, but with the help of his friends finds another way. Once Chicky makes it into the air, he can use the Flying Farm to help lift up others, too.