"We Did It"

Dear Laney,

There may be people out there who aren't familiar with the format of Dora The Explorer. To those people, I say, "You have not suffered nearly enough." "Let me introduce you to some of the finer points."

To the best of my knowledge, there have been 94 episodes of Dora produced, each with the same format: We establish where we're going. We repeat where we're going six times, and check it out on The Map. Sometimes, The Map says, "So you tell Dora..." which is when your dad screams at the TV, "Why don't YOU tell Dora?!?"

We sing a song about where we're going, called "Where Are We Going?" We accomplish two small tasks (always stopping in between to re-establish where we're going). When we finally arrive at our destination, we all sing a song called "We Did It," celebrating that we made it to the place we've been talking about for the past 22 minutes.

As a person who has spent approximately 15 years in the television industry, I am always impressed by the cojones of whoever first pitched this show. I imagine the network pitch went something like this:

Producer: So, the show's about a mini Latina with a bowl haircut who has adventures.

Network Exec: There should be a monkey. Research says kids love monkeys.

Producer: Fine. Monkey. And get this - every episode will be exactly the same.

Network Exec: The same, you say?

Producer: Yes, and at the end of the day, we'll all make a jillion dollars off this series of 94 episodes featuring a kid - and her monkey! - wandering around the jungle, talking about where they're going.

Network Exec: Sold.

This is what the "We Did It" finale of every episode looks like at our house (it's worth hanging out for the "More times!" at the end) -

I wish I knew the Spanish for, "If only I had a piece of this series."

Love,

Mom