Behind the scenes with Ready Jet Go!

By Stacy Shaffer

We all know that our friend Jet Propulsion from Ready Jet Go! is an alien from the planet Bortron 7. But, did you know that Jet’s story started right here in Southern California? The PBS KIDS series is produced by Wind Dancer Films in Glendale.

PBS SoCal had a chance to visit the production studio for a behind the scenes look at a typical production day for the Ready Jet Go! team.

The producers, writers, animators, and other team members met to discuss their notes on an upcoming episode.

Dr. Amy Mainzer, stopped by for a visit. You may recognize her from her segments in the series. What you may not know is that she is also a NASA astronomer and happens to be a curriculum advisor for the show. She helps to make sure that the scientific facts within the show are accurate.

We also ran into Craig Bartlett, creator of the series. He even drew a picture of Jet for us! Fun Fact: Craig is also the creator of Dinosaur Train.

Animators drew scenes for an episode using a special program that with which they can draw directly on the computer screen.

Here’s a look from the view of an editor. They piece together clips of the show to help put the whole episode together.

There are a lot other talented people and groups who work tirelessly to create an episode of Ready Jet Go!, and boy are we grateful for them.

Thanks to all of these wonderful people at Wind Dancer and PBS, we get to enjoy more new episodes of one our favorite series. Be sure to catch the upcoming Ready Jet Go! “Back to Bortron 7” special. Jet and his family return to their home planet for an epic adventure. The special premieres Monday, August 14 on PBS SoCal 1, PBS SoCal KIDS, or stream it on our online KIDS channel and airs throughout the week.

And here's more from Craig Bartlett: