The new DreamWorks show Go, Dog. Go! is coming to Netflix on January 26. I sat down with Executive Producer Adam Peltzman to talk about the show and its transition from book to screen.
Go, Dog. Go! is a fun new kids shows targeting children under 6 years old. Based on PD Eastman’s best-selling, classic children’s book (over 8 million copies sold!), Go, Dog. Go! follows 6-year-old Tag Barker on her adventures in the city of Pawston, a fun-loving community of dogs on the go. Tag is a skilled mechanic and loves anything that goes. With her ingenuity and creativity, Tag can go as far as any plan will take her with her best friend Scooch Pooch by her side.
Interview with Executive Producer Adam Peltzman
Meghan Cooper: So the first episode tackles the story, that children see in the books. So when it comes to adapting a single book into a series, what is the planning like for spacing out the content, while you’re building for the show.
Adam Peltzman: Do you mean in terms of spacing out the content of the book? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, of course, the book, what part of the charm of the book, right? Is it doesn’t have this linear plot, really? It, it does a little bit, you know, they’re all headed somewhere. They end up at this party in the tree. So I think the book presented a lot of, uh, a lot of clues for what the world could be. You know, you have a bunch of dogs sharing a bed together. You have this family, you have, um, this tree where, uh, the party happens. You have traffic jams. I will say, I think we probably didn’t space it out tremendously. Well, we used a lot of it in the first episode. The first episode was like, Hey, you know, the book, and here’s a show, that’s kind of like the book from there.
Adam Peltzman: It was kind of like, okay, now we have a world. What else can happen in this world? So I think from there moving forward, you still saw things like the blimp and you, and the party tree and aspects of the world that were set out in the first episode, but it started to evolve into its own thing. You know, I think with, uh, with a, with a meatier book that had more plot and stuff like that, you might, you know, just, you might just tell one story in the first episode and stretch that out over a season a little bit more, but for this, we kind of, um, dumped it all into the first episode and took it from there.
Meghan Cooper: What are some of the main educational themes that you’ve tried to bring to the show for this under six crowd?
Adam Peltzman: Yeah, I would say the main theme that sort of umbrella theme is community, which is a pretty broad theme, but one that felt important to me in developing the show. It felt that we could use a show. That’s kind of about the pride you have in a place in the way that you welcome new members into a community and the hopefully harmonious relationships between members of the community. Uh, and from there another sort of subset themes that come off of that, there are episodes about teamwork. There are episodes about welcoming there are episodes about kind of getting along with your family. So everything fits into that larger umbrella of it being a community show, but we found that has some interesting offshoots in terms of these other themes that we tried to work in throughout.
Meghan Cooper: So do any of the dogs share a likeness to some of the creator’s dogs?
Adam Peltzman: Not specifically, no. I did think about whether I should work in a dog inspired by my dog’s name is Winnie and she’s a kind of a, uh, a black lab mixed with Greyhound. Now I will say she’s fast. Uh, so she does have that go quality. Um, and you know, so in that sense, I, I think, um, I think she would enjoy the show because she would relate to the fast dogs, but design-wise, and other than that personality-wise, not specifically, not yet could happen.
Meghan Cooper: So I’ve seen that some of the new merchandise has kind of come out. There have been books that have hit the market for the new show. Um, so are there plans for toys, like a lady Lydia and her hats toy that we might see in the future?
Adam Peltzman: Well, that’s a fantastic idea. Firstly, I’d love to see it. Uh, I don’t know of any specific plans in the works, but you know, it’s early yet. And, um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I think that would be cool to see down the line. Um, I, I don’t have any specific news to share on that front, but lady in her hats. That’s, that’s a good one. I like that.
Meghan Cooper: I would definitely buy that one too, to flip on all the hats and heads. That’s a great idea. Thank you.
