Nick Jr. offers up a rave party for the 5-and-under set
Sometimes, I think a prerequisite for developing a preschoolers' TV show is taking a certain amount of illicit drugs -- coming up with a concept, awash in swirly graphics and primary colors, that is equally fascinating to 3-year-olds on a Monday morning and 19-year-olds late on a Friday night. There's even something trippy about Mr. Rogers, when you think hard enough about it.
"Yo Gabba Gabba!," Nick Jr.'s latest addition to the genre, takes that template and adds an electronic beat. The new series, which premieres at 10:30 this morning, is essentially a rave party for toddlers, a meditation on what the Teletubbies might be if they got hopped up on Ecstasy.
Compared to those oft-maligned 'Tub bies, the live-action "Gabba" characters are equally basic and even less expressive. There's a bright-red cyclops, a pink flower, a blue cat, a yellow robot, and a green -- well, I don't know what he is, but he has a unibrow and a big, vague smile. The human host is a gangly man named DJ Lance, who sort of channels Flavor Flav, but dresses more like Flash Gordon.
Their purpose is to teach lessons about healthy eating, tooth-brushing, and the like. But mainly, they love to dance. A song about eating vegetables bounces along to a hip-hop groove -- "There's a party in my tummy! (So yummy! So yummy!)" -- and sort of makes the Wiggles sound like Lawrence Welk.
In recent years, Nickelodeon has distinguished itself with innovative music for the toddler set, from the sweet operettas of "The Wonder Pets!" to the rock undertones of "Jack's Big Music Show." But there's something about electronica that feels just-right for tots, perhaps because it's really fairly retro: The "Yo Gabba Gabba!" background music owes a lot to the loopy score Mark Mothersbaugh composed for "Pee-wee's Playhouse" in the 1980s. (And it's no secret or surprise that Pee-wee has a healthy afterlife on the Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim block.)
Mothersbaugh himself will show up frequently in "Yo Gabba Gabba!" to teach rudimentary lessons about art. In today's premiere, Elijah Wood pops in for a dance segment. Over the course of the 20-episode series, guest performers will range from Biz Markie and the Shins to more-emerging acts that certain 19-year-olds, steeped in college radio, would know. The show's co-creator, Christian Jacobs, is the frontman for the Aquabats, a decade-old cult band that is the epitome of kid-to-teen convergence: They perform dressed up as cartoon superheroes and describes themselves as "nerd-core."
Toddlers aren't going to care about that, but they will be mesmerized. At the close of today's episode, DJ Lance asks for a recap of the show, then tells the characters to "break it down!" What follows is the first extended dance remix I've ever seen on a preschool show. And I've got to admit, it's yummy. (So yummy.)
Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. For more on TV, go to viewerdiscretion.net. 
