Nickelodeon introduces “The Fresh Beat Band”

THE FRESH BEAT BANDby Karl J. Paloucek

There must be a focus group or two behind this one. Nickelodeon has announced that its much-ballyhooed series The JumpArounds has been renamed.

The Fresh Beat Band will premiere on Nickelodeon Monday, Aug. 24 (time TBD), kicking off two weeks of brand-new episodes. Encore presentations of two episodes will appear on Noggin Aug. 30 at 7pm ET.

The basic format and content of the series remains the same — four bandmates who do their song-and-dance while attending music school try to infect your preschoolers with a love for music and its basic building bricks — rhythm, harmony, melody and tempo, as well as varied performance styles — as well as more universal themes of working and playing together, the importance of friendship and respecting each other’s differences.

The changes are subtle, so I’m inclined to ask: What do you think? Was the name change necessary? Were you concerned that The JumpArounds would have had your kids agitating like molecules in your living room?

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Photo Credit: ©2009 Viacom International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

7 Comments

  1. I think the show is great. It makes my 4 and 6 year old start dancing like crazy! It is so cute when my 4 yr old comes from school asking for “her jumparounds”! They shouldn’t of even bothered changing tha name to Fresh Beat Band. A preschooler isn’t gonna get the concept of a name change cause dumb lawsuit against the show. Keep up the good work Nick Jr.!

  2. Nick Jr changed the name of the band because they were threatened with a lawsuit by another children’s music group called The Jumpitz. Don’t really see what they were worried about, I don’t think the names are that similar….

    Jumparounds was def better than The Fresh Beat Band. Ugh.

  3. Whatever the name, my daughter (4yrs) really seems to enjoy them already. Just by watching the previews she knows most of the words and dace moves.

  4. I agree with both of the above. The Jumparounds was catchy, and the Fresh Beat Band isn’t.

  5. I agree with Vince, I really like ‘The JumpArounds’ for a name. The name now… frankly, I was really confused when I saw the change and wondered… why?

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