Jeff Kline
Executive Producer
Jeff Kline is one of the few writer/producers able to successfully straddle the worlds of both live-action and animation. In addition to the three-time Emmy-nominated series Dragon Tales, Kline serves as Executive Producer and Co-Developer developer of Jackie Chan Adventures (Kids WB!), the #1 animated series on Saturday mornings, and Consulting Producer on Stuart Little for HBO Family. Last fall, Jeff Kline executive produced the prime-primetime ABC drama, That Was Then.
Recent credits include Executive Producing and Co-Developing the animated series: Max Steel (Kids WB!), Men in Black: The Series (Kids WB!), and Harold and The Purple Crayon (HBO Family). Kline was Co-Executive executive Producer and Co-Developer developer on Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (Fox Kids), Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles (BKN), Godzilla: The Series (Fox Kids), and Jumanji (UPN).
In prime-time, Kline has written multiple pilots and episodic scripts including the live-action comedy presentation Electra Woman & Dyna Girl (The WB), and a "Casper" Halloween Special currently in pre-production at NBC.
Kline first joined the Sony family in 1989 in Drama Development at Columbia Pictures Television, ultimately serving as Senior Vice President before segueing to the world "above-the-line."
Jodi Nussbaum
Executive Producer
Jodi Nussbaum, Group Vice President of Television, Film, and Home Video, is responsible for overseeing development and production on new and existing properties at Sesame Workshop. Her work includes the award-winning programs Sesame Street, Dragon Tales, Sagwa The Chinese Siamese Cat, and Out There, as well as home videos, television specials, and feature films.
Prior to joining the Workshop full-time, Nussbaum was the producer of Ghostwriter, the PBS mystery-adventure series designed to encourage reading and writing for audiences between the ages of 7 and 11.
Her over twenty years experience in the film and television business include work on features, sitcoms, commercials, documentaries, series drama and music videos. The highlight being a trip across America in a rock-n-roll tour bus for MTV Networks to produce "Amuck in America."
Nussbaum also oversaw the production on the HBO program Billy Joel: Live in Leningrad, and the shooting of a filmed documentary on the trip for the ABC television network.
Nussbaum lives in Montclair, NJ, with her son, Tucker.
Rita Weisskoff, Ph.D.
Co-Producer/ Content Director
Rita Weisskoff is a writer and educator with a special interest in using the power of popular media to support children's growth and development. She has extensive experience working with creative teams to design and integrate educational content into entertainment vehicles for children. Current series on air include: Dragon Tales, the Emmy-nominated preschool animated series on PBS; and Little Bill and Max and Ruby, both airing on Nick Jr. Weisskoff was content director for Out There, a live action series for older children and Ghostwriter, the popular TV-based literacy project for school-age children and their caregivers and teachers, which aired on PBS.
From 1983-1988 Weisskoff was vice-president/director of the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), the division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus responsible for the self-regulation of advertising in all media to children. At CARU she consulted with advertisers and agencies on children's understanding of persuasive messages in the media and asked for changes in advertising when needed.
For eleven years Weisskoff, a language arts and reading consultant, taught in public schools and universities in Connecticut. She co-authored Live and Learn and Yesterdays, two textbooks that encourage writing in middle schools. Recent publications include: It's 2001. Do you know what your children are watching? The critical role of children's television in the age of new media, in Lawrence K. Grossman and Newton N. Minow, A Digital Gift to the Nation. (New York, The Century Foundation Press, 2001.)
Weisskoff received her B.A of arts in English from the University of California at Los Angeles and her Ph.D. in education from the University of Connecticut, where she conducted research on effects of integrating commercial music into language arts materials for children.
Ron Rodecker
Concept and Character Creator/ Co-Producer
Ron Rodecker spent 21 years in public education, including curriculum development and evaluation, school administration, master teaching, and counseling. For several consecutive years, he was chosen as a Leader in American Education. Rodecker has been a supervising teacher at UCLA's Seeds School and an elected member of the California Committee on Selecting Educational Goals. He also served for two years as an elementary school principal on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
In 1978, Rodecker switched from public education to private counseling for children with emotional, academic learning and adjustment problems, he also rediscovered his first love, art. Selected by a jury of artists at the Laguna Festival of Arts, he first showed his artwork at the site of the prestigious Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. His work quickly drew acclaim and after several years, Rodecker developed the whimsical dragons that have gained him international recognition.
Sony Pictures Family Entertainment Producer Jim Coane spotted Rodecker's dragons and asked him to come in to the Sony offices to discuss the possibility of a children's show based on his characters and philosophy. A partnership was established with Sesame Workshop, the premiere creators of children's educational programming. They then asked Rodecker to develop initial treatment and format for the show. This he did, and Dragon Tales was born.
Rodecker's work is highly sought after, and literally thousands of his prints have been purchased over the past several years. The magnitude of the demand for his art resulted in his focusing entirely on his dragon creations. Rodecker's award-winning work appears in many galleries throughout the United States and Europe. He has self-published two books, Broken Twigs and The Was World and has just completed a third book, The Charm Stone, a novel about California Indians.
Rodecker lives in Laguna Beach, California, with his wife Katherine, who is also his quality control and inspiration, his golden retrievers Tessa and Remington, and two cats Malcolm and Daphne. They are all the models for his characters in Dragon Tales.
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