Tin Can Television is a nonprofit, direct-to-consumer children’s media company. Its founders earn families’ trust with free, original, curated, adult-led, mission-driven, live-action programming that evokes classic children’s television while addressing present-day issues affecting today’s families. Sustaining members gain access to additional perks, including hosts’ full libraries, a club and digital magazine, opportunities to participate in interactive livestream and in-person experiences, and a variety of parent and educator resources. We believe that empowering children starts with empowering their grownups.
The target audience is the grownups of children ages 3+. The best way to empower children is to empower their grownups. Yes, kids can watch on their own, but these are programs that are designed just as much for the adult as for the child.
Danny LaBrecque, Founder and President of Tin Can Television leads what he calls The League of Extraordinary Kids’ Show Hosts or just The League for short. A group of like-minded, mission-driven, independent artists, storytellers, scientists, and child advocates that honor a classic approach to children’s media in their own unique voices. Together, they meet regularly and discuss their shared concerns and hopes for the future of children’s media. Each member of The League has found that the current system tends to reward a very specific type of “show” that tends to play more to the needs of the algorithm and network over the actual needs of children and their grownups. The hosts of these “programs” often get lost in all of the noise, but they refuse to compromise their values for the sake of superficial growth. LaBrecque believes that he has found the next generation of classic kids’ show hosts on par with the heroes of his childhood.
We have to earn your trust through our actions. We encourage you to look each of us up. Start with Danny Joe LaBrecque, our founder and president, then see Stan Tucker, Kaitie Kai, Sophie Shrand, and Suzie Hicks. They are just a few of the real people who make up Tin Can Television.
Our hosts are skilled facilitators. Sure, they can teach your kids about shapes, colors, and numbers. And because they also engage with their audiences in person, they hear what families need right now. They help children and grownups work through the hardest issues of our day, from the climate crisis to media literacy to peaceful resolution in times of conflict, in ways that build critical thinking and empathy. It is never heavy-handed or overwhelming, and always shaped for each child’s age and stage.
We aren’t building another kids’ app, streaming service, or endless content library. Tin Can Television is a replacement infrastructure for children’s media: a platform built on attentiveness, relationships, and trust.
Nope. Tin Can Television doesn’t offer cartoons, but we highly recommend PBS Kids, Maka Kids, Meevee, and Sensical.tv if you’re looking for safe, curated collections of animation.
Tin Can Television is your go-to spot for live-action, adult-led, mission-driven hosts. We’re offering you real human beings: trusted grownups like the ones from your childhood. Think of us as the new generation of hosts like Mister Rogers, Shari Lewis, Mr. Dressup, and LeVar Burton.
Nope. There have always been different categories of grownups in children’s media history. Our hosts are not actors playing parts, character clowns, or kid-like adults. We’re real, the same people on and off the screen. We’re grownups with a deep understanding of the topics we teach. Sure, we often use traditional entertainment methods to shape our storylines, but at the end of the day we’re storytellers, artists, educators, scientists, and child advocates.
That doesn’t mean we don’t like and respect other approaches. That’s just not what we’re here to offer you.
Our top priority for you and your children is service, not selling. We’re here to build relationships, not retention. Attentiveness, not addiction to a screen. We’re guides, not brands.
Right now, you can join the waitlist while we finish raising our funding and building our platform. And you can make a tax-deductible charitable donation to help move things along.
Basic Access will be free
Standard Membership will be $6-8/month
Premium Membership will be $10-12/month
Your donation allows Tin Can Television to remain independent, community-focused, and mission-driven. We’ll use your dollars to build out our platform, compensate our hosts, and create truly original content. Thank you for supporting Tin Can Television and our commitment to adult-led, live-action programming!