Cappelli & Company
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Cappelli & Company was an American children's television series created by, and starring, children's songwriter/composer Frank Cappelli.[1] The series was in production for three seasons, from 1989 to 1992, originating from Pittsburgh ABC affiliate WTAE-TV. Upon the program's instant success both critically and ratings-wise in Pittsburgh, Cappelli & Company was distributed by WTAE's parent owner Hearst Television to air on all its sister stations across the country. Other Hearst-owned stations which aired the show well into the 1990s included WCVB in Boston, Milwaukee's WISN, and KCRA in Sacramento.
Cappelli & Company featured musical segments, montages, in studio sing-alongs with an audience of kids, and a variety of human interest pieces. Frank would usually play a role in most musical segments, which were taped in locations away from the show's main set. These segments featured original songs by Cappelli, ranging from the lighthearted "Brusha-Brusha Brush Your Teeth" to the more sentimental "Lindsay's Bakery". Various children would appear in necessary roles to help illustrate the actions/stories of each song. Depending on the segment, an influx of other adult actors would appear. The main studio segments would have Frank leading sing-alongs with the young audience, while playing his acoustic guitar. Guests of versatile talents would also join Frank and the kids in studio. Each episode would feature one human interest segment, such as a look inside a candy manufacturing company to see how its products are made (a la the "Picture Picture" segment of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood).
Cappelli & Company's furthered success on the Hearst family of stations led to cable kids' giant Nickelodeon picking up reruns of the show for its Monday-Friday morning Nick Jr. lineup.[2] Its airtime on Nick began in April 1993 and ended in 1994. While all Hearst stations continued to run Cappelli & Company after it went out of production in 1992 (once a week on Saturday mornings), the series' flagship station WTAE ran it the longest; in the fall of 2003 after a 14 year-run, the last 11 of which had been entirely of reruns, the show faded from WTAE's Saturday morning schedule. Most Hearst-Argyle stations had only run the program until the late 1990s.
While enjoying a great run on broadcast and cable television, Cappelli & Company won two Emmys for quality children's programming and 2 national Gabriel Awards for children's television. Frank also was signed by A&M Records as one of their national recording artists and released six audio cassettes and two video cassettes, partially based on this series. Both the audios and videos have been honored with numerous Parent Choice Awards.
