If Mister Rogers and Mary Poppins were spun into one, they might look something like Mabel Maclay.
She is the fictional character at the center of “A Wonderful Day With Mabel Maclay,” a flagship show for Bentkey, the burgeoning family streaming platform from the minds at The Daily Wire.
The creators of the series, Katy and Ryan Chase, recently spoke with CBN’s “Quick Start” about how they met — and ultimately got married — and how, as creators who happen to be Christians, they came up with the concept for their new show.
Listen to them on the latest episode of “Quick Start” 👇
“[Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood] was a show that we grew up loving — that’s a show that we’ve shared with our own kids,” Ryan Chase told CBN Digital. “[T]hat was a big influence in our development of [our show]. … We wanted things to be a little slower paced, but, also, it has to be entertaining.”
For her part, Katy Chase said, “I think the most important influence from ‘Mister Rogers’ was the idea of a main character who speaks to children through the camera, who speaks in a really gentle, grounded way and feels calm with them, and we hope to have done that with the character of Mabel.”
While the couple pulled from entertainment staples creatively, it’s their Christian faith that truly inspires their work — and the principles and values that shine through in the series’ episodes.
Katy Chase said their faith plays a role in everything they do, calling it “a main focus” of their lives.
“It was tricky to make a non-faith-based children’s program,” she admitted, “because we do have a very specific worldview, but we also have worked with kids for a very long time and have always done non-faith-based work and believed in this idea that our light shines.”
Ryan Chase added they are resting in “a fountain of gratitude and thankfulness” for the opportunities God has placed in front of them.
“We know that, if we just pursue excellence in whatever God has put in front of us, … we can trust Him that ‘this little light of mine, He’s gonna let it shine,'” he said. “And He’ll hopefully bless and benefit folks that come in contact with what we’re creating and we can just trust that there’s a creator who’s in charge of all this.”
There are “so many things” in their careers, he added, that have been orchestrated by the Lord.
“If I were a smarter man and a better writer, I could put it all in a book and maybe it would be something to behold: ‘Wow, man, look at that.’ [We’re] just thankful. God’s doing a whole thing.”
You can listen to more of our conversation in the podcast episode embedded above.
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