Madeline Fretz - Hi, I'm Madeline Fretz, but you can call me Maddie. You might know me as the founder of Parents and Kids Share Together, the world's first and only Sprout fansite. Welcome to a whole new fansite of mine - I Think I Can.
The above photo shows founder Julie Aigner-Clark's daughters Aspen and Sierra with Baby Einstein videos at a store after they became popular. Julie was proud at how big what was truly her "second child" had become. Many children grew up with the videos, including myself, who has started this new institution for Baby Einstein fans.
My sisters, Abigail ("Abbie") and Ella and I have been exposed to TV and books for as long as we can remember. The first thing we ever watched was Baby Monet, closely followed by Baby MacDonald and Baby Neptune, which we loved, as well as other videos.
We watched the videos in preschool sometimes, including the aforementioned Language Nursery. One time, we were watching Baby MacDonald and I pooped in my pants without using the bathroom. I remember sneaking into a nearby classroom and seeing the children watching Neighborhood Animals.
In 2005, the company introduced Little Einsteins, an animated preschool series featuring art and classical music. I watched the show regularly and can remember this one episode with puppets and they were like "nose, nose, nose nose nose." When I was probably in kindergarten, I tried to search that up on YouTube and was met with a video of Baby da Vinci, a Baby Einstein video which tackled parts of the body including noses. I instantly watched that, which led to me constantly watching Baby Einstein videos on YouTube, buying DVDs from libraries, and getting puppets and toys for Christmas. Needless to say, I was hooked.
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| Image from YouTube |
After her first daughter Aspen was born, Julie Aigner-Clark had difficulty finding edutainment videos, which were everywhere at the time, for her to watch. Noticing how interested she was in toys and stock footage, she decided to make a video for babies and toddlers and put them in it, filming it in her basement. Baby Einstein was released by Gymboree on January 31st, 1997 and was made by I Think I Can Productions, Clark's production company. The video taught the alphabet, counting, and popular children's songs in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Hebrew, and Japanese. It was an instant success.
A year later, Baby Mozart was released. Inspired by The Mozart Effect, a study on how classical music was hugely impactful on young children, the video featured classical music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart set to toys, stock footage, and puppetry. It was also a success and also made by I Think I Can Productions.
I Think I Can Productions became Aigner-Clark Productions the same year and The Baby Einstein Company, after their first video, the following year in 1999, but the former is still an interesting early name.
Baby Einstein may be more popular under its current name, but let's not forget when it used to have a different name. The company was acquired by Family Home Entertainment in 2000, Disney in 2001, and finally Kids II in 2013. Everything changed with all three ownership changes.
Do you have any fun memories of Baby Einstein that you'd like to share? This blog seems like the perfect place to post them! So long, everyone, and I'll see you as time goes by!
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