It's not a heavily written show. A lot of it is the performers interacting with the kids. Pig and Fish has been floating around for a year. Things go into remission for a period and then come out, and we pursue them heavily. Puppets are expensive.
Sets have to be specifically made.
Every costume is custom made. In kids TV, license fees are much lower than in primetime. Figuring out enough about the production side to know if you can do shows of certain quality for the budget becomes the writer's business if you want to sell a show. I have to prove to people here and to the people at the network that we can do it. With Pig and Fish I wanted to do an action show.