Carl the Collector

Carl the Collector is a children's animated television series created by Zachariah OHora. It was produced by Fuzzytown Productions and Spiffy Pictures, animated by Yowza! Animation, and premiered on PBS Kids on November 14, 2024, as the network's first series to be led by autistic characters. Carl the Collector takes place in the fictional Fuzzytown and is centered around the titular character, an autistic child raccoon with a special interest in creating collections, and his friends, including Lotta, an autistic fox.
OHora is a children's author and illustrator recruited by PBS Kids for his art style around 2015. His concept for the series was influenced by his sons' school and its usage of the inclusion model. PBS Kids greenlit the series for 40 episodes to address the discrepancy between autism representation in children's programming and autism rates in the United States. To ensure authenticity, neurodivergent people were hired in a variety of occupations in the production team, the child characters were voiced by children, and the animation team worked with advisors to accurately visually convey autism.
Set in the fictional and peaceful Fuzzytown, Carl the Collector centers on the life of Carl, an autistic child raccoon with a special interest in creating collections of various items, and his friends. Carl's friends include Sheldon, a compassionate beaver and Carl's best friend; Lotta, a shy and autistic fox with an artistic talent and hypersensitivity to sound; Forrest, a hyperactive squirrel; and Nico and Arugula, identical twin bunny sisters with opposing personalities. Episodes often involve Carl and his friends working together and learning lessons to overcome new situations.
Joey Mazzarino provides additional voices for the series as well.
Zachariah OHora is a commercially successful children's author and illustrator based in Philadelphia, known for his picture books featuring bipedal animals such as Wolfie the Bunny, Niblet & Ralph, and My Cousin Momo. In c. 2015, during a time when PBS Kids was searching for "creators outside its usual pool of talent", Natalie Engel, the Director of Content for Children’s Programming, approached OHora, liking his art style, to create a television series. At the time, OHora had created a raccoon character called "The Collector", based on OHora's own collecting habits, who had not been used in any of OHora's stories at the time. OHora's concept for the series was inspired by a school that his two non-autistic sons went to and that centered around the inclusion model. OHora described his experiences with the school as a "lightbulb moment", as he felt that the stigma surrounding disabilities would diminish if children were exposed to the "spectrum of humanity".
According to OHora, "it took a while to get the concept completely right and fleshed out"; he cited his occupation as a writer and believing the series' creation was not guaranteed. PBS Kids would later greenlight Carl the Collector for 40 episodes, half of which were completed by November 2024. Fuzzytown, the fictional setting of Carl the Collector, is modeled after Narberth, Pennsylvania, the residence of the show's creator. Carl the Collector was produced by Fuzzytown Productions and Spiffy Pictures, both of which hired neurodivergent people in a variety of occupations for the production team. The child characters are portrayed by child actors. Both autistic characters, Carl and Lotta, are portrayed by autistic child actors Kai Barham and Maddy McIlwain respectively. Yowza! Animation produced the pilot and later animated the series, replicating OHora's art style and using the Toon Boom programs Harmony and Storyboard Pro.
Though Carl was not the first autistic character featured in children's programming, being predated by Julia in PBS Kids' Sesame Street for example, autistic representation in children's programming is nonetheless rare compared to autism rates in the United States. According to Senior Vice President Sara DeWitt, PBS Kids sought to "fill a gap" in this autistic representation, and OHora and series director Lisa Whittick wanted to continue the legacy of autistic characters in children's programming. Lotta was written in addition to Carl to reflect the autism spectrum. Many specific details about Carl were figured out in the animation process such as his stimming. According to Whittick, her team created animation cycles of stimming and sent them to PBS Kids and advisors for feedback. To make interactions in the series feel natural, the pacing was deliberately slowed down, with influence from Charlie Brown cartoons, and voice-acted lines were often kept unedited. "The Fall", in which Carl discloses his autism to his friends, was written for viewers to learn the reasons behind Carl's mannerisms, according to writer Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt.
These games were released on the PBS Kids website, as well as the PBS Kids Games App.
Carl the Collector was first announced on November 2023 as the first PBS Kids series to be led by an autistic character. Targeted toward children ages 4–8, Carl the Collector premiered on November 14, 2024, on PBS Kids. Heather Bambrick, voice actress of Maude, has expressed hope for a second season, saying she thinks "we need a show like this." On Common Sense Media, Ashley Moulton gave Carl the Collector four stars, commending the series' characterization and sensitivity in handling autism. Moulton described the characters as relatable and praised the series' representation of the autism spectrum by demonstrating how the characters of Carl and Lotta experience autism differently and how autistic traits manifest without othering the characters. Carrie Gillispie of New America considered the character of Carl "a hopeful sign that perhaps disability inclusion could become the norm for the next generation."