Jared & Friends (franchise)

Jared & Friends is a custom franchise that brings back many elements from different shows. For example, Jay Jay the Jet Plane and his friends, the psychic stuff from That's So Raven, Motherboard and the Cyboids from Cyberchase,

    and many more! This show is a mix of live action, traditional/hand-drawn animation, CGI, Flash animation, etc

## Various Descriptions and Overviews

**"***Think you teenage life is crazy? Well, you haven't seen anything yet when you meet autistic adolescent, Jared Daniel Robinson and his fantastic circle of friends and allies, imaginary AND real world! So come on down and experience the adventure, fun and friendship as you join in on the escapades brought to you by Jared & Friends!**"***

**"***Ever wonder what goes on in a teenager's head? Well, you better hold on as you get inside an autistic teen's head, Jared's head! Join in on Jared and Friends as they show you how Imagination is the key to surviving life***"**.

**"***A teenaged boy on the autism spectrum uses his imagination to deal with people and situations in his world around him, both in the real world and in the imaginary worlds***"**

**"***Jared Robinson, a teenage boy on the autism spectrum, uses his imagination and goes on adventures in the real and imaginary worlds to deal with certain people and situations around him, alongside his friends and family, learning and growing every step of the way. He is a little guy with a big imagination, which can sometimes get him into trouble himself, but he soon has a plan to fix things up***"**

## Shows/Filmography

* Jared & Friends (TV Series) (Mid-2015-present)
* Jared & Friends: The Movie (2015)
* Jared & Friends: Stories from The Secret Files (2016-present)
* Jared & Friends: The Animated Series (Late 2016-present)
* Jared & Friends Too!: The Movie (2017)
* Jared & Friends: All Grown Up (aka Welcome to Jared's House)
* The Adventures of Super Jared
* Jared & Friends: Friends Forever (2019-present)

## Cast of Characters

* Jared Robinson
* Barney the Dinosaur

* Baby Bop
* BJ
* Riff
* Jay-Jay the Jet Plane
* Tracy
* Snuffy the Skywriter
* Herky the Helicopter
* Revvin Evan
* Tuffy
* Digit Leboid
* Widget Leboid
* Madeline Macgowan
* MC
* Chloe Bugdale
* Aidan Brady
* Nicola Allain
* Rachel Buttinger
* Claire Higgins
* Natalia Emmerson
* Sydney Gukerwickie
* Ben "Jahil" Coveny
* Jack Giannou
* Emily Simmons
* Libby Jones-Brown
* Motherboard
* Dr. Marbles
* Professer Tinkerputt
* Taraji P. "Cookie Lyon" Henson
* Annasophia Robb
* Brianna Romany
* Brittany Demeitriou
* Dr. Marbles
* Arden Heron
* Paula Bonilla
* Mia T
* MCJ
* Jasmine Marinelli
* Julia Sullivan
* Michalela Quirk
* Una Mcnally
* Taylor Thorne
* Hillary Motz
* Jamie Lorentz
* Morgan Taylor
* Kara Howitt
* Jillian Rouix
* Katelyn Mielke
* Tyson Compton
* Evelyn
* Themba
* Marcel Tizzard
* Jessica Zarnke
* Meghan McCracken

* Valerie Frizzle
* Fiona Frizzle
* The Magic School Bus
* Liz
* Goldie
* The Magic Motorcycle
* Adri Kellerman
* Alycia Helliwell
* Naomi Millard
* Emma Kiers
* Carina Leonov
* Dorothy the Dinosaur
* Wags the Dog
* Henry the Octopus
* Shirley Shawn the Unicorn

## Trivia

* The first season acts as a pilot season, but still a regular season

### Behind the Scenes

* The theme song music was made on GarageBand and the cast sings it. However, the ending is from the Mark Williamson remix of the Barney theme song.
* The Barney songs mix their old and new arrangements to give them a throwback-ish feel, similar to World Tour
* The main lair setting is a recycled version of the Imagination Hangout from Our Special Friend Barney
* Barney's costume is similar to the one from 1994 (Live in NYC, Imagination Island), but the tail is is little curlier, the spots have been rearranged to look like the spots from the Season 13 costume, the ankles are connected, but only in the back, the mouth is more movable, and the same shade of purple as the future costumes, but his costume changes throughout the series, even a different costume is used, like the 2nd one from World Tour, but the mouth is movable and the tail is curlier ***(Note: These are just test costumes from the pilot)***
* This show was created to bring back elements from different shows, giving it a throwback feel
* If the characters are in animated form, the live-action actors voice their animated counterparts
* The music directors from the Barney franchise (e.g. Bob Singleton, Joesph Phillips, David Bernard Wolf, etc.) & Kurt Keinecke, music director of Veggietales, Jeff Marx, Robert Lopez, etc. work together on the music for the show/franchise
* Debi Derryberry reprises her role as JayJay
* During the second season, for episodes that the creators couldn't fit into the actual series, they made a spinoff called Jared & Friends: Stories from The Secret Files (based on the book series of the same name).
* Claire also directs the series, starting with her first appearance in the show. The first half of the 1st season was directed by Jared
* Lily Tomlin reprises her role as Ms. Valerie Felicity Frizzle, also sharing the role with Tina Marie Goff (who voice Frizzle in the MSB CD-ROM games)
* Catherine Thompson, Lily Tomlin, and Tina Marie Goff all share the role of speaking Liz
* Some of the musical arrangements are similar to Bob Singleton (Season 1-3), Joe Phillips (Season 4-6) (Season 7-13) and David Bernard Wolf (same from Barney home videos/TV series, but reused/recycled), this would make sense because they both work on the music
* In fact, some of the musical score are recycled/reused from other various TV shows, most notably Sabrina: The Animated Series, Sabrina's Secret Life, and the Barney franchise. As well as the Winx Club dubs (particularly the Rai and 4kids dubs), starting at Season 3
* As the series progresses, most of the transitions are recycled from Sabrina: The Animated Series/Sabrina's Secret Life, most notably the door and the cat color wheel
* For the Jay-Jay the Jet Plane characters,
	+ The planes are computer models created in Maya and proprietary software.
	+ The movement of the planes are recorded by playing out the scene with wood models equipped with magnetic position sensors. The planes have a switch to aid landing and taxiing, due to some minor fluctuations in the magnetic positioning data.
	+ The planes' faces and lip syncing are done by face tracking, a technique where reflective spots are put on a voice actor's face. The voice track is digitally recorded along with the spot data, but usually the voices are pre-recorded. Then the face is rendered using a form of parametric animation.
	+ Head movement and other effects are done by joysticks.
* Characters, like Libby Jones, are a mixture of classic cel/hand-drawn animation and computer graphics like Flash
* James Cameron serves as one of the directors for the series

### Fun Facts/References

* The teens in the posse act similar to the Winx in the 4kids dub of Winx Club, for they act like typical teenagers/young adults
* Jared explains the events are actual events, imaginary or real.
* The logo itself is a parody of/reference to the famous That's So Raven logo
* James Cameron joins the cast as one of the directors
* The funding credits used for PBS airings is very similar and a parody of the original funding credits for Cyberchase from 2002-2005
* In an interview, Jared explains the show as "That's So Raven meets Cyberchase plus Barney and Jay Jay the Jet Plane plus Jimmy Neutron equals my imagination and my inner psyche"

## Gallery

Original Logo (Season 1-4)Watch it Poster (Part 1)Watch it On...Poster (Part 2, unfinished version)Disney Channel Ident #1PBS Kids logo used (also used for animated spinoff)Logo (Season 8-present)
## See Also

List of Jared & Friends Books

Jared & Friends Comic Series

List of Jared & Friends Toys and Games

Jared & Friends videography

List of Morals (Jared & Friends)