Mark Valenti is living the dream—specifically, a 7-year-old’s dream after a day of TV and movies. He’s written for Disney and Nickelodeon, met Barney and Winnie the Pooh, and worked with directors Steven Spielberg and John Hughes. The Des Peres dad is now a writer for LazyTown, the Iceland-based TV series—billed as “the most expensive children’s show in the world”—about a formerly inactive city that’s whipped into shape by newcomers Stephanie and Sportacus (played by show creator Magnús Scheving). But it all started in Florissant, where Valenti grew up watching Bugs Bunny on a 1955 Magnavox TV (pictured).
How did you end up writing for children’s shows?
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I was working for Oprah Winfrey’s company as a script analyst and somebody mentioned that Nickelodeon was looking for a story editor. I had never really given it serious thought until then.
How was writing for an animated series like Rugrats different from your previous jobs?
You have to be a lot more descriptive, because everybody along the food chain needs the visuals to do their job. Since a lot of the animation is done overseas, you really need to spell everything out.
Did you do market research with your sons?
My boys, Zachary and Noah, were at the right age for those shows back then. Rugrats had this resurgence, and it was almost like having The Beatles in the house. But like all kids, they grow up. So then they used to complain that I never wrote anything cool.
You once used the pen name Noah Zachary. Why?
When my sons were little, I was gone a lot. That was my way of letting them see their names and having it sort of be a good thing that I was gone.
What drew you to work on LazyTown?
I went to Iceland in ’03 and met Magnús Scheving. No one had taken the concept of health as seriously as he did. But he was also savvy enough to make sure it was in an entertaining framework—he made sure everything was done first-class.
Do the techniques—green-screen, puppets, computer animation—affect the writing?
In a way, it’s almost an old-fashioned throwback to the old Warner Bros. stuff. It’s over-the-top villainy, and the action stuff is very heroic.
Have you changed your own exercise habits?
I have to admit that I occasionally feel like Woody Allen when I’m in Iceland, because I don’t like hiking and don’t like to do aerobics with [Scheving and the cast] at lunchtime in the parking lot. They’re nice enough to keep inviting me, and I’m nice enough to just raise my cup of tea and toast them from behind the window.
