Made by Maddie is coming soon to Nickelodeon. The animated series for pre-schoolers will debut this month and will revolve around an imaginative and creative eight-year-old girl (Alyssa Cheatham) in New York City. The cast also includes Patina Miller, James Monroe Iglehart, Sophia Torres, Amanda Dressel, and Ames McNamara.
Nickelodeon revealed more about the new pre-school animated series in a press release.
“Family, friendship and fashionable fun drive Nickelodeon’s brand-new animated preschool series, Made by Maddie (formerly Fashion Ally), premiering Sunday, Sept. 13, at 11 a.m. (ET/PT) on the Nick Jr. channel. Created by Paula Rosenthal and produced by Silvergate Media (Sunny Day, Peter Rabbit, The Octonauts, Hilda), the series (22 half-hour episodes) follows 8-year-old Maddie in New York City, as she uses her imagination and design ingenuity to turn every problem into a positive with the perfect fashion fix. Made by Maddie will continue to air regularly Sundays at 11 a.m.(ET/PT) on the Nick Jr. channel.
Made by Maddie centers on Maddie (Alyssa Cheatham), a quick-thinking little girl with a big personality and a huge heart, who has a passion for fashion. Maddie finds design inspiration around every corner and her big ideas couldn’t become a reality without the love and support of her aspirational and talented fashion designer mom, Dee (Patina Miller), and her super cool and upbeat musician dad, Rashad (James Monroe Iglehart), along with the assistance of friends and neighbors, including kind, animal-loving best friend, Jada (Sophia Torres), and the twins—rule-following Harper (Amanda Dressel) and fearless Hudson (Ames McNamara)—who are always up for adventure. Maddie’s creative thinking and dazzling designs are a reflection of the bustling, colorful city of New York and its residents. Maddie confidently embraces her own unique style, celebrates individuality, treats everyone with kindness, and encourages others to take risks and be themselves.
In the series premiere, “If the Glue Fits/Mini Me DJ,” Maddie gets her hands stuck to a pair of shoes Dee designed. Once she finally gets the shoes unstuck, she has to come up with a redesign to save the day. Then, Maddie, Dee, and her assistant Dustin design an outfit for DJ Fierce, a famous DJ. They scour the city for the perfect materials, but when a misunderstanding leads to an outfit mix-up, Maddie will have to get creative with a fashion fix.”
What do you think? Are you or someone in your home going to check out Made by Maddie on Nickelodeon?
It’s unfortunate because this looks eerily similar to Oscar award winning Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love. Right down to the cat. As a Black man he understood the need for this type of story and put a lot of labor and love into it’s creation. So to see something that looks like a copy & paste version of that is extremely disheartening.
Thank you for creating this show for kids. It is positive and representative of an ideal African American family. I encourage you to continue to create diversity in your programming.