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Joanna Ferrone: That is a good question. I bet she would have a much better answer to that than I. I think she’ll become a highly independent, self-sufficient, accomplished whatever. I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s a good question. I would imagine that she could be whatever she set her mind to.

Gina Pia Cooper: Do you think she would do something creative, as opposed to something sort of corporate and....

Joanna Ferrone: Oh definitely. I do. Maybe she will run Elsie’s Tackle Shop, and decide that the life of a tackle shop proprietor is the life for her. But whatever she does, she’ll bring her own little sense of humor to it, I’m sure. We’re trying to figure out what Angela would do when she grows up. What do you think she would do?

Gina Pia Cooper: I can see her being a writer of some sort. Because of her vivid fantasy.

Joanna Ferrone: She could. That’s a possibility.

Gina Pia Cooper: Or writing on the side, while she’s running the tackle shop.

Joanna Ferrone: Yeah that is a distinct possibility.

Gina Pia Cooper: Do you see her as a person who will keep her childhood friends?

Joanna Ferrone: Definitely. Definitely will.

What’s important to me about the show, is that real life is funnier than stuff you make up.

Mrs. Brinks

Everybody talks about not talking down to kids, and yet I think it happens all the time in the kids entertainment business.

To me, you know, stick with reality. That is funny enough. You don’t have to make stuff up. And don’t try to present a version of life that doesn’t exist. Give kids something that they can relate to, not something they have to aspire to. Give them heroes they can feel are already there. They’re already on the same page.

They don’t have to learn how to fly. They don’t have to have perfect hair. They can say, "Hey, you know, I’m chubby just like Gina Lash. She’s cool." Or "I’m lousy at sports just like Gordy Rhinehart, and he’s kind of cool." Or, "Yeah, I’m not the teacher’s pet." Angela Anaconda isn’t the teacher’s pet, but I’d rather be like her than Nanette Manoir.

Gina Pia Cooper: So you think that Angela and her buddies are definitely heroic.

Joanna Ferrone: I do. Yeah. I think most every kid has the right to be perceived as heroic just for being themselves. And that’s the idea -- to try to present role models that are real and accessible. Not to say you’ve got to become something super duper. That really it’s super duper that it's Nanette Manoir who's the least attractive of the bunch.

Gina Pia Cooper: She’s the least herself, too.

Joanna Ferrone: It happens that Nanette is the rich one. But it really isn’t about rich and poor. It has nothing to do with that. It’s about minding your own business, and it’s about having reasonably fair impulses, and about not having them. It’s about wanting a bit of attention, and it's about insisting on being the center of attention all the time.

Johnny Abatti

Keep your eye on Angela.  We think that after Gwyneth, Angela's going to be the next IT girl. Check your local listings wherever you live for the times you can catch Angela Anaconda.

Johnny and Angela dig in to their TV dinners.

Angela's house.

All images used by permission.