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Blog
Sunday, April 22, 2012
At a press screening for "Doc McStuffins" (from left): Andrea Tompkins, educational consultant; Nancy Kanter, senior vice president of original programming and general manager, Disney Junior Worldwide; Chris Nee, creator and executive producer of "Doc McStuffins"; and Sandra de Castro Buffington, director of Hollywood, Health & Society of the USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center, who served as a consultant for show. Images ©Disney Junior; photo above by Rick Rowell
The doctor is in!
And she comes in the form of a 4-foot-and-then-some bundle of soothing medical wisdom and plain common sense. Meet Doc McStuffins, a 6-year-old who’s the star of the new animated series on the Disney Junior channel.
Surrounded by her stuffed friends—Chilly, Lambie, Stuffy and Hallie, who come to life through the power of her magical stethoscope—Doc McStuffins heals the owwies of toys in her backyard playhouse while dressed up in a white lab coat and pink tennis shoes. Doc gives each show its high point when she examines her patient and declares: “I have a diagnosis!” It all gets written down in her Big Book of Boo Boos. Executive producer Chris Nee created the show after son Theo was diagnosed with asthma when he was a toddler, as a soothing antidote to the anxiety he felt on visits to doctors and hospitals.
Hollywood, Health & Society was given a wonderful opportunity to work with Doc McStuffins. I participated from the show's inception, attending the very first Doc McStuffins planning meeting at the Disney Channel offices in Burbank with  Chris Nee, Disney executives, writers, producers, standards and practices professionals, and the animators who joined in by Skype from Ireland. After consulting with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I developed a list of priority health topics relevant to the young viewing audience of 2- to 7-year-olds, then pitched these topics to the writing and production team, who incorporated many of them into the first season of programming. HH&S also took part in a brainstorming session to help strategize online outreach components for the show.
Over the following months, HH&S connected Doc McStuffins writers with medical experts on topics that included bone fractures, fear of the dark, dental health, first aid, swimming guidelines, physical therapy, outdoor play, dust, stitches, injections, hospital stays, germs, hand washing, hiccups and medical terminology for children.
Disney also requested that I join Chris in a satellite media tour to speak about my role in helping the show’s creative team weave accurate health information into their scripts. Chris and I showed up, camera ready, at a Burbank studio at 5 a.m. and were interviewed by TV, radio and print outlets. We were also interviewed by a group of “mom bloggers” at a private screening of Doc McStuffins on the Disney lot in Burbank. You can watch one of the interviews here.
Entertainment education for kids is a wide-open world, simply by the fact that there’s so much to teach them when it comes to lessons on good health and safety. But children, even more than adults, need their “medicine” delivered with a good dose of magical storytelling. So, the importance of regular baths and getting “squeaky clean” is demonstrated in the tale of Sir Kirby, a brave knight whose armor has seen better days. Doc’s diagnosis? Sir Kirby has filthy-icky-sticky disease—meaning he’s covered in grape jelly and pizza cheese. It’s time for some soap and shampoo.
In another episode, an inflatable toy named Boppy is losing air, and the good doctor does a little detective work and discovers that playing around rose bushes can cause a bad case of the pricklethorns. After patching up Boppy and restoring his bounce, Doc also offers this prescription: be careful around thorns—and all sharp things.
All the while, the show demystifies what is for many young ones the potentially scary world of visits to the doctor’s office. It reassures them that illnesses come and illnesses go—sometimes you just need help from your friendly family physician. And just as important, it teaches kids that they too can be good stewards of their own well-being by getting enough sleep and eating right.
Health lessons, of course, are not new when it comes to children’s programs, and shows such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company and Mister Rogers Neighborhood laid the foundation for strong entertainment education.
And now add Doc McStuffins to that list. It’s not only good for children, it’s just plain good.
Sandra de Castro Buffington
Director, Hollywood, Health & Society
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
It was an honor being named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America and, truthfully, a bit humbling.
After all, it’s not every day you get to rub elbows, so to speak, with the likes of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, actresses Sofia Vergera of TV’s “Modern Family” and Salma Hayek; Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel; New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera; and Mark Lopez, head of Google’s U.S. Hispanic Audience division.
These are, of course, just a few of the names on the list presented by Poder Hispanic magazine, all taken from the world of business, government, sports, non-profits, military leaders, media and entertainment.
They represent the depth of U.S. Hispanic diversity, the magazine said, and are examples “of the tremendous world-class talent that has emerged . . . to serve in top leadership roles.” For Poder, the sheer number of influential  Hispanics made the task of narrowing it down to 100 names even tougher. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently more than 50 million Latinos in the United States, representing the fastest growing and largest minority in the country.
But I’m humbled in another sense, because from where I sit—at the intersection of health and entertainment—there’s still a mountain of work to be done. Para hacer del mundo un lugar mejor. To make the world a better place.
Though we celebrate the breadth of Hispanic leadership in this country, the Kaiser Foundation finds that as a group, Hispanics remain one of the nation’s most uninsured, under-resourced and increasingly unhealthy segments of the population. We’re certainly not alone. During these hard times, our plight is shared by countless others of many different backgrounds and ethnic groups. But in factors such as employment, where we live and language barriers, Hispanics are especially challenged. About a third—34 percent of the non-elderly Hispanics less than 65 years of age—are going without any health coverage, according to the foundation.
It’s why Hollywood, Health & Society—as part of its larger goal of fostering entertainment that improves the health of all TV audiences—works with the producers and writers of telenovelas to reach Hispanic viewers on topics such as diabetes, cervical cancer, worker safety, good nutrition and exercise.
Just recently, HH&S launched our signature Storybus Tours, taking entertainment industry professionals to various locations in East Los Angeles, where we met with teachers, staff and community leaders who are working to reduce gang violence in schools and on the streets. I also took a group of Hollywood’s writers and producers overseas to India and South Africa, to explore other cultures and learn from local storytellers on the ground.
In highlighting my work and the mission of HH&S, the magazine said that we have “reached nearly every home in the country” by helping to connect health experts and specialists with researchers, writers and producers from such leading shows as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “House” and many others. Also, as the magazine pointed out, I’ve been busy taking our program’s message global, hoping to make a difference around the world. This year, I hope to take writers to Latin America to learn about global health and climate change in a local context.
Being named to the Top 100 Most Influential list made me think of my parents, who both blazed a trail for me. My mother was from Brazil, and my father was a farm boy from Iowa. They met in Rio de Janeiro while he was on leave from the Air Force during the Korean War, and married back in Iowa where they both attended college before moving to Chicago. She became a singer; he became a psychiatrist. Only in the Americas.
Yes, I’m grateful for the honor. It means a lot to me. Now let’s all roll up our sleeves and get back to work.
Sandra de Castro Buffington
Director, Hollywood, Health & Society
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
It’s a concept so simple yet so powerful that I don’t understand why it hasn’t found its way on a lot more car bumpers, T-shirts and billboards: Walk around in someone else’s shoes.
Chris Keyser, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, captured the impact of this idea in his keynote address at the EE5 conference held recently in Delhi, India, where he and three other writers and producers and myself participated in panel discussions and workshops. The trip was organized by HH&S, which was also a co-sponsor of the conference. On the topic about how entertainment can be used for social good, Chris recalled his own early exposure to this simple truth: that walking around in someone else’s shoes for a few hours—through the world of storytelling on TV and in film—can open your eyes. Change your life. Or even nudge the world, as playwright Tom Stoppard was quoted.
In his prepared remarks, Chris told the assembled audience:
“All of us, here, understand that. Not just intellectually, viscerally. Nothing has the power to alter how people see the world or how they behave in quite the same way as a story, well told. We model the behavior of characters we come to know and to love. We allow the characters to make mistakes for us. We open ourselves up to new ideas because we are being taught without ever knowing that we are being taught.
"That’s all part of the job of being a writer. There should be no tension between the obligation to entertain and the obligation to convey positive social messages. We have to do both, not because we run a video classroom, but because we have been given access to the loudest megaphone, the tallest soapbox in the history of the world. Access to the public airwaves is a public trust.”
His clarion call was addressed specifically to writers and other entertainment industry professionals, telling them that investing a story with a social message and allowing emotional truths to resonate with audience members are vital. It goes a long way in the nudge department. Chris said that sometimes the strongest message is so quiet it seems to disappear.
But perhaps this need for empathy and understanding is something that we can all follow in 2012. A global resolution that, hopefully, would cut through all the rhetoric about what divides us and instead focus on what brings us together. The mission of “seeing how the other half lives” was very much in evidence when I organized writers trips to India and South Africa in May. We explored Mumbai—where one of the world’s largest slums, Dharavi, exists—and toured small local clinics in Johannesburg. We were greeted warmly everywhere we went. There’s a commonality among all of us on this planet—parents want the best for their kids, including a good education; community residents want a future, to be safe, healthy and to prosper. And they want peace. All around, every day, the real world intrudes and demands our attention. We witness other people in other lives, following their own daily scripts, and only need to imagine walking their path.
We can call it Occupy Other Shoes.
Sandra de Castro Buffington
Director, Hollywood, Health & Society
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
What a difference a year makes.
José Javier Maldonado and Carmen Liliana Narvaez were armed members of a paramilitary group in Colombia. But now, 12 months later—after taking part in a program for social inclusion sponsored by their government—they have given up their weapons and have successfully reintegrated into society.
I learned of their stories and many others when I was in Paris last week as a moderator at the UNESCO Youth Forum. Over two hundred youth delegates from nearly 200 countries gathered to create a new youth agenda for the planet. These extraordinary young leaders are mapping our future and telling the UN General Assembly what they need to address employment barriers, counter youth exclusion and participate constructively in political and public life. They are simply amazing young adults!
César López, musician and peace activist from Colombia, traveled the country interviewing perpetrators and victims of violence. He created an electric guitar out of an AK-47 assault rifle and is on his way to India to donate it to the Gandhi Museum; Mousa Mosawy, a young disabled man from Iraq, organized emergency support to women and the disabled during the war; Andres Villena from Spain is an activist with the Indignados 15M movement and blogger; others were survivors of unspeakable violence and are active in changing society so that others may thrive. Paulo Coelho, internationally renowned author from Brazil, and Forest Whitaker, Academy Award-winning actor and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, participated in the forum.
I had the privilege of moderating a plenary session called "How Youth Drive Change." The portrayal of youth in entertainment media was one of the topics that generated much discussion and debate. These youth leaders rarely see themselves reflected in TV and movie storylines as heroes, social activists and the creators of our collective future— even though that's precisely what these brave young people embody in real life with the challenges they face. I thought these statistics from UNESCO were startling:
• Young people constitute a major proportion of those living in poverty across the world—almost 209 million live on less than $1 a day, 515 million live on less than $2 a day. (UN-DESA, 2005)
• Approximately 565 young people aged 10-29 die every day through interpersonal violence. (WHO, 2002)
• 98% of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school and 99% of girls with disabilities are illiterate. (UNESCO, 2011)
To view the complete Ten Key Facts and Figures list from UNESCO, click here.
We invite those of you in the creative community to contact us if you would like to meet some of these extraordinary young people and hear their stories. Perhaps they'll inspire you, the master storytellers of our time, to weave their challenges and triumphs into your dramatic storylines.
Sandra de Castro Buffington
Director, Hollywood, Health & Society
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