'Kids quest' travel adventure show: children's television pilot features Iditarod.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: FILM

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Scarlet Knight, a farm girl from Texas, and Lauren Owens, a lifelong Alaskan who lives in Anchorage, are on a quest. The Last Great Race on Earth--the sled dog event known as the Iditarod--is something their kid fans from across the country are interested in learning more about. And when it comes to travel adventures, it doesn't get any better than this: more than 60 teams of dogs and their mushers traveling 1,150-miles northwest from Anchorage to Nome, covering the roughest and most breathtaking landscapes in the world. Along the way, they cross mountain ranges, brave frozen rivers, navigate barren tundra and windswept coastlines, all in an attempt to be the first to make it to the finish line.

As the 11-year-olds travel around the state trying to learn more about what the race is all about, the discovery trip unfolds like a comedy of errors as they quizzically attempt to try the sport of dog sledding themselves--first, trying to figure out how dog sleds work, then picking the wrong dogs for their team, until Dee Dee Jonrowe, an acclaimed Iditarod contender and the foremost female dog musher competing in the world today, takes the girls by the hand and in the Alaska spirit says, "Girls, I'm going to show you what the race is really all about and what it means to be an Iditarod racer."

STAY TUNED

Although you've just gotten a preview of what the TV show "Kids Quest" is about, with any luck, this kids travel adventure pilot will be the next afternoon entertainment for "tweens" across the country, appealing to the demand for both kids TV shows and any programming that is reality based--both areas that are still hot in Tinseltown.

"Everyone has a show to sell in L.A., so the odds are slim, but everyone is very intrigued by the idea because there's nothing on the air like this and people are very intrigued by Alaska," says Lisa Owens, Lauren's mother and the show's creator. "The whole point is to teach kids from around the country that Alaska is not off the coast of Hawaii. The perception of what Alaska is about is so different than what people experience when they get here, which is intriguing to producers."

At first, many of the decision-makers are surprised when Owens suggests Alaska as a talent pool, but when they come to visit, she says they are "blown away by the talent and how diverse Alaska children are in their interests."

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