Proof Positive of Change

At 22, children’s television producer Shane DeRolf had an epiphany that changed his life overnight.

After years of art schooling, the budding illustrator was weeks away from his first gallery show--in New York, no less. But he was closing in on another goal. Though DeRolf had attended church only once as a youth, he longed to know God and read all he could about spirituality. The turning point came one evening when, while reading such literature, he realized he had made art his master.

“So I sat down and ripped up every piece of art I’d ever done, four garbage bags full,” said DeRolf, now creator of “The Crayon Box,” a syndicated series for preschoolers. “I took them to the dumpster across the street and threw them away.”

The next morning, feeling he had inexplicably “reached a union with God,” he awoke with a new conviction.

“I had a spirit, and a new mission and objective, and that was to help people, to provide things that made people better,” he said in an interview at his production studio here.

DeRolf didn’t fulfill the calling immediately. Yet today, at 43, he believes the work he does comes close. “The Crayon Box,” which airs weekdays at 8:30 a.m. on KCOP-TV Channel 13, is a mix of animation and live-action puppetry that features a box of talking crayons that advocate such principles as racial tolerance, sportsmanship and the golden rule. The idea came from a poem DeRolf wrote that the nonprofit Ad Council also adapted for animated public service announcements. “Always do for others what you’d have them do for you,” the crayons sang on a recent episode.

A round-faced, enthusiastic father of two boys, DeRolf has written children’s books and designed toys. His first children’s show, “Zazoo U,” drew critical praise with its 1990 premiere on Fox TV. With its rap-speaking birds, the program’s “utterly unlike anything that’s ever been on Saturday morning,” wrote a reviewer for The Times.

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The New Jersey native moved to Newport Beach five years ago to co-found the World POG Federation, which marketed the once wildly popular bottle-cap game pieces. The company hit hard times, but DeRolf went on to produce “The Crayon Box” for Random House; the program ranks 21st among 40 syndicated children’s television shows, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Last month, DeRolf opened a studio on Balboa Peninsula, where he’s developing other shows that explore such issues as energy conservation and recycling. The nascent project perhaps closest to his heart stars a baby whale named Wubbles.

As the very curious Wubbles explores the world around him--the sea, the land, the heavens--DeRolf hopes that young viewers will want to know how it all came to exist and ask their parents for answers.

The idea is to stimulate discussion about who or what is God, he said. “People can worship God any way they want to worship God, but if we could create a bit of wonderful entertainment that [provoked discussion], it would be a great thing.”

The Chiodo brothers, a Burbank-based, award-winning special effects trio, will serve as co-executive producers and manufacture the puppetry for “Wubbles”--as they do for “The Crayon Box.”

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Although DeRolf says he doesn’t consider himself religious and isn’t out to plug religion with the show, he does believe in spreading positive messages.

“Television is the most powerful medium in the world,” he said, “and as such, [those who produce it] have a tremendous responsibility.”

* “The Crayon Box” airs weekdays during a half-hour show that begins with “Bananas in Pajamas” at 8:30 a.m. on KCOP-TV Channel 13.