On TV's 'Pancake Mountain,' Hot Bands Playing With Hip Tots

The cable-access show stages dance parties with hip musical guests -- all tailored for kiddies' consumption. Uri Guttman, 3, rocks during a recent show. (Hans Ericsson For The Washington Post)

But wait, what about the kids? Isn't this show supposed to be for the kids? What do they care about Warhol's Factory?

Rest assured, there is plenty for the kids, especially the live dance parties, a huge draw for parents who are eager to bring their children to jump around to the music. Parents are alerted to the parties and music-video shoots by announcements on the show's Web site and a growing e-mail list.

Nikeesha Webb, who works for the Metropolitan Police Department, has brought her 11-year-old son, Kaliah Chapman, to all of the show's dance parties.

"It's a nice program for kids," she says. "It opens their ears to all different kinds of music. Other shows aren't that diverse."

"The Barney-type shows kind of wig me out and I think they wig out kids, too," says Matt Lawrence of the District, who brought his 3-year-old twin daughters, Lucy and Emma, to the Arcade Fire taping. "I'm more into the kids getting together with other kids and dancing to some good rock-and-roll."

Sales of DVDs are keeping "Pancake Mountain" afloat, but Stuckey wants to take his little-kid show big-time. Whether that will ever happen is another question altogether. The show will soon be available on public access channels in Seattle, Austin and San Francisco, and Stuckey says he has been talking to national cable channels as well.

So far none of the networks has called to offer a Saturday morning time slot. But then, maybe this isn't a Saturday morning kind of show after all. J-R Soldano, a graphic designer on Pancake Mountain and the voice of Rufus, wonders if an early-morning spot -- a very-early-morning spot -- might not be a better fit.

"Our ideal audience," he says, "just might be the post-David Letterman drunk twenty-somethings coming home from the bar."