New kids show Iggy & Mr. Kirk brings Biblical values to the small screen as US culture veers right

There's a new kids' show in town, and instead of flashing lights, mind-numbing cringey songs, and political diatribes that makes you think the whole thing was conceived by demons, it's got a cute Iguana, Kirk Cameron, and healthy messaging about identity, God, and relationships. The show premiered to a packed house in Nashville with a star-studded green carpet—Iggy wouldn't have it any other way. The children's show features Cameron as Mr. Kirk, a Mr. Rogers style mentor to Iggy the Iguana, who is growing up facing all the confusion of the current culture wars. It also features books from the Brave Books library, each episode sees Mr. Kirk reading a book with Iggy and discussing it together. The show is available through Brave Books and on YouTube.

400 kids packed the theater in Nashville to get their first glimpse of Iggy and Mr. Kirk—and it was the first time the production team got to see the reaction of so many kids at once. Cameron was excited about it, saying what so many parents have said. "Parents want wholesome values and morals to be taught to their kids by people that they trust," he said. "Iggy and Mr. Kirk gets to the heart and values that parents are trying to teach their kids at home, and this show reinforces those values while keeping the wow factor of entertainment." The show takes a step back from the dizzying fast-paced kids shows that pepper the airwaves and YouTube today, instead going back to the style that so many parents miss, and kids seem to yearn for. The show has more of a Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Muppets feel than something like Bluey, Blippi, or whatever insanity is found on Disney.

Former Disney star Lee Allyn Baker is on the show and said that "parents have given too much power to Disney,” adding, “As a former Disney star and a Disney mom, I would just like to say that Disney is a corporation. They're not your moral compass. So we want to bring the show back to a moral compass, and we don't make it up ourselves. It's a Biblical foundation, Biblical and Judeo-Christian values. And we want to share this with children, how to deal with day-to-day circumstances, and also to encourage parents on how to shepherd that."

The last four years of a super progressive government, Cameron said, has "served as a wakeup call for parents and families all over the nation who not only voted, but are looking for an opportunity to lean into a solution and actually participate by training their kids and raising them up in the way they should go." His hope is that Iggy and Mr. Kirk is "going to be one of the tools in their toolbox to help them." Cameron had a wildly successful book tour with Brave Books where he went to libraries across the country to do book events for families. While at first many libraries rejected his request to use their space, the outpouring from parents became overwhelming and the events became hugely popular. Knowing that kids are not just reading all day, however, Cameron and Brave Books launched Iggy and Mr. Kirk to meet kids where so many of them are: on screens.

The cultural shift in children's programming has been a long time coming, and it wouldn't have been possible were it not for The Daily Wire's push into that area. With Bentkey kids entertainment, The Daily Wire has created shows that have similar features to popular kids programming but are not steeped in ultra-leftist ideas of gender ideology and regressive race relations. The Daily Wire's Jeremy Boreing was on hand at the premiere to congratulate Cameron, the production team, and Brave Books for diving into children's entertainment.

Boreing noted that it's not that the recent election signals a cultural shift, but that the cultural shift enabled a change in electoral politics. Culture, in the famous words of Andrew Breitbart, is upstream from politics. What happens in the sphere of arts, entertainment, music, comes before it has an impact on the zeitgeist, before the populace takes out their wish for change at the voting booth.

"I think the cultural change happened before the election and helped drive the results," Boreing told The Post Millennial. "You know, if you look at, if you look at a bunch of the exit polls and surveys since the election about what drove people away from Biden and for Donald Trump, one of the top issues is the trans issue." He brought up his colleague Matt Walsh's film "What is a Woman?" which delved into the question that should have an easy answer. "We've already started that change," Boreing said, "and now that we want to continue to see that group, absolutely but I think there's a huge opportunity right now to continue to see that."

Conservatism has become the counterculture, and it remains to be seen if Hollywood and the major, monied players in entertainment shift their gears away from leftist ideology and toward more open, accessible offerings. Not everyone wants to be bashed over the head with trans representation and messages on race. The Post Millennial asked Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire if he thought that perhaps there would be a change.

"They're going to remain in their ideological trenches as much as they can," he said, "but at a certain point they'll have to choose between survival by adapting or falling away deep in their own ideology."

Knowles said that he was glad that other production companies are getting involved in turning out content for children. "We proved that there really is a market for this kind of content," he said, "and then the floodgates opened up." As for Cameron, he said "here's this very talent and prominent creative, for decades, and you think okay, great! We kicked the door open, but now there's so many people who can run through that door."