How Nanalan's viral TikTok success reunited the show's creators after 15 years
Canadian puppeteers Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon reflect on the legacy of their weird Canadian kids’ show
In 1999, Canadian puppeteers Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon created Nanalan' — a weird, whimsical and very wholesome children's television series about a three-year-old girl named Mona, her ever-nurturing Nana and Nana's dog, Russell.
And while this beautiful and bizarre Canadian kids' show has been off the air for 20 years, the internet has recently brought it back to life. Clips from Nanalan' are massively popular on TikTok right now, racking up millions of views from around the world as new videos continue to go viral.
In an interview with Q's Tom Power about the resurgence of Nanalan', Hopley and Shannon revealed that, until earlier that day when they met up at a coffee shop, they actually hadn't seen each other face-to-face for 15 years.
"We made a lot of shows together from the age of 20 to 37," said Shannon. "We were beside each other every day, all the time, making ideas, creating, puppeteering. I think at some point we were like, 'OK, enough.' And then this great success [happened] and 15 years of maturity, and we've been talking every day."
"It's an intense creative partnership that we've had over these many years," added Hopley. "There's a moment where you're like, you know, we have to sort of go our separate ways and see if we can stand on our own, and all that kind of stuff. And it's weird because I thought to myself, 'Maybe one day when we're 50, we'll work together again.'
"That's what I was really excited about today, is to try to reunite with that feeling of the creative joy that we always had. It was pure. It was pure and awesome."
WATCH | Nana & Mona of Nanalan talk about their viral fame:
How it all started
The inspiration for Nanalan' came from Hopley and Shannon's own childhoods, as they "both had very quirky nanas," according to Hopley.
In the 1990s, the puppeteering duo were working together at YTV when they decided to leave and start their own puppet troupe. In the search for their next project, they landed on trying something they had never done before: creating a television program for preschoolers.
"The love of being free and going to our nana's house was sort of the beginning of inspiration," Hopley recalled. "And it was all sort of experiential, you know, the magic of everyday things."
"There's no special effects," explained Shannon. "There's nothing magical. You know, frogs don't fly and birds don't talk. And then one of our rules was: when in doubt, slow it down — which is totally the opposite of kids' TV today."
"One of the things that Nanalan' offers is that sense of comfort ... and being in a safe place like your Nana's house."- Jason Hopley
But this isn't the first time Mona and Nana have found internet fame. In 2016, Nanalan' went viral on Tumblr and Instagram after somebody posted a video with text of Mona describing Nana's garden to Russell, daring viewers not to laugh.
For their first TikTok post, Hopley and Shannon chose a shorter clip from that scene in the garden.
"It was just one 10-second moment going, "There's peas in there!," said Shannon. "That got a million views."
WATCH | Mona learns about the sun and sunburns:
Healing your inner child
As for why Nanalan' is blowing up right now, Shannon's theory is that "people are dying for something that's not AI or digitized." Adding on to that, Hopley said "one of the things that Nanalan' offers is that sense of comfort, that sense of joy, that sense of being free to be who you are, and being in a safe place like your Nana's house."
He said people in the comments often mention that Nanalan' brings up forgotten childhood memories for them, or feelings about a childhood that maybe they didn't have. "It's healing their inner child," he told Power.
"It's very special," said Shannon. "It's beautiful! It is what people need and people are just so scared right now. It's such a scary world…. We all have to just heal our own little birdy inside, and that's going to make it a better world."
WATCH | Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon's interview with Tom Power:
The full interview with Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon produced by Vanessa Nigro.
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