I’ve known Rick Gitelson since his son Alex and my oldest boy became buddies in preschool seven years ago. He’s always been one of the sharpest wits on the sidelines at kids’ birthday parties and sports events (starring our own children or those of the NFL variety). He’s also been someone I’ve relied on for good advice about being a grown-up — even though Rick makes his living thinking like a child.

Rick is a children’s TV writer and producer. He’s won Emmy awards and international audiences for series that include Rugrats, Lazy Town, and Handy Manny. Now, he’s developed a new show, Imagination Movers, that is his best work. It replaces the bouncy cuteness of The Wiggles with a folksy zaniness and rock ‘n soul music to bolster its lessons about friendship and the cool things in the world around us.

The program begins airing on September 6, 10am/9 Central, on Playhouse Disney’s daily morning lineup (atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/imaginationmovers/index.html). It features the four Imagination Movers — Rich, Scott, Dave, and Smitty — who have already made a name in the family music world, becoming mainstays on satellite radio channels such as XM Kids. Building off the blue-overalled personae they created for CDs and DVDs, as well as their experience as family men (all the guys are married and three of them are dads), the Movers have an approachability factor that makes kids want to follow their lead. The earthiness the fellas exude, especially on their new TV show, is real, partly because they’ve collectively worked for many years in various professions — Scott’s an award-winning teacher and Smitty’s a firefighter — and have been directly affected by Hurricane Katrina in their hometown of New Orleans, where the show is taped.

In each 30-minute episode, the “gearheads” (as they’ve nicknamed themselves) hang out in their Idea Warehouse, where they handle a specific “idea emergency” that involves problem solving and learning new information. They are joined by their friend Nina as well as an offbeat character named Knit Knots and a puppet called Warehouse Mouse. Every episode includes three staple songs (including “Brainstorm Song”), which characterize a development in the idea exploration, and two story-specific tunes. The premiere episode has the Movers trying to discover the source of a foghorn-like sound that keeps interrupting the birthday song they’ve written for Nina.

Imagination Movers is a series that will get kids dancing, air-guitaring, and drumming along as they laugh and learn. It’s also a show parents will be happy to have move into their morning routines.

Nice work, Rick. Any chance I can you can teach me how to turn my own glasses into “wobble goggles”?

My three-and-a-half year old told me he wanted to have his hair cut really short just like mine. I explained that I have it snipped like this because I don’t grow as much hair as I used to. I said I liked that he had lots of curls.

Looking at my short-cropped hair, he said, “I could give some of my curls to you.”