Carl the Collector

Set in the fictional and peaceful Fuzzytown, Carl the Collector centers on the life of Carl, an autistic child anthropomorphic raccoon with a special interest in creating collections of various items, and his friends. Carl's friends include Sheldon, a compassionate beaver and Carl's best friend; Lotta, a shy and autistic fox with an artistic talent and hypersensitivity to sound; Forrest, a hyperactive squirrel; and Nico and Arugula, identical twin bunny sisters with opposing personalities. Episodes often involve Carl and his friends working together and learning lessons to overcome new situations. ==Cast==

Main characters • Kai Barham as Carl, an autistic gray raccoon with a special interest in collecting. • Heather Bambrick as Maude (Mama), Carl's mother; Bambrick also voiced the plushies in one episode. • Peter Laurie as Sheldon, a compassionate brown beaver and Carl's best friend. • Abigail Oliver as Nico, an often insensitive pink rabbit and identical twin to Arugula. • Beatrice Schneider as Arugula, a nice pink rabbit and identical twin to Nico. • Antonina Battrick as Forrest, a hyperactive and impulsive grey squirrel with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a tree nut allergy. • Maddy McIlwain as Lotta, an autistic red fox with an artistic talent. Supporting characters • Alli Chung as Sheldon's mother, aka Coach Mom. • Peter Cugno as: • Harold, Carl's father. • Pop Pop, Carl's grandfather and Maude's father. • Terry McGurrin as Mr. Kelly, a teacher at school. • Duff MacDonald as Mr. Barnaby, a lion who drives the ice cream truck and the school bus. • Amanda Martínez as Ms. Huffman, a bear who is a librarian. • Paulino Nunes as Fernando, Forrest's father. • Chase Ruigrok as Mimi Toots, a hedgehog who plays the trumpet. • Elisa Paszt as Skyler, a skunk who gave Lotta the nickname "Headphone Girl". • Salvatore Scozzari as Mr. Howell, a wolf grocer. • Milo Toriel-McGibbon as Dylan, a shy armadillo and new kid at Carl's school. • Claire Poon as Brittany, Sheldon's cousin. • Zachariah OHora as Yeti, who runs the Pyramid Pizza restaurant. • Claire Whittick as Lilah, Mr. Barnaby's niece and a soccer player. • Zoe Wheatley as Marble Mabel, an online influencer who likes making marble runs. • Advait Mathur as Punk Turtles, a group of musician turtles. • Odin Frost as Paolo, a panda who uses an AAC device to communicate • Bruce Tubbe as Bernard, Sheldon's father and Coach Mom's husband. ==Episodes==

Zachariah OHora is a commercially successful children's author and illustrator based in Philadelphia, known for his picture books featuring bipedal animals such as Wolfie the Bunny, Niblet & Ralph, and My Cousin Momo. Natalie Engel, the Director of Content for Children's Programming, approached OHora, liking his art style, to create a television series. At the time, OHora had created a raccoon character called "The Collector", based on OHora's own collecting habits, who had not been used in any of OHora's stories at the time. Carl the Collector was produced by Fuzzytown Productions and Spiffy Pictures, both of which hired neurodivergent people in a variety of occupations for the production team. The child characters are portrayed by child actors. Both autistic characters, Carl and Lotta, are portrayed by autistic child actors; Kai Barham and Maddy McIlwain, respectively. Lotta was written in addition to Carl to reflect the autism spectrum. Many specific details about Carl were figured out in the animation process such as his stimming. According to Whittick, her team created animation cycles of stimming and sent them to PBS Kids and advisors for feedback. To make interactions in the series feel natural, the pacing was deliberately slowed down, with influence from Charlie Brown cartoons, and voice-acted lines were often kept unedited. "The Fall", in which Carl discloses his autism to his friends, was written for viewers to learn the reasons behind Carl's mannerisms, according to writer Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt. ==Broadcast and reception==

Carl the Collector was first announced on November 2023 as the first PBS Kids series to be led by an autistic character. Targeted toward children ages 4–8, Carl the Collector premiered on November 14, 2024, on PBS Kids. Heather Bambrick, voice actress of Maude, has expressed hope for a second season, saying she thinks "we need a show like this." On Common Sense Media, Ashley Moulton gave Carl the Collector four stars, commending the series' characterization and sensitivity in handling autism. Moulton described the characters as relatable and praised the series' representation of the autism spectrum by demonstrating how the characters of Carl and Lotta experience autism differently and how autistic traits manifest without othering the characters. Carrie Gillispie of New America considered the character of Carl "a hopeful sign that perhaps disability inclusion could become the norm for the next generation". == References ==