"Come On Over!," the children's television program filmed at Hope College, has won multiple Michigan Emmy awards for the second consecutive year.
"Come On Over!," the children's television program filmed at Hope College, has won multiple Michigan Emmy awards for the second consecutive year.
"Come On Over!" won five Emmy Awards from The Michigan Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on Saturday, June 7, at the Gem Theatre in Detroit. Come On Over! had won six Emmys the year before, the program's first year of eligibility.
"Come On Over!" is the brainchild of Joel Schoon Tanis, who is an artist and 1989 Hope graduate living in Holland, and the creation of Enthusiastic Productions LLC, a venture between Schoon Tanis and the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. The program features Schoon Tanis as a stay-at-home artist with a great imagination, and is set primarily in his backyard and studio - both in the studio of the college's Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.
Filming of "Come On Over!" began in the summer of 2006 and the program debuted that fall on the Battle Creek ABC affiliate WOTV 4. Production has continued at Hope since, and will be running this summer during July and August.
Several members of the Hope family have been involved in the production, including not only Schoon Tanis but also other alumni as well as students, members of the faculty and staff, and cast and crew of Hope Summer Repertory Theatre.
The five Emmys that "Come On Over!" received are:
° "Craft Specialty-Musical Composition/Arrangement," Joel Schoon Tanis '89, Paul Chamness '90 and Chad Dykema '90;
° "Craft Specialty-Research," Adam Mellema;
° "Graphic Arts-Animation," Keith Himebaugh '96;
° "Graphic Arts-Set Design," Bob Phillips and Dave Lepore;
° "On-Camera Talent-Performer/Narrator," Brandy McClendon.
Chamness, who is director of the campus ministries technical staff at the college, and Dykema had also won in the "Musical Composition/Arrangement" category last year, and Schoon Tanis had received the 2007 "On-Camera Talent-Performer/Narrator" award. Himebaugh and Phillips had also won the "Graphic Arts-Animation" and "Graphic Arts-Set Design" awards respectively in 2007.
Additional information about "Come On Over!" may be obtained online at www.comeonover.com and www.grcm.org. In addition, the program was highlighted on page five of the December 2006 issue of "News from Hope College," available online at www.hope.edu/pr/nfhc/archive/pdf/nfhc1206.pdf.