Creators of Nickelodeon's Blaze and the Monster Machines discuss 10th anniversary and nostalgic storylines

Start your engines because the animated adventure series from Nickelodeon Blaze and the Monster Machines is celebrating its 10-year anniversary on Nickelodeon! The monster truck-led children's show first premiered on Oct. 13, 2014, and is still going on strong on the network as well as its own YouTube channel, which boasts over 5 million subscribers. Make sure to mark your calendars because a brand new episode is scheduled to air on Nickelodeon on Oct. 24!

The show is led by Blaze, an anthropomorphic monster truck who goes on adventures in Axle City with his human driver, AJ. As they embark on these adventures, the show also introduces and expands on various STEM concepts. Alongside them are other monster trucks, including Starla, Crusher, Zeg, Stripes, Watts, Sparkle, Pickle, and Darington. Each truck is based on a real-life model such as Crusher, a large 18-wheeler cargo truck, and of course, Blaze, a trophy truck/pre-runner.

The show also has a large voice cast including Kevin Michael Richardson as Crusher, Alexander Polinsky as Darington, Julieta Cortes as Sparkle, Melanie Minichino as Watts, James Patrick Stuart as Zeg, Sunil Malhotra as Stripes, Nat Faxon as Pickle, Kate Higgins as Starla, Ramone Hamilton as AJ, and Nolan North as Blaze.

Blaze and the Monster Machines is produced by WildBrain Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

We got the chance to speak with Blaze and the Monster Machines creators Jeff Borkin and Ellen Martin, two main-stays at Nickelodeon who share their wisdom after working on the series over the past ten years.

The Parent Watch: With both of your backgrounds as writers on various programs at Nickelodeon including hits such as The Backyardigans and Blue's Clues, what made making Blaze and the Monster Machines so special to you as you gained the responsibility of being creators and bringing this world to life?

Jeff Borkin and Ellen Martin: We learned everything we know about storytelling for preschoolers from our mentors on other hit shows. It’s such a nuanced genre, and it takes discipline and objectivity to stay true to the audience. When we were given our own opportunity to become showrunners, it was exciting and terrifying. It was now our turn! Armed with all we’d learned from successful shows, we targeted a curriculum that we knew was going to involve a high degree of difficulty: STEM. At the time, STEM was all anyone was talking about in the educational world, but no one had really tried to crack it for a young audience. It was that challenge that made the exercise of creating Blaze so exciting!

What has been some fun feedback from fans of the series? With this being a STEM-based show, has anyone said that they've appreciated the sciences more when watching?

JB and EM: We definitely hear from parents about how much they appreciate the STEM content. I remember one time a friend telling me the story of his son passing a sports car and commenting that the car “looked really aerodynamic” after having just watched an episode about aerodynamics on Blaze. His mind was blown. Our goal from the start was to plant the seeds of these concepts to help them feel accessible to the littlest kids. We wanted to help kids get comfortable with STEM before these complicated ideas get re-introduced in later years at school. And now that we both have high schoolers, we’ve each had the experience of our kids’ friends thanking us for helping them pass physics. It’s surreal!

Have there been any creative challenges since the premiere that you had to overcome?

JB and EM: Exploring new curriculum over 10 years. Finding ways to make really challenging subjects feel simple and accessible. The hardest part of making each episode of Blaze is identifying a new STEM concept, breaking it down into digestible language, and weaving it into storytelling in an exciting way. We know how to do it, but it doesn’t make it easier! We routinely get excited about a STEM concept, convince ourselves we can make it work, and then take a step back and realize it’s not the right fit for the story. So, we start over. Again and again. We can always tell when we’ve cracked the solution, but it can be a struggle to get there!

What is it like working with the voice cast? I'm very familiar with some names such as Kevin Michael Richardson, Nat Faxon, James Patrick Stuart, and Nolan North.

JB and EM: The cast records are easily the most fun part of the production. We get to hear our stories come to life through their voices – and that in turn inspires us to push their personalities in writing the next episodes. The actors make it all look so easy, but in reality, their jobs are surprisingly different! Kevin and Nat are the show’s comic relief, and we rely on them to carry the burden of being hilarious to preschoolers. Meanwhile, Nolan has to be their friend, a hero, and a teacher all at the same time. It’s his superpower and continues to blow us away after all these years.

What are each of your favorite storylines from seasons' past?

JB and EM: The one that jumps immediately to mind is actually one of our very first episodes: “The Team Truck Challenge.” It’s a story where Blaze and Pickle team up for a partner race, and the curriculum for the episode is mass. In developing the story, we realized that mass was a much trickier concept to explain than we had expected. Even our science consultants weren’t sure we could pull it off. But we eventually crafted a story that was full of action and humor, while also delivering on our goal of showing mass in a preschool way. 

We finished the script on a flight to LA and recorded it with our cast the next day. All the actors were laughing and wondering how we pulled it off.  It was the first moment when we realized that this whole Blaze thing might actually work!

It seems really full circle to have that nostalgic storyline built into the upcoming episode! What can you tell me about crafting it and what you have learned when it comes to being EPs since the show's premiere in 2014?

JB and EM: For the 10th anniversary we wanted to do something unique that looks back at history. Showing the characters as little kids having their first race together felt like the perfect way to achieve that. As for being EPs, I think the most important lesson we’ve learned over the years is to always keep faith with the audience and never lose sight of why they love the show. So long as we stick to the core principles of good preschool storytelling, we feel like there’s a way to teach kids just about anything!  Even after all these years, we’re still pushing the boundaries of STEM with new episodes on the way that explore ideas like cohesion, disintegration, circumference… even the period table of elements!

I'm sure you'd want to see Blaze stay on for another 10 years! With that in mind, what do you want these characters to explore when it comes to situations in future episodes?

JB and EM: Believe it or not, we still have tons more ideas for places we want Blaze to go and things we want to see him do! You’d think after ten years we’d be out of ideas. But there remain mountains we’d love to try and climb!

What are each of your favorite characters in the series? Aside from Blaze!

JB and EM: When in doubt, we live our lives by the mantra to always try and be more like Pickle. He’s the embodiment of optimism and positivity. Things might not always work out for him, but somehow Pickle always manages to have fun. Life is bumpy, so we might as well enjoy the ride!

Check out a clip from the upcoming episode here on Nickelodeon's official YouTube channel:

Catch the all new episode of Blaze and the Monster Machine on Oct. 24.