TV Talk: PBS’s ‘Odd Squad,’ from Fred Rogers Productions, evolves again in new episodes

Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions’ “Odd Squad,” the rare live-action, educational program for children, returns with the second half of its third season in a week of four new episodes beginning Monday (5 p.m. WQED-TV).

The PBS Kids show continues to follow a quartet of child agents who investigate oddities that usually can be resolved with math or logic skills. One agent, Opal (Valentina Herrera), has moved on, and a bit player from the first part of season three, Esmerelda Kim (Glee Dango), takes her place.

Season three showrunner/writer Mark De Angelis explained when the order for an additional 13 episodes in season three was in the offing (down from 15 because of covid limitations), he started having conversations with the parents of the young actors.

Herrera’s family, who uprooted their lives in the United States to move to Canada for production on the first 20 episodes of season three, opted to return home, opening the door for Kim to become a new series regular. (Opal said goodbye in season three’s 20th episode, “End of the Road,” which first aired in January.)

In Monday’s premiere episode, “Odd Off the Press,” viewers learn the “Odd Squad” team had Esmerelda Kim’s name wrong in her past brief appearances. She’s actually Osmerelda, which makes her eligible to be an “Odd Squad” agent, since their names always start with the letter “O.”

“Esmerelda first appeared in the pilot of (season three) as this one-off character,” De Angelis said. “It was really written as a joke.”

Kim appears, offers to help, and the “Odd Squad” agents take her up on the offer as they face off against a dire threat — and then she demurs, saying she has a gymnastics class and then her favorite cousin is coming over the weekend, and she wonders if she can maybe help on Tuesday instead.

“(Series creators) Tim (McKeon), Adam (Peltzman) and I all have kids,” De Angelis said. “I don’t want to say all kids these days have so much going on extracurricular-wise, but it does seem like this very relatable joke that every time we try to organize a play date, it’s like, ‘Nope, can’t do that. My kid has soccer then.’ ”

The gag worked so well the writers brought Kim back two more times doing the same joke.

“When we found out Valentina wasn’t coming back and we’d loved working with Glee, and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if, after offering to help all along the way, she has this pocket of time open up and she can join the Odd Squad Mobile Unit?’ ” De Angelis said.

And while that initial Kim joke may have flown over the heads of the kids watching, it surely tickled parents watching with them. That’s the great thing about “Odd Squad”: While it is educational, some of the humor is sophisticated enough for adults to appreciate, making “Odd Squad” a successor to Nickelodeon’s also-quirky cult children’s classic, “The Adventures of Pete Pete” (1992-96).

“Ever since season one, we always snuck in jokes for the adults in the room, knowing there would be adults watching,” De Angelis said. “With any joke for adults, as long as it wasn’t a major plot point where it was essential to getting that joke to understand the story, everything was fair game.”

Before “Odd Squad,” De Angelis had written exclusively on adult comedy series but, when he saw the “Odd Squad” pilot, he wanted to be involved.

“It was single-camera, no laugh track; it wasn’t playing big, broad comedy, it was a lot of fun reaction shots and finding the comedy even in silent reactions,” he recalled. “Tim was reading (scripts), and he didn’t even want children’s (show script) samples. He said, ‘I’m looking for people who understand comedy.’ ”

De Angelis warned McKeon he was terrible at math.

“He said, ‘That’s OK. That part we can learn and have education about; the comedy part you can’t teach,’ ” De Angelis said.

Monday’s episode also reveals a new assignment for The Big O, played by the show’s longest-tenured cast member, Millie Davis, who now stars in “The Parker Andersons”/“Amelia Parker” on BYUtv.

The episode introduces a seasonlong arc related to Agent Orla (Alyssa Hidalgo).

And after these 13 episodes, then what? At more than 100 episodes, “Odd Squad” has had quite a long run, especially for a live-action children’s show, typically more expensive than animation.

“I have a feeling it’s not the end-end of ‘Odd Squad,’ ” De Angelis said. “I think in some way, whether it’s perhaps another ‘Odd Squad’ movie or perhaps another series, I don’t know that it’s the end.”