An animated series of charming how-to videos for people of a certain age who struggle with all forms of technology, media, devices, texting - and pretty much anything that needs the internet or a triple-A battery.

Transported from another era, our endlessly patient, eponymous stars of yesteryear Rock and Pearl leap from their black-and-white world to help the ones you love figure out today's technology.

From the team that brought you the hit media literacy series Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius, comes a seriously fun set of videos with the nostalgic smell of old Hollywood.

Each tiny episode explains one challenge with modern-day life, such as how to avoid those texting scams, how to re-set the Wi-Fi, buying a ticket for the movies, and why that cute dog riding a bicycle is probably AI.

These single-issue explainers are perfect for exactly that thing your favorite person is wrestling with today.

Rock and Pearl:

Bite-Sized Technology Adventures with

Time-Traveling Hollywood Heroes

Explaining to Your Parents How Everything Works So You Don't Have To.

This library builds to be a comprehensive set of mini guides to the 1001 things that seem to be way more complicated than they need to be. Broad topic areas to cover include:

  • Staying Connected

  • Healthcare

  • Phones & Home Devices

  • Scams and Safety

  • Online Dating

  • Social Media

  • Being Out in the World

  • Work and Volunteering

Using our time-travelers’ novelty and wonder at the new world they find, we can address any number of challenges without judgement. For those of us who have grown up with ubiquitous technology it might be hard to fathom why sharing photos is so hard, why the TV needs rebooting, how to get a ride somewhere, and why everything we read may be false.

Many in the older generation for whom this is all new and fangled feel it’s their fault when they don’t understand how something works – I’ve heard the refrain “I’m a dumb owner of a smart phone” – and that is both heart-breaking and wrong. If these gizmo are hard to understand, it’s down to a perfect storm of products without intuitive design tied into a whole technology ecosystem for which the users have no prior knowledge; in other words, it’s not their fault that they can’t easily troubleshoot why a book isn’t showing up on their e-reader, what AI is or isn't, or why there are no paper tickets any more for the movies.

We run a tight ship here at Chickens on the Roof: each video starts with a comedy vignette between Rock and Pearl, as if we’re watching a related moment from a cozy Hollywood matinee, and then they emerge into our modern world to discover and provide a clear explanation for any topic. All in under two minutes, in a video that steps us through the basics in a friendly how-to manner.

If you’ve ever spent over an hour trying to get the TV back online for a remote loved one, trying to guide them over FaceTime to then follow a 2-factor authentication login - and feeling like you’re trying to land a 747 like a volunteer passenger after the flight crew has fallen ill - then Rock and Pearl are here to help.

Bill Shribman and Chickens on the Roof:

An independent creative executive and versatile producer of digital content of all kinds, I am a former Senior Executive Producer and Director of Digital Partnerships at WGBH Educational Foundation (GBH), with 30 years in digital media and educational technology. I am a Daytime Emmy- and Peabody Award-winner focused on building impactful, accessible content for all ages, especially related to media literacy and technical skills:

https://chickensontheroof.io/testimonials

https://chickensontheroof.io/media-literacy

Project Advisor:

Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, Senior Adviser, NAMLE