After 20 years of entertaining Boulder kids, Jeff & Paige have their own PBS show
For the past two decades, Boulder-based musical duo Jeff & Paige have delighted local children with nature-focused, science-infused songs and performances. Now, Jeff Kagan and Paige Doughty are taking their work to television.
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They’re joined by performer and youth engagement strategist Shaun Derik for a new live-action children’s TV show, “Rainbow Socks,” which premiered Sunday, Oct. 4, on Rocky Mountain PBS.
“I have wanted to create a TV show for a very long time, probably 15 years,” Doughty said. The desire intensified when Doughty and Kagan had a son who found most children’s TV shows too scary. “I noticed that there was basically no live-action television available for kids at that time,” Doughty said.
“Rainbow Socks” features “real people [and] real nature filmed right here in Boulder County. No unattainable missions that make kids feel like they need to do something beyond their means. No bad guys, no scary music, no jetpacks,” Kagan said.
The live-action format lets children watch real people exploring real places. That groundedness is central to Kagan and Doughty, whose work revolves around the natural world. They want the show to help kids deepen their relationship with the world around them.
“This show is created extremely intentionally to meet young children in developmentally appropriate ways,” Doughty said. The show is designed for preschool and elementary school children and their families.
With distribution through Rocky Mountain PBS, viewers will see the same landscapes and biomes on screen that they can explore outside their homes. The Rainbow Socks Rangers Cottage is a refurbished barn in Longmont, inspired by the Ranger Cottage at Chautauqua. Each episode ends with the Rainbow Socks Rangers inviting viewers to take a deep breath with them, then turn off the show and go outside.
“We want it to lead to appreciation for the natural world, to excitement and awe for the creatures with whom we share this planet,” Kagan said.
The married couple met more than 20 years ago while attending graduate school for environmental education, and both are educators as much as performers. The show incorporates hands-on science demonstrations and Spanish vocabulary.
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Derik, who grew up in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, said that filming in Boulder County has been an outdoor education for him.
“We’re filming on top of a mountain, we’re in creeks, we’re in the woods,” Derik said. “I felt like I got the childhood I always wanted.”
Jeff & Paige’s music is already familiar to many Boulder families.
Anna Levy, a Boulder County parent of two and a high school science teacher, said the duo’s work fills a need.
“It’s really nice to find activities and entertainment for young kids that are fun, age-appropriate and respect their intelligence. Jeff & Paige do exactly that,” Levy said.
New episodes of the show premiere weekly. The duo will continue to perform locally, sometimes joined by Derik. Expanding their work to TV allows Kagan and Doughty to reach new audiences without depleting their own creative capacity.
“We just have such incredible music and resources to offer, and we want to see it go way beyond where we are now,” Doughty said.
The show is produced, written and directed by Boulder-based filmmaker Dia Sokol Savage. The team is working on a second season, slated for release in spring 2027. “Rainbow Socks” airs Sundays at 8 a.m. on Rocky Mountain PBS.
