The moms (and best friends) behind Reading Rainbow

Silver admits: "People thought we were nuts, sitting facing each other, but sometimes even I’m amazed at how well it works. We even hang out on the weekends." The slightly less loquacious Wiseman injects: "We’re best friends."

A subsidiary of the telecommunications company RCN, RCNE came into existence when Silver and Wiseman, long-time friends and co-workers at Lancit Media Entertainment (a company of which RCN was a major shareholder) requested Lancit’s assets when the company reached the brink of folding. "We went to the CEO, asked for the assets, said we’ll turn it around — and we did," says Wiseman matter-of-factly. However, the pair’s confidence wasn’t based on whim, on one of those sudden flashes of self-assurance that makes an inexperienced person believe they can conquer an unfamiliar job effortlessly. Through their work on Reading Rainbow and other original network programs at Lancit, Silver and Wiseman bring a combined 40 years of experience in television to RCNE; the formation was announced this past January.

For those who think of television producing exclusively in the alluring terms of actors in front of cameras and highly-paid directors calling the shots in control rooms, Silver and Wiseman’s productions begin in a more mundane manner — in the trenches with research and development. "We create our programs from soup to nuts, right in this office," Wiseman says of the duo’s intimate and streamlined operation, whose eight-person team works six to nine months to produce a season of programming. As Wiseman points out, Reading Rainbow begins with the unglamorous and exhausting task of scouring 500 to 1,000 kids’ picture books, of which three to six are eventually selected for production.

"Low overhead, great projects," is how Silver describes RCNE. "We decided not to have a huge development slate, but to work instead on projects that we knew we could get done. We were leaving our kids every day to do this — so we wanted to work on projects we believed in, and we wanted to work with people that we liked, which isn’t as easy as it sounds."

Experience in television helped Silver and Wiseman get RCNE up on its feet, but having kids supplied them with the ideal qualifications for conceiving and producing children’s programs. (Silver has two boys, 5-year-old Harrison and 3-year-old Jack; Wiseman has two young daughters, Danielle and Juliette). "It totally helps having kids, it gives you more of a sensitivity to what they’re thinking," Wiseman points out. Silver, who, in addition to her own two boys, lives in the same building with over a half-dozen nieces and nephews, says, "You can't do programming for kids without being around them. My nieces and nephews show us books. They’ll come to me and say, ‘Aunt Nikki, you should read this,’ and sometimes it’ll end up being something we’ll option."

The breakneck pace of television production makes coping with family life something more than the usual challenge, but Silver describes, without sarcasm, the duo’s husbands Brad and Ed as "great and understanding". Silver and Wiseman also make things easier all around by covering for each other during such episodes as sicknesses and birthdays.