David Michel doesn’t want three-year-old son John watching the “Power Rangers” or “Beavis and Butthead.” Rather than turning the television off, this neighborhood resident created an alternative to what he describes as violent, disrespectful programming

Michel recently founded KidQuest, a Dallas-based company that has produced a new children’s video, “The Adventures of Jay Jay the Jet Plane and His Flying Friends,” geared toward preschoolers.

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The 30-minute video uses live action animation to give life to its characters: the model airplanes of EZ Airlines in the land of Tarrytown.

“Kids have so many negative role models that there is such a need for positive programming for kids,” Michel says.

“There are some quality shows out there, but when I look at motives, there seems to be a widespread motive of profit over purpose. KidQuest is about purpose over profit.”

Michel says he resigned from a six-figure corporate marketing position with Merritt, Hawkins & Associates to start KidQuest. His bosses thought he was crazy, Michel says, but if his decision impacts children, then he says “it’s a risk worth taking.”

“I’ve always known that my life’s vocation would be to start a series of businesses,” Michel says. “The only question was when and where. I’ve considered a number of ideas, but when I got this one, it was the only one I was passionate about.”

Michel’s job at MHA, a physician recruitment and consulting firm, required him to do a lot of traveling. It was about a year ago at 40,000 feet in the air that Michel says he first came up with the idea for an airplane video.

After the flight, he went in search of airplane videos appropriate for his three-year-old, but couldn’t find any, he says.

With no experience in video production, Michel contacted AMS Productions in Dallas and pitched his idea to the company’s owner, Andy Streitfeld. Streitfeld decided to produce the video, and Jay Jay the Jet Plane took off.

Michel has surrounded himself with an experienced staff, including another neighborhood resident, David Baker, who wrote Jay Jay’s theme song and composed an original score for each of the four, seven-to-eight-minute stories on the video.

Michel’s wife Deborah, a CPA who is on the board of Lake Highlands Preschool PTA, acts as KidQuest’s treasurer.

In the next year, Michel says he plans to produce four to six more Jay Jay videos. KidQuest will also release Jay Jay audio books and children’s books, says Michel, who is working to bring Jay Jay to television.

“I’ve put everything I have emotionally, financially and physically into this project,” Michel says.

Enchanted Forests Books for Children, 6333 E. Mockingbird Lane, carries the $14.95 video or it can be ordered by calling 503-6200.