You know what’s even cooler than watching Saturday morning kid TV? Watching Saturday morning kid TV when it’s your neighbors doing the entertaining.

Last time we caught up with local performers Ariel, Zoey (11-year-old twins) and Eli (9) Engelbert, they had concluded an impressive summer of touring military bases singing songs from the girls’ CD “In Your Heart” with Eli as MC. They had also just wrapped up filming a pilot TV episode of “Ariel & Zoey (Eli, Too)”, and their producer/director/writer and, oh yeah, dad Matt was looking around for a broadcast outlet that would let them retain creative control and also keep their family physically located in Michigan.

Success, it seems, is at hand. “I sent the pilot out to some different folks, and I was contacted by Showplace Television Syndication out of Chicago,” explained Matt. “Then the issue I faced was that I had to commit to doing 13 episodes.” The company didn’t mean “commit” in the “oh sure I’d love to” sense of the word, either — they meant “show me the money.” So given a month to work with and a little help from the Michigan Film Office, he did, and the family musical-turned-multimedia enterprise was off and running.

(For those who, like me, have a pretty nebulous understanding of how shows get from the filming set to our living rooms, Matt offers this primer: “Every station offers children’s programming in the mornings; we‘re most familiar with it on Saturdays. Stations rely on syndicators for their children’s programming — if you contact a TV station and say, ‘Hey, we have this show,’ they’ll say, ’Great. You need a syndicator.’ Because these stations don’t produce their own shows, they need a source.” For us viewers, this particular deal means that the show will be seen on different networks, depending on the market — Detroit‘s isn‘t solidified yet, although Matt hopes to know both that and the airtime within the next month or so.)

But enough of the boring business talk. What are our kids going to see when they plunk down in front of “Ariel & Zoey (Eli, Too)” in September? The trailer at arielandzoey.com presents a chat with David Archuleta, a fun fact about Amerigo Vespucci, advice about getting ahead in life from the CEO of Domino’s Pizza, an introduction to the kids’ costar and real-life music teacher Steve Fentriss and, of course, music.

“The guests that we bring on the show are a lot of Michigan and a lot of Ann Arbor talent,” noted Matt. “Of course we bring the different professions, but the real primary focus is on music. We’ve had (bluesman Peter) Madcat (Ruth) and (folksinger) Kitty Donohoe and (roots musician) George Bedard. I think it would be hard for us to find any better talent anywhere else.

“And the kids have so much fun with it!” he went on. “I asked if the girls could sing harmony with Kitty Donohoe, and we went to the studio with her and captured it for the show. When we interviewed Madcat, they teleported to the Michigan theater. We usually don’t license music, but the kids do this harmony of ‘Lollipop‘ and I thought it would be fun to do an Ed Sullivan show. We brought in (comedian) Heywood Banks, and it’ll be in black and white and they’re — well, the girls are — wearing poodle skirts. We got to spend part of the day in a 1941 Packard.”

One thing that the show promises is a new, original song in every episode, written by the stars themselves. “Laugh Track” is up on the website already, showing them playing the drums, keyboard and guitar in the awesome music room in their parents’ basement. Matt explained, “I want kids who are watching this to know they can write music and surround themselves with fun.” Are each of the kids learning all the instruments? More or less, he said. “Zoe loves the drums, so it’s hard to get her off them. Eli is the one who plays guitar, and I think he’d like to move Zoe off the drums a little bit. But she’s still bigger than him.”

The trailer doesn’t just have good content, though — it has serious style. Whether Eli’s flying through space or Christopher Columbus is shedding a single teardrop, pretty much every second of the four-minute trailer yells “high production value” — the pacing is quick, the transitions are fun and the overall effect is just…vivid. “They’re some of the most amazing graphics I’ve ever seen. I was just blown away by what my team was able to do,” said Matt, referring to Matt Girio, Susan Leigh and Mike Kudreiko. “We’ve got such a unique show because you’re not going to find that level anywhere else but, say, Disney. And we’re doing it on a half shoestring! I hope things do pan out and we get some national advertisers, but I don’t know how much better the production value would get. We’re already locked in for a second season, and there are much bigger plans for even that.”

Bigger plans? Bigger than a touring schedule, a TV show, songwriting, music and school? How on earth are they making all this work? “More coffee,” answered Matt, hastening to explain that it’s for him. “The kids did really well this year, although next year will be more of a challenge. The schools have been terrific. The kids are really focused. Fortunately they memorize really quickly, and they’re really comfortable in front of the camera, so now I can throw them a new line right during taping and they’ll just do it. Otherwise this would take a lot longer! We’re making it work, we’re not overdoing it and we’re just making sure it’s fun. The kids seem to be enjoying it more and more.”

They sure looked to be having a good time at Sunday’s Top of the Park performance, despite the fact that Zoey woke up feeling froggy in the throat and a cloudburst sent early audience arrivals scurrying for cover (“That happens every year,” said Ariel cheerfully). The set included their signature “Sweet Company,” as well as several of the band’s original songs and the performance premiere of “The End of Another Day,” written by Broadway composer Gary Adler. A well-placed booger joke showed supreme command of their target audience, and their youngest sister Joely was the first on the dance floor. When Ariel and Zoey returned from a set break by beginning a song at the back of the audience and high-fiving their fans all the way to the stage, they sent more than one into rapturous delight.

(click on images for caption information) “I love them,” declared Julia Schmitt-Palumbo, finishing an ice cream sandwich with her sister Catherine as the set concluded. Dad Chris Palumbo, spotted tapping his toes, admitted that he thought “the beat was pretty nice. And that they’re doing a national TV show is cool — I’m excited to see a local act make it big. Now we don’t have to depend on Iggy Pop forever.”

Seven-year-olds Gabriella Williams and Elena Garcia, who first saw Ariel and Zoey at Top of the Park last year and have been fans ever since, agreed that their favorite thing was the singing. “It’s nice to see kids on stage,” added mom Kaeli Garcia. “I think it’s good for (other kids) to see themselves up there.”

That was exactly what won over 11-year-old Colin Jones, who reported that his favorite thing about the show was watching kids perform. It was his first time seeing the band, taking it in with Alexa Lyon, 8, and Sydney Cohen, 7. Sydney’s mom Allyson Cohen, a friend of the Engelbert family, said it has been pretty cool to watch the act evolve over the years. “At first it was just two cute girls, and then their voices developed, and it’s been nice to see their brother get involved, and now they’re just so talented, playing all those instruments! But the thing that’s been the same is that they’re just nice. They’re nice to everybody. All the time. They’re just nice, nice kids.”

Leah DuMouchel is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com