When Travis Braun – creator of the new series Pupstruction – was interning at ABC World News Tonight during his college days, he had no idea how far his journey with Disney would go. But, as he told ABC Audio, his love for the company has stayed consistent.
“My parents had to literally drag me outside and turn off the TV to go play because all I wanted to do was just watch Disney Channel,” Braun said. “I grew up as a Disney kid my entire life and had always loved cartoons and animation and all the Disney classics. Working at ABC World News was a kind of a stepping stone into that.”
Now he’s creating those TV shows he would stay in watching. Pupstruction, which premieres on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney Plus on June 14, is inspired by Braun’s childhood spent working for his family’s auto racing business alongside their beloved chocolate Labradors.
“Dogs have always been really near and dear to my heart and everything that I’ve made,” Braun said. “It felt natural to me to take those two things – my love of dogs and this mechanical building experience – and put them together and make this show Pupstruction, which is about a family construction team that happens to be all dogs.”
But that’s not where the real-life inspiration stops. “Working on race cars brought my family together. We all had our specific roles on the team,” Braun said. “That made our family so close, I think, in a way that other families didn’t necessarily have.”
Braun made sure that kind of dynamic was represented on the show. “In Pupstruction, it’s building that brings this family together,” Braun said. “I hope that the show can maybe bring families together, too.”
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.