Saturday, February 29, 2020

The Birthday Show

The Birthday Show was a programming block on Sprout where presenter Kevin Yamada showed birthday cards and recipes. Throughout the block, viewers' birthday messages scrolled below the screen.

At the end of the block, Elmo, Barney, Noddy and other characters sang a birthday song.


The block dissolved in 2007, and was replaced by, you guessed it, the Sunny Side Up Show!

I love the idea of it. It can siphon off crowds and gives a real vibrancy to the channel.

Sprout on Bright House advertisement

Above is a promo from 2008. In addition to various characters waving and saying hi, the promo says to get digital cable $10.95 (plus taxes) every month for 12 months, or call 1-866-976-EASY, or go to MyBrightHouse.com. Bright House Networks is now called Spectrum.

Shows include: Sesame Street, Kipper, Bob the Builder, Fifi and the Flowertots, Noddy, Barney, The Good Night Show, The Let's Go Show, The Sunny Side Up Show, and The Sprout Sharing Show.


Also in the promo, a boy is shown jumping into his mommy's lap.


Also, if anyone can find the music playing in the background, let me know!

Good Night Show Breakdown

https://vimeo.com/19715262

This video shows the making of the 2nd Generation Good Night Show opening.
First, we see a cardboard box. Then there is color correction.

Then there is the 3D box.
Then we see the graphic and stop motion elements.

Then with the Camera blend, we have the final composition
Vwola!

Friday, February 28, 2020

Groundbreaking...

(L-R) Angelina Ballerina, Big Bird, People, Barney, Bob the Builder, and Roscoe Orman
Madeline Fretz - It seemed appropriate that the two above images should kick off this blog.

They both take place at the Philadelphia launch party which would break ground on what would become the 24-hour preschool cable channel Sprout.

That was around 2004 or 2005.
15 or so years later, we have groundbreaking for this blog.

Well, hackneyed wordplay aside, let me tell you why I am starting this project.

I grew up watching Sprout. I have memories of watching Wiggly Waffle every day before preschool, playing on Sproutonline.com during preschool, and watching episodes of Sprout shows on their VOD (on-demand) service. 

Now, hopefully the history of Sprout can now live on here on this blog. Let me be honest with you,  I think it's safe to say that Sprout has IMPROVED over the years.

The channel was not as polished as Universal Kids.

Still, it's fun to look backwards.

Do you have memories of Sprout you want to share? Maybe you have a picture or video that you want to share or even just a link to something I haven't posted yet.

Please share it. Together we can make use the Parents and Kids Share Together to link Sprout with Universal Kids. Wow, sorry. No more hackneyed wordplay, I promise.