Madeline Fretz - Sprout sure has had a lot of programming blocks over the years, and the two longest-running were The Sunny Side Up Show and The Good Night Show. They were also the only blocks airing during the third generation. I love them both, but you may be wondering which one is better? Read this post and find out.
THE PREMISE
OK, Sproutlets. Let's start with the premises of each block. These premises are very similar to one another, and even focus on the same themes.
On The Good Night Show, Nina and Star focus on a different educational theme each night through songs, stories, crafts, games, stretches, talking with real kids, Spanish, and sign language (wow - a lot of S words!). On The Sunny Side Up Show, on the other hand, Chica and the adult hosts (the lineup changed mostly every year) focused on a different theme each week through themed viewer-submitted content, songs, stories, crafts and recipes, and games, occasionally with guest appearances from Sprout characters or, as of 2014, celebrities.
The premise of The Good Night Show makes sense, but is too similar to other hosted kids shows. The hosts, sometimes assisted by puppets, talk about a different theme through various fun segments. The Good Night Show is unique since it made Sprout stand out in a crowd of children's channels that signed off by 6PM - it was used to help parents get their kids ready for bed. The Sunny Side Up Show was also unique since it was live - something no kids channel has done before, which brings it to a bit more realism than The Good Night Show. Advantage: The Sunny Side Up Show.
A good kids show can't be a good kids show without hosts or live-action human characters, which is what I'm talking about next.
HOSTS
The Sunny Side Up Show had ten hosts, a different one each week and some of them replaced over the years. The Good Night Show only had three, and were always the sole host. Michele Lepe's Nina was the longest-running host, and was always there since 2006, All of them did great.
The Sunny hosts were mostly actors on stage and screen, and have gone on to other children's shows after hosting. There were originally two hosts, then three, then four, then back to three, and finally back to two. The Good Night Show only had one host every episode. One host is fine, but ten hosts is enough. I know SSU had one host each week, but if your show is pre-recorded and has one host it can be handled better. Advantage: The Good Night Show.
Sprout's programming blocks were basically links in between gold-standard shows, so let's talk about them now.
SHOWS AIRED
The Sunny Side Up Show had shows that offered a learning opportunity to viewers, while The Good Night Show had calm-natured, mostly story-like shows. OK, so the show episodes aired had nothing to do with the linking footage's themes, except for on occasions. The Good Night Show's shows had wholesome theme songs (Dragon Tales, Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, Jakers!, and Angelina Ballerina), and the characters introduced the shows with their voice actors reprising their roles. The Sunny Side Up Show, on the other hand, did occasionally have guest appearances from Sprout characters and said "happy birthday" if they were on a Sproutlet's birthday card, but they never introduced the shows. Advantage: The Good Night Show
Now that we've talked about the hosts, let's talk about the characters.
CHARACTERS
Let's start with The Good Night Show. Here we had Hush, Helping Hand, Star, Lucy, and that's it. If you don't know Helping Hand, he has his own PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki page. As you can tell, he was pretty short-lived. The Sunny Side Up Show, on the other hand, had Chica, Mr. Mailman, Molly the Sheep, Chica's mom, Cousin Rico, Chica's nana, and everyone else was an animated farm animal. Now, with the exception of Mr. Mailman, everyone on Sunny was either a chicken or an animated farm animal. But hey, Mr. Mailman was on The Birthday Show and The Many Adventures of Mr. Mailman prior to SSU, so you can't go wrong with him. Advantage: The Sunny Side Up Show.
Now let’s talk about the themes talked about.
THEMES
Episodic or weekly themes are what make children’s shows unique. The Sunny Side Up Show focused on a different theme each week, while The Good Night Show focused on a different theme each broadcast, with both reusing the same themes as time went by. The latter (daily themes) works, but the former (weekly themes) is underused. They should use it more on children's shows. Advantage: The Sunny Side Up Show.
Both also showed content submitted by viewers via the web, so now let's take a look at em.
VIEWER-SUBMITTED CONTENT
The Sunny Side Up Show was chockful of viewer-submitted content - from birthday wishes to online games, while The Good Night Show only had pictures of viewers’ crafts and drawings, introduced by Lucy. The crafts and drawings were dropped in 2011. Advantage: The Good Night Show.
Both also got animated sequel series, so let's take a look at them.
SEQUEL SERIES
The Chica Show, which premiered in 2012, was about Chica, her parents, and Kelly running a costume shop and becoming animated once the shop closes, and Mario Lopez voiced the character Stitches. Nina’s World, which premiered in 2015, was about Nina's life as a kid, and Rita Moreno voiced Abuela.
Nina's World premiered during Sprout's 10th anniversary, and Moreno appeared on Sunny Side Up that day to promote. The Chica Show, on the other hand, popped up out of nowhere. Nina was entirely animated, while Chica combined live-action and animation. Plus, Chica was from the second generation, which and the first generation everyone likes better than the third. It’s a classic! Advantage: The Sunny Side Up Show.
Now let's talk about the openings and closings.
OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
The Good Night Show's first opening, from the first four seasons, was beautiful - both in terms of music and animation. The opening from Seasons 5 - 7 was almost the same - sun going down, birds in a nest, and clock on a tree yawning, but with many new features. Plus, the theme song was exactly the same as the Welcome Song and Goodnight Song, which is reluctant, since Nina sang the exact same song in the first link. If we look at The Sunny Side Up Show, the 2007 - 2009 opening and the 2009 - 2013 opening had the same theme song, but everything was different except for clips of the hosts and the sun in the egg. A version of this opening was used in the nightly "Today's Birthdays" segments, except with birthday cupcakes and presents, blankets on the ground, and it was nighttime. With the new hosts at the end of 2013, the opening was completely changed with a new theme song and no more "Sproutlet-constructed" branding.
The closings were a bit short, but I’m also talking about them anyways. The Good Night Show's original closing from the first four seasons played out like a regular first generation ident, the Season 5 closing was one with the boy's mom closing their box and turning off the light, and the Seasons 6-8 one played in the final link, after Nina sang the Goodnight Song. Lucy winked at the Sproutlets and flew away, the mom once again closed the box and turned off the light. We don’t have The Sunny Side Up Show's original closing, but I guess it was probably the same as the "don't go away" and "welcome back" bumpers. The 2009 - 2013 closing was the girl's father closing their box as the kids play outside, and the 2013 - 2015 closing was the Sunshine Barn window closing the final link, and we see the logo below.
I’m raring to see the original closing to The Sunny Side Up Show, and The Good Night Show's openings and closings are unique, so I don’t know who wins this battle. Advantage: a tie.
Okay, that about does it, now it’s time to tally up the scores.
- SSU: 4
- GNS: 3
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| The Sunny Side Up Show |
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