Knee-Deep in the Hoopla: 2021 in Review

 

Madeline Fretz - Ahh, 2021. What a year for Sprout fandom! Last year we had the virus, lockdowns, and LOTS of handwashing, but this year was probably better. This year we showcased new things, looked back at the past, and got tons of new surprises - such as pictures, specials, reboots and revivals, online videos, and new seasons.

One that fits into all three of these categories is probably my biggest Sprout project (for now), my long-anticipated Sprout fanfic, so I knew I had to make a reference to it in this post's title. "We Built This City" by Starship is (SPOILER!) one of the songs in the fanfic. Now, I know most fansites and fan blogs, including this one, don’t usually show fanfic and/or fan art, but I talked about mine here a lot. Basically, the fic is a nostalgic half-road comedy, half-get the band back together plot, half-"putting on a show" plot, and half-telethon, that includes lots of references to old Sprout and its PBS days.

As for the blog, for the first few months I abandoned the blog due to my commitments to the generic "fan stuff" (such as PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki), and only came back occasionally. However, all that changed in July when I started posting here again. I started the "My Week" series, inspired by Muppet fansite and huge PaKST inspiration ToughPigs. In September, I started the "Weekly Character Wednesdays" series, inspired by another Muppet fansite by the name of the Muppet Mindset. And as of November, I’ve been talking about Sprout Christmas specials.

Okay, Sproutlets. Sit back, relax, and together let's take a look back at 2021 and what an amazing year it was.

January:

• Happy New Year! - The post that kicked off the new year - containing of a Snowy Side Up Show video and a news article about Cheer in the New Year.
• Caillou Leaves PBS Kids - On one of the saddest posts on this blog, it is announced that Sprout's longest-standing program, which is largely hated by most people, has stopped airing on PBS. But don’t worry, it now airs daily on Cartoon Network's Cartoonito block!
• The SproutOnline.com song - This post is about a Sprout jingle that played almost daily from 2008 to 2014. If you know the lyrics, great! Dare to sing along! If you don’t, don’t worry, they’re on this post!

March:

• Sizzle - Wow! I guess I was right when I said I only came back to post occasionally prior to July. Anyways, this post chronicles a Sprout sizzle from 2012 that features a Colbie Caillat song.

April:

• On-Demand! - Back in April, my family, my Mom's friend Lisa from Las Vegas (who appears in the fic), and I went on an amazing cross-country adventure around Las Vegas, Arizona, and Utah to see the canyons (and not just the Grand one). You totally should’ve been there! Anyways, probably the only Sprout-related thing I did during that trip (aside from editing a few pages on the wiki) was watch a 2005 on-demand promo, that when I got back, I did a post about the history of Sprout's video-on-demand service. Enjoy!
• Sprout Diner - It was the 2000s and childhood obesity was all the rage. Sprout was all about living healthy lifestyles from the beginning, so one of their planned interstitial series was Sprout Diner, which was about eating healthy. This post chronicles the history of this short-lived, two-season webseries.
• Dora on Sprout? - As of April, I discovered lyrics to Let's Go Show songs on the Wayback Machine and put them on the wiki. Not long after, I discovered composer Tim Burns' SoundCloud account which had many of those songs, and uploaded them to my YouTube channel. One of them was "My Favorite Color is a Rainbow." I was skimming Vimeo a lot back then (and still nowadays), and one of the Sprout-related videos I managed to find on there had an instrumental of said song. Dora the Explorer, a Nick Jr. show, was in that video among actual Sprout shows. Huh?

May:

• Got Great Pics? - I managed to find several rare Sprout pictures on the likes of people's Facebook accounts and the Wayback Machine (including one Flickr photo), and put them on here on this post, my only blog post of May. I also put most of the photos on the above video set to Sprout production music. Sometimes I wonder if that piece of production music was an instrumental of a Let's Go Show song, but it definitely wasn't a Preschool Musical instrumental. Hmm…

June:

• Wiggly Waffle - In June, I started an Unofficial Sprout Podcast, and this is the topic of my only episode so far. As I was preparing for the premiere, I wrote this post on the blog to prepare myself for what I was supposed to say. The post chronicles the history of The Wiggles' Sprout morning show, which ran during the Sam era.

July:

This picture we used for our family holiday cards this year.

• Me just being silly
• Cape Charles - Ahh, this was the month I returned to posting regularly on this blog. So far, this is my only non-Sprout-related post here. Every Fourth of July as of 2017, my family goes to Cape Charles in Virginia, and this is a collection of photos from this year’s vacation.
• My Week with 2010 - The start of the My Week series.
• Clips from Wiggly Waffle launch day FOUND! - This year, someone found clips from the August 24th, 2009 broadcast of Wiggly Waffle and uploaded it to their YouTube channel. I uploaded it to mine too since it was a temporary upload, but deleted it when said person found the full clip of their previous video.
• My Week with Kindness Counts

August (AKA my first month of high school):

• On the set of The Sunny Side Up Show - This post chronicles the history of and behind-the-scenes information about The Sunny Side Up Show.
• The Original Sunshine Barn - This is a post about the original Sunny Side Up Show set. Back in 2016, I ran another Sprout fan blog called Let's Grow, after the original slogan, and THAT ONE had a similar post.
• My Week with SproutOnline.com
• My Week with The Sunny Side Up Show
• Why It's Called That - Ever wonder why my blog is called Parents and Kids Share Together? Read this post and find out!
• My Week with 2011
• My Life as a Sprout Fan - The day before I started high school, I written what may be my favorite post on this blog. Here, I talk about my life as and experiences of being the world's biggest Sprout fan, with some pictures of me through the years that you don’t get to see anywhere else. Not only that, but I’m also the world's biggest fan of people who are fans of Sprout and children's entertainment in general like you.
• Beware of Anti-Piracy Screens - I written this on the first day of school. This post tells you not to touch, watch, or encounter fake Sprout anti-piracy videos on YouTube.
• SSU Pics from 2011 YouTube - Title explains it all! Sunny Side Up Show pictures from a 2011 Wayback Machine archive.
• My Week with On-Demand

September:

• Five CGI Caillou Specials in the Works - W!ldBrain Entertainment announced the return of Caillou through upcoming specials, and I wrote about them here.
• My Week with The Sprout Sharing Show
• Ten Years of LazyTown on Sprout - I wrote a post for LazyTown's tenth anniversary on Sprout. This makes me wish I wrote a You and Me Tree and Poppy Cat tenth anniversary post on November 7th too!
• All About The Let's Go Show - This post chronicles the history of The Let's Go Show.
• Universal Kids' Anniversary - In this post, I look back on the launch of Universal Kids four years later.
• The Good Night Show Split-Screen Credits - After someone found rare Good Night Show split-screen credits after Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat and uploaded it to YouTube, I wrote a post about The Good Night Show squeezebacks throughout the years.
• My Week with Sprout Apps
• America's Kids Remember - A twentieth anniversary look back on the events of 9/11.
• My Week with Branding
• The Chica Show - A post about the history of Sprout's highest-rated original series.
• Sheinelle Jones
• Rubbadubbers - A post about the HiT Entertainment show on its twelfth "Sproutiversary" that I written on my own fourteenth birthday.
• R.I.P Willie Garson - Remembering a television legend and his guest appearance on The Sunny Side Up Show.
• My Week with Birthdays
• Sprout's Sixteenth Anniversary - Similar to how the Let's Grow YouTube channel and I uploaded a series of Sprout videos on the brand's tenth and fifteenth anniversaries respectively, I written a series of posts about Sprout’s history on this blog to celebrate the brand's sweet sixteenth.
• Sprout-tober - Also this year, I came up with a Sprout Instagram challenge I did throughout October.
• R.I.P Sesame Street's Mike Renzi - Remembering the former Sesame Street music director.

October:

• Everything Reminds Me of Sprout - In this otherwise odd post, I write about how I see Sprout everywhere in my life.
• My Week with Promotions and Initiatives
• Dan Zanes - This post is about a children's singer and his Sprout contributions.
• Sleepover - This post is about a Sprout "box bumper" which ran during the second generation.
• William Shatner - The Star Trek star narrated Sprout's Clangers and did many things on the channel to promote
• Getting Dressed - A post about a jingle that probably aired on Sprout that taught kids about how to get dressed.
• Sunny Side Update - A post about the changes that came to The Sunny Side Up Show regarding Sprout's tenth anniversary rebranding.
• My Week with 2009
• Sprout Farms Ketchup - While surfing through people's Instagrams, I found a picture of a Sunny Side Up Show prop I just had to write about!
• Launch Day? - I found about yet another Instagram picture I think is from Sprout's 2005 inception and wrote about it here.
• 200 Posts! - After marking a milestone for the blog, I knew I just had to write about it. Beware for the names of lots of people and characters I thanked!
• The Sprout Art of Khalil - A PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki admin uploaded fan art which I noticed a few things wrong with and wrote about them here.
• My Week with Sprout Music
• My Week with The Good Night Show
• My Week with Halloween
• Happy Halloween, Sproutlets!
• Why Sesame Street is More Vital Than Ever - I took a Wall Street Journal post about Sesame Street and put it here for all to see, and pointed out a few facts and spoilers in the article.

November:

• No One Cares About Banjo - A post about why Banjo the Dog of The Let's Go Show fame is underrated.
• The History of Star - A post about the character development and puppet designs of Star from The Good Night Show.
• Which is Better?: Sprout's Signature Blocks - I decided to compare Sprout's two longest-running blocks and see which one was better. Note that I asked people to tell me which was better in the comments, yet this blog rarely gets comments.
• Upcoming fanfic trailer - Shortly before I released the fic on November 23rd this year, I released a trailer on the Fanfiction website and wrote about it here.
• Fanfic sequel in the works - Always Famous is coming to a fanfic site near you!
• My Week with 2008
• Sprout's Thanksgiving Diner Party - A post about a Sprout Diner stunt and contest from 2006.
• One Sleep to Go! - One of the most popular posts on this blog is about the fanfic the day before it was released, and contains a few spoilers.
• A Sesame Street Christmas Carol - A post about Sesame Street's take on a Charles Dickens classic, which premiered on Sprout on Demand in 2006.
• Sprout Puzzles - Something that appears in the fanfic and also something I really wanted for Christmas this year.
• Sprout plates - A fan found these nifty Sprout collectibles and posted these on Discord, and I wrote about them here.
• The Chica Awards - This post chronicles a Sunny Side Up Show Christmas tradition from 2012 to 2014.
• The Chica Show characters sing a song from Preschool Musical - I found something amazing on a YouTube video and wrote about it. Enjoy!

December:

• Rare Good Night Show Behind the Scenes Pictures - I found some Good Night Show rarities from 2006 and posted about them. In this post, I tackle a behind the scenes mystery. What is it? Read the post and find out!
• Interesting… - While skimming through photos online, I found one from circa 2014 I just don’t know what it was for.
• Ian Rogers - I found a few SproutOnline.com prototypes on someone's website and wrote about them here.
• Caillou's Holiday Movie - This blog chronicles a Christmas special that has aired on Sprout since 2007.
• Fifteen Years of Nina - I put out a series of Good Night Show YouTube videos to commemorate Nina's fifteenth anniversary.
• Behind the Squeak - A post about a Chica Show promotional video.
• Elmo's World: Happy Holidays! - A post about a Sesame Street Christmas special that aired on Sprout several times.
• The Time I Called Sprout - A post about an experience I had as a Sprout fan.
• Shout for Sprout.com - Did they mean SproutOnline.com?
• Barney's Christmas Star - A post about a Barney & Friends Christmas special that also aired on Sprout several times. 
• The Let's Snow Show - The time Kevin Yamada and Melanie Martinez hosted a Sprout Christmas special together from inside a giant snowglobe.
• The Time I Hosted The Sunny Side Up Show - Back when I was still in elementary school, I hosted our daily morning show and pointed out its similarities to The Sunny Side Up Show.
• Merry Christmas Sproutlets - We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
• Guess what? - It was Christmas 2021 and I received a personalized Christmas video from the old gang, courtesy of a former employee.
• Sprout at the Movies - A look at a special section of the Sprout for Parents website.
• Maddie Takes Manhattan - A review of my third trip to New York City (December 26th-29th), what happened, and where we went.
• Sprout and Sesame Street - After noticing lots of similarities between the Sprout gang and the Sesame Street gang, I decided to make a post comparing them.
• The End of the World - A look at Sprout's history with New Year celebrations.
• Knee-Deep in the Hoopla: 2021 in Review - And voila! This is the post you're reading right now!

Thanks to everyone who read this blog over the past twelve months. Here’s to hoping 2022 is just as good!

Click here to party like it's 2022 on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!