The History of The Sunshine Barn

Image from YouTube

Madeline Fretz - Every kids' show has a central location, and for eight years the Sunny Side Up Show found itself a central location in the Sunshine Barn.

As you probably know by now, after deciding on several titles for their new live show, the Sprout team settled on "The Sunny Side Up Show," a reference to sunny-side-up eggs. Chica, the puppet co-host, was going to be a chicken hence the block's title. (source)

I discussed the 2007 set in a previous post and on my old blog, but I'm going to break it down again. The set had a closet to play "Dress Chica" games, a window with the day of the week, a blue clock, a birthday card billboard, a computer screen that resembled a toaster, and several crates. As shown in the "pilot," Mr. Mailman was originally going to slide out through doors by the crates and deliver the birthday cards, but he ended up delivering the cards through the window. Pretty cramped and cheap set if you ask me, as it was from back when Sprout was still a small channel with a pretty low budget.

Originally, cast and crew rehearsed and recorded background material in Haddon Heights, New Jersey (source), but moved to the 24th floor of Philadelphia's Comcast Center in early 2008 (source).

Image from YouTube

Here's my drawing of the 2009 set.

In early 2009, Sean and Chica had a big announcement. Construction workers were on set, Sean explained that the barn was being renovated, and we would see its new look next week, built by set constructor Gregory Kochan (source). Next week, Kelly greeted the Sproutlet viewers, and the camera zoomed out to reveal the new barn (source). 

This new barn had - lemme break it down - a printer with a face, a purple computer screen, a chair spotted like a cow, a sun clock, a window with the day of the week (or the Sprout logo), a barn crate, and, once again, a birthday card billboard. A moon or balloons would be in place of the sun clock during "Today's Birthdays" segments. The new set looked more like a barn than a decorated office, that whenever children were invited onto the set, they couldn't believe Sprout Farm, itself in the Hills of Sprout, was in the city.

In September 2010, Sprout launched its first full-length original series, Noodle and Doodle, and dropped The Let's Go Show in favor of weekend editions of The Sunny Side Up Show, so that meant another new set. The new barn had a printer, a green flower-shaped clock, a red and blue crate and cupboard, while still retaining elements from the previous set, such as the purple computer screen, the window, the sun clock, and the cow chair.

In 2013, Kelly Vrooman announced she was leaving The Sunny Side Up Show, so Sprout launched the Host Hunt contest. Tim Kubart and Kaitlin Becker auditioned and won the contest, and debuted on the Sprout float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When the two did debut on the actual show, the set was once again remodeled. The new set had a blue board that bore the week's theme and a craft billboard, kind of like a throwback to the birthday card billboard of the first two sets. Also introduced was the Sprout Pad, an iPad the hosts used for viewers' messages and birthday wishes.

NBCUniversal acquired full ownership of Sprout in 2013, and operations of the channel moved from cozy Philadelphia to the hustle and bustle of New York City in 2014. Filming of The Sunny Side Up Show moved to 30 Rockefeller Center. The new set, which closely resembled the 2013 set, now had an arts and crafts shelf and the "Sunshine Stage," a stage for musical performances and sketches, while retaining elements from its aforementioned Philly predecessor. It was around this time that Sunny started hosting celebrities, tagging guest stars after they appeared on Today.

2015 was Sprout's tenth year in business, so that meant new digs. The channel was rebranded with new graphics and a new slogan "free to grow," new shows such as Nina's World, and Alyssa Milano became the channel's new "mom-bassador" and face of Kindness Counts. All this meant that The Sunny Side Up Show had to move to a loft in the big city, which had a flight of stairs and plenty of touch screens. The last show in the barn was September 18th, and the show had a "road trip" arc until finally moving to the city on the 26th.

Image from Facebook

Events such as Chica's Big Birthday Surprise and The Wiggles' 2009 appearance supposedly took place outside the barn. In addition, replications of the Barn set were made for the Macy's Parade float and the Sprout Mall Tour.

Click here to change throughout the years on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!