CBeebies and Sprout

 

Showing love and respect for my two favorite TV channels!

Madeline Fretz - Twenty years ago today in the UK, the BBC (home of Doctor Who, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and of course the Teletubbies) launched two children's channels - CBBC, a spin-off of its children's programming block of the same name aimed at six to twelve year olds, and CBeebies, a channel consisting of its preschool programming aimed at kids aged six years old and under. BBC launched its children's programming in 1985, although they did air children's shows prior to that. Three years later here in America, Comcast (now the owner of NBCUniversal) teamed up with PBS, HiT Entertainment (now owned by Mattel and Apax Funds), and Sesame Workshop to launch PBS Kids Sprout, and boy are there some similarities between that and CBeebies. And yes, this is all coming from an American fan. Well, I'm the world's biggest kids' TV fan, they say I can do anything!

Judging by the title, CBeebies and Sprout have a lot in common, even teaming up to make Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave with Collingwood O'Hare, so today we're going to take a look at parrallels and similarities between the two. You knew I was right when, in the fan confessions post, I said the UK had similar programming to Sprout's. Enjoy!

Like Sprout, CBeebies does include gold-standard, curriculum-based programming, both old and new (though mostly new), with friendly live-action hosts linking into them, doing things such as reading birthday cards, making crafts and recipes, telling stories, playing games, and singing songs. Sound familiar? Above are a video of CBeebies' launch twenty years ago and original presenters Chris Jarvis and Pui Fan Lee (the original Po from Teletubbies) reminiscing about their first link. I said "both old and new," although Sprout's shows are more classic and memorable, especially Sesame Street and Thomas & Friends.

Both brands also have (or had) programming blocks airing at different times of the day. They also changed schedules that kids could get used to. CBeebies had the presenters' themed colorful room hours in 2004, "Pick and Play" in 2005, "Get Set Go!," "Story Corner," "Little Lunchers" (later "Lunch Time"), "Busy Beebies," and "Bedtime Hour" (later simply "Bedtime"), and later "Discover and Do" and "Big Fun Time" (yup, I'm American and I know A LOT about UK kids' TV), while Sprout, on the other hand, had The Good Night Show, The Let's Go Show, Musical Mornings with Coo, The Sunny Side Up Show, The Sprout Sharing Show, Sprout's Wiggly Waffle, and The Super Sproutlet Show. With operations moving to the now defunct Teddington Studios in 2007, Get Set Go was presented by Sid and Andy in the living room set, Discover and Do was presented by Chris and Pui (and later Cerrie and Alex) on the same set, Big Fun Time was presented by Sid in the garage set, and Bedtime Hour was presented by Chris and Pui or Cerrie and Alex in the bedroom set, while Sprout (mostly) had different hosts, sets, and themes for each block.

They also aired the same shows, which is obvious. Both channels aired Teletubbies, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies, Rubbadubbers, dirtgirlworld, Driver Dan's Story Train, Wibbly Pig, 64 Zoo Lane, Tree Fu Tom, Sarah & Duck, Boj, Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave, Clangers, The Furchester Hotel, Charlie and Lola, and Pablo. CBeebies did air some shows we got here in the US, but most of them were dubbed with British voices (i.e. PBS' Clifford the Big Red Dog, NOGGIN's Pinky Dinky Doo). Also worth noting, Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave was co-produced by both CBeebies and Sprout (see above), but it aired in the UK first with British voices, and then in America with American voices.

Sprout has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and SproutOnline.com was one of the many websites I visited on the computers in preschool, which is where I first discovered CBeebies. There, I played on Tweenies and Big and Small games and stories, I remember there was one game with the sun and the moon, and some video with a female presenter, where she talked about a computer mouse, Rastamouse went by, and she said "Not you, Rastamouse!". Also on those preschool computers, I often went on the Sunny Side Up Show website, which is where I watched videos I still remember to this day.

I think that the similarities end there.

First of all, the CBeebies brand is quite popular, that the BBC launched international versions of the channel in Australia, Poland, Asia, Latin America, South Africa, India, Canada, and Alba, each with their own presenters (South Africa's CBeebies was presented by Sid and Cat from the UK, while Poland's Aneta and Asia's Nisha (who also hosted "Same Smile") both guest hosted on the UK channel for a while) and replicas of the British sets (Australia's CBeebies being an exception). If you're American and try to visit the CBeebies website, you'll get redirected to a Spanish website that can also be in English. It happened to me several times. However, the only way to go to the UK website is by the Wayback Machine. Try it!

In 2014, Alton Towers in Stoke-on-trent opened CBeebies Land, their version of a theme park kids' area. CBeebies Land has themed live shows, rides, and even a hotel, which opened in 2017. Meanwhile, Sprout did not get a themed area at a theme park given it wasn't popular enough, although I would've loved to see one.

My CBeebies collection

CBeebies has also spawned merchandise, such as albums (I own most of them), books (I own three annuals), compilation DVDs (I own several), toys, and even a magazine. Sprout may have launched Shop Sprout with CafePress, but other than that, it never spawned any merchandise, though I wish it did.

NEVER visit this wiki (or try to)! I swear!

This wiki, on the other hand, please do. Tons of accurate information.

Lastly, wikis. I became a CBeebies fan in 2018 and started watching presenter videos on YouTube, thinking they were similar to Sprout. Shortly after, I started a CBeebies wiki after finding there weren't any on the internet (don't wanna post the link, sorry). I described the wiki as "accurate," yet it also had false information, trolls, and fanfic, often ripping off other things, and, in 2020, many British people on Twitter started criticizing and attacking me for that. Nowadays, I regret starting that wiki. Thankfully, I migrated that year to the PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki, which has more accurate information and rarely any fanfiction. Phew! What a long journey - I've gone from a channel that aired the Teletubbies to a channel that aired Sesame Street and Thomas & Friends, good for me! I'm no longer obsessed with CBeebies as I was back in the days, though I still occasionally visit.

Both CBeebies and Sprout have done good things for children, taught them a lot, and made them feel safe and serene. Both have aired incredible programming and daily blocks (or strands) from breakfast to bedtime, and they have both created treasured memories for kids and adults alike. Happy 20th anniversary, CBeebies, and here's to twenty more! Lemme close this post with my cover of this Altered Images song that was covered by the Ting Tings in the birthday-themed episode of Yo Gabba Gabba!:

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