Overthinking It: Where are Star's parents?

The original Star from 2006.

Madeline Fretz - There are a lot of children's shows and sing-along videos (usually from the 90s) in which a bunch of human kids sing and dance with a large costumed character (one or more) - Barney comes to mind. As you probably know by now, I was born in '07, but being a children's television historian, I know a lot about these shows and videos thanks to research and YouTube. But wait! - there's one thing about these kids - their parents are rarely shown. The same goes to other, similar shows, such as Disney's Out of the Box (in which real kids make crafts and jump into pictures with hosts Tony and Vivian) and PBS' own ZOOM (in which seven kids play games and make things sent in by viewers). I mean, we see their parents on occasions, but they aren't shown most of the time.

Star from The Good Night Show is no exception. Look - we're Sprout fans, so we know him very well, don't we? He's a kid, he's with Nina all the time, he hasn't mentioned and there's no sign of his parents - weird!

Mr. and Mrs. C, Chica's parents

Chica's mom, Mrs. C, was a frequent visitor on The Sunny Side Up Show, appearing since at least 2009. After Chica plush toys sold like hotcakes, Sprout executives knew they had something special on their hands, so they started making a series about healthy eating that would focus on Chica in a farmers' market instead of the cozy comforts of the Sunshine Barn. Eventually, the show became Chica's Costume Coop, in which Kelly and Chica would go on animated adventures in the titular shop, which would become The Chica Show. Mrs. C was carried over to the new series, which also introduced Mr. C, Chica's dad. The two, played by Jen Barnhart and John Kennedy, respectively, served as great parents to our favorite chicken. They have also made occasional appearances on Sunny.

This is where Star comes in. In 2015, when Sprout turned ten, it introduced an animated Good Night Show prequel called Nina's World, about Nina's childhood adventures. Star, as well as Hush, Lucy, and Nina's abuela (voiced by veteran actress Rita Moreno), was also present. I talked about the show in a post comparing The Good Night Show to The Sunny Side Up Show, in which Sunny was the winner. As silly as it may sound, World would've been a great opportunity to see Star's parents, as The Chica Show introduced us to Mr. and Mrs. C (or "Cluckums" as they call each other). BUT WAIT! Nina was six in this series, but Star and Lucy were probably the same age they were on The Good Night Show, which had an adult Nina, years later. Similarly, Elmo and Big Bird on Sesame Street first knew Gabi and Miles when they were babies, but the latter two grew up, and now they're older than the former two. Weird!

Okay, enough about Mr. and Mrs. C. Let's get back to Nina and Star.

Have we seen Star mentioning his parents? No. One episode from Season 5 (or 3?) was about "Parents" (YouTuber Mommymeow32 uploaded a tape of an entire Sprout broadcast day to her channel, which had footage of the episode). In the episode, Star pretended to have a son called Little Star, and told Nina about the things he did with him. This episode also would've been a great opportunity to introduce us to Star's parents, or at least have him mention them. But no, the writers just went with no.

So where are they? What happened to them?

On the Scottish CBeebies show Me Too!, the character Bobby would often leave her son Kai at Granny Murray's house while she would clean buses at night. My headcanon (sp?): Star's parents would often leave him with Nina (or Melanie, OR Leo) for the night while they would work, similar to Bobby and Kai's routine on Me Too!. Does that work?

Sharon, Patty's mom

Reginald, Ricky's dad

The Sprout Sharing Show had Sharon Pig, Patty's mom, and Reginald Rabbit, Ricky's dad, both played by Forrest Harding. If Star's parents were ever seen, make them like Sharon and Reginald, have them appear occasionally in "blockisodes" (as us fans call them) and in promos, as well as in coloring pages.

So yeah, those are ways I would have it. Hope you enjoyed! You know what, it's pretty late at night as of writing this (almost 9 o'clock), I think I should go to bed now. YAWN! Goodnight, Sproutlets!

Click here to meet your long-lost parents on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!