Early Installment Weirdness

Proto Star

Madeline Fretz - If you know me, you know that I'm the world's biggest Sprout fan, and also the world's biggest fan of people who are fans of Sprout. If there were a bigger fan than me (looking at you, Boomer!), I would know about him. You may be a big Sprout fan, you may have fond, sometimes rare memories (like I do), you may be a new fan who's first discovered Sprout (here's my Sprout fan story), or maybe you don’t remember, or even know, the Sprout name.

If you're a die-hard Sprout fan like me (which you probably are), chances are you know that PBS Kids Sprout launched as a cable channel on September 26th, 2005, with a Sprout service launching exactly five months prior on Comcast on Demand. Sprout was a children's channel like no other. Children's channels outside America have host segments in between shows, and Sprout had the task of bringing this practice to America.

Unlike most children's channels, Sprout had original hosted programming blocks airing at different times of the day. Nothing could hold a candle to Sprout's offerings. Sure, Nick Jr. had Face and Piper O'Possum, NOGGIN had Feetface and Moose and Zee, and Playhouse Disney had Clay and Ooh and Aah, but they weren't live-action (with the exceptions of the aforementioned Ooh and Aah) or accompanied by human hosts.

It is also worth noting that the PBS Kids Preschool Block, which ran from 2006 to 2013, was very similar to Sprout's original programming. So, yeah, Sprout was not alone. The Preschool Block, which, hence the name, aired on regular PBS, was hosted by Miss Lori Holton Nash along with her co-host Hooper the Guinea Pig, who were later joined by Miss Rosa (Jennifer Pena) and Mr. Steve "SteveSongs" Rosonlek (sp?).

Picture I made of the Sprout gang.

Sprout has had seven programming blocks throughout the years - 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 (contrary to popular belief, Sprout Control Room was more of an interstitial series that aired during the afternoons). Now, six of those blocks premiered during the first generation, which is known for Big Sister, Little Brother, Sproutletsgrow.com, Primal Screen idents, the first two Good Night Show hosts, The Birthday Show, Sprout Diner, and Musical Mornings, but was a bit weird. Today on this blog, we’re going to take a look at Sprout early installment weirdness. Enjoy!

When classic kids' shows began, they were a bit weird with lame and boring characters and unlistenable songs, finding their groove as time went by, and Sprout's programming was no exception. Out of Sprout's seven blocks, the two longest-running, as well as the only two to air during the third generation, were The Good Night Show (which ran for eleven years) and The Sunny Side Up Show (which ran for nine). Both premiered during the first generation, and, like most kids' shows, started out weird, but things got better.

Honestly, with a few exceptions, I don't find early Sprout l weird, I find it just fine. Now, the second generation started when I turned two (you can probably guess how old I am), but "met" the first as I became a Sprout historian. Back in the first generation, Sprout was a pretty small channel (as I said, like, a million times on this blog), but its idents were still quite beautiful (especially this one) and the programming was quite entertaining, consisting of such gold-standard PBS and HiT Entertainment shows. Okay, without further ado, let's take a look at Sprout's early days! Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Proto Star

In July 2006, Star from The Good Night Show was introduced. Stylistically, the voice and personality were both nice, but the puppet looked a little … off.

We all know that most iconic kids' show characters start out weird or off - On Sesame Street, Big Bird started out as a clumsy country bumpkin, Oscar the Grouch was orange, Mr. Snuffleupagus had big, creepy yellow eyes, and Telly Monster was a television-obsessed couch potato complete with swirling eyes and antennae, Barney the Dinosaur, who originated in the 80s Barney and the Backyard Gang series, was blue-ish (dark purple?) and a bit creepy, and in the 2006 Yo Gabba Gabba! pilot, Foofa looked weird and creepy, Plex had a blue antenna, and Brobee would frown even when he was happy. Star was no exception. Eventually, as time went by, the puppet got better and less creepy looking, which is a good thing, because the original puppet might have scared kids.

In November, I wrote a post on this blog about Star's evolution, and the photo you see above, which shows the Star puppet through the years, is from that post.

Melanie's chair

Before there was the crescent moon couch, there was the blue chair from The Good Night Show. In the final link, original Goodnight Guide Melanie would say goodnight to Hush, sing the Goodnight Song, and sack out on the blue chair. Sleeping in a chair? I tried that once and man does it look uncomfortable? As several people pointed out, the chair looked too uncomfortable, and I'd have to say, I'm with them. Melanie must've disliked sleeping on that chair.

The original Sunshine Barn

Again, something else I wrote about in a post last year. As I've discussed many, many times on this blog, the original Sunny Side Up Show set was a big cramped and cheap, as Sprout was still a small channel back then. As time went by, Sprout grew bigger and bigger with a pretty large budget. 

As some people have pointed out, the original set looked like a decorated office, and I'd have to say, I'm with them. The Sunny Side Up Show was originally filmed in the 24th floor of the Comcast Center in Philadelphia.

"Big kid" shows

Sprout has always been a place for preschoolers, or has it!? Since HiT Entertainment was one of Sprout's founders, several shows from their archive library aired on the channel when it launched. Some of those shows included Dennis and Gnasher, Sheeep, Fly Tales, Captain Zed and the Zee Zone, and The Three Friends and Jerry. Unfortunately, those shows, despite airing on a preschool channel, had inappropriate language and other bad things, and were probably dropped from Sprout in 2006. Sprout never aired any inappropriate shows after that. I have written a post about these shows a while ago.

Easy come, easy go

The first generation had some shows that didn't make it to the second. Some of these shows included not only the big kid shows, but Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, Big Sister, Little Brother, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, Brambly Hedge (of Summer Fun Fridays), and The Hoobs. We hardly knew ye! They’re classics, of course, but I'd have to say that Sprout's later programming was more memorable.

So What?

If you know me, you know that, even at the tender age of fourteen, I do not like most children's shows nowadays, especially the programming on Universal Kids. Parents and older siblings, in order to stay away from modem children's programming, why not show younger ones classic Sprout? The fashions may be dated, but, at the end of the day, I'm sure nothing aged well. There are pretty few Sprout tapes on YouTube, yet most of them are of the first generation. The first generation also hasn't aged well. It was nice, gentle, and quite beautiful to say the least. It was during this era that Sprout Diner won a Webby and Chica won an Emmy. As I said earlier in this post, children's television starts out as weird, but gets better as time goes by. So parents, just keep in mind, it's good to show kids the first generation. Peace "Sprout" (ha!)!

Yeah, the chicken clucking eggs which would slide down a slide, pretty weird too!

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