Families.com

Madeline Fretz - Was just surfing the internet, when I came across this neat little review of the Sprout website which has to be from either 2005 or 2006 - the Sproutletsgrow.com era. This review, which from a website known as Families.com, supplies readers with information about the Sprout website at the time such as, if you didn't get Sprout, you could learn more about its programming through its website.

The review opens with what you were greeted with when you entered Sproutletsgrow.com in 2005: “Hello, Sproutlets! Welcome to PBS Kids Sprout. We’re so glad you could join us. Use your mouse and find what you can play and do!” This is the greeting that you and your child will receive when you visit Sprout online.

The review also says "Sprout is PBS Kids for pre-schoolers." Two things: 1. While Sprout replaced the 24-hour PBS Kids channel (which returned in 2017) when it launched, I assume select PBS stations still aired preschool programs at the time, most of which also aired on the Sprout channel. A year earlier, PBS Kids GO!, a block of PBS shows for older kids, launched. 2. Some people get Sprout confused with regular PBS Kids, and wrote about it in a post about notable Sprout misnomers.

Also mentioned in this review are games that used to be on the website: "Jay Jay the Jet Plane has a fun flying game that you and your child can play. Bob the Builder has puzzles and mazes for you and your child. Thomas the Tank Engine has a match game, a racing game, and even a game where you can build your own engine!"

One thing Sprout is known for is that, unlike most American children's channels, it had original hosted programming blocks that aired in between shows, and that the blocks' hosts (both human and puppet) would show the likes of artwork, pictures and videos, messages, and birthday wishes, all sent in by viewers. When Sprout launched, the only thing you could send in to be featured on TV was birthday cards. The review mentions that you could send in birthday cards and wishes via the website, and you might see your wishes daily on The Birthday Show.

The review is written by Jaime Egan.

I'm always looking for old articles on Sprout to write about here, something I've been doing since I founded this blog, and this is one from Sprout's early days that deserves to be revisited.

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