Goodnight Girls and Boys

 

Image from 2020.

Madeline Fretz - While Parents and Kids Share Together is mainly a Sprout fan blog, I do write some non-Sprout posts on here (examples being Maddie Takes Manhattan and The Last of Arthur), but still, there's a bit of Sprout in those posts. Today on this blog, I'm going to talk about a few things that aren't Sprout, but are very, very similar.

You see, in non-US countries like Australia, they have short little segments featuring mascots or well-known characters going to sleep to encourage kids to do the same. Let's take a look at what I call "Goodnight Boys and Girls" (or "Goodnight Girls and Boys" if you prefer). Enjoy!

Oh, before I start, I just wanted to let you know that I'm from America, and being a children's television aficionado, I know about children's shows outside my own little world. Here we go!

"Goodnight Boys and Girls" traces its origins back to 1959 with this little spot from TVW Channel 7 in Perth. This segment has a kangaroo putting its joey to sleep while a version of Brahms' Lullaby plays in the background. Stylistically, even though the background music is nice, this segment is pretty creepy, given the art and animation. At one part, the mother kangaroo smiles creepily at the camera. Noticeably, the announcer in this spot says "some of the programs which are to follow are possibly not suitable for young children," which would be said in many more Channel 7 goodnight spots years later until at least the 90s.

Sometimes I wonder if the kangaroos in this spot are the same as the ones in the Channel 7 Sydney sign-off. I mean, those channels are probably the same, both being in Australia and so on. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans, please note that the first video, of 7's final analog TV sign off in 2013, has "Temptation Sensation," the theme song to Always Sunny.

As time went by, Channel 7 introduced a new mascot by the name of Percy Penguin. When color TV was introduced, 7 executives thought Percy was better suited for black-and-white TV, so they decided to create a new, colorful companion to him. To promote the new mascot, Percy and his friends held a contest searching for the largest cat in Australia. After the winner was shown, Percy admitted he had the largest cat, and, ta-da! The new mascot, Fat Cat popped out of a box. Fat Cat, now featured in 7 Telethons, co-hosted his own daytime children's show, Fat Cat & Friends, and was also featured at the end of children's programming in "Goodnight Boys and Girls" segments, which still air to this day. In the above video, original Fat Cat host Sandy Baker talks about his Goodnight programs.

Other networks in Australia started having their own children's mascots. NBN had Big Dog, Miss Kim's co-host on their version of Romper Room…

GWN7 had Doopa Dog…

Prime had the Prime Possum, the co-host of The Saturday Club…

…Channel 10 had Kenny Kidna of the Kangaroo Creek Gang. Kenny was different from the other mascots - he was an animated character, and he sang a catchy song about going to bed.

…GKN had Bakana Bilby (Sprout fans, remind you of anyone you know?)…

…and Imparja has Yamba the Honey Ant.

Humphrey B. Bear, co-host of the children's show Here's Humphrey, was featured in his own "Goodnight Boys and Girls" segments airing across Australia as of 2013.

Now, it’s not just Aussie that has Goodnight programming. Lemme go through the Goodnight mascots from other countries.

TVNZ in New Zealand wanted something akin to Australia's kangaroo sign-off, so in 1975, the Goodnight Kiwi premiered. The Kiwi, with his cat, Jess, would go to bed at the end of a long day of transmission, signing off the channel for the night. Goodnight Kiwi had an instrumental of the New Zealandic lullaby "Hine e Hine." Goodnight Kiwi was extremely popular, and continued to air on TV well into 1994.

Spanish-speaking countries also have their own kids' goodnights.

TVE has La Familia Telerin with Vamos a La Cama, which premiered in 1965. Vamos a la Cama was a catchy song sung by six kids as they would go to bed. La Familia Telerin would become the animated series Cleo and Cuquin.

Cuba has La Calabacita Cubana (Zucchini in Spanish). Premiering in 1977, Calabacita was a ragdoll who would use his magic and put kids to sleep. There have been many versions of Calabacita over the years, but the most beautiful versions, in my opinion, would have to be the third and fifth videos, especially the fifth, which is sung by a little girl as she goes to bed.

Spanish-speaking countries also have something called Horario de Proteccíon (Child's Protection Hour). Being an American, as I said, I know nothing outside what happens in the fifty nifty United States, so I believe this Child's Protection thing had to do with getting kids to stop watching TV and go to sleep. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Child's Protection Hour.

There were also Child's Protection ads featuring well-known characters we got here in the US.

Canal 9 had a "Horario de Proteccíon" ad featuring The Simpsons, the five yellow-skinned stars of America's longest-running animated adult series. This ad features the Simpson family watching the news, which announces Horario de Proteccion, making Bart scream. Later on, Homer sings Maggie to sleep, but keeps her awake.

America TV had a Horario de Proteccíon ad featuring America's Sesame Street Muppets (I posted about this ad on the ToughPigs forum). This segment had Big Bird putting Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, and Elmo (actually puppet plush of the characters) to bed, and a nice song featuring hearts, stars, and Sesame Street toys.

Not a "Goodnight Boys and Girls" or "Horario de Proteccíon," but still pretty similar. Denmark's children's channel DR Ramasjang ends its day by showing looping footage of its mascots and hosts sleeping from 8PM to 6AM in order to convince kids to do the same. As shown in one of the videos (the one I uploaded on my own channel), the footage begins with one of the hosts or puppets going to bed. Pretty neat idea if you ask me!

Okay, now it's time to compare these goodnights to what we got here in America. 

Here in America, we got Sprout, which is what this blog is dedicated to. Sprout was a 24-hour channel, but it did have some kids' goodnight programming, such as The Good Night Show, which aired from 6PM to 9PM ET, with two repeats throughout the rest of the night until 3AM, and mainly featured calm-natured shows designed to get kids ready to go to sleep. On Sprout on Demand, they would have Nina Sleeps, otherwise known as Sprout's Snooze-a-Thon, which was like what Ramasjang does in many ways. Some people may say Sprout ripped off Ramasjang, but Ramasjang launched in 2009, while the Snooze-a-Thon (or A Good Night of Sweet Dreams) premiered in 2007 during Sprout's Hooray for the Holidays. I knew I was right when I said mostly all of my non-Sprout posts had a bit of Sprout in ‘em.

So there you have it. Kids' goodnights from around the world! Please note that this post is akin to something I posted on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum.

And, oh, while we're at it, goodnight boys and girls.

Click here to scream while watching the news on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!