Kipper

Madeline Fretz - Kipper was a British show based on the book series by Mick Inkpen. The show focused on the titular orange dog and his adventures with his friends - Tiger and Pig and Arnold. The show was made by HiT Entertainment, one of Sprout's founders. HiT aired select preschool programs from its archive library on Sprout when it launched, including Kipper. When PBS Kids Sprout on Demand launched in April 2005, Kipper was part of the "Children's Favorites" category.

Sprout described the show as:

"Optimistic and Curious, Kipper is the quintessential child with an active imagination. With his unforgettable charm, Kipper captivates and delights children the world over. The touching and imaginative adventures are based on the best-selling books by Mick Inkpen."

The show aired at 8:15, 8:45, 9:15, and 11:45 ET when Sprout launched, and was usually the final show to air during The Good Night Show.

Nina and her Sproutlet friends did "Arnold's Clean-Up Stretch," based on a character from the show, in the Good Night Show Season 4 episode "Bedtime Routines."

The show stopped airing on Sprout on July 26th, 2015, a few months before the third generation rebranding, along with several other shows.

Teletubbies

Madeline Fretz - Everyone who doesn't live under a rock knows who the Teletubbies are. They're four colorful characters by the names of Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po who live over the hills and far away, do typical baby and toddler stuff (the show is aimed at one and two year olds who can’t speak yet), and have televisions on their stomachs that show real kids' stories. Originally from the BBC in the UK, PBS acquired American broadcast rights to air the show, and the rest is history.

Since PBS was one of Sprout's four founders, a variety of shows from its archive library aired on Sprout when it launched, including Teletubbies. The show was originally on Sprout on Demand when it launched on Comcast in April 2005, and made it to the linear channel when it launched five months later. Along with Sesame Street and Barney & Friends, two other iconic PBS Kids shows, Teletubbies was part of the original weekend morning schedule. As time went by, it also aired during The Good Night Show.

Sprout described the show as:

"Teletubbies is a celebration of children's play. This series introduces young children - ages one to three - to the wonders and magic of high-tech in a safe and friendly way. The series is also a wonderful opportunity for parents to share the joy of first discovery through children's eyes."

The four titular characters got their own Sprout Diner snack - Teletubbies Tubby Sunshine Toast, a Birthday Show activity - Teletubbies Cupcakes, and were featured in the Rain ident.

The show stopped airing on PBS stations in 2008 once PBS Kids rebranded, and probably stopped airing on Sprout as well around the same time. In 2015, Nick Jr. started airing a new version of the show.

Zoboomafoo

 

Madeline Fretz - Zoboomafoo was a live-action PBS show starring the Kratt brothers, Chris and Martin (also of Kratts' Creatures and Wild Kratts) and a lemur named Zoboomafoo (AKA Zoboo) (played by real-live lemur Jovian and Canadian puppeteer Gord Robertson). The show taught about animals and what they do.

Since PBS was one of Sprout's founders, preschool shows from its archive library aired on the channel when it launched, including reruns of Zoboomafoo. The show was on Sprout on Demand when it launched on Comcast in April 2005, and made it to the 24-hour channel, which launched on September 26th.

Sprout described the show as:

"This television series introduces youngsters to the wonderful world of animals. With Zoboo and the Kratt Brothers, children explore common and exotic animals and their habitats. The show encourages children to be confident, inquisitive, caring, and helpful to people and animals."

Like most Sprout shows at the time, the show got its own Sprout Diner snack, Zoboomafoo Banana Pops, and a Birthday Show activity, Zoboomafoo Bingo.

The show aired at 12:30 ET when Sprout launched, and later aired at 4PM ET when The Sprout Sharing Show launched.

However, the show stopped airing on Sprout on July 7th, 2011, though its page was still up on SproutOnline.com

UPDATE (3/24/2022): According to Sprout Dylan (hi, Sprout Dylan!), the show stopped airing on February 13th, 2012, a day before the premiere of The Super Sproutlet Show.

Dragon Tales

Madeline Fretz - I'm deeply sorry if I discussed this show previously. Dragon Tales was an animated series by Sesame Workshop (then known as the Children's Television Workshop) about two kids named Max and Emmy who would wish upon a scale and travel to a magical land inhabited by dragons named Ord, Cassie, Zak and Wheezie, and Quetzal. Max and Emmy were later joined by their Bilingual friend Enrique. The show premiered on September 6th, 1999, when PBS launched the 24-hour PBS Kids channel, and continued to air new episodes until 2005.

Since Sesame Workshop and PBS were two of Sprout's founders, reruns of shows from the companies' archive libraries aired on the channel, including Dragon Tales. One thing diehard Sprout fans know is that, five months prior to the linear channel's launch, PBS Kids Sprout launched as a video-on-demand service on Comcast in April 2005, and Dragons was one of the shows to premiere on demand before on digital cable.

The show aired at 7:30, 4PM, and 6:30 ET when the Sprout channel launched on September 26th. As time went by, it aired on The Let's Go Show and The Good Night Show.

Sprout described the show as:

"This animated fantasy adventure series features Emmy and Max, their bi-lingual neighbor Enrique, and the dragons they befriend in Dragon Land. The children and dragons help each other overcome obstacles and cope with fears through songs and games."

So yeah, the show was like Barney with animated dragons.

The show got a Sprout Diner snack - Dragon Tales Tortilla Treat, a Birthday Show activity - Dragon Tales' Egg-celent Dragon Craft, and two Good Night Show stretches - Zak and Wheezie's Umbrella Stretch (from "Rainy Days") and Max and Emmy's School Stretch (from "School"). The Tortilla Treat became "unthemed"(?) once the show stopped airing.

However, the show stopped airing on PBS on August 31st, 2010, and was subsequently replaced in the PBS Kids Preschool Block (which was very similar to The Good Night Show and The Sunny Side Up Show) by The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!. Once Dragon Tales left PBS, it also left Sprout, and was replaced on The Good Night Show schedule by Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies, which premiered on Sprout a year prior, and reruns of Angelina Ballerina (source). The latter show has previously stopped airing on The Good Night Show. This was a month before The Let's Go Show dissolved.

Online Games on Sproutletsgrow.com

 

This is one of the few images on this blog I don't know where it's from. It was in part one of my history video from 2020 though.

Madeline Fretz - Sproutletsgrow.com, later known as SproutOnline.com, launched in 2005 when Comcast launched its Sprout on Demand service in April. The website gave a brief description of the VOD service and available shows, such as Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Thomas & Friends, Bob the Builder, Caillou, and the shows in the "Children's Favorites" section. These shows were eventually put into their own categories.

After months of preparation, PBS Kids Sprout launched as a cable channel on September 26th, 2005, and that's when everything changed. 

Atlanta-based Primal Screen, who also made the iconic logo and on-demand idents, was hired to create Sprout's idents, which were modeled after classic children's storybook illustrations, while New York-based company Funny Garbage was hired to make the Flash menu of the new Sproutletsgrow.com, which used elements from the Primal Screen TV idents - such as the alphabet trees and circus acrobats.

Funny Garbage also made three original games for the website, all three of which are in the above video, which I used in my post about Sproutletsgrow.com from a few months ago.

And there you have it - a robot cake!

Make a Cake was a game in which you could make your own cake out of strange, sometimes non-food things - not only eggs, ice cream, and milk, but also bugs and clocks.

Magic Seeds was a game in which you could plant seeds from things like shoes and vases and see what grows - a violin, piano, and harp, drums, or trumpets.

Connect the Dots was a game in which you could connect the dots to reveal things like a car and … whatever the thing in the above picture is.

Anyways, all three games survived the 2007 and 2011 site refreshes, but were probably removed with the 2013 site refresh.

Click here to play fun games like these on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

Uncovering a Sprout launch party photo

Big Bird, Barney the Dinosaur, walkarounds of Bob and Angelina Mouseling, and Sesame Street star Roscoe Orman (Gordon) at the Sprout launch party in 2005.

Madeline Fretz - I launched this blog almost two years ago. I was twelve, now I'm fourteen. My first post explained why I started this important project, accompanied by pictures of Sprout's launch party, held in San Fransisco's Yerba Buena Gardens in 2005. The launch party, which had both Sprout characters and key people of the channel's founding companies in attendance, was mainly to promote the launch of Comcast's Sprout on Demand service. You see, the Sprout brand was introduced on Comcast on Demand, launching in April 2005, while the 24-hour channel launched five months later on September 26th (we all know that). According to president Sandy Wax, launching Sprout on VOD (video on demand) was a good way to get the word out and get the brand out. Even after all these years, the pictures can still be found on Flickr under the account of Steve Rhodes. Check 'em out!

Well, I found a picture of the launch party today while surfing world wide web that isn't on Flickr. Lo and behold!

Image from Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

Now, I know you may be wondering, how did I find this rare picture? Well, as always, it wasn't easy. If you know me, you know that I'm a big fan of Sprout, as well as the world of children's television in general. To see my history with Sprout, click here (you've probably already seen this post though). I'm serious about Sprout. Not only do I run this blog, but I also run the YouTube fan channel Playtime All the Time and edit as admin Maddiellabie on the PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki (it was founded by user NeptuneID13, but I started editing regularly on the wiki in late 2020, after leaving my stupid CBeebies wiki. I wish THAT never existed!). As a Sprout historian as well as a fan, I'm always on the lookout for rare pictures, videos, and articles I bet no one has seen before.

Today, I was searching for a picture of the original, pre-September 2005 Sproutletsgrow.com (it existed even before the linear channel launched), using the keywords "Sprout comcast 2005" (some of the images came from my Sprout fansites, such as this one), and came across the picture you see above. It was on Yerba Buena Gardens' website.

The picture has Roscoe Orman (the fourth actor to play Gordon on Sesame Street, after Matt Robinson, Hal Miller, and Garrett Saunders) and walkarounds of Bob from Bob the Builder, Angelina Mouseling from the original Angelina Ballerina, and Elmo from Sesame Street. Note that the Elmo walkaround isn't in the picture at the top of this post, but still, it(he?) was there. 

This picture probably wasn't at the Yerba Buena Gardens launch party.

It is also worth noting that there may have been another Sprout launch party. How can you tell? Well, I doubt that the first generation branding with Big Bird and Thomas and the Teletubbies in the colored circles was used at the first one, and Melanie, the original Goodnight Guide from The Good Night Show, whom I'm assuming was hired after Sprout on Demand launched, was there, so yeah, it was probably to promote the launch of the 24-hour channel in September. I recall seeing an ad for a launch party like this (was in the one in the picture?) on the internet maybe a year ago, and that that ad had the trumpets from the Music ident.

UPDATE (3/18/2022): Here it is!

I'm so glad I found another rare Sprout picture today, and even more spectacular, one of the event that started it all. Parents and Kids Share Together is all about sharing pictures, videos, stories, and memories about Sprout, and I knew here would be the best place to put it!

Click here to find a rare picture on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

James the Cat

 

Madeline Fretz - James the Cat was a series about a cat named James who lives in a garden at a cornerhouse, who travels to distant lands and receives important visitors with his animal friends.

The series was distributed by HiT Entertainment, and one of their many programs that aired on Sprout during launch day. It aired during The Good Night Show.

It is unknown when the series left, though it may be in 2009.

My Week with Promos: 2005

The 2005 promos had kids in circles (some of them were in idents such as the Alphabet one). Next to the kids was the Sprout logo. The O would open up to clips from the represented show.

In the middle of the promo, we would see the show's title and time next to a tree.

…and finally we would see the Sprout logo in between two kids, one of whom was in the Birthday Show opening and the Roads ident.

This practice was used not only in promos for shows, but in the likes of the Weekend promo, the "Place Where Teamwork Grows" promo, and in Primal Screen's Sprout ident montage.

Anyways, it is unknown when this practice was removed. Maybe in 2007?

This is my first My Week on this blog since November. Why? I decided to take "Christmas Break," kind of like what the likes of the Mix 98.1 station and Midlothian High School were doing. But still, I still posted on this blog and there was a lot that happened in between - like me releasing my fanfic and that surprise Christmas message video.

Sprout Might-Have Beens

 Madeline Fretz - Here is a list of Sprout material that was going to be made, but never was.

ZOOM was a PBS series made by WGBH Boston that ran from 1999 to 2005, based on a 1970s children's show of the same name. The show was cancelled in 2004, but in 2006, series producer Marcy Guthner emailed a fan, telling him that WGBH was thinking of putting ZOOM on the then-fledgling new Sprout channel. There was one problem though - Sprout was aimed at two to five year olds, ZOOM was aimed at six to eleven year olds, so I think that's the reason why plans backfired. However, the show was promoted online as being a part of PBS' PBS Kids GO! block, but never aired. (source)

In 2014, Yummico made appisodes with possibility of a series for Sprout called Edison the Invention Detective, about a mystery-solving girl. Edison never came to fruition. (source)

Similarly, once Sprout launched in 2005, it was announced Andrew Beecham, Meredith Halpern-Ranzer, and Susan Karden were making interstitials about geography, healthy eating, music, and creative storytelling. The geography series would obviously become The Many Adventures of Mr. Mailman, and the healthy eating one would obviously become Sprout Diner. As for the music and creative storytelling interstitials, it is unknown if they came to fruition or even exist.

According to this article on SproutOnline.com, The Chica Show was going to take place in a farmers' market and focus on healthy eating and nutrition.

According to president Sandy Wax, Sprout was going to have an aquatic and marine animal-themed programming block sponsored by SeaWorld (source). I don't know why this failed, as SeaWorld was one of Sprout’s sponsors at the time. The article was published a few months before the launch of The Sprout Sharing Show, so I assume the SeaWorld block might've became the Sharing Show.

Anyways, I think that's it. If I find any more possibilities that never were, I'll post them here.

Click here to make interstitials on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

The Berenstain Bears

 

Based on the books by Stan and Jan Berenstain, The Berenstain Bears is a Canadian cartoon series about a family of bears that learn morals or safety-related lessons. The series was produced by Nelvana and aired on PBS.

Image from YouTube

The series was one of many PBS shows that aired on Sprout when the channel launched on September 26th, 2005, and aired every night during The Good Night Show.

Sprout also aired a marathon of episodes once original book author Stan Berenstain died, and a Father's Day marathon in 2006 called "Papa Bear's Day Celebration."

The show also got a Sprout Diner recipe called Berenstain Bears' Breakfast Oatmeal.

Along with Caillou, the series was one of two PBS shows that survived the third generation rebrand. However, it stopped airing in 2017, shortly before the launch of Universal Kids.

The Let's Snow Show

 

Image from the Wayback Machine

In 2005, when Sprout was still a sprouting seed, it hosted a holiday stunt called The Let's Snow Show, hosted by The Birthday Show's Kevin Yamada and The Good Night Show's Melanie Martinez, their two on-air hosts at the time.

In between Sprout Christmas specials, Yamada and Martinez showed craft snowflakes sent in by Sproutlets like you, and a craft PDF on Sproutletsgrow.com showed Sproutlets how to make them.

We don't have any footage or promos of this event, but if we do get any, it’ll be quite a Sprouterrific surprise.

Click here to show craft snowflakes on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

Launch Day?

 

Image from Instagram

Madeline Fretz - Along with Facebook and old YouTube videos, Instagram is one of my go-tos for rare Sprout content from more than five years ago. A few days ago and yesterday, I was surfing through old Sprout photos on people's Instagram accounts (presumably to upload them to PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki, which I'm an admin on), and stumbled across this interesting picture from funkbunny77 (Sprout's Laura Kelly).

The picture was from September 27, 2012, and the caption reads "seven years ago yesterday," which makes it obviously from September 26, 2005, Sprout's cable channel launch day. Could this the control room from Sprout's launch day? We don't know. You better ask or contact Laura. If I ever find out, I'll upload it to the wiki for all to see. Peace out!

Image from Instagram

Speaking of Sprout's launch, I also found this picture from the same account, which is OBVIOUSLY from a launch party The Good Night Show's Melanie Martinez was present at.

Weekly Character Wednesdays - Nicholas

 

NICHOLAS

APPEARED IN:

Sprout Weekends promo (2005/2006)

BEST-KNOWN ROLE:

Four year old boy, TV watcher

WHO IS NICHOLAS? This is Nicholas. He appeared in a Sprout Weekends promo from around 2005 and/or 2006. In the commercial, 4-year old Nicholas is in his pajamas and has a blanket and teddy bear. Nicholas talks about weekend mornings - he snuggles up with his mom on their big couch and he watches his favorite TV shows.

WHY DOES SPROUT NEED NICHOLAS? Sprout needs Nicholas to have an animated character in a promo. Nicholas is also the same age as the viewers.

Extreme Makeover: The Good Night Show edition

 

Madeline Fretz - The Good Night Show sure has changed over its eleven years of broadcast. Let's take a look at what changed over the years:

In the Leo days, a lot changed since Melanie Martinez got fired. He had a different welcome and goodnight song.

Image from Twitter

When Nina was introduced on December 18th, 2006, the Martinez welcome and goodnight songs came back, but there were also some changes made. The blue chair was now replaced by a blue crescent moon-shaped couch, even though the chair would have a presence in the Sprout floor of Philadelphia's Comcast Center (the original couch would also be in its spot a few years later). A new craft song was introduced, replacing the one Martinez sang. Crafts were dropped in 2011.

Season 4 was introduced on September 26th, 2007. This new season introduced Lucy Light the Way and inducted kids into segments such as stretches, sign language, and a new interview segment. Star would ask kids questions starting in 2011.

In 2011, not only were there new shows and the two changes I mentioned above, but the You and Me Tree was introduced, as well as Sprout a Sandy Story and the Clean Up Song. Nina also got new pairs of pajamas.

In 2015, with the introduction of Nina's World, Nina's dad(?) was introduced and in a new segment, Nina would tell childhood stories to Star in her Best Day Ever book. The blankets on the ground in the hills of Sprout were removed (see picture above).

For more changes, see here. Not only did PBS Kids Sprout launch as a channel sixteen years ago today, but The Good Night Show premiered at 6PM ET that night. This is my last post for tonight, as today I've done many posts for Sprout's sixteenth anniversary.

Bedtime

 

Madeline Fretz - When PBS Kids Sprout launched in 2005, the Georgia-based company Primal Screen was hired to make not only the logo, but the idents for both the channel and Sprout on Demand, which launched six months ahead of the former. One of the idents was the video you see above, originally uploaded on Primal Screen itself's website and then on the YouTube channel Let's Grow (named after Sprout's original slogan) in 2015, which was uploaded as one of a surplus of videos to commemorate Sprout's tenth anniversary, which is sorta like what I'm doing today on this blog.

In the ident, Angelina Ballerina bows and the curtains open. a mom hugs her son in his bed. Outside the boy's window, which appears to be by the beach, a boy and a girl propel their book-like boats, and the Sprout logo sprouts from a ship as the moon rises. Angelina was not featured in the Primal Screen video nor the Let's Grow upload, but on TV broadcasts, like these ones.

Speaking of TV broadcasts, this ident usually played before or after commercial breaks during The Good Night Show and also before Pajanimals music videos (judging by a video I remember seeing years ago). This ident is quite beautiful and relaxing, and a great example of Sprout's early years.

Boohbah

 

Boohbah was a British show starring five Grimace-like creatures emerging from balls and dancing. It was made by Ragdoll Productions, who also made Teletubbies.

Image from YouTube

The show was one of many to premiere on PBS Kids Sprout as it launched on September 26, 2005. Six months prior, it premiered on Sprout on Demand under the "Children's Favorites" label and eventually in its own.

The show got its own Sprout Diner snack, ShishkaBoohbahs, and a Birthday Show activity, Boohbah Colorful Surprise Ball. The former was rethemed to The Hoobs and Babu from The Mighty Jungle, and the latter was themed after Chica in 2008.

The show left Sprout in December 2009.

You may be asking yourself, why am I blogging about this show today? Well, Boohbah is a special one because, on September 26th, 2005, when the clock struck 6AM ET, PBS Kids Sprout launched on digital cable. As a the ever resourceful Wayback Machine shows, Boohbah became the first show to air on the new channel.

Weekly Character Wednesdays: Hush

 

HUSH

FIRST APPEARANCE:

The Good Night Show (2005)

MOST RECENT APPEARANCE:

Nina's World

BEST-KNOWN ROLE:

Show-introducer, very good swimmer

WHO IS HUSH? This is Hush the Fish from The Good Night Show. At the end of each show, Nina (previously Melanie Martinez) and the viewers would say goodnight to him via a sign language poem and make wishes about what they'd like to have tonight. What did you wish for? In later shows and in a Kindness Counts PSA, Nina and Star would feed Hush. Hush also appeared in animated form on Nina's World, which premiered in 2015.

WHY DOES THE GOOD NIGHT SHOW NEED HUSH? Before Lucy the Firefly was introduced in 2006, Hush was originally the go-to for introducing shows coming up next - he blew bubbles in his bowl that had clips of the show coming on and, as mentioned earlier, appeared in the final continuity link for the host and the viewers to say goodnight and make a wish. 

My Week with Birthdays: The Birthday Show

 

Image from YouTube

In 2005, Sprout launched with two original content airing between shows - The Good Night Show with Melanie Martinez and The Birthday Show with future Sunny Side Up Show host Kevin Yamada.

In The Birthday Show, host Kevin Yamada read viewers' birthday cards delivered to him by Mr. Mailman (a trait later carried on by The Sunny Side Up Show), shared real people doing party activities like making crafts and recipes or playing games, and showed us how to send in a card, while some Sprout characters would sing a catchy original song.

The Birthday Show was also a block when Sprout turned one in 2006, but we'll focus on that later this week.

The Birthday Show ended sometime in 2007 when The Sunny Side Up Show debuted. Both Yamada and Mr. Mailman would appear on the new live block. Yamada said he was excited about doing birthday cards live. Currently, Tim Kubart of The Sunny Side Up Show hosts a series of the same name on the Hellosaurus app.

My Week with On Demand: VOD Idents

 Back when Sprout was about to launch, Primal Screen was hired to create the logo and make some idents for the Comcast on-demand service, which launched in April 2005. Here they are now…

This one features Barney the Dinosaur, Ernie from Sesame Street, Max and Ord from Dragon Tales, Po from Teletubbies, the letters in "sprout," and a few sprouts on a mobile. The iconic green sprout makes its way to the Sprout logo. This one was used before Sesame Street judging by the female announcer at the end, but I wonder if it was used before other shows. This was uploaded on YouTube by Sprout fan account Let's Grow on the channel's tenth anniversary (the day of the rebrand and premieres of a few new shows).

This one features blue, pink, and green sprouts hula-hooping, when the green sprout becomes the one in the logo as the other sprouts keep hula-hooping. Also uploaded by Let's Grow.

There are other ones, all uploaded by Primal Screen on their website. That's where Let's Grow got both videos above. They all feature the same production music and most of them feature "PBS Kids Sprout, presented in partnership with your PBS station, Let's Grow!". The idents were likewise removed when the channel idents (also by Primal Screen) came to on-demand in January  2006. (source)

My Week with SproutOnline.com - The Mystery of Sproutletsgrow.com

 

Madeline Fretz - In 2001, there was a website called Sproutonline.com. The website included "About Us" and "Mission" sections. It became Sprout.us sometime in 2004. Today, the website is now known as Finagle.com, which was originally under "Projects & Productions" as under final development.

A year later, PBS, HiT Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, and Comcast launched PBS Kids Sprout - a new 24-hour channel and video-on-demand service on Comcast with a website - Sproutletsgrow.com. The website launched alongside the channel on September 26, 2005. 

Here, you could play games, look at TV schedules, make crafts, read and submit birthday cards, and learn more about Sprout. 

Hosts Kevin "The Birthday Show" Yamada and Melanie "The Good Night Show" Martinez shared the website link and Sprout's address on-air when telling viewers about how to send in birthday cards and artwork to Sprout, and there was a commercial about the link (see above). The website was also included in PBS promos about Sprout and in news articles and/or press releases.

In December 2006, Sproutletsgrow.com became Sproutonline.com, and it is unknown what happened to the former domain regarding the domain switchover that year. That’s why this post is called a "mystery."

UPDATE: We Share was a Sprout campaign that was introduced in 2007, but two pictures of it feature the Sproutletsgrow.com domain. So does this mean it was introduced in 2006? Hmm…