My Week with 2016: Dot.

 

Madeline Fretz - Dot. is an animated series about technology created by Industrial Brothers and the Jim Henson Company based on a book by Randi Zuckerberg, whose brother Mark is known for founding Facebook. In Canada, the series has also aired on CBC as part of its CBC Kids block.

Image from Brown Girl Gumbo

The show premiered on Sprout on October 22nd, 2016, and to promote, Sprout held a launch party at The Black Tap and Randi Zuckerberg appeared on Sunny Side Up, probably the only time they had a series creator on the show, already a celebrity cult at the time.

With Sprout's closure in 2017, the show continued to air on the then-new Universal Kids channel, which had a Sprout-branded preschool block when it launched. The show is one of the only Sprout shows to still air on Universal Kids, and its page is still up on the channel's website.

My Week with 2016: Terrific Trucks

 

Madeline Fretz - Terrific Trucks was a Sprout original series about five real trucks named Tork, Dug, Blinker, Sparky, and Stotz learning lessons about teamwork, problem solving, and friendship.

Image from Africa's Blog

The show premiered on Sprout on July 9th, 2016, and to promote, Sprout held a launch party in which Kristofer Updike explained how the show was created and what went on behind-the-scenes - the show took three years to be created, the trucks were all real, while their eyes were CGI, and the show's set in Toronto was the size of four football fields. Pretty amazing if you ask me!

I guess Updike was right when he said the show took three years to be created. Image from Vimeo (this sizzle reel also includes early versions of both Nina’s World and Floogals).

The show aired on Universal Kids once Sprout closed in 2017, and continued to air on the networks until July 7th, 2016, almost three years after it first aired on Sprout.

My Week with 2016: Floogals

 

Madeline Fretz - Floogals was a British-American children's show from Jellyfish Pictures and Zodiak Kkds about three tiny aliens discovering the human world.

One of Sprout's original series, the show premiered on the channel on January 23rd, 2016. The show continued to air on Universal Kids even after Sprout closed.

The show stopped airing on Universal Kids in 2020, although its page is still up on the channel's website.

My Week with 2014: Lily's Driftwood Bay

 

Madeline Fretz - Lily's Driftwood Bay was an Irish mixed-media show from Sixteen South Productions, who also brought us Pajanimals.

Sprout described the show as:

"Lily is 5 years old and lives with her Dad in a little hut on the beach. Across the way is Driftwood Bay - the island that Lily can see from her window, and it is here that the characters that she has created from her imagination come to life. Every day the sea washes up a new treasure which sparks Lily's imagination about what might be happening on Driftwood Bay. And so, accompanied by her best friend Gull, the clever seagull, an adventure begins as they go across the way to Lily's Driftwood Bay."

The show premiered on Sprout on May 12th, 2014, a day after Fireman Sam and The Sprout Sharing Show were taken off the schedule. It aired during The Good Night Show and The Sunny Side Up Show.

The show survived both the third generation rebranding in 2015 and the Universal Kids rebranding in 2017, but was one of many shows, also including Astroblast!, Clangers, Zou, Zerby Derby, and Stella and Sam, to get pulled from Universal Kids' lineup in 2018.

My Week with 2014: Zerby Derby

 

Madeline Fretz - Zerby Derby was a show about pint-sized cars, including Zack, Lily, Rec, and Axle, living and playing in and exploring a life-sized forest. The show premiered on Sprout on March 1st, 2014.

Zack also made a handful of appearances on The Sunny Side Up Show. In the video above, Tim sings about him to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."

The show survived the third generation rebranding, but was one of many remaining Sprout shows that stopped airing on Universal Kids in early 2018.