Parents and Kids Share Together: Angelina Ballerina

Showing posts with label Angelina Ballerina. Show all posts

Sunday, February 20, 2022

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!

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Rare first generation stuff

Madeline Fretz - So, recently a YouTuber named Nate's media corner 2006 has Sprout tapes from the first generation, and uploaded a video of split-screen credits and ident openings on his channel, and has some pretty rare gems. Here's what I've found so far.

There's the version of the Rain ident that has the Teletubbies, linking into Caillou. Here, the Teletubbies look at the Sproutlets splashing in the rain through the screen thriough Tinky-Winky's stomach. The Teletubbies were then replaced by Chica in 2009.

There's also a promo for Jay Jay the Jet Plane that has this promo branding for either Sprout Mornings or Musical Mornings with Coo. It also has the Sprout logo on cereal, not unlike the Breakfast ident.

There's an Angelina Ballerina version of the Bathtime ident.

And there's some split-screen credits that resemble both the Roads ident and the About Sprout section of Sproutletsgrow.com.

Anyways, that's all the stuff I've noticed in the video. Thanks for reading! Bye, Sproutlets!

Thursday, August 19, 2021

My Week with 2011: He's Awake!

It's not every day you see Barney and Elmo in the same room.

The red monster and purple dinosaur only appeared together once, and that was in the above commercial, made just for Sprout in 2011 (I don't know if the two were really in the same room or if it were green screen). The commercial also featured appearances by Super WHY!, Fireman Sam, Kelly Vrooman and Chica, Roary the Racing Car, and Caillou, plus The Good Night Show is seen on TV at the end. In the commercial, Barney, Elmo, Super WHY!, and Fireman Sam are in a boy named Brody's room, waiting for him to wake up. When he does, Super WHY! alters his mom and flies by Vrooman and Chica, ruining their craft in the process.

Another similar commercial was made featuring Barney, Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Kelly Vrooman, Sean Roach, and Chica, and a clip from The Good Night Show on TV.

In addition, several tie-in online banner ads were made, featuring the same characters from the two commercials.

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Launch Day shows

One of the reasons I started this blog was so former "Sproutlets" could relieve their memories of the channel.

I watched Sprout in the early 2010s, and when Universal Kids came around I never even knew where the memories took place.

So much has changed.

There is a Facebook group called "PBS Kids Unite" and there, I saw a photo of (most of) the launch day shows that aired on Sprout. I knew they were missing both James the Cat and Thomas & Friends, so I decided to add those two.

There are a few shows missing as well. These include:

Big Sister, Little Brother
Archibald the Koala
Captain Pugwash
Dennis and Gnasher
Kratt's Creatures
Captain Zed and the Zee Zone
Sheeep
Fly Tales

Yes, all eight of these shows aired on Sprout, alongside the ones in the picture above.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Angelina Ballerina

NOTE: Both PBS Kids and Sprout also aired a spin-off/reboot called The Next Steps (not to be confused with the Canadian show that aired when Sprout became Universal Kids) which was in CGI.

Madeline Fretz - Angelina Ballerina was a British cartoon based on a children's book, produced by HiT Entertainment (who also produced Barney & Friends, Bob the Builder, and Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends), and aired on PBS. It was about a little mouse named Angelina (and I don't mean Jolie) learning to dance. The show aired on Sprout from September 26, 2005 to September 26, 2015, as HiT was one of the channel's founders.

The show had a Sprout Diner recipe; Angelina's Ballet Slippers.

The show left Sprout during the rebrand.

Friday, August 7, 2020

Come On, Let's Grow now with Sprout!

Here is an interesting music video from launch, and one of Sprout's many jingles on TV and radio. You see a few Sproutlets and their parents, a few Primal Screen elements, Pingu, Sprout Diner (even though it launched the next year), Barney, Caillou, and Angelina Ballerina. What struck me as interesting was Birthday Show (later Sunny Side Up Show) presenter Kevin Yamada.