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!

The Last of Arthur

 

(Two things - 1. I know I'm copying from my "Caillou Leaves PBS Kids"  post from a year ago, about another animated CINAR show that aired on PBS, and 2. Arthur never aired on Sprout, but still, there’s a bit of Sprout in there. Despite these statements, please enjoy)

Madeline Fretz - Dear friends, today is the day kids of the 90s and 2000s cry. For a show they have watched and cherished for years is ending its almost unstoppable 25 year run, and all the memories it created are fading away. Arthur Read, a lovable bespectacled aardvark, and his family and friends, brought us on their many adventures in the all-anthropomorphic animal community of Elwood City, learning about such serious topics such as death, cancer, and asthma.

Now, I have heard of the show and the books beforehand, but it was when I was five years old(?) when I became a fan of the series. How? Well, one day, I was searching for "tooth fairy"-related videos on YouTube when I came across the episode "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles/D.W. Tricks the Tooth Fairy," and decided to watch it. As time went by, I started watching more episodes, both on YouTube and on PBS, and read the books more. Needless to say, I was hooked. It was also the place where I first heard of one of my favorite shows and another WGBH-produced PBS show - ZOOM. You see, stars Caroline Botelho and Kenny Yates from the third season gave a behind-the-scenes tour of their show in one episode. And while we're at it, please check out my ZOOMBlog, which I haven't posted on for months, but still.

As time went by, I abandoned Elwood City and moved on to these guys.

I entered first grade later that year and still admired the show. However, as time went by, I discovered an episode of the original Muppet Babies, leading to my obsession with the regular Muppets from The Muppet Show, and I rarely watched or read Arthur again. This was perfect timing, since it was around the time The Muppets released their eighth movie, Muppets Most Wanted.

But this post isn’t about The Muppets, so let’s move forward (or should I say, movin' right along?).

In 2019, back when I was in a CBeebies and Yo Gabba Gabba!-heavy phase, I decided to watch episodes of the show. In fact, I watched a lot of episodes and went on the wiki a lot, I felt like I was five again. I regularly quoted episodes, and even declared "Crazy Bus" as my favorite song.

I'm no longer obsessed with Arthur as I was back then, but I still occasionally check the series out. My favorite episode is "The Last of Mary Moo Cow" from Season 5. In that episode, D.W. starts a petition to bring back her favorite show when it gets taken off the air, she gets to visit its old studio, and it starts airing again in rerun form. Now, Sprout is to me what Mary is to D.W., so I'm sure a few people who used to work at Sprout have noticed my many petitions, will invite me to Comcast Center and/or Rockefeller, and bring back the channel or at least the brand. I talked about ways to make Sprout relevant again in a previous post. I'm working on a Sprout movie and have already contacted NBCUniversal as well as a few former Sprout employees, so it could actually happen.

To promote the 25th and final season, PBS Kids went out with a bang and aired a marathon of almost every episode ever of the series, leading up to four new episodes. Fear not. According to sources, new content outside of the main show featuring the characters will still be produced, so that will probably make old fans, some of whom have been with the show since the beginning, happy.

And I say hey, it's always a wonderful kind of day, thanks to Arthur and his friends. Where you can learn to walk and play, and get along with each other. Isn't it all that really matters?

Click here to have an original point of view on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

Overthinking It: Where are Star's parents?

The original Star from 2006.

Madeline Fretz - There are a lot of children's shows and sing-along videos (usually from the 90s) in which a bunch of human kids sing and dance with a large costumed character (one or more) - Barney comes to mind. As you probably know by now, I was born in '07, but being a children's television historian, I know a lot about these shows and videos thanks to research and YouTube. But wait! - there's one thing about these kids - their parents are rarely shown. The same goes to other, similar shows, such as Disney's Out of the Box (in which real kids make crafts and jump into pictures with hosts Tony and Vivian) and PBS' own ZOOM (in which seven kids play games and make things sent in by viewers). I mean, we see their parents on occasions, but they aren't shown most of the time.

Star from The Good Night Show is no exception. Look - we're Sprout fans, so we know him very well, don't we? He's a kid, he's with Nina all the time, he hasn't mentioned and there's no sign of his parents - weird!

Mr. and Mrs. C, Chica's parents

Chica's mom, Mrs. C, was a frequent visitor on The Sunny Side Up Show, appearing since at least 2009. After Chica plush toys sold like hotcakes, Sprout executives knew they had something special on their hands, so they started making a series about healthy eating that would focus on Chica in a farmers' market instead of the cozy comforts of the Sunshine Barn. Eventually, the show became Chica's Costume Coop, in which Kelly and Chica would go on animated adventures in the titular shop, which would become The Chica Show. Mrs. C was carried over to the new series, which also introduced Mr. C, Chica's dad. The two, played by Jen Barnhart and John Kennedy, respectively, served as great parents to our favorite chicken. They have also made occasional appearances on Sunny.

This is where Star comes in. In 2015, when Sprout turned ten, it introduced an animated Good Night Show prequel called Nina's World, about Nina's childhood adventures. Star, as well as Hush, Lucy, and Nina's abuela (voiced by veteran actress Rita Moreno), was also present. I talked about the show in a post comparing The Good Night Show to The Sunny Side Up Show, in which Sunny was the winner. As silly as it may sound, World would've been a great opportunity to see Star's parents, as The Chica Show introduced us to Mr. and Mrs. C (or "Cluckums" as they call each other). BUT WAIT! Nina was six in this series, but Star and Lucy were probably the same age they were on The Good Night Show, which had an adult Nina, years later. Similarly, Elmo and Big Bird on Sesame Street first knew Gabi and Miles when they were babies, but the latter two grew up, and now they're older than the former two. Weird!

Okay, enough about Mr. and Mrs. C. Let's get back to Nina and Star.

Have we seen Star mentioning his parents? No. One episode from Season 5 (or 3?) was about "Parents" (YouTuber Mommymeow32 uploaded a tape of an entire Sprout broadcast day to her channel, which had footage of the episode). In the episode, Star pretended to have a son called Little Star, and told Nina about the things he did with him. This episode also would've been a great opportunity to introduce us to Star's parents, or at least have him mention them. But no, the writers just went with no.

So where are they? What happened to them?

On the Scottish CBeebies show Me Too!, the character Bobby would often leave her son Kai at Granny Murray's house while she would clean buses at night. My headcanon (sp?): Star's parents would often leave him with Nina (or Melanie, OR Leo) for the night while they would work, similar to Bobby and Kai's routine on Me Too!. Does that work?

Sharon, Patty's mom

Reginald, Ricky's dad

The Sprout Sharing Show had Sharon Pig, Patty's mom, and Reginald Rabbit, Ricky's dad, both played by Forrest Harding. If Star's parents were ever seen, make them like Sharon and Reginald, have them appear occasionally in "blockisodes" (as us fans call them) and in promos, as well as in coloring pages.

So yeah, those are ways I would have it. Hope you enjoyed! You know what, it's pretty late at night as of writing this (almost 9 o'clock), I think I should go to bed now. YAWN! Goodnight, Sproutlets!

Click here to meet your long-lost parents on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

Sprout and Negative Emotions

Madeline Fretz - Shows like Sesame Street (which aired on Sprout from 2005 to 2015, as Sesame Workshop and PBS were two of the channel's founders) and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (which never aired on Sprout) are famous for talking about negative emotions and serious issues like death, divorce, cancer, violence and shootings etc. Throughout its twelve year history, I doubt Sprout has talked about these topics, but I sure wish they did. You see, on most kids' shows, the characters shy away from negative emotions and are always happy (Barney & Friends and Play School come to mind). The Nostalgia Critic pointed this out in his review of 1998's Barney's Great Adventure.

Now, today I'm going to fantasize about The Sunny Side Up Show, The Good Night Show etc dealing with negative emotions and serious issues. Parents and Kids usually isn't a place for fanfiction, but enjoy anyways. (Please note that the SSU death bit takes place around 2010/2011, as I remember seeing those hosts (Kelly, Sean, Dennisha, and Liz) the most) Read it and weep!

CHICA (squeaking): I wanna talk to Eleanor. Where is she?

LIZ: Uhh, Chica, Eleanor died. She's dead.

(Chica doesn't seem to notice)

CHICA (squeaking): Oh, okay. Maybe I'll see her another time.

KELLY: Chica, when people die, their bodies stop working. They can't breathe or talk. Eleanor's dead.

(Suddenly, Chica starts to feel sad)

SEAN: You have any questions? You can always ask us anything.

CHICA (squeaking): Uhh, how will I get to see her ever again?

DENNISHA: Chica, we still have our memories of her.

CHICA (squeaking): Yeah, we can always remember her, but I'm still a little sad.

SEAN: We all feel sad, Chica.

CHICA (squeaking): Well, it won't be the same.

KELLY: You're right, Chica. It won't be the same without her, but you know what? We're all very lucky that we got to see and know her when she was still with us. (smiles)

CHICA (squeaking): You know what, I'm really gonna miss Eleanor.

SEAN: We all will, Chica.

(Everyone engages in a group hug and comforts Chica)

So there you go. Can you imagine them dealing with tough topics like these? I believe Sprout didn't talk about these topics as they would be too difficult to grasp for their target audience. 

Click here to miss Eleanor on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

America's Kids Remember

 
Madeline Fretz - 20 years ago today, a plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the building catching on fire and getting destroyed in the process. Many people also lost their lives. Today we call that the Terrorist Attacks of 9/11. It is a day no one in America will forget.

Some children's shows have talked about or payed homage to the infamous attacks. The irreplaceable Sesame Street kicked off its 33rd season in 2002 by having a series of episodes about the aftermath of the attacks and what children have gone through after them - fear, loss, bullying, and diversity. The four episodes have been packaged in a resource video called "You Can Ask." The video above is the first episode of the season, talking about fear by having Elmo and Maria visit a firehouse after a fire in Hooper's Store.

The Wiggles released a video called "Wiggly Safari," which featured the late Steve Irwin. The video was dedicated to the people who died during 9/11.

This blog post is named after a ZOOM special filmed and released in 2002 where the cast talks about their experiences with the 9/11 attacks. ZOOM never aired on Sprout, but after the show got cancelled, there were plans to air it on the new channel, but was rejected, probably due to the fact that its target audience was older than Sprout's. It also helped inspire some of Sprout's original content with its viewer submissions angle.