Madeline Fretz -Pajanimals was a series from the Jim Henson Company. The show started out as interstitials made by Henson and 4KIDS in 2008, and consisted of four puppet characters singing nighttime-related songs. In 2011, Henson and Sixteen South made a full, half-hour series based on the show. Here, the characters would go on imaginary adventures at bedtime to solve a problem.
A Sprout original series (and one of their first few), the show premiered on the network in November, and aired during The Good Night Show, Sprout's signature nighttime block. "La La Lullaby" aired every night before the final link.
"Meet The Pajanimals - CowBella, Apollo, Sweetpea Sue, and Squacky - four friends who snuggle together every night to sing sweet night time songs to their preschool friends at home."
The half-hour series premiered on November 7th, 2011 during the sixth season of The Good Night Show, and "La La Lullaby" now aired after the final link every night, instantly becoming a one-hit wonder. The characters have also appeared on The Sunny Side Up Show several times - Squacky appeared in 2011, Sweetpea Sue for Valentine's Day 2013, and Granny Pearl for Grandparents' Day 2012.
The show survived the third generation rebranding, making it one of the only shows to air during all three Sprout generations, but stopped airing sometime in 2016. The show may no longer air, but it lives on in our memories.
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.
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.
"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.
We brushed, we rinsed, we spit and now we're done!
That's why our Nurdle Durdle Dance is so much fun!
...Or so went the lyrics of this little jingle from Aquafresh that aired during The Good Night Show on Sprout from 2011 to 2013. "The Nurdle Durdle" starred three CGI toothpaste nurdles named Billy, Lily, and Milky who lived inside a little girl's cupboard. Whenever the nurdles would hear the sound of the "Bristle Whistle," they would sing this song, accompanied by real kids, and go to bed. On Sprout, the Durdle Dance would air before "Ready for Bed" and after the final Good Night Show link.
The Durdle Dance is obviously an American version of the "Nurdle Schmurdle," which aired on the UK channel Cartoonito in 2008 to promote Aquafresh's Milk Teeth toothpaste, except THOSE Nurdles lived in a shoe.
The "Nurdle Durdle" song was also in Aquafresh's Brush Time song, albeit with new lyrics.
A quick clip of the Nurdle Durdle was seen in a Sprout sizzle reel from 2012.
Once the ad stopped airing on Sprout, the song played instrumentally in Sprout Control Room segments (no, seriously).
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.
"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.
Madeline Fretz - Even at the tender age of fourteen, I'm a big fan of children's shows. Not just ones from America, but also ones from other countries, even if they're not in English. I don't know why. Maybe this is because I have autism (discovered in maybe 2011), and it is known that autistic kids, even those over the age of four, like little kid shows.
Ever since I was a little girl, I've been obsessed with three preschool entertainment brands - Sesame Street, Baby Einstein, and Sprout. I started out thinking all three were real, but as I got older, became a historian and learned about what went on behind-the-scenes. Now, if you know me, you know that I love Sprout. I grew up watching it, and, if it weren't successful, there's a low chance that there would even be a Sprout fan blog. Now for a story I've told many, many times on this blog - I was scared of The Sunny Side Up Show and Sprout in general as a little girl, but, unheard of the first time, I calmed down and became a historian.
I'm also a member of the Sprout fan server on Discord as cbeebiesfan (that was also my old DeviantArt username), and probably the only female member on there - a girl in a shining sea of boys.
If you know Sprout, you know that girls were everywhere - both human and puppet. I even wrote a post about the female hosts of The Sunny Side Up Show. I was not alone, I was represented.
I see a lot of myself in my Sprout heroes - sometimes I stay up late like Star, I ask questions from time to time like Banjo, and, as I said, most of them, almost all of them, were girls (well, Star's not a girl, but sounds like one).
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the girls of Sprout. Enjoy!
Melanie and Nina were the hosts of The Good Night Show, and both taught Spanish words, made crafts, told stories, played games, said goodnight to Hush the Fish, and even had the same Sprout stretch poem. The two had the same energy, bond with the camera, and were both pretty playful.
Bean was a blue-haired 12-year old girl who was the main host of Sprout's The Super Sproutlet Show, a programming block based on LazyTown which initially aired from 2PM to 4PM ET. She rode her Bean Pod, interacted with her friends from LazyTown, made recipes with Sproutlets and Grown-Up Sprouts and showed healthy food creations from Sproutlets at home in the SportsCandy Kitchen segments, and introduced shows.
It is worth noting that Sprout had TWO Beans, and I may be the only fan who noticed that. Sprout Diner had Bean, who interacted with her Sprout friends on the phone, and her daughter Alfalfa, who delivered the characters' meals on her bike, and hosted the Time to Create segments. Both girls also got their own online games.
Coo the Cuckoo Bird was the singing host of Musical Mornings with Coo, an early morning block which aired on Sprout from 6AM to 9AM ET. Coo sang songs about morning routines such as eating breakfast or getting dressed, and taught important lessons such as brushing your teeth. Other than that, I don't think there's much to her character.
Kelly Vrooman's Patty the Pig was one of the three hosts of The Sprout Sharing Show. Patty introduced shows, talked to Sproutlet viewers during split-screen credits, sang songs, and showed videos and artwork sent in by Sproutlets at home, often accompanied by other characters. Her mom, Sharon, has appeared several times to encourage parent participation.
Now for three (THREE!) characters often mistaken for being males, but are actually females played by males.
Chica was the squeaky poultry co-host of The Sunny Side Up Show. She was a chicken because, as said many times on this blog, Sprout executives wanted the puppet co-host to be a chicken, hence the new block's egg-inspired title, even though Andrew Beecham didn't think preschoolers could connect well with chickens. The Sprout team worked with a designer to make sure Chica was cute enough, and went with the version we all know (source). Chica accompanied original hosts Kelly and Kevin on live broadcasts, and only they could understand her squeaks. She also produced surprise eggs that would crack open to link into segments.
The Sunny Side Up Show was very different from the children's shows today. Segments, which aired as links in between such gold-standard shows, were live, unscripted, and, like kids' shows before it such as ZOOM, had viewer-submitted material such as birthday cards and wishes, pictures and videos, messages, and artwork. Chica helped bring unrealism to what felt like a mostly real block - real hosts, content sent in by real kids, and real weekly themes.
Once plush toys of her sold out, Chica got her own show, The Chica Show. The Chica Show, which premiered in 2012 and instantly became a success, focused on the titular character as she, Kelly and her parents ran a costume shop known as the Costume Coop, and solved typical preschool problems by becoming animated and going on imaginative adventures. Contrary to popular belief, the show is not the same as its preceding block. Despite the show being an extended toy commercial (like most Nick Jr. shows nowadays), it did teach some important lessons like perseverance, safety, and healthy habits (the show was originally going to take place in a farmers' market and focus on healthy eating).
Chica inspired Sproutlets and Big Sprouts almost every time she was on, entertained and brought smiles to children everywhere, but, once Sunny Side Up "moved" to a city loft, the hosts started hanging out with their Sproutlet friends from time to time and poor Chica got downplayed.
Banjo from The Let's Go Show. A character whom I said no one cares about a few months ago (🎵 We don't talk about Banjo, no, no. 🎶). Unlike Chica, she didn't get much attention or her own show, but was still important in her own way. Like a typical preschooler, Banjo almost always asked questions, and, hence the name, loved to play her homemade banjo. She was often paired up with the human host, Miles, and the two got along like two peas in a pod.
JB the Juicebox was the co-host (main host?) of Sprout's Wiggly Waffle, which launched in 2009,and introduced segments such as the Fifth Wiggle Game and Juicebox Pick. Now, I know what you're thinking - "isn't JB a boy?" Well, from what we have heard, it's a she. So, yeah.
Anyways, strong female characters were everywhere in Sprout's programming blocks and, as a girl myself, I couldn't be happier to have great friends like these. I'm never alone!
Click here to enjoy being a girl on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!
Madeline Fretz - If you know me, you know that I'm the world's biggest Sprout fan, and also the world's biggest fan of people who are fans of Sprout. If there were a bigger fan than me (looking at you, Boomer!), I would know about him. You may be a big Sprout fan, you may have fond, sometimes rare memories (like I do), you may be a new fan who's first discovered Sprout (here's my Sprout fan story), or maybe you don’t remember, or even know, the Sprout name.
If you're a die-hard Sprout fan like me (which you probably are), chances are you know that PBS Kids Sprout launched as a cable channel on September 26th, 2005, with a Sprout service launching exactly five months prior on Comcast on Demand. Sprout was a children's channel like no other. Children's channels outside America have host segments in between shows, and Sprout had the task of bringing this practice to America.
Unlike most children's channels, Sprout had original hosted programming blocks airing at different times of the day. Nothing could hold a candle to Sprout's offerings. Sure, Nick Jr. had Face and Piper O'Possum, NOGGIN had Feetface and Moose and Zee, and Playhouse Disney had Clay and Ooh and Aah, but they weren't live-action (with the exceptions of the aforementioned Ooh and Aah) or accompanied by human hosts.
It is also worth noting that the PBS Kids Preschool Block, which ran from 2006 to 2013, was very similar to Sprout's original programming. So, yeah, Sprout was not alone. The Preschool Block, which, hence the name, aired on regular PBS, was hosted by Miss Lori Holton Nash along with her co-host Hooper the Guinea Pig, who were later joined by Miss Rosa (Jennifer Pena) and Mr. Steve "SteveSongs" Rosonlek (sp?).
When classic kids' shows began, they were a bit weird with lame and boring characters and unlistenable songs, finding their groove as time went by, and Sprout's programming was no exception. Out of Sprout's seven blocks, the two longest-running, as well as the only two to air during the third generation, were The Good Night Show (which ran for eleven years) and The Sunny Side Up Show (which ran for nine). Both premiered during the first generation, and, like most kids' shows, started out weird, but things got better.
Honestly, with a few exceptions, I don't find early Sprout l weird, I find it just fine. Now, the second generation started when I turned two (you can probably guess how old I am), but "met" the first as I became a Sprout historian. Back in the first generation, Sprout was a pretty small channel (as I said, like, a million times on this blog), but its idents were still quite beautiful (especially this one) and the programming was quite entertaining, consisting of such gold-standard PBS and HiT Entertainment shows. Okay, without further ado, let's take a look at Sprout's early days! Sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Proto Star
In July 2006, Star from The Good Night Show was introduced. Stylistically, the voice and personality were both nice, but the puppet looked a little … off.
We all know that most iconic kids' show characters start out weird or off - On Sesame Street, Big Bird started out as a clumsy country bumpkin, Oscar the Grouch was orange, Mr. Snuffleupagus had big, creepy yellow eyes, and Telly Monster was a television-obsessed couch potato complete with swirling eyes and antennae, Barney the Dinosaur, who originated in the 80s Barney and the Backyard Gang series, was blue-ish (dark purple?) and a bit creepy, and in the 2006 Yo Gabba Gabba! pilot, Foofa looked weird and creepy, Plex had a blue antenna, and Brobee would frown even when he was happy. Star was no exception. Eventually, as time went by, the puppet got better and less creepy looking, which is a good thing, because the original puppet might have scared kids.
In November, I wrote a post on this blog about Star's evolution, and the photo you see above, which shows the Star puppet through the years, is from that post.
Melanie's chair
Before there was the crescent moon couch, there was the blue chair from The Good Night Show. In the final link, original Goodnight Guide Melanie would say goodnight to Hush, sing the Goodnight Song, and sack out on the blue chair. Sleeping in a chair? I tried that once and man does it look uncomfortable? As several people pointed out, the chair looked too uncomfortable, and I'd have to say, I'm with them. Melanie must've disliked sleeping on that chair.
The original Sunshine Barn
Again, something else I wrote about in a post last year. As I've discussed many, many times on this blog, the original Sunny Side Up Show set was a big cramped and cheap, as Sprout was still a small channel back then. As time went by, Sprout grew bigger and bigger with a pretty large budget.
As some people have pointed out, the original set looked like a decorated office, and I'd have to say, I'm with them. The Sunny Side Up Show was originally filmed in the 24th floor of the Comcast Center in Philadelphia.
"Big kid" shows
Sprout has always been a place for preschoolers, or has it!? Since HiT Entertainment was one of Sprout's founders, several shows from their archive library aired on the channel when it launched. Some of those shows included Dennis and Gnasher, Sheeep, Fly Tales, Captain Zed and the Zee Zone, and The Three Friends and Jerry. Unfortunately, those shows, despite airing on a preschool channel, had inappropriate language and other bad things, and were probably dropped from Sprout in 2006. Sprout never aired any inappropriate shows after that. I have written a post about these shows a while ago.
Easy come, easy go
The first generation had some shows that didn't make it to the second. Some of these shows included not only the big kid shows, but Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, Big Sister, Little Brother, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, Brambly Hedge (of Summer Fun Fridays), and The Hoobs. We hardly knew ye! They’re classics, of course, but I'd have to say that Sprout's later programming was more memorable.
So What?
If you know me, you know that, even at the tender age of fourteen, I do not like most children's shows nowadays, especially the programming on Universal Kids. Parents and older siblings, in order to stay away from modem children's programming, why not show younger ones classic Sprout? The fashions may be dated, but, at the end of the day, I'm sure nothing aged well. There are pretty few Sprout tapes on YouTube, yet most of them are of the first generation. The first generation also hasn't aged well. It was nice, gentle, and quite beautiful to say the least. It was during this era that Sprout Diner won a Webby and Chica won an Emmy. As I said earlier in this post, children's television starts out as weird, but gets better as time goes by. So parents, just keep in mind, it's good to show kids the first generation. Peace "Sprout" (ha!)!
Yeah, the chicken clucking eggs which would slide down a slide, pretty weird too!
Click here to go back in time on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!
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!
Madeline Fretz - One thing I do from time to time here at Parents and Kids Share Together is write about old articles about Sprout. Since my blog is turning two at the end of this month, I thought now would be a perfect time to write about when Sprout turned two in 2007. And I know just the perfect article to write about!
Written by Multichannel News' Kent Gibbons, this article was published on September 9th, 2007, and is about Sprout's plans to celebrate its second anniversary. I mean, they had a hit when they turned one last year.
When Sprout turned two, according to then-president Sandy Wax, it signed a distribution agreement with Time Warner Cable, which at the time was the second-biggest U.S. cable distributor with 14.7 million subscribers. Time Warner Cable has added Sprout on Demand in nine million homes. Sprout at the time was available in 34 million(!!!) households, and key affiliates included not only co-owner Comcast, but also the likes of DirecTV and Cox Communications. Wax said in a telephone interview that it was really the "next step" for Sprout. Once Time Warner Cable signed its agreement with Sprout, it didn't carry anything with the name anywhere except for on video-on-demand, as corporate communications director Maureen Huff said they had no launch plans for the 24-hour channel yet.
Sprout was available in over 55 million homes as of 2012. Image from YouTube
The article mentions that, at launch, Sprout was available in about 13 million homes, but as of the article's publication, it was available in at least 22 million. As I said several times on this blog, Sprout was a pretty small channel during the first generation, but grew by and by as time went by. Man, compare their budget back then to the budget they had in, say 2015! Over 20 million homes at the time have committed to add the channel.
The article also mentions something more important than how many homes Sprout was in (at least in my opinion), as it was from the same month The Sunny Side Up Show launched. My original song "2007," is about things important to me that happened in that year, including Sunny's aforementioned launch. Listen to it and weep!
The original set
Now, I know this is something else I've said many times here, but let me say it again for good measure. The set of The Sunny Side Up Show at the time looked like a decorated office - it was cramped and cheap, which was fair because Sprout at the time was, unheard of the first time, a channel with a low budget. I have talked about this set, located in a Haddon Heights studio, several times on this blog. Sprout supposedly moved to the 24th floor of Philadelphia's Comcast Center in early 2008.
Above is a first look at The Sunny Side Up Show that was prior to the block's live premiere on the 26th. The article states that cast and crew rehearsed and recorded background material on set that day.
Now, it wasn't just The Sunny Side Up Show that came to Sprout when the brand turned two, but executives pulled out another programming block, two new shows, and a new season of The Good Night Show. Lemme tell ya about these then-new offerings.
Sprout introduced Musical Mornings with Coo, which ran from 6AM to 9AM ET. Musical Mornings was hosted by a cuckoo bird digital puppet named Coo, who would spring out of her cuckoo clock and sing songs that would teach simple lessons. Bounce host Elizabeth Balzano would sing songs about things like playing in the park. In addition, music videos of songs from Sprout shows would play in between shows. Musical Mornings would continue to air well into 2009, when segments would start airing on Sprout's new morning block, Sprout's Wiggly Waffle.
Bounce, aimed at the autism spectrum, aired during Musical Mornings. When she founded PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki in 2019, FANDOM's NeptuneID13 refused to believe it did, but according to sources (even Wayback Machine archives of SproutOnline.com and a promo found at the end of a Sesame Street episode), it did. Balzano also appeared on The Sunny Side Up Show several times.
In 1999, Sesame Workshop (then called the Children's Television Workshop (CTW)) and Nickelodeon launched NOGGIN (now Nick Jr.), a 24-hour educational channel. Originally, Nickelodeon was going to launch a channel containing of its educational programming called Big Orange, and CTW was to launch a channel containing of its shows other than Sesame Street called New Kid City. Eventually, the two decided to merge their ideas and launch NOGGIN. In 2002, it was announced NOGGIN was to became a preschool channel with a nighttime teen and adult block called The N (later TeenNick), and rebranded on April 1st that year. On that day, NOGGIN revealed a new show from Sesame Workshop (which at the time lost interest in the brand) called Play with Me Sesame, hosted by Sesame Street Muppets Ernie, Bert, Grover, and Prairie Dawn, who would showcase viewers' drawings and play games, often with otherMuppets joining in. One thing that made the show special was that it contained Muppet sketches from Sesame Street's "classic" days, which were rarely featured on the main show at the time.
NOGGIN also aired episodes of the regular Sesame Street in two package series - Sesame Street Unpaved, which contained of memorable episodes from the show's first twenty years, and 123 Sesame Street, which consisted of "newer" episodes from 1993 to 2000. Unpaved was dropped when NOGGIN became a preschool channel, but 123 continued to air as late as 2005. Despite all this, Play with Me continued to air on NOGGIN until September 2007, when the show moved to Sprout. This was several months prior to NOGGIN and The N becoming their own separate channels on Decembe 30th. Play with Me Sesame aired on Sprout during The Sunny Side Up Show and Sprout's Wiggly Waffle, but Prairie Dawn's "Play with Me Art Show" segments were dropped in favor of new framing scenes in which the Sunny Side Up Show hosts would show viewers' drawings. The regular Sesame Street show stopped airing on Sprout shortly after the launch of the third generation due to Sesame Workshop's five-year deal with HBO, but, like NOGGIN, Play with Me Sesame continued to air on the channel until early 2016.
And finally, Season 4 (or 2, if not for Melanie and Leo's tenures) of The Good Night Show premiered that night. This season saw many new changes to its show - Nina's Sproutlet friends were inducted into the Sprout Stretch and sign language segments and a new segment titled "Lucy Light the Way" was introduced, in which Nina and Star would have to guess where Lucy the Firefly was based on silhouettes she has hidden.
The article mentions that Season 4 was the first time real kids were featured on set, but the first season to do so was actually Season 2. You see, once Leo was introduced, Lucy would light the way to segments in which Sproutlets would talk about the night's adventure. How do we know? Well, recently, a tape of a Good Night Show broadcast featuring Leo was uploaded to YouTube, and it contained a real kids segment.
Back to The Sunny Side Up Show. The article mentions that the then-new block was aimed at two to five year olds to get them ready for the day, and also mentions the hosts being Kevin, Kelly, and of course, Chica, the hosts seen in the preview video and in promotional pictures. Sean joined in early 2008, presumably during Colors Week (the week of February 17th), as the description to the above video mentions him being new to the Sunshine Barn.
The article notes that, contrary to popular belief, The Sunny Side Up Show was not Sprout's first experience with live broadcasting. Sprout's first live broadcast was the Hooray for Mother's Day stunt that year. More than seven thousand messages sent in via the internet were shown on air. Wax said that Sprout executives were quite happy with the response - they were small but successful.
As you probably know, Kevin was the host of Sprout's The Birthday Show prior to hosting The Sunny Side Up Show, and was quite excited about reading Sproutlets' birthday cards again, except he was doing it live on air instead of there being a two-month delay for mailed-in cards.
The article states that, at the time, Sprout on Demand has received more than 250 orders, the fact that the service offered fifty hours of programming as well as fifteen of programming in Spanish, and that Sprout received 15.8 million on-demand views in July.
The article mentioned that Sprout had advertising for Grown-Up Sprouts. Sure, they came on on a little kids' channel, but those commercials were not for them. One of Sprout's advertisers at the time was Huggies and Pull-Ups creator Kimberly Clark, which sponsored the channel since it launched. The article also mentions that other sponsors included SeaWorld and Honda Odyssey.
Anyways, this is a neat little article about how big a small channel like Sprout was getting time after time, and a great way to introduce newcomers to The Sunny Side Up Show and other new Sprout content, with their little details.
And I guess I should end this post with the end of this article: "As for distribution, the Time Warner Cable deal gives Wax and other Sprout backers reason to feel sunny about more than just a new morning show."
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