WHO IS RICKY? With his sparkly suit, Ricky Rabbit was the youngest of the Sprout House Band and played the piano. Ricky can sometimes be a comic relief, such as when he says goodbye many times during the Goodbye Song.
Ricky's father Reginald made occasional appearances to encourage viewer participation, and the two hosted a live Father's Day special in 2008.
MEMORABLE RICKY MOMENTS: Ricky sang the Sharing Show song "I Love Bread," which got its own recipe on SproutOnline.com. In 2008, he had this moment on The Sunny Side Up Show:
In another Ricky moment, he and his dad showed viewers how to send in their videos to Sprout:
"Ricky and Reginald want to show you how fun and easy sharing your video can be. Watch their demo, review a few helpful tips, and then Send Your Videos to Sprout!"
WHY DOES THE SPROUT SHARING SHOW NEED RICKY? Ricky is one of the fun-loving trio known as the Sprout House Band. Without a third member, they wouldn’t be a trio! He can sometimes be a show-off and a comic relief, but his friends love him all the same. He sang about his favorite food, showed Sproutlets' artwork, and appeared during split-screen credits. Ricky may be small, but he has a big heart.
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Main host of The Sharing Show, singer in her own right
RELATIVES:
Sharon (mom)
DEFINING QUOTE:
"Now it's your turn to share!" (Sprout Viewer Circle promo)
WHO IS PATTY? Patty is the positive pig emcee of The Sprout Sharing Show and one of the Sprout House Band. A smart and hard-working porcine teenager, Patty sings, shows off her talents, showcases Sproutlets' videos and artwork, introduces shows, and appears during split-screen credits. Her mother Sharon has appeared several times to encourage parent participation.
WHY DOES THE SPROUT SHARING SHOW NEED PATTY? I think The Sprout Sharing Show needs Patty for a few reasons - 1. Because they need a female character (Sprout always has female characters). 2. They need her to be proud and hard-working rather than "fairy tale"-ish. 3. They need a main host. 4. Kids love pigs. Patty is the main host of The Sprout Sharing Show, introducing shows and talking to Sproutlet viewers during split-screen credits. She appears in continuity links, singing songs, showing talent like doing a handstand, and, of course, showing Sproutlets' submissions.
So why is Patty needed? She's not the fairy and princess-type girly-girl, she's a smart-type girl who knows just about everything.
Image from either Facebook or Instagram. Maybe Twitter even.
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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.
"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.
WHO ARE THE STAGE MICE? The Stage Mice are from The Sprout Sharing Show, basically mice on a glove, often appear in segments. They can also play the drums in the occasional group number.
WHY DOES THE SPROUT SHARING SHOW NEED THE STAGE MICE? The Stage Mice are entertaining characters who appear usually during split-screen credits. You see, Patty would often talk to the Sproutlet viewers watching during split-screen credits during The Sharing Show, and would be accompanied by other characters, such as Curtis or a singing telegram (no, seriously). The Stage Mice appear during split-screen credits, also say SproutOnline.com and hold it up on cardboard whenever Patty mentions it. "If you have something you want to share with us, go to … SproutOnline.com!" The Stage Mice are quite silly, yet perfect for the aforementioned jobs.
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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!
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