Proof the Second Generation began on September 21st, 2009

Madeline Fretz - September 21st, 2009 was a great day, as my sisters and I turned two. You know what else happened that day? Sprout rebranded and the "second generation" was introduced.

Now, I know you may be asking "but didn't it start on August 24th?" Well, that's the day Sprout's Wiggly Waffle launched and episodes of the Wiggles' show premiered on Sprout, but the second generation actually launched a month later, and today I'm looking at proof.

Image from YouTube

First up: news articles. The website Cynopsis has covered Sprout a lot over the years in its news articles, and one article mentioned Rubbadubbers premiering during the fifth season of The Good Night Show on September 21st, and Sprout "sprouting" a new look the same day. I took a look at the article in one of my YouTube videos probably a few months ago (see the top). The above picture, of a Season 5 Good Night Show promo, is from a broadcast of The Sprout Sharing Show that has to be from 2009. The picture says "starting monday." September 21st was a Monday, so it has to be anywhere from the preceding week.

On Season 5 premiere day, Nina guest hosted The Sunny Side Up Show for "New Adventures Week" and Dennisha auditioned, making her Sprout debut on December 31st. In addition, five lucky families could win a chance to call Nina from the 21st to 25th (source).

The next three things have to do with Sprout's Wiggly Waffle.

If you've read this blog, chances are, you know The Ways of the Blue Dog, a children's television forum on Tapatalk. I mention the Blue Dog a lot in my posts, and one post on the site inspired a frantic search for a Sprout history video from 2011. I even wrote about Jumpman256's idea for a Sprout live show once! One post on the Blue Dog, "Little More on Sprout," was about the "controversy" surrounding Kevin's Sunny Side Up Show departure and letters to Sprout, amongst other things. As you probably know, Pajanimals started off as a series of music videos in 2008 and became a full-length series in 2011. Prior to 2011, many fans, including "Blue Doggers" Jumpman (Matthew Hiltner) and Agent0042, longed for a full-length series and even wrote letters and e-mails to Henson and Sprout.

At the start of the post, Jumpman writes about the new intros to The Good Night Show and The Sunny Side Up Show, noting that while the piano in the intro to the latter was a "nice touch," the intro to the former was a bit reluctant, as Nina sang the exact same song a few seconds later. I wrote about both intros, amongst others, in a post comparing the two blocks. Jumpman and Agent0042 also point out that the theme song to Wiggly Waffle changed a month after its premiere. Again, even though this post was made in October, proof the second generation began on September 21st.

Look at this video containing clips from the very first broadcast of Sprout's Wiggly Waffle on August 24th:

The video contains two things: 1. A "don't go away" bumper that's NOT of Sproutoramas and was probably also used on Australia's ABC2 in mid-2009. 2. When Wiggly Waffle launched, it was sponsored by Garanimals, a children's clothing brand whose commercials aired on Sprout. A short bumper featuring Garanimals used first generation branding. MORE proof!

And finally, a video of PICMe.

PICMe, an Irish cartoon made by Jam Media and distributed by HiT Entertainment, aired during The Sprout Sharing Show from launch day in 2008 to 2011. It also aired during The Sunny Side Up Show. This video, which is of the "Puzzle" episode and stars a boy named Ryan, is from August 28th, 2009, presumably a few days after Wiggly Waffle launched, and was uploaded a day later on the 29th.

Image from YouTube

The video contains the pink sticker(?) screenbug and "We'll Be Right Back" bumper from The Sharing Show's first year, the 2005 flowers screenbug...

Image from YouTube

...and Ricky's "next" sign for The Mighty Jungle EVEN READS THE SHOW'S TITLE! You see, during the first generation, next bumpers featured characters from the show coming up next and would read the show's title. Even more proof!

So there you have it, "misnomers" - proof the second generation began on September 21st and not August 24th. Make sure to show this post, full of accurate information, to anyone who mentions the second generation starting on August 24th (AKA Waffle Day). Thanks for reading, bye!

Oh, and did you know that there's a whole song about the 21st? You've probably heard of it!

Click here to write letters and e-mails on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

Sprout World Tour

Madeline Fretz - One thing Sprout is known for is airing programming blocks at different times of the day. In between such gold-standard, curriculum-based shows, adult hosts and puppet characters would do preschool-type activities on air such as making crafts, teaching stretches, showcasing viewer-submitted content such as birthday cards, pictures, videos, messages, artwork, and games, and, of course, introducing the shows and talking to the viewers during split-screen credits. I, for one, believe that they should have something like that for kids today.

The thing is: Sprout actually did not invent this concept, and today I'm here to compare Sprout's programming to similar content from around the world. Please note that, while this is mainly a Sprout blog, I do sometimes talk about other children's shows, even non-American ones (i.e. Goodnight Boys and Girls). 

Most early, pre-Sesame Street children's shows would have human hosts and sometimes puppet characters interacting with the viewers, playing games and singing songs. According to Sprout president Sandy Wax, Sprout's original programming was inspired by children's shows of the past, such as Captain Kangaroo, Romper Room, and The Magic Garden, albeit with modern sensibility. A news article about Sprout's launch (which I wrote about) mentions that Kevin's role on The Birthday Show was also considered a throwback to classic children's shows, as he interacted with the viewers.

Non-American English-speaking countries have their own hosted programming similar to Sprout's. The UK's CBeebies, which I wrote a post about, being an example. Like Sprout, CBeebies airs programming blocks at different times of the day with themed programming and friendly adult hosts introducing them while doing things such as reading birthday cards. Both channels even aired the same shows!

Sprout's senior vice president (SVP) of programming was Andrew Beecham, who, prior to working on Sprout, created the host segments of Playhouse Disney UK, which several people who hate me like. The Playhouse segments were hosted by "Big Dave" and "Little Alex," who would talk about a different theme, read viewers' birthday cards, and introduce shows, often accompanied by their puppet friends. Very similar to Sprout's programming. Bear from Bear in the Big Blue House guest starred once, so this could be the genesis of the fact that The Sunny Side Up Show had guest appearances from Sprout characters (the reason why I was scared of Sprout as a little girl). Big Dave and Little Alex would introduce other hosted segments such as "Art Play" and "Bite Size." These segments were adapted in other countries such as Australia.

At the end of the day, Playhouse Disney UK would air a programming block known as "PJ's Bedtime," which I believe was the genesis of The Good Night Show. Like Nina and Star, hosts Dave and Olivia and their puppet co-host PJ Mole would sing songs and tell stories before bed. 

milkshake!, Channel 5's preschool morning block which launched in 1997, is very, very similar to CBeebies and also Sprout, especially The Sunny Side Up Show. It's live(?), the hosts read birthday cards and show viewers' artwork, play games, sing songs, introduce shows, and sometimes host guest appearances from characters.

ABC Kids in Australia (which airs many, if not most, children's programs from America and the UK) has (or used to have) a children's show known as Giggle and Hoot, which again is very Sprout-esque. I'm not the only one who noticed this. On The Ways of the Blue Dog on Tapatalk, user Jumpman256 (hi, Jumpman!) talked about this program and noted that it was both similar to and different from Sprout, and I'd have to say, I'm with him.

Jumpman said that the show aired both day and night - during the day, it was like The Sunny Side Up Show, but at night, it turned into The Good Night Show. Giggle and Hoot is very similar to The Good Night Show in many ways. The set looks like the You and Me Tree, they had bedtime-related songs and segments, aired calm-natured shows, and, like GNS, it's just a human host and a puppet hanging out. In later years, they would add many more puppet characters, including Hootabelle, Hootbeard, Gigglefangs, and Hootagadget. Jumpman also pointed out that Hoot, the main puppet character, spends the night by flying through the nighttime sky, making sure everyone is asleep, and said that it made a lot more sense than what Sprout did with Star - have him sleep all night.

I uploaded a clip of the show to my channel, and it's the video you see above. Elmo and Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, which ABC Kids aired (and still does), were on the show once, again similar to how The Sunny Side Up Show had guest appearances from Sprout characters. I wonder if they've had other characters as well...

I talked about the mascots of WA's children's programming in my Goodnight Boys and Girls post, and I'm talking about them again today in this post, as their shows are also Sprout-esque. Like The Sunny Side Up Show, the mascots are accompanied by a human host, and together they sing, dance, tell stories, and play games. Examples include Earlybirds and Fat Cat and Friends, Prime's The Saturday Club with Possum, and Romper Room with Big Dog and Miss Kim.

CBC Kids in Canada also has hosts in between their shows, both human and puppet, who wish viewers a happy birthday, sing songs, play games, act out sketches, and introduce shows. Originally, there was Playgrounds with Drew and Lisa, then Get Set for Life with Alyson and Michael, then Kids' CBC with Patty, Michael, and Mamma Yamma, and finally Studio K with Gary the Unicorn, Cottonball the Cat, Makeup Monster, Mr. Orlando, Putter, Tony, Janaye, and Victor (whom I got a signed picture of in 2020). Puppet co-host Mamma Yamma was played by Ali Eisner, who worked at Sprout also played Banjo on The Let's Go Show.

UPDATE (3/24/2022): Whoops! Forgot to mention something once again very Sprout-esque! DR Ramasjang, Denmark's children's channel, is very remiscent of both CBeebies and Sprout, especially the latter. Their program "Godnat, nu sover vi" (Goodnight, now we'll sleep)/"Ramasjang Sover" is remiscent of Sprout's Snooze-a-Thon, except it runs every night from 8PM to 6AM ET.

And lastly, back to America!

The PBS Kids Preschool Block, which aired from 2006 to 2013, was kind of like regular PBS Kids' answer to The Good Night Show and The Sunny Side Up Show. Originally hosted by Miss Lori and her CGI co-host Hooper the Guinea Pig, Miss Rosa (Jennifer Pena) and Mr. Steve Rosonlek(sp?) joined the duo in 2008. As with Sprout's, the hosts would focus on a different theme, sing, dance, tell stories, play games, and introduce shows, including Sprout shows Dragon Tales, Super WHY!, and Sid the Science Kid.

And there you have it - Children's shows from around the world similar to what Sprout offered. I hope you enjoyed reading! Oh, and I'll add more shows here if I remember or you remind me of them. Bye!

Click here to travel to different countries on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

Hi, Sproutlets!

 

Image from YouTube

Image from YouTube

Madeline Fretz - Most kids' shows and channels have friendly hosts that speak directly to the viewers, but don't talk down to them (Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers come to mind). Sometimes, they even address the viewers by a cute little name. Sprout is no exception, calling the preschool viewers "Sproutlets."

Why were they called Sproutlets? Read this post and find out.

If you're a Sprout fan, you probably know that Sprout launched on Comcast on Demand in April 2005, five months before its cable launch on September 26th. Comcast was one of Sprout's four founders (alongside PBS, HiT Entertainment, and Sesame Workshop), and the one which announced the new channel's name. The Atlanta-based company Primal Screen ("mmm, tasty!") made both the on-demand idents and the linear channel idents, which premiered on demand in January 2006. Primal Screen also made the soon-to-be "iconic" logo, which consisted of "Sprout" in blue (of course), a green flower with "PBS Kids" in white ("PBS Kids" was removed in 2013 once PBS lost the rights to Sprout), and Sprout's then-slogan, "let's grow!" The "let's grow!" slogan was also used as the title for a series of two Sunny Side Up Show videos from HiT.

Probably as a result of the slogan, Sprout's official website, which launched probably when the VOD service did, was called Sproutletsgrow.com until December 2006. To me, this is probably why Sprout viewers (between the ages of 2 and 5) were called "Sproutlets."

Image from Cultural Organology

Oh, and I have another fan theory. Seeds sprout, which is probably what Sprout was named after, and plants that just sprouted are often called "sproutlings," or "sproutlets."

Image from Facebook

Since then, the term "Sproutlets" has been used in things such as the title of The Super Sproutlet Show and several daycares.

The 2011 version of SproutOnline.com had a section for "Sproutlets" with games and videos, while a separate section was dedicated to Grown-Up Sprouts (what Sprout called adults). A version of the Sproutlet section was utilized in the 2012 Games and Videos app.

Fan-art frenzy! Image from Facebook

Nearly everyone on Sprout's blocks and interstitial series and announcers called the viewers "Sproutlets." Well, except on The Let's Go Show maybe, where viewers were referred to as "Sprout Scouts," though Banjo did refer to the viewers as "Sproutlets" one time. Similarly, Bean of The Super Sproutlet Show referred to both the viewers and kids appearing in segments as "Super Sproutlets" as, well, that was in the show's title.

In addition, real-live kids who visited the set of The Good Night Show were referred to as Nina and Star's "Sproutlet friends," and the duo referred to kids in pictures as "Sproutlets." For example: Nina pulls out a picture of two Sproutlets with their parents from her basket, as a hint to tonight's adventure.

During Halloween season 2013 (source), Sprout launched a series of three online games known as "My Little Sproutlet," in which you could create your own kids using things such as Sprout character outfits, and have your avatar drive race cars, fly airplanes, and skateboard. I remember playing these games when they were around and creating avatars of my Sprout friends (including Kelly, Kevin, and Nina).

And finally, on the Sprout fan server on Discord (which I'm a member of as cbeebiesfan (after my old DeviantArt account)), which launched last year, they refer to non-moderator members as "Sproutlets."

As a popular YouTuber under the name of Playtime, All the Time: CBeebies Utopia (you probably know that by now), I often refer to my own viewers as "Sproutlets" in my videos. Take, for example, the above video. Similarly, I, of course, am also the founder of this blog, and I often refer to you, the reader, as "Sproutlets" in my post, just like old times.

I believe that's all the instances "Sproutlets" was used, and why they used that name for the preschool viewers. Sprout fans, if you're probably wondering why Sprout's viewers were referred to as "Sproutlets," read this post! You'll love it, I swear!

Click here to pull out a picture on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

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!

What's Up with Chica?

 

Madeline Fretz - This picture is from someone's Instagram from a few years ago. 

Before The Sunny Side Up Show became a "celebrity cult" when it moved to the Big Apple in 2014, it mainly had guest appearances from Sprout characters and talent and children's musicians, with very little actual celebrities such as Mario Lopez, the voice of Stitches from The Chica Show. I wrote about Sunny's many guests in a post few months ago on this blog.

One of the pre-2014 guests was popular singer Lisa Loeb. Loeb once visited Carly and Chica shortly before the set move in 2014 during "Healthy Sproutlets Week" and sang a few songs.

The picture at the top of this post is from someone's Instagram, and is of Loeb's 2014 appearance. The picture features Loeb and Carly, who is starting happily at Chica in her nest, or at least something similar, in purple.

What is Chica doing? What is up with her? Maybe she's doing something related to the Healthy Sproutlets theme from that week - such as exercising or doing things like cartwheels. Until we find a video this picture came from, we don't know.

Click here to wonder what she's doing on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!

CBeebies and Sprout

 

Showing love and respect for my two favorite TV channels!

Madeline Fretz - Twenty years ago today in the UK, the BBC (home of Doctor Who, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and of course the Teletubbies) launched two children's channels - CBBC, a spin-off of its children's programming block of the same name aimed at six to twelve year olds, and CBeebies, a channel consisting of its preschool programming aimed at kids aged six years old and under. BBC launched its children's programming in 1985, although they did air children's shows prior to that. Three years later here in America, Comcast (now the owner of NBCUniversal) teamed up with PBS, HiT Entertainment (now owned by Mattel and Apax Funds), and Sesame Workshop to launch PBS Kids Sprout, and boy are there some similarities between that and CBeebies. And yes, this is all coming from an American fan. Well, I'm the world's biggest kids' TV fan, they say I can do anything!

Judging by the title, CBeebies and Sprout have a lot in common, even teaming up to make Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave with Collingwood O'Hare, so today we're going to take a look at parrallels and similarities between the two. You knew I was right when, in the fan confessions post, I said the UK had similar programming to Sprout's. Enjoy!

Like Sprout, CBeebies does include gold-standard, curriculum-based programming, both old and new (though mostly new), with friendly live-action hosts linking into them, doing things such as reading birthday cards, making crafts and recipes, telling stories, playing games, and singing songs. Sound familiar? Above are a video of CBeebies' launch twenty years ago and original presenters Chris Jarvis and Pui Fan Lee (the original Po from Teletubbies) reminiscing about their first link. I said "both old and new," although Sprout's shows are more classic and memorable, especially Sesame Street and Thomas & Friends.

Both brands also have (or had) programming blocks airing at different times of the day. They also changed schedules that kids could get used to. CBeebies had the presenters' themed colorful room hours in 2004, "Pick and Play" in 2005, "Get Set Go!," "Story Corner," "Little Lunchers" (later "Lunch Time"), "Busy Beebies," and "Bedtime Hour" (later simply "Bedtime"), and later "Discover and Do" and "Big Fun Time" (yup, I'm American and I know A LOT about UK kids' TV), while Sprout, on the other hand, had The Good Night Show, The Let's Go Show, Musical Mornings with Coo, The Sunny Side Up Show, The Sprout Sharing Show, Sprout's Wiggly Waffle, and The Super Sproutlet Show. With operations moving to the now defunct Teddington Studios in 2007, Get Set Go was presented by Sid and Andy in the living room set, Discover and Do was presented by Chris and Pui (and later Cerrie and Alex) on the same set, Big Fun Time was presented by Sid in the garage set, and Bedtime Hour was presented by Chris and Pui or Cerrie and Alex in the bedroom set, while Sprout (mostly) had different hosts, sets, and themes for each block.

They also aired the same shows, which is obvious. Both channels aired Teletubbies, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies, Rubbadubbers, dirtgirlworld, Driver Dan's Story Train, Wibbly Pig, 64 Zoo Lane, Tree Fu Tom, Sarah & Duck, Boj, Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave, Clangers, The Furchester Hotel, Charlie and Lola, and Pablo. CBeebies did air some shows we got here in the US, but most of them were dubbed with British voices (i.e. PBS' Clifford the Big Red Dog, NOGGIN's Pinky Dinky Doo). Also worth noting, Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave was co-produced by both CBeebies and Sprout (see above), but it aired in the UK first with British voices, and then in America with American voices.

Sprout has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and SproutOnline.com was one of the many websites I visited on the computers in preschool, which is where I first discovered CBeebies. There, I played on Tweenies and Big and Small games and stories, I remember there was one game with the sun and the moon, and some video with a female presenter, where she talked about a computer mouse, Rastamouse went by, and she said "Not you, Rastamouse!". Also on those preschool computers, I often went on the Sunny Side Up Show website, which is where I watched videos I still remember to this day.

I think that the similarities end there.

First of all, the CBeebies brand is quite popular, that the BBC launched international versions of the channel in Australia, Poland, Asia, Latin America, South Africa, India, Canada, and Alba, each with their own presenters (South Africa's CBeebies was presented by Sid and Cat from the UK, while Poland's Aneta and Asia's Nisha (who also hosted "Same Smile") both guest hosted on the UK channel for a while) and replicas of the British sets (Australia's CBeebies being an exception). If you're American and try to visit the CBeebies website, you'll get redirected to a Spanish website that can also be in English. It happened to me several times. However, the only way to go to the UK website is by the Wayback Machine. Try it!

In 2014, Alton Towers in Stoke-on-trent opened CBeebies Land, their version of a theme park kids' area. CBeebies Land has themed live shows, rides, and even a hotel, which opened in 2017. Meanwhile, Sprout did not get a themed area at a theme park given it wasn't popular enough, although I would've loved to see one.

My CBeebies collection

CBeebies has also spawned merchandise, such as albums (I own most of them), books (I own three annuals), compilation DVDs (I own several), toys, and even a magazine. Sprout may have launched Shop Sprout with CafePress, but other than that, it never spawned any merchandise, though I wish it did.

NEVER visit this wiki (or try to)! I swear!

This wiki, on the other hand, please do. Tons of accurate information.

Lastly, wikis. I became a CBeebies fan in 2018 and started watching presenter videos on YouTube, thinking they were similar to Sprout. Shortly after, I started a CBeebies wiki after finding there weren't any on the internet (don't wanna post the link, sorry). I described the wiki as "accurate," yet it also had false information, trolls, and fanfic, often ripping off other things, and, in 2020, many British people on Twitter started criticizing and attacking me for that. Nowadays, I regret starting that wiki. Thankfully, I migrated that year to the PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki, which has more accurate information and rarely any fanfiction. Phew! What a long journey - I've gone from a channel that aired the Teletubbies to a channel that aired Sesame Street and Thomas & Friends, good for me! I'm no longer obsessed with CBeebies as I was back in the days, though I still occasionally visit.

Both CBeebies and Sprout have done good things for children, taught them a lot, and made them feel safe and serene. Both have aired incredible programming and daily blocks (or strands) from breakfast to bedtime, and they have both created treasured memories for kids and adults alike. Happy 20th anniversary, CBeebies, and here's to twenty more! Lemme close this post with my cover of this Altered Images song that was covered by the Ting Tings in the birthday-themed episode of Yo Gabba Gabba!:

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