Public TV Kids Shows That Got Away.

In my previous piece about Public TV Kids shows, I listed the 25 most remember and the ones that had the most impact. But their many other shows that ran on American Public TV (through PBS Kids and other public tv distributors) that had their moments of fame. They had their fans but eventually they ended and the programmers and viewers moved on. However, these shows had their fans and their time. Some lasted longer others did not…and picked up accolades along the way. Two of these were hosted by the same two brothers that eventually got the show that children will remember them by. Rather call these shows forgotten or shows that had their 15 minutes of fame…we shall call these the 25 Public TV Shows that Got Away.

25. The Huggabug Club (1996-2000): This children’s show was a family affair. Audrey Landers best known for her character Afton Cooper on the prime time soap opera “Dallas” co-created this show with her younger sister Judy and their mother Ruth. The show was produced in Tampa Bay, Florida at PBS station WEDU and it seemed the Landers were trying to cash in on the popularity of “Barney And Friends.” The sisters were the adult leaders of the Huggabug Club and had a computer in their clubhouse that they can use (coupled with a patty cake styled game to work the “computer magic”) that could call out Uncle Huggabug (a cowboy-insect), and his companions Miss Oops-A-Daisy (a flower who is prone to clumsiness), and Auntie Bumble (a bee with grandmother like personality). The focus was to teach life-skills to children ranging from being a good sport, accepting responsibility, and friendship just to name a few. Like Barney & Friends each single episode supports a life skill. Landers own children were in mind in the creation of this program…but Huggabug did get outshined by Barney. Parents who had issues with Barney, may have issues with the sisters’ cotton candy personalities of this program more than Huggabug’s cowboy persona.

24. It’s A Big Big World (2006-2010): This show teaches nature using puppet characters. The main character is a sloth named Snook who unlike The Grumpy Sloth of this online publication kind of reminds you of claim and collective hippie but kid friendly. The supporting characters includeBurdette(a bird), Smooch and Winslow (sibling monkeys’), and Wartz (a red eyed tree frog) Each episode has two short10-12 minute stories that involve most or some of the characters and basically learn about their soundings of the rainforest that they reside in. The show lasted for 47 episodes for the four years it was in rotation on PBS Kids.

23: Jay Jay the Jet Plane (aired on PBS Kids2001-2005): The show started as direct to video series before TLC picked it up in 1998 but eventually moved to PBS Kids. This series was a copy cast series to Thomas & Friends, except the focus was on airplanes that could talk as well as sing for this series. Stephen Michael Schwartz not only composed the theme song but other musical numbers for the series as well. The lead characters other than the title character were Tracy (also a jet airliner), Snuffy (a monoplane) and a helicopter named Herky. They are joined by older planes Big Jake (a cargo plane), Savannah (supersonic airliner), and Old Oscar (a biplane). The key human in this series played via green screen is Brenda Blue who is in charge of the airport in Terry Town and serves as their mechanic and has a two-way radio on hand so no need to go to the airport’s tower to communicate with the planes if necessary. Before Thomas & Friends embraced CGI animation and an ensemble cast, Jay Jay eventually led the way in making the characters come to life and not just having the narrator play all the parts. But eventually Jay Jay and friends flew off in the sunset and we never heard from them since. Also of note, Mary Kay Bergman was the voice Savannah who was replaced by Donna Cherry after Bergman’s death.

22. George Shrinks(2000-2004): The series title character was a modern-day Tom Thumb character of sorts, although the music of choice in this series is 1950’s styled Jazz and the animation is based on the 1950’s style but with better color and taking place in present day. A ten-year-old boy who has a dream that he is three inches only wakes up to that reality. However, he has the skill set to get by and get around. Most notably the Zooper car which can turn into an airplane or a submarine when needed. He lives with his bigger in size baby brother nicked named Junior and his parents; jazz musician and fatherHarold Sr. and freelance artist and one-time Rockette and motherPerdita. We have not heard from George since the series ended in 2004. It began as a book by William Joyce.

21. Noddy (aka The Noddy Shop) (1998-2000): This was another vehicle program to import another UK Children’s icon. A wooden puppet named Noddy who was on UK TV since the 1950’s and his popularity began with the first Noddy book published in 1949. For the vehicle program, it is built around anantique shop called The NODDY Shop and NODDY becomes an acronym for “Notions, Oddities, Doodads and Delights of Yesterday.” The shop is operated by Noah Tomten played by well-respected Canadian character actor Sean McCann. His grandchildren normally come by the store to play. One of them named Kate usually told a tale about the wooden puppet with her brother Truman and their friend Daniel “DJ” Johnson coupled with footage from the recent Noddy series at the time “Noddy In Toyland.” Complementing the stories are the shop’s anthropomorphic toys who only speak to the audience (and each other) and sing the theme song and songs related to the story’s moral being presented in the episode. The Noddy Shop closed down in 2000 and PBS Kids attempted one more show with Noddy but no matter how much they tried, Noddy the Puppet could not make a connection with American Children.

20: Storytime (aka Kino’s Storytime) (1992-1997): This low-key children’s program featured several books read to puppet Kino (operated and performed by the late Mark Ritts who was best known as Lester the Rat on Beakman’s World) along with a group of children on a TV set that resembled a children’s section of the library. Storytime had its charm but not enough to equal LeVar Burton and the Reading Rainbow.

19. Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (2001-2004): Sagwa is the creation of an American of Chinese immigrants Amy Tan who made a career in writing books…mostly to adults. Tan did write a few books for children…one of them being “Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat” which was first published in in 1994. Later on, Tan partnered with PBS Kids and Sesame Workshop to put an animated series based on the book into production. In this series Sagwa is the middle child of a royal cat family likely in the time of the Qing dynasty. Along with the shows moral lessons for children, Sagwa does promote the Chinese culture of the day and PBS Kids commitment to Multiculturalism while being realistic on having mostly Asian characters. The show ended in 2004 but PBS members stations did rerun the show for a few more years.

18. Bohbah (2003-2006): Boobah was created by Anne Wood, who also co-created Teletubbies with Andrew Davenport. The Boobah’s were kind of like distant cousins of the Teletubbies and their sole purpose was to travel around the world in a Bohball making children happy doing their dances and allow the children to play with the Storypeople and their Storyworld in tow. The educational value is on movement, and patters and its more visual learning rather than spoken. For the American version of the show three simple dances are done by a child or a group of children. Was the concept of this program over the top of their target audience? Maybe so, since the Teletubbies made a comeback and the Bohbah’s are nowhere to be found.

17. Theodore Tugboat (1993-2001): Another series inspired by Thomas & Friends. This one however comes from the Great White North aka Canada. The town of Halifax, Nova Scotia to be exact. Denny Doherty who was a member of the 1960’s pop group “The Mammas and The Papas” played the role of The Harbourmaster and narrated and voiced all the characters on the show. No different than Ringo Starr (also a musician) and George Calrin did as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station along with their narration of Thomas & Friends. The story mirrored similar storylines of Thomas & Friends excepts its done with boats rather than trains. As with Thomas & Friends they taught teamwork and how to resolve conflict and do their best with their tasks they were given to begin with. In 2000 a replica of Theodore Tugboat called Theodore Too was launched in the realworld of Dayspring Nova Scotia which operates as tourboat…no different than the replica of Thomas The Tank Engine which has toured over America as a tour train. Theodore did make an appearance on Qubo from 2007-2009 but has not been since in quite a while. Truly an icon that got away.

16. Maya & Miguel (2004-2007): This animated styled sitcom focused on the Santos family especially the fraternal twins who are the name sake of the show. The Santos family is blending of two North American Latino cultures with their father Santiago from Puerto Rico and mother Rosa from Mexico. The overall message of Maya & Miguel is to do good for your family and community and Maya presents an example of how not to do it…at least at first. Maya & Miguel was last heard doing PSA’s encouraging children to get out and exercise.

15. Adventures from the Book of Virtues (1996-2000): In 1993 William J. Bennett who is best known as a political pundit on the Republican/Conservative side of aisle edited and compiled a book called The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories that was first published in 1993. The book’s intended audience was young people to teach the virtues of self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work etc. Two years laterBruce D. Johnsondecided to adapt this Book into an animated series and PBS Kids was ready to bring it to air and thwart any threats of being defunding back then…at least for the time being. The shows focus was two friends named Zack Nichols and Annie Redfeather who constantly break the virtues only to seek the advice of four anthropomorphic animals that reside in the mountains. Plato the bison, Aurora the red-tailed hawk, Aristotle the prairie dog, and Socrates the bobcat. Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of the morning while the others were named after the ancient Greek philosophers. They go deeper into the virtues by referring to classical works of authors, poets, philosophers and look through fables, myths and actual historic icons through various cultures to reinforce that following a specify virtue is the best policy. This series ran for three seasons and produced 39 episodes.

14. Postcards From Buster (2004-2012): This was a spinoff of Arthur with the focus on Buster Baxter and his travels with his father Bo who is pilot working for the fictional Chicano musical group Los Viajeros who are on their cross country music tour. They also perform the songs featured on the show and are connected to the theme and location of the episode. Postcards is also part documentary and incorporates live action footage in which Buster interviews children from all over the country and various sub culture and learns about their way of living as a video postcard for Arthur and his friends back in their hometown of Elwood City. This series would confirm my hypothesis (in my previous article of public TV kids shows) that Arthur and company are indeed humans drawn with animal heads. When the live action scenes are shot with real life children, the viewers are always front center and kind of inside Buster’s camera (we hear Buster’s voice as if he was really recording the interview but don’t see him so we never really know what he truly looks like in the live action world). This show had a bit of controversy for its time as well when the show showcased a family from Vermont which recently legalized same-sex marriage. Postcards would have its extended hiatus 2008 until 2012 when PBS Kids finally canceled the show. Its parent show Arthur is still in production with Buster Baxter as a supporting character.

13. Wordworld (2007-2011): This children’s show taught basic words and their associations by creating a world in which words become living animals or certain objects that take their shape when the word is put together like a house (as seen in the picture). The core characters are a Sheep, Pig, Frog, Bear, Ant and a Dog with all of them the except for Dog given the ability to speak. The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Animation program in 2009. The only year the show was nominated.

12. Martha Speaks (2008-2014): Based on the 1992 book by Susan Meddaugh, “Martha Speaks” is about a dog who feasted on alphabet soup and the food shaped in letters went to Martha’s brain and for some reason allowed Martha to speak English…but this is not limited to her family as she did odd jobs including hosting a radio show. So, Martha is a celebrity of sorts, but does not know when to give her owner Helen and her family and friends their space. Martha must also continue to eat the soup to maintain her speaking skill…otherwise its back to woof woof like every other dog including Helen’s other dog Skits who tried the soup but failed to speak. The purpose of Martha Speaks is to teach its audience synonyms and vocabulary which each episode containing a specify theme and plot with keywords to go along with them. The show ran for six seasons and produced 96 episodes.

11. Kidssongs (1994-1998): This began as a direct to video series that went into production in 1984, and its first series of videos released in early 1985. In 1987 the show was given a weekly syndicated TV series and that ran for two years before moving to the Disney Channel and eventually a new Kidssong TV program that was co-produced at PBS member station WTTW and distributed by American Public Television which is a largest public television syndicator in America that disturbers programs outside of the PBS fold. The public broadcasting incarnation introduced fantasy characters Billy and Ruby Biggle and worked with the Kidssong kids in helping them produce their music video showcase program they hosted and worked on (or that is what they adults behind the show wanted their viewers to believe) and resolve any conflicts that kids may have. The songs featured were taken from their video releases and also went “behind the scenes” of the production studio and the backroom drama (it was not that bad kids). There was also a Q&A segment in which an adult guest was interviewed on their profession. Smooth Jazz Saxophone player Dave Koz by the way was one of these guests. Long before Kidssongs went to public TV it did win anExcellence in Children’s Programming Award from Actions for Children’s Televison or ACT which advocated for making children’s TV more educational and accomplished that goal in the early 1990’s after which the group dissolved. While Kidsongs in its prime reached 89 percent of households and the videos are still on sale. Kidssongs however has become dated and sadly in spite of all of its success…it’s a show that had its time on public TV that got away.

10. The Big Comfy Couch (1992-2006): This was another long running series on public TV that got away as well. It was another major show that was distributed outside of the PBS main feed and why I don’t title my article PBS kids shows but rather public tv shows. The show stared Canadian actress and voice actressAlyson Court(shevoiced young mutant Jubilee on Saban’s adaption of Marvel’s X-Men from 1992-1996) as Loonette the Clown who slept on a Big Couch and lived in a place called Clown Town. Its residents may not have a lot of clown makeup on do have a natural red clown noses or so it seems. Heck and sun and moon have red noses too. Couch focused on problem solving and creative play. In just about every episode Loonette was doing clockwork stretches (on a matt that resembled a clock) and cleaning up the mess that Loonette (or even her doll Molly) made during the course of the episodeand being called out on it by the viewers every time…one can hope they take reasonability as Loonette does. She just good at doing “The Ten Second Tidy” give or take. The final series of episodes however had Ramona Gilmour-Darling as Loonette The Clown and the show ended its run in 2006. More recently in 2014 Court revisited her Loonete character on Halloween but making her a zombie. Could a “Fear The Big Comfy Couch” TV series be in the works? (LOL) I really don’t think so…but who knows.

9. The Electric Company (2009-2011 Series): Sesame Worship decided to bring back its reading and vocabulary building programing from the 1970’s. However, as the times changed they changed the program’s format. TEC here is not a sketch comedy ensemble but rather a group of four young kids playing neighborhood super heroes and who have to content with neighborhood Super Villains who call themselves the Pranksters. Along the way in their effort to push back on the Pranksters, the new Electric Company teaches the audience four to five different vocabulary words. TEC’s superpowers include all of them being able to throw word balls that create words on any surface. But each member has their own unique skill. Hector Ruiz can replay visual images he sees, while his sister Jessica can replay words or phrases she hears. Their friends and TEC members Lisa Heffenbacher can unscramble anagrams that she encounters, and the youngest member Keith Watson can generate images in the air when explaining challenging words. Finally,Marcus Barnes who joins TEC in the third and final season has math skills when they are needed by the team. Their biggest ally in the fight is short order cook who calls himself Shock, and while he can’t throw word balls or have a superpowered skill, Shock is able to sound out words and is a good beat boxer. There are a few nods to the old series; the famous cry “Hey You Guys!” that was shouted by Rita Moreno becomes the rally call for TEC, and the soft shoe silhouettes were updated and featured in the short form segments that appear throughout the program. The major city newspapers frowned on this new series while Entertainment Weekly and then some gave it a favorable review. After three seasons (in spite of Sesame Workshop planning a fourth seasons) PBS Kids decided to cancel the new EC and sent it into obscurity. Maybe there should have left The Electric Company moniker alone and called this show something else. Can’t blame Sesame Workshop for trying to update their own show.

8. Wishbone (1995-1997): This forgotten TV series introduced a different concept in presenting classic literature to classic literature to children. Having a dog (in this case of Wishbone a Jack Russell Terrier) playing one of the lead roles in the classic books highlighted. To set this up, the opening scene had Wishbone’s family in an everyday situation and Wishbone tells the audience in his thoughts how it connects to a story of classic lit. We go into a recreation of the story with Wishbone as one of the lead characters and it is here and only here that Wishbone (in character whoever that might be) can communicate with the humans. The recreation of the books stayed true to author’s intent and were never dumbed or watered down but yet can connect with the audience. So, a teleplay of “Romeo And Juliet” would end with their respected deaths. Wishbone indeed had a Big Imagination and great taste in that imagination as well. This one deserved better. Conservative commentator and comedian Steven Crowder does have a Wishbone parody called “Hopper” however.

7. Zoboomafoo (1998-2001): This was the second of three PBS Kids series with brothers Chris and Martin Kratt. The Kratts were introduced to a lemur who the series is named after. Zoboomafoo was played by an actual lemur who was named Jovian and puppeteered and voiced by Gord Robertson. Each episode had several recurring elements. Zoboomafoo describing a Mystery Animal (coupled with the song “Who Could It Be?); the first Zobooland Story, a letter from Animal Helpers, then the Kratts go out to visit some animals, after which we get a second Zoboomafoo story and show wraps up as Zoboomafoo returns to the wild, while the Kratt brothers do what they do best…go out into the wild and get the know the creatures best in their habitats. Jovian would live at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina until 2014 when he passed away after 20 years of life.

6. Kratts’ Creatures (1996): The very first series with Chris and Martin Kratt. In spite of the show popularity at the time…the show only lasted a single season of 50 episodes. The Kratts’ presented a Wild Kingdom styled show with their first outing. They were assisted by the young Allison “Al” Baldwin (played by Shannon Duff) and her computer dinosaur like avatar namedTtark (Kratt spelled backwards by the way) as they complement Chris and Martin’s journeys in the wild. Allison was indeed the prototype to Aviva Corcovado on their future animated series Wild Kratts. This series may not be as remembered as Wild Kratts and it planted the seeds for what was to come.

5. Shining Time Station (1989-1995): While “Thomas & Friends” has become an iconic PBS Kids show (see my other article for more on that respected show), the American vehicle program “Shining Time Station” had its lights dimmed. Back in the day many UK children’s shows that did not take up the whole half hour had to rely on an American program to showcase its work. For Thomas & Friends it needed its own show…enter Shining Time Station. Shining Time Station starred film, screen and stage actress Didi Conn as Stacy Jones who was the manager of the fictional train station that served along the real life Indian Valley Railroad in California. Also in the cast;Brian O’Connor as resident antagonist Horace Schemerwhose name says it all. A schemer but a well-meaning one who always ends up with egg on his face sort of speak, but he is good at running the arcade so Stacy keeps him on. The Flexitoon Puppets play theinhouse jukebox band (unseen to the characters) that break out into song when Schemer drops a coin in the jukebox. And last but not least the fairy like Mr. Conductor played by Ringo Starr and later George Carlin who was visible to Stacy and the children who visited the train station regularly and also told them the stories of Thomas The Tank Engine and his friends. The theme song for this series would be last TV theme to be composed by the famed Joe Raposo (who also composed themes for Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Three’s Company, and the Bill Kurtis Diana/Swayer era of the CBS Morning News to name a few) before his untimely passing. The critics loved this series. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said comparing to the faster passed “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego;” “‘Shining Time Station’ wants to slow things down. It’s an old-fashioned show that creates a gentle, lulling atmosphere to convince children that life is fun and that trains are the way to travel.” It did leave us “Thomas & Friends” and for that we should be grateful to this show that sadly got left behind.

4. Dinosaur Train (2009-2017): This series is supposed to end this year as of this year. No show was focused on the teaching of the prehistoric world than this series. The show’s central character is Buddy a young tyrannosauruswhose egg got misplaced and wound up in the nest of a Pteranodon family. He is adopted into the respected family and they all get themselves an education about themselves and other creatures of prehistoric times via the Dinosaur Train which are ran by the Troodon because their adult size is closer to that of humans…plus they are smartest of the bunch in the Dinosaur Train universe. Canadian paleontologist Scott Sampson appears in the show’s fill segments to talk about the dinosaurs that appeared in the day’s episode and how they are compare to animals and humans of the day. While this show has likely wrapped production its likely to go the same as sister show “Sid The Science Kid,” a show that got away.

3. Dragon Tales (1999-2005): This show from Sesame Workshop and Sony Pictures Television focused on Latino siblings Emmy and Max who come across anenchanted dragon scale that can take them to “Dragon Land” if they speak the enactment that came with the scale. Once in Dragon Land they meet their dragon counterparts in the form of Ord, Cassie and their friends and conjoined twin dragons Zack &Wheezie and their teacher who is of Latino decent in their world Quetzal (likely named after of the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl) who also gives the dragons a scale in which they can contact Emmy and Max via their scale and call them to Dragon Land. In the show’s third and final season the siblings are joined by the kid next door namedEnrique who came from Colombia and Puerto Rico. This gives him the ability to speak both English and Spanish. The use of music varied from its theme and “Dragon Tales Tunes” to the actually music score in the episode. The theme and the songs featured in the halfway point of the show are done in the style of 1970’s bubblegum pop. In fact they were co-written by Joey Levine who was lead singer of the bubble gun pop groups Ohio Express and Reunion. The show’s score was composed by Jim Latham and Brian Garland who focused more on the Classical Baroque styled music. It somehow did complement each other. One of the people involved in developing Dragon Tales was actor Wesley Eure best known for the roles of Michael Horton on “Days Of Our Lives,” and Will Marshall on Sid & Marty Kroft Science Fiction children’s series “Land Of The Lost.” DVD releases of Dragon Tales are still available for sale and Netflix offered the show for a while on their streaming service. Otherwise it’s a forgotten show.

2. Wordgirl (2007-2015): What began as short segments on within “Maya & Miguel,” eventually became a series of its own. Wordgirl like Superman comes from another planet. That being Lexicon (which is also a term that refers to the vocabulary of a language or to a dictionary) which did not get blown up but rather the future Wordgirl sneaked about a spaceship and took a nap. Her new companion is Captain Huggy Face who piloted the ship that Wordgirl stowaway on. Eventually they are adopted by an Earth family and adopted the identities via their new family Becky Botsford and Bob. However, when Fair City (their home away from home) is under assault by villains Becky and Bob become Wordgirl and Captain Huggy Face and make a stand for justice and correct usage of vocabulary. In fact, in most episodes during the episode’s title card, viewers are told to listen for two words that will be used in the episode. Wordgirl is unique that it brought on writers that were not in children’s TV but wrote for the satirical newspaper The Onion and the adult animated sitcom Family Guy. Chris Parnell who is the narrator on Word Girl was part of the cast of Saturday Night Live. Wordgirl had a great run on PBS Kids of eight seasons and 130 episodes but sadly I see this show as filler and likely to be going by the way side in a few years.

1. Caillou (2000-2010): Caillou (pronounced Ki-U) is the creation of French Canadians Hélène Desputeaux and Christine L’Heureux. Like many PBS Kids shows, Caillou (French for pebble or stone) began as a series of books with the first one published in 1989. An animated series came soon after for the French speaking side of Canada but soon found its way into the English speaking world and finding a home on PBS Kids. Caillou is basically a family drama focused on the title character who is a four-year boy with a great imagination and who wants to be the best he can be. Caillou parents and grandparents are not given names so they are referred to their respected parental titles. Caillou has a baby sister in Rosie who he really loves but sometimes does things to upset our four-year-old. The series is dawn and set in the same way the books are not a complete picture but focused on the main action. The different in the TV series is these pictures are moving. Cailou has brought great appeal to children in Quebec, Canada. Can it hold the same in the English speaking providents of the Great White North and America itself? In the states Caillou’s exposure is slipping.

Honorable Mentions: Their several honorable mentions and I shall name in this section. In-School service show “The Write Channel” (1978) which featured an anthropomorphic stop motion animated insect doing TV news and learning to write better in the live action world. This and Assignment: The World were the only in-school service shows that encouraged students to participate “hands on” in the program. Not bad for a 15 episode show with a run time of 15 minutes each. “Adventures with Kanga Roddy” which ran in the late 1990’s riding on the Barney wave and featured Pat Morita who able to take kids to see Roddy but did not travel with them. An alternative to Power Rangers (and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for Kanga was trained in martial arts.Angelina Ballerina (2002-2006) and the CGI animated sequel, “…The Next Steps (2009-2010) featuring the title character who is young mouse who aspires to become a professional ballerina, “Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks” (2003-2004) which featured Mel Brooks and Joan Rivers as part of the voicecast. The show also won a daytime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Children’s Program in 2006. Last honorable mention is “Once Upon a Classic” (1976-1980) which was a Masterpiece Theater (now simply called Masterpiece) for the younger set and featured mostly TV adaptations of classic literature for young people. Classic was hosted by the late Bill Bixby.

Fluke or not “AS” Honorable Mention: I shall grant this to the 1983 series “Don’t Look Now” which was conceived by Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby. Price who created the original 1970’s (and was involved in the first reimagined series in the 1990’s)children’s Sci-Fi series “The Tomorrow People” in the UK also created the famous children’s sketch comedy series “You Can’t Do That On Television” in Canada and ran for many years on Nickelodeonin the states. Price along with Darby who was a writer for YCDTOT decided to create a knock off of their own show for WGBH in Boston and eventually called it “Don’t Look Now” which had the working title “Don’t Tell Your Mother.” DLN and YCDTOT had certain parallels. The green slime became yellow yuck and if the words “Don’t Blame Me” were uttered you would get slimed in yellow. FYI, triggering green slime on YCDTOT is the phrase; “I Don’t Know.” Thepirate’s plank is in place of a firing squad, A female teacher that is strict, rather than a male one, and last but not least Last a producer who was very tyrannical just to name a few. However, being on PBS the show had to have an education element so they created a stalker character called “The Educator” who whisked the children away on a field trip to learn about a certain topic. He even when into places like the restroom or someone’s personal bath…to bring them to along to be educated…did I say “The Educator” was a stalker? You could get arrested these days for doing this. The show also added a spice element and it was a great one. It featured three music videos during the show. One of those videos featured apparently was a favorite music artist among the cast…that being Sting & The Police (“Every Breath You Take” was the featured video and their current hit…ironic don’t you think?). This was the only kids show on PBS to date that needed to have a disclaimer advising viewer discretion and that the program was not intended for Pre-Schoolers. “Don’t Look Now” got high ratings from its target audience (even beating Sesame Street) but had drawn fire from parents as well as Nickelodeon, so after five episodes, it was a kid’s show that had to GO away…in order for “You Can’t Do That On Television” to be better remembered and then some. If you still want to relive the memories of DLN, they are now up on Youtube…Music Videos not included but YT provides better quality links anyway. Here have some Police.