Curious George (TV series)

Curious George
Genre	Adventure Comedy Family
Based on	Curious George by H.A. Rey Margret Rey Alan J. Shalleck
Developed by	Joe Fallon
Directed by	Scott Heming Frank Marino Cathy Malkasian Jeff McGrath
Voices of	Frank Welker Jeff Bennett Rob Paulsen Jim Cummings Debi Derryberry Bill Chott Lex Lang Susan Silo Kath Soucie
Narrated by	William H. Macy (season 1) Rino Romano (season 2-present)
Theme music composer	Rocco Gagliese Steve D'Angelo Terry Tompkins
Opening theme	"Like Curious George!" by Dr. John
Ending theme	"Like Curious George!" (instrumental)
Composer	Nick Nolan
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	14
No. of episodes	183 (363 segments + 3 specials) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Ron Howard Brian Grazer David Kirschner Jon Shapiro Ellen Cockrill
Editor	Kirk Demorest
Camera setup	Jaclyn Brick
Running time	23 minutes (11 minutes per segment)
Production companies	Universal Animation Studios Imagine Entertainment (seasons 1–9, 14–present) WGBH Boston (seasons 1–12) Universal 1440 Entertainment (season 10–present)
Animation services	Toon City (seasons 1–9) Brilliant Animation Studios (seasons 10–11) BV Animation Studio (seasons 10–11) Oasis Animation[1] (season 12–present)
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	PBS Kids (seasons 1–9) Peacock (season 10-present)
Picture format	NTSC (2006–09) HDTV 1080i (2009–present)
Original release	September 4, 2006 (2006-09-04) – present
Chronology
Preceded by	Curious George (1980s TV series)
External links
Website

Curious George is an American animated children's television series based on the children's book series of the same name which features Jeff Bennett as the voice of The Man with the Yellow Hat. Frank Welker, who voiced George in the 2006 feature film, returns as the voice of him.^[2] The show premiered on PBS Kids on September 4, 2006, and originally ended after nine seasons on April 1, 2015 before making a return in 2018 after a 3 year hiatus. The series takes place in the same continuity as the 2006 film of the same name, although some of the characters including the Bloomsberry family, Maggie, and Ivan are not present.

On September 3, 2018, season 10 premiered on Family Jr. in Canada. Seasons 10-13 debuted on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock in the United States when it launched in July 2020.^[3] Seasons 1-9 of Curious George are available to stream for Peacock Premium subscribers since September 20, 2020, which is also available to stream on Hulu.^[4] Season 10 of Curious George premiered on PBS on October 5, 2020.^[5]

Curious George is a production of Universal 1440 Entertainment (Universal Studios Family Productions before 2013^[6]), Imagine Entertainment, and WGBH-TV (WGBH Kids) (before Season 13),^[7] and animated by Toon City.^[8] Each episode has two animated segments per half hour episode, and a short live-action segment after each.

The live-action shorts illustrate and explain various concepts in math and science, and shows a class with kids engaging in experiments, that teach the math or science concept featured in the previous story. This was shown for Seasons 1–9 during its first runs. They were removed from re-runs starting after season 10, and future airings of older episodes also remove them.

Settings[]

• The City: George and the Man with the Yellow Hat live in an apartment in "The City". The Doorman keeps a pigeon coop on the roof and is the guardian of Hundley, his dachshund dog. The apartment is near Endless Park, the museum where Professor Wiseman works, and a zoo. Chef Pisghetti's restaurant is nearby, as are a donut shop, Dulson's Toy Store, Mabel's Department Store (a parody of Macy's and its erstwhile competitor Gimbels), a supermarket and a pet shop. These are recurring locations.
• The Country: George and the Man with the Yellow Hat vacation in a small house in the country. The house is near Lake Wanasink, a stream, and a river that eventually flows past the city and to the ocean. George is friends there with 5-year-old Allie and the teenage paperboy, Bill.

Characters[]

• Curious George (voiced by Frank Welker): A tailless monkey who is the protagonist of the show. He is excessively curious and often causes unintentional problems. He is used as the "teachable" character in the show, and he is the one to whom new concepts are explained in detail by the other characters. He is written as having the mind of a young child.
• The Man with the Yellow Hat (voiced by Jeff Bennett): The man who first befriended George and also acts as a father figure to him. He does not wear his hat at home but wears it when going in public.

Episodes[]

The setting for most episodes is either The City, where George lives in an apartment building with The Man with the Yellow Hat, or the country, where they share a small house near a lake called Lake Wanasinklake. This allows George to mirror the experiences of kids who live in an urban environment and those who live on farms and in suburbs. A few episodes take place in alternate but familiar settings, like an airport or a train station.

Broadcast[]

The show premiered on PBS through PBS Kids in the US in 2006 and Family Jr. in Canada in 2015. Season 10 premiered on PBS and the series made its debut on the PBS Kids 24/7 channel the same day. All seasons are available on Peacock with the first 9 seasons exclusive to Peacock Premium and Hulu.

Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas, an animated television film, was released on November 25, 2009. It was distributed by PBS and produced by Imagine Entertainment and Universal Animation Studios. The film is a holiday television special featuring George, as featured in the TV series. The film is part of the show as well. It is shown every Christmas season on PBS Kids.

Awards[]

Emmy Award

• 2008 – Outstanding Children's Animated Program
• 2010 – Outstanding Children's Animated Program

References[]