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Peep and the Big Wide World

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Peep and the Big Wide World
Peep and the Big Wide World logo.png
Also known asPeep
GenreEducational
Children's television series
Comedy
Created byKaj Pindal[1][2]
Directed byRick Marshall
Voices ofScott Beaudin (1-3)
Shawn Molko (4)
Maxwell Uretsky (5)
Jamie Watson
Amanda Soha
Narrated byJoan Cusack
Theme music composerSteve D'Angelo
Terry Tompkins
Opening theme"Peep and the Big Wide World" performed by Taj Mahal
Ending theme"Peep and the Big Wide World" (instrumental)
Country of originCanada
United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes60 (240 segments)
Production
Executive producerKate Taylor
ProducersVince Commisso
Marisa Wolsky
Running time22–25 minutes
Production companiesWGBH Boston
9 Story Entertainment
TVOntario
Discovery Kids
Eggbox LLC
National Film Board of Canada
DistributorAlliance Atlantis (seasons 1-3)
American Public Television (seasons 4-5)
Release
Original networkTVOKids (Canada)
TLC (2004–2008) and Discovery Kids (2004–2010) (Seasons 1-3) (U.S.)
PBS Kids (Seasons 4 and 5) (U.S.)
Picture formatNTSC
Audio formatDolby Surround
Original releaseOriginal series:
April 12, 2004 (2004-04-12) – September 14, 2007 (2007-09-14)
Revival series:
January 31, 2010 (2010-01-31) –
October 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)
External links
Website

Peep and the Big Wide World (PATBWW) is an animated children's television series created by Canadian animator Kaj Pindal. It revolves around the lives of Peep, Chirp, and Quack, as viewers discover, investigate, and explore the world around them.[3]

The show was based on the 1988 short film Peep and the Big Wide World (of the same name) produced by the National Film Board of Canada, which itself is based on the 1962 short film The Peep Show,[4] also produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The series premiered on April 12, 2004, on Discovery Kids and on TLC as part of their Ready Set Learn children's block, and on the same day on TVOKids and PBS Kids. It was produced by WGBH Boston (through its kids division WGBH Kids) and 9 Story Media Group (formerly 9 Story Entertainment), in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids and is distributed by Alliance Atlantis (through AAC Kids).

Carriage on the Discovery children's networks ended on October 10, 2010 with the discontinuation of Ready Set Learn and the replacement of Discovery Kids with The Hub, and now, Discovery Family. Since 2004, it continues to be offered to public television stations via independent public television distributor American Public Television to the present day. Since January 1, 2018, the series (alongside Pocoyo, which is seen after the program) is distributed by both PBS Kids and APT. Throughout its run, it has been underwritten by the National Science Foundation, with Northrop Grumman underwriting season four in 2010.

Each episode consists of two 9-minute stories, which are animated segments, and two 2-minute live action segments, in which children explore and demonstrate the same topic presented in the animated segment. the show is narrated by famous celebrity Joan Cusack.

Overview

Viewers follow Peep, Chirp, and Quack as they investigate and explore the world around them. Following the 9-minute animated segment, there is a 2-minute live-action segment with children exploring and demonstrating the same topic presented in the animated segment. Animation consists of bright colors and simple shapes.

Episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
126April 12, 2004 (2004-04-12)May 17, 2004 (2004-05-17)
213May 2, 2005 (2005-05-02)September 27, 2006 (2006-09-27)
310April 16, 2007 (2007-04-16)September 14, 2007 (2007-09-14)
46January 31, 2010 (2010-01-31)July 17, 2010 (2010-07-17)
55October 10, 2011 (2011-10-10)October 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)

Season 1 (2004)

Episode № Segment names Original airdate
Total Season First segment Second segment
1 1 Spring Thing Springy Thingy 12 Apr 2004
2 2 A Duck's Tale Quack's Tracks 13 Apr 2004
3 3 Quack and the Very Big Rock Shadow Play 14 Apr 2004
4 4 Current Events Quack Loses His Hat 15 Apr 2004
5 5 Night Light Sounds Like... 16 Apr 2004
6 6 The Windy Day Peep Feet 19 Apr 2004
7 7 Newton's Big Adventure Peep Crosses the Road 20 Apr 2004
8 8 Stormy Weather Peep in Rabbitland 21 Apr 2004
9 9 Quack's Stuck Stick Peep's Can 22 Apr 2004
10 10 Under Duck All Fall Down 23 Apr 2004
11 11 The Perils of Peep and Chirp Hoop Tricks 26 Apr 2004
12 12 Save It For Later The Red Ballmoon 27 Apr 2004
13 13 Chirp Builds a Nest Stuck Duck 28 Apr 2004
14 14 The Real Decoy Peep's Lost Leaf 29 Apr 2004
15 15 Birds of a Feather The Incredible Shrinking Duck 30 Apr 2004
16 16 Go West Young Peep A Delicate Balance 3 May 2004
17 17 The Fish Museum Peep's Night Out 4 May 2004
18 18 There's No Place Like Home Flipping Newton 5 May 2004
19 19 Chirp's Flight Program Mirror Mirror in the Dump 6 May 2004
20 20 Bridge the Gap Meeting Half-Way 7 May 2004
21 21 Peep Plants a Seed The Root Problem 10 May 2004
22 22 Hide and Go Peep A Peep of a Different Color 11 May 2004
23 23 That's a Cat Faster than a Duck 12 May 2004
24 24 Quack Hatches an Egg The Whatchamacallit 13 May 2004
25 25 Wandering Beaver Peep's New Friend 14 May 2004
26 26 The Trip to Green Island Give Me a Call 17 May 2004

Season 2 (2005-2006)

Episode № Segment names Original airdate
Total Season First segment Second segment
27 1 Finders Keepers Quack Quiets the Universe 2 May 2005
28 2 Peep's Moon Mission The Many Moons of Quack the Duck 3 May 2005
29 3 The Mystery of the Thing That Went and Came Back Peep's Color Quest 4 May 2005
30 4 Reflection Affection Peep Deep in the Big Muddy 5 May 2005
31 5 Chirp Sorts it Out (Sort Of) Hear Here! 6 May 2005
32 6 Dry Duck 9 May 2005
33 7 Snow Daze Flower Shower 10 May 2005
34 8 Who Stole the Big Wide World? M-U-D Spells Trouble 11 May 2005
35 9 Finding Time Smaller than a Peep 12 May 2005
36 10 Quack Quack One Duck Too Many 13 May 2005
37 11 Count Them Out Peep Prints 25 Sep 2006
38 12 Stick With Me Tree Feller 26 Sep 2006
39 13 A Daring Duck The Trouble With Bubbles 27 Sep 2006

Season 3 (2007)

Episode № Segment names Original airdate
Total Season First segment Second segment
40 1 The Tooth, the Whole Tooth, and Nothing but the Tooth The Winter of Quack's Discontent 16 Apr 2007
41 2 Nosing Around The Last Straw 17 Apr 2007
42 3 The Disappearing Drink Door Tour 18 Apr 2007
43 4 In a Bind Star Light, Star Bright 19 Apr 2007
44 5 Bedtime Story The Deep Duck Woods 20 Apr 2007
45 6 I Spy a Spider Robin in the Bat Cave 10 Sep 2007
46 7 Marble Mover Fair Shares 11 Sep 2007
47 8 The Feats of Peep Quack Goes Nuts 12 Sep 2007
48 9 The Sounds of Silence 13 Sep 2007
49 10 Big Bird Chirp Flies the Coop 14 Sep 2007

Season 4 (2010)

Episode № Segment names Original airdate
Total Season First segment Second segment
50 1 The Lurmies are Coming Quack's Square Deal 31 Jan 2010
51 2 An Inconvenient Tooth 1 May 2010
52 3 Bringing Spring Quack's Pond Party 13 May 2010
53 4 You Can Count on Bunnies Falling Feathers 8 Jun 2010
54 5 Trading Places The House of Sand and Frog 26 Jun 2010
55 6 Magic Duck Dancing Chirp Chirp Tweet Tweet Chirp 17 Jul 2010

Season 5 (2011)

Episode № Segment names Original airdate
Total Season First segment Second segment
56 1 Two's a Crowd 10 Oct 2011
57 2 The Road Not Taken 11 Oct 2011
58 3 Soap Opera Diva Duck 12 Oct 2011
59 4 Quack and the Amazing Sandy Magic Duckball 13 Oct 2011
60 5 Things That Go Peep in the Night Mud Muddle 14 Oct 2011


Characters

Main

  • Peep (Voiced by Scott Beaudin [5] in the first 3 seasons, Shawn Molko in Season 4 and Maxwell Uretsky in Season 5): A male, yellow chicken who is very curious. He is the youngest bird of the group. The show's title is derived from his name. Peep is female in the original short film.
  • Chirp (Voiced by Amanda Soha): A female, red robin who is also curious, and attempts frequently to fly, with unsatisfying results, until "A Daring Duck", when she flies from the ground. In "Big Bird" she meets a real robin for the first time. She is Peep and Quack's friend. Chirp is male in the original short film.
  • Quack (Voiced by Jamie Watson): A male, blue-purple duckling who wears a white sailor's hat. He is older than Peep and Chirp, as they are still chicks. He frequently boasts about himself and ducks as a whole, and unwittingly makes many discoveries. Quack is purple in the original short film and is now referred to as blue, but is still quite indigo. He also seems to have a hoarding issue, as evidenced in the episode "An Inconvenient Tooth, Part 1."
  • The Narrator (Voiced by Joan Cusack): The Narrator tells the episode's story, although the characters rarely have any interaction with her. In the episodes "Dry Duck, Part 1" the birds did have a short interaction with her and in "Quack Quiets the Universe" she and Quack interact as well.

Minor

  • Ant (Voiced by Robert Tinkler): A busy male ant who appears in some episodes.
  • Beaver Boy (Voiced by Tessa Marshall): A young naïve male beaver who lives in an adjoining pond to Quack's. He appears in several episodes. His desire to please his mom and dad often results in him chewing down too many trees. He often calls Quack "Blue Sailor" Peep "Yellow Guy" and Chirp "Red Round".
  • Beaver Mom: (Voiced by Debra McGrath) Beaver Boy's workaholic mother.
  • Beaver Dad (Voiced by Phillip Williams): Beaver Boy's businesslike father.
  • Dragonfly (Voiced by Catherine Disher): A quiet dragonfly.
  • Fish: Cohabitants of Quack's pond.
  • Frog: A frog who lives in Quack’s pond. He rarely talks.
  • Hoot (Voiced by Corinne Conley): A menacing, but kind purple female owl who lives in the Deep Dark Woods.
  • Nellie (Voiced by Marium Carvell): A red female dog who acts as a seemingly maternal figure for the birds.
  • Newton (Voiced by Colin Fox): An old, male, dark-green turtle who lives under an apple tree.
  • Quack #2 (Voiced by Megan Mullally): An annoying pink female duck who has her own pond, built by Quack, Peep, Chirp, Beaver Boy and his parents.
  • Rabbit (Voiced by Jayne Eastwood): An excitable and somewhat distracted rabbit.
  • Robin (Voiced by Holly Hunter): An adult robin.
  • Skunk (Voiced by ): A rather deadpan skunk who lives near Quack's pond.
  • Bat (Voiced by Ron Rubin): A shy bat.
  • Squeak (Voiced by Kathleen Laskey): An anxious pink, female mouse who lives under a brick and always worries about what could go wrong.
  • Tom (Voiced by Alex Hood and Matthew Knight): A sly, male blue & black kitten who often tries to eat Peep, Chirp, and Quack. He is the sole antagonist.
  • Raccoon (Voiced by Jeff Lumby): A gobbo, male brown & black racoon who often tries to wear his sun glasses in A Peep of a Different Color
  • Blue Jays(Voiced by David Hudson): silly, blue and white birds who love to cause trouble when they see stuff

Music composition

Music for Peep and the Big Wide World is composed by Terry Tompkins and Steve D'Angelo, from Eggplant. The opening theme is performed by Taj Mahal.[6]

Broadcast

United States

Peep and the Big Wide World ran on TLC and Discovery Kids as part of the Ready Set Learn preschool block from April 12, 2004 to September 14, 2007, with reruns of the first three seasons continuing to air until October 8, 2010 when Discovery Kids discontinued the block to make way for the new network to launch known as The Hub on October 10. The last two seasons ran on PBS Kids under the APT brand from January 31, 2010 to October 14, 2011, making the total of 60 episodes (120 segments). During the existence of Ready Set Learn, the series was also acquired to selected PBS member stations with only episodes from season one. After the discontinuation of Ready Set Learn preschool block, PBS stations started to pick up the remaining episodes from seasons two and three by early 2011.

On January 1, 2018, Peep and the Big Wide World was picked up on the 24-hour PBS Kids channel, marking the first time to air the series for PBS member stations, which never acquired the series since its original run in 2004. The broadcast of the series came to an end on December 26, 2021, and was replaced with reruns of Dinosaur Train to the 7:30 a.m. weekend morning timeslot.

Media

Home video

WGBH Boston Video released the episodes of the first season on DVD and VHS in 2005. The 2005 DVD releases each contained six segments of the specified subject; Peep Explores, Peep Finds, Peep Floats, Peep's New Friends, Chirp Flies, and Quack Knows It All. The 2007 DVD release, Peep Figures It Out contained six segments as usual, plus two bonus segments. In 2011, PBS Kids Video released two DVDs; Seasons of Adventure, and Star Light, Star Bright, which contains episodes from seasons two and three respectively. In 2012, PBS Kids Video released two more DVDs; Finders Keepers and Bringing Spring. In 2014, PBS Kids Video released two more DVDs; Diva Duck, and Peep Discovers (which was once available as a limited release to retail stores). As of 2020, all of these DVDs are now out of print and very hard to find, but commonly found at public libraries. In Canada, Entertainment One released three DVDs in both English and French languages; Stick With Me, Peep's Moon Mission, and Flower Shower.

References

  1. ^ "Peep and the Big Wide World". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  2. ^ Lerner, Loren Ruth (1997). Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature, Volume 1. University of Toronto Press. p. 218. ISBN 0802029884.
  3. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 447–448. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  4. ^ "The Peep Show". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  5. ^ "Peep and the Big Wide World Credits 2004". 4 November 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  6. ^ Opening video, with lyrics and credits on official page

External links

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