Noddy (TV series)

Noddy
Genre	Comedy Fantasy
Created by	Rick Siggelkow
Written by	Brian McConnachie Sean Kelly Lawrence S. Mirkin Kate Barris Jill Golick Ellis Weiner Rick Siggelkow Chris Allen (original Noddy television stories) Julia Allen (original Noddy television stories) Enid Blyton (original Noddy concept)
Directed by	Wayne Moss Steve Wright
Starring	Sean McCann Katie Boland Max Morrow Kyle Kassardjian Jayne Eastwood Jim Calder Nikki Pascetta Gil Filar
Theme music composer	Dennis Scott
Opening theme	"The Noddy Shop"
Ending theme	"The Noddy Shop (Instrumental)"
Composer(s)	Stacey Hersh Dennis Scott (songs)
Country of origin	United Kingdom Canada
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	66
Production
Executive producer(s)	Rick Siggelkow Theresa Plummer-Andrews (original Noddy television stories) Brian Cosgrove (original Noddy television stories) Mark Hall (original Noddy television stories)
Producer(s)	Jim Corston Jackie Cockle (original Noddy television stories) Brian Cosgrove (original Noddy television stories) Mark Hall (original Noddy television stories)
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	BBC Worldwide Americas Catalyst Entertainment Inc. Enid Blyton Ltd.
Distributor	BBC Worldwide
Release
Original network	TVOntario (TVOKids)
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	September 28, 1998 (1998-09-28) – February 16, 2000 (2000-02-16)
Chronology
Related shows	Shining Time Station

Noddy, also known as The Noddy Shop or Noddy in Toyland (in the United Kingdom and Australia), is a Canadian children's television series based on Enid Blyton's children's book series of the same name with stop motion sequences from Noddy's Toyland Adventures that aired from August 31, 1998 to February 16, 2000 on PBS. Following its cancellation, reruns were aired until September 13, 2002. The series was produced by BBC Worldwide, Catalyst Entertainment and Enid Blyton Ltd.

The show starred Sean McCann as Noah Tomten, a former old salt, who now runs an antique shop, the NODDY Shop (this stood for, "Notions, Oddities, Doodads and Delights of Yesterday"). His catchphrases included "What in tarnation?!" and "Great Neptune's Ghost!", usually whenever he was excited about something. It also starred Jayne Eastwood as his scatter brained sister, Agatha Flugelschmidt, who runs a hat shop next door to the Noddy shop. One of her catchphrases included "Oh, pish posh!", usually whenever she disagreed with something that someone else said.

The stories in The Noddy Shop mainly centred on three children, Noah's grandchildren, Kate and Truman, and a friend of Kate's named Daniel Johnson, shortened to D.J., who came to play at the shop, and were collected by their (unseen) parents at the end of the day, implying the episodes were set after school, during school holidays or at weekends.

Most episodes had a moral message, which was conveyed with a Noddy story, usually told by Kate using the Noddy dolls in the shop, which the viewer saw as recycled animation from earlier Noddy cartoons. The moral message was also a theme in a song sung by the shop's population of anthropomorphic toys. There was sometimes a second song, usually a re enactment of a popular folk tale.

Toys and antiques

• Warloworth Q. Weasel, usually shortened to "Warlow", is a malicious weasel in a bowler hat who resides in a Jack-in-the-box and always plays tricks on the other toys, but usually gets his comeuppance. (voiced by Frank Meschkuleit)
• Bonita Flamingo – A bright orange plush flamingo dressed in a similar manner to Carmen Miranda. (voiced by Frank Meschkuleit)
• Johnny Crawfish – A lobster who tells a lot of jokes and resides in a fish tank, and sometimes plays rock and roll songs on the piano. He is inspired by Johnny Carson. (voiced by James Rankin)
• Noddy – The central character of the animated segments. During the live action segments in Season 2, he is mostly still, but occasionally wanders around and talks to Truman. (voiced by Catherine Disher)
• Big Ears – a friendly gnome who is Noddy's helper and father figure in the animated segments. Unlike Noddy, he never moves or talks at all during the live action segments. (voiced by Benedict Campbell)
• Sherman – A clockwork turtle with wheels like a tank, who wears an army helmet. (voiced by James Rankin)
• Rusty – A toy clown who is good friends with Sherman, and always rides on his back. (voiced by Matt Ficner)
• Planet Pup – A small robotic dog, supposedly from outer space. He was the first toy to interact with Truman and gets along well with him, as though he - Pup - were a real dog. (voiced by James Rankin)
• Lichtenstein – A beer tankard shaped like a Viking's head, usually referred to simply as "Stein". He doesn't speak much, but could usually be seen singing along with the songs. When he does speak, he has a noticeable German accent, and ended many of his sentences with "Ja". (voiced by Matt Ficner)
• Island Princess – A wooden carving, rather like a ship's figurehead, in a traditional Hawaiian costume. She sees everything that goes on in the shop. (voiced by Alyson Court)
• Gertie Gator – A plastic alligator who stands on two legs, wears a purple dress and carries a matching umbrella. (voiced by Taborah Johnson)
• Granny Duck – A wise plastic duck on wheels, who usually speaks in rhymes. (voiced by Noreen Young)
• The Do-Wop Penguins – Four penguins who never speak, only sing along with the Wax Lips, they often provide short interludes introducing the Noddy story, or a turning point in the action of the episode.
• Ruby Reds – A box of five fake lips who have no spoken dialogue, but sing in every episode
• Fred and Gingersnap – A French pig couple.
• Whiny and Whimper the Crybabies – Two babies, one male, one female – one is dressed in pink, the other in blue – in a cradle. They often cry at any tense situation.
• Shorty Salt Shaker and Slim Pepper Shaker – Salt and pepper shakers shaped like cactuses. (voiced by Frank Meschkuleit and James Rankin)
• Gaylord Gumball – A wise gumball machine (voiced by Frank Meschkuleit)
• Wind-up Teeth – A pair of wind up novelty teeth that chatters when excited or scared.

Cast

Puppeteers

• Matt Ficner (also puppet builder)
• Frank Meschkuleit
• James Rankin
• Gord Robertson
• Anthony Asbury
• John Pattison
• Noreen Young (also puppet builder)
• Stephen Braithwaite

Episodes

International success

The first season aired on CBBC in the UK from 1998 to 2000, and was shown in Australia, Malaysia and several countries in English. This version utilized the original audio tracks for the animated segments. The live action segments were unaltered. The second season was never reversioned for the UK or Australia, but was dubbed for other countries. The series was also dubbed for Poland, Spain, France, Israel, Mexico, Portugal and many other countries.

VHS/DVD releases

External links

• Noddy on IMDb

References