Peep and the Big Wide World
Peep and the Big Wide World is a 2004–2011 American-Canadian 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]
| Peep and the Big Wide World | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | Peep |
| Created by | Kaj Pindal[1][2] |
| Directed by | Rick Marshall |
| Voices of | Scott Beaudin Jamie Watson Amanda Soha |
| Narrated by | Joan Cusack |
| Theme music composer | Steve 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 origin | Canada United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 60 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Kate Taylor |
| Producer(s) | Marisa Wolsky |
| Running time | 22–25 minutes |
| Production company(s) | WGBH Boston 9 Story Entertainment TVOntario Discovery Kids Eggbox LLC Alliance Atlantis National Film Board of Canada |
| Distributor | Alliance Atlantis |
| Release | |
| Original network | TVOKids (Canada) TLC (2004–2008) (U.S.) Discovery Kids (2004–2010) (U.S.) PBS Kids (U.S.) |
| Picture format | 4:3 480i (SDTV) |
| Audio format | Dolby Surround |
| Original release | April 12, 2004 – October 14, 2011 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
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. 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 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 2009.
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.
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
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 26 | April 12, 2003 | May 17, 2004 | ||
| 2 | 13 | May 2, 2005 | September 27, 2006 | ||
| 3 | 10 | April 16, 2007 | September 14, 2007 | ||
| 4 | 6 | January 31, 2010 | July 17, 2010 | ||
| 5 | 5 | October 10, 2011 | October 14, 2012 | ||
Season 1 (2003-2004)
| # | Episode | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spring Thing/Springy Thingy | April 12, 2003 |
| 2 | A Duck's Tale/Quack's Tracks | April 13, 2003 |
| 3 | Quack and the Very Big Rock/Shadow Play | April 14, 2003 |
| 4 | Current Events/Quack Loses His Hat | April 15, 2003 |
| 5 | Night Light/Sounds Like... | April 16, 2004 |
| 6 | The Windy Day/Peep Feet | April 19, 2004 |
| 7 | Newton's Big Adventure/Peep Crosses the Road | April 20, 2004 |
| 8 | Stormy Weather/Peep in Rabbitland | April 21, 2004 |
| 9 | Quack's Stuck Stick/Peep's Can | April 22, 2004 |
| 10 | Under Duck/All Fall Down | April 23, 2004 |
| 11 | The Perils of Peep and Chirp/Hoop Tricks | April 26, 2004 |
| 12 | Save It For Later/The Red Ballmoon | April 27, 2004 |
| 13 | Chirp Builds a Nest/Stuck Duck | April 28, 2004 |
| 14 | The Real Decoy/Peep's Lost Leaf | April 29, 2004 |
| 15 | Birds of a Feather/The Incredible Shrinking Duck | April 30, 2004 |
| 16 | Go West Young Peep/A Delicate Balance | May 3, 2004 |
| 17 | The Fish Museum/Peep's Night Out | May 4, 2004 |
| 18 | There's No Place Like Home/Flipping Newton | May 5, 2004 |
| 19 | Chirp's Flight Program/Mirror Mirror in the Dump | May 6, 2004 |
| 20 | Bridge the Gap/Meeting Half-Way | May 7, 2004 |
| 21 | Peep Plants a Seed/The Root Problem | May 10, 2004 |
| 22 | Hide and Go Peep/A Peep of a Different Color | May 11, 2004 |
| 23 | That's a Cat/Faster than a Duck | May 12, 2004 |
| 24 | Quack Hatches an Egg/The Whatchamacallit | May 13, 2004 |
| 25 | Wandering Beaver/Peep's New Friend | May 14, 2004 |
| 26 | The Trip to Green Island/Give Me a Call | May 17, 2004 |
Season 2 (2005-2006)
| # | Episode | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | Finders Keepers/Quack Quiets the Universe | May 2, 2005 |
| 28 | Peep's Moon Mission/The Many Moons of Quack the Duck | May 3, 2005 |
| 29 | The Mystery of the Thing That Went and Came Back/Peep's Color Quest | May 4, 2005 |
| 30 | Reflection Affection/Peep Deep in the Big Muddy | May 5, 2005 |
| 31 | Chirp Sorts it Out (Sort Of)/Hear Here! | May 6, 2005 |
| 32 | Dry Duck | May 9, 2005 |
| 33 | Snow Daze/Flower Shower | May 10, 2005 |
| 34 | Who Stole the Big Wide World?/M-U-D Spells Trouble | May 11, 2005 |
| 35 | Finding Time/Smaller than a Peep | May 12, 2005 |
| 36 | Quack Quack/One Duck Too Many | May 13, 2005 |
| 37 | Count Them Out/Peep Prints | September 25, 2006 |
| 38 | Stick With Me/Tree Feller | September 26, 2006 |
| 39 | A Daring Duck/The Trouble With Bubbles | September 27, 2006 |
Season 3 (2007-2008)
| # | Episode | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | The Tooth, the Whole Tooth, and Nothing but the Tooth/The Winter of Quack's Discontent | April 16, 2007 |
| 41 | Nosing Around/The Last Straw | April 17, 2007 |
| 42 | The Disappearing Drink/Door Tour | April 18, 2007 |
| 43 | In a Bind/Star Light, Star Bright | April 19, 2007 |
| 44 | Bedtime Story/The Deep Duck Woods | April 20, 2007 |
| 45 | I Spy a Spider/Robin in the Bat Cave | September 10, 2007 |
| 46 | Marble Mover/Fair Shares | September 11, 2007 |
| 47 | The Feats of Peep/Quack Goes Nuts | September 12, 2007 |
| 48 | The Sounds of Silence | September 13, 2008 |
| 49 | Big Bird/Chirp Flies the Coop | September 14, 2008 |
Season 4 (2009-2010)
| # | Episode | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | The Lurmies are Coming/Quack's Square Deal | January 31, 2009 |
| 51 | An Inconvenient Tooth | May 1, 2009 |
| 52 | Bringing Spring/Quack's Pond Party | May 13, 2009 |
| 53 | You Can Count on Bunnies/Falling Feathers | June 8, 2010 |
| 54 | Trading Places/The House of Sand and Frog | June 26, 2010 |
| 55 | Magic Duck Dancing/Chirp Chirp Tweet Tweet Chirp | July 17, 2010 |
Season 5 (2011-2012)
| # | Episode | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 56 | Two's a Crowd | October 10, 2011 |
| 57 | The Road Not Taken | October 11, 2011 |
| 58 | Soap Opera/Diva Duck | October 12, 2011 |
| 59 | Quack and the Amazing Sandy Magic/Duckball | October 13, 2012 |
| 60 | Things That Go Peep in the Night/Mud Muddle | October 14, 2012 |
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 "The Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing But the 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.
- 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 Adrian Truss): 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.
- Racoon (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]
References
- "Peep and the Big Wide World". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
- 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.
- Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 447–448. ISBN 978-1538103739.
- "The Peep Show". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
- "Peep and the Big Wide World Credits 2004". 4 November 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- Opening video, with lyrics and credits on official page
External links
- Official website
- Peep and the Big Wide World (Current series) on IMDb
- Peep and the Big Wide World (1988) on IMDb
- Kaj Pindal on IMDb
- WGBH
- 9 Story Entertainment
- National Science Foundation grant information
- Watch the original Peep and the Big Wide World at NFB.ca
- Read Goodman Research Group's executive summary of the Peep website evaluation
- Watch some of the harder to find episodes of Peep and the Big Wide World on Emmaton Entertainment®.
- Watch the ONLY remaining copy of I Spy A Spider here
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