Scout's Safari
Scout's Safari is an American teen comedy-drama television series that aired on the Discovery Kids and Saturday mornings on NBC. The series was created by Thomas W. Lynch (The Secret World of Alex Mack, Caitlin's Way).
| Scout's Safari | |
|---|---|
 The main characters of Scout's Safari, from left, Cheryl, Roger, Scout, Tyler, Bongani and C.B. | |
| Created by | Thomas W. Lynch |
| Starring | Anastasia Baranova Freedom Hadebe Jarred Uys Chantell Stander Ashley Dowds Hlomla Dandala |
| Country of origin | United States South Africa |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Production location(s) | South Africa |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Distributor | Lynch Entertainment, later referred to as Tom Lynch Company between 2003 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Discovery Kids NBC |
| Original release | October 5, 2002 – February 7, 2004 |
Premise
The show revolves around Jennifer "Scout" Lauer, a teenage girl who lives the simple life in New York City until her photographer father is sent on year-round trip around the world and she is forced to live with her know-it-all mother (Cheryl) and her new husband (Roger) at a resort in South Africa. While she is there she is exposed to a new world, goes to a new school, and reunites with her other best friend named Bongani, who believes strongly in his Zulu culture, lives with his Uncle C.B., a veterinarian. Bongani is often the voice of reason for Scout. While still keeping in contact with her best friend Sherna via webcam, she has to deal with her stepdad's bratty and Know-it-All young son Tyler. During the course of the series Scout eventually becomes more comfortable in her new surroundings.
Cast
Main cast
- Anastasia Baranova as Jennifer "Scout" Lauer
- Freedom Hadebe as Bongani
- Jarred Uys as Tyler Shickler
- Chantell Stander as Cheryl Lauer-Shickler
- Ashley Dowds as Roger Shickler
- Hlomla Dandala as Carlton "C.B." Boone
Supporting cast
- Dana de Agrella as Sherna Puckett
- Ma Afrika Kekana as Nandi Ngwenyo
- Roxanne Burger as Sophie Turner
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 13 | October 5, 2002 | February 15, 2003 | ||
| 2 | 13 | September 13, 2003 | February 7, 2004 | ||
Season 1 (2002–03)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Departure" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas W. Lynch | October 5, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| While living in New York, Scout comes home to find that her father Dennis has been assigned to a new cover story for a year-round trip, and he has booked her to spend time with her mother Cheryl and new husband Roger at their lodge in South Africa. Upon arrival, it becomes clear that Scout has completely forgotten her childhood there, as well as her childhood friend Bongani, and a salesman, Max Trunsten, is expressing his interest in buying the lodge and turning it into a hotel. While out scouting with Bongani's uncle C.B. and her obnoxious stepbrother Tyler, Scout and Bongani wander off and barely escape from a wildebeest stampede that was startled by gunshots. The pair are left alone after dark and are picked up and carried back to the lodge by Trunsten, and find convincing evidence that he is really a poacher. Scout suddenly remembers how a village from her childhood was bulldozed in a similar manner, and tells Trunsten off, finally beginning to show signs of accepting her new surroundings. | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Lost in Africa" | Steve Markowitz | Thomas Chehak | October 12, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout travels with Cheryl and Bongani to a nearby town in hopes of finding what she considers civilization. She goofs around with Bongani and runs off, and is accidentally pushed onto a bus and left stranded on the side of the road. A young village woman leads Scout to her home and introduces her to their way of life, and Scout, remembering what Bongani had taught her earlier, uses newfound skills in warding off a wild cobra that has wandered into the village. In the meantime, C.B. and Tyler catch a meerkat with a foaming mouth and C.B. has it tested for rabies, while Tyler lets it out despite C.B. warning him not to. Fortunately, the meerkat is rabies-free - the foam was from eating a frog - and Cheryl and the others bring Scout home with a newfound respect for Zulu culture. | |||||||
| 3 | 3 | "An Elephant Never Forgets" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas W. Lynch & Thomas Chehak | October 26, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout begins to express her fear of wild animals after not being around them for so long, but is reluctant to admit it. Scout, Bongani, and C.B. drive out to release an ostrich into the wild and are nearly trampled by an elephant stampede that is being hunted by poachers and knocks their jeep aside. One of the youngest members is left behind with an injured leg, and Scout hides in a tree from fear of it, forcing Bongani to leave her behind and run back to the lodge for help. Scout falls from the tree and is trapped under a branch, but the elephant helps her pull it off and retriggers her childhood love for the animals. They manage to evade the poachers who killed the elephant's mother and bring her back to the lodge. Meanwhile, Tyler tries to bond with the son of a visiting couple who has little interest outside of his video game, but manages to win him over by showing him some of the animals. Scout decides to name the elephant Sherna in honor of her friend from New York. | |||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Science Friction" | Steve Markowitz | Thomas Chehak | November 9, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout is sent with Tyler to her first year of school in South Africa where she meets Sophie and Nandi, and instantly bonds with the latter. Scout and Nandi accidentally wander off from their group during a class field trip trying to find the bus and fall into a poacher's trap with a snake, but are pulled out after being found and learn that the snake is harmless. On the bus, Scout decided to take full punishment for not staying with her group, and decides to become the class clown. Back at the lodge, Roger tries to fix an old jeep to use on safari tours, but soon realizes that it's not worth it. | |||||||
| 5 | 5 | "The Lie" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas W. Lynch | November 23, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout picks up Nandi on the way to school and believes her to be living a rich life after seeing her house. Bongani attempts to get tickets for the upcoming soccer tournament and Scout suggests watching the game with Nandi at her house, but she keeps coming up with excuses for them not to visit, and even begins to get a cold attitude. Scout and Bongani follow Nandi and find that she lives in a settlement full of squatters, and lied about her life out of embarrassment; Scout assures that she is Nandi's friend no matter where she lives. Cheryl and C.B. get reports of a wounded lioness with a cub and set out to find them, and find that Tyler has stowed away in the back of the jeep. They find that the mother did not survive, but manage to rescue the cub. | |||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Rites of Passage" | Steve Markowitz | Jonas Agin | December 7, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout witnesses several different religions: Bongani is preparing to become a man in his Zulu culture, Nandi is being baptized as a Christian, and Sherna has gotten a bat mitzvah, which leaves Scout wondering about what her journey to adulthood will be like and heads out into the wilderness to find out. While doing so, she finds a trapped lion cub and is cornered by a sick hyena that Roger and Tyler spotted during a travelling tour. Scout manages to rescue the cub and the hyena is sedated. Cheryl gives Scout a necklace as a sign that she is meant to be in Africa and help take care of the animals there. | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Constellation Consolation" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas Chehak & Kevin Arnovitz | December 14, 2002 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout prepares to go camping with Cheryl for some mother-daughter bonding as a part of her class field trip, but winds up going with Roger at the last minute when Cheryl and Tyler are infected with a bug and catch a fever that soon begins to spread to the guests. Scout is reluctant to bond with Roger, as he is only her stepfather, and wind up having to cancel the camping trip when it begins to rain and leaves the jeep stuck in the mud, forcing them to travel to higher ground. Unfortunately, the only way is across a rope bridge above a raging river, but Roger helps Scout across and they bond over star constellations. At the lodge, a critic begins to write a review on the lodge after seeing the conditions there, but Cheryl and C.B. get him to bond with some of the animals, which gets him to write a positive review. Scout and Roger return home with a newfound respect for each other. | |||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Released" | Steve Markowitz | Jessica Klein | January 4, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Tyler begins to have nightmares of a giant spider and begins to suffer from a lack of sleep. The group decides to take Tyler to a witch doctor to cure him, and she mixes a potion and puts him through a Zulu ritual to help rid him of his dreams. The attempt proves successful, as Tyler dreams of the spider shrinking and finds that it was a tarantula that got loose under his bed. In the meantime, Scout attempts to make a video of a zebra being released into the wild. Through a talk with her friend Sherna, Scout gets inspired to convince the others to find and introduce another zebra to theirs, which proves successful and it is accepted into the herd. | |||||||
| 9 | 9 | "The Visitor" | Ken Kaplan | Thomas W. Lynch | January 11, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout's friend Sherna comes to South Africa to visit for the week. The visit starts off alright, but soon turns south when Sherna immediately begins to bond with Bongani and embraces the Zulu lifestyle, making Scout feel left out. The two girls end up fighting and disrupt the festival, but a talk with Bongani helps Scout to realize what it means to lose a friend and the girls reconcile before Sherna returns to New York. At the lodge, a tourist films C.B. warding off an agitated elephant, but the footage is edited to make him out to be abusing the animals and is harassed by a reporter. The tourist admits to the magistrate that he edited the footage for the news and received money for it, and C.B. is cleared of all charges while the tourist is sued on account of fraud. | |||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Time to Go" | Alan Leslie | Thomas W. Lynch | January 18, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Sherna the elephant is beginning to act up on account of her age, and it begins to concern everyone at the lodge. Scout thinks she can train Sherna to behave and seems to be succeeding at first, but it soon becomes clear that it is not working and Scout must face Sherna going to live with a new herd at a different reserve. Through talking with Bongani and Cheryl, Scout comes to accept that it is better for Sherna to move on and happily sees her off to her new sanctuary. Tyler tries to find a special trick to learn for the school talent show, but his efforts only irritate some of the guests. He eventually succeeds in teaching a parrot to talk and easily wins over the audience. | |||||||
| 11 | 11 | "A Night at the Lodge" | Ken Kaplan | Jessica Klein | January 25, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| A sudden thunderstorm causes a flood that washes out the roads, forcing everyone to spend the night at the lodge while Roger and C.B. try to hatch ostrich eggs. Scout spots a figure outside the window and is convinced she saw a ghost and that the house is haunted, especially after Cheryl tells her of a woman who was killed in a similar storm. Scout and Bongani go outside and perform a ritual to summon the ghost, who is found in the veterinary office and is revealed to be an old woman who was caught in the storm. | |||||||
| 12 | 12 | "Kruger's Gold" | Alan Leslie | Thomas Chehak | February 8, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout and Tyler find a treasure map behind a picture frame and discover that it leads to gold left by Paul Kruger. With Bongani and Sophie tagging along, they head out to Mozambique to find it, but things soon go horribly wrong. They begin fighting over possession of the map, are followed by a man who overheard their conversation, run into a herd of rhinos, and fall into a river where Tyler loses his backpack and Sophie loses her father's metal detector. When they reach their destination, they meet an old hermit who tells them that there's no gold and reveals that their map is a fake. The foursome are grounded for running off, but accept that looking being rich is not worth losing a friend over. | |||||||
| 13 | 13 | "Fathers" | Alan Leslie | Thomas W. Lynch | February 15, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Dennis is coming to South Africa for a visit after finishing his assignment, and everyone believes he is coming to take Scout back to New York. Cheryl is especially concerned having missed most of Scout's life growing up, and Scout is beginning to rethink returning with him, having begun to accept her new lifestyle. Dennis' visit is cut short when he finds that Max Trunsten, the businessman from "Departure", has bought and begun bulldozing one of his favorite places to build a casino, and is immediately suspected when Trunsten's machinery is found destroyed, but the culprit is later revealed to be Bongani. Scout and Dennis look through his photos and discover physical evidence to suggest that Trunsten is building on a sacred burial ground, which is against the law, and he is forced to cease production. After thinking about her father's visit, Scout admits that she is not ready to return to New York; Dennis says he just wants Scout to be happy and agrees to let her stay in South Africa for a little while longer. | |||||||
Season 2 (2003–04)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 1 | "The Gift" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas W. Lynch | September 13, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| An orphaned zebra is brought to the sanctuary and Scout successfully gets it to eat despite not knowing how. Bongani's grandmother says that Scout has a special gift to communicate with animals, but she initially refuses to believe it, even when she manages to feed the grandmother's parrot and calms down an agitated cobra. She initially begins to question it, however, when she accidentally leaves the gate unlocked and the zebra escapes, but learns from Bongani that having such a gift makes her special when her instincts help her to successfully tracks the zebra down. Meanwhile, the sanctuary is facing financial problems and Roger heads to a government building with Tyler to apply for government grant, but Tyler is convinced that he is a spy and goes undercover to prove it. | |||||||
| 15 | 2 | "Shark!" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas W. Lynch | September 20, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| While snorkeling with Bongani and Sophie trying to find a bracelet she lost, Scout spots a shark in the river and is terrified. Bongani initially refuses to believe Scout at first and thinks she is just scaring herself, though Roger and C.B. believe otherwise and help to hire an expert to have the shark removed. The shark attacks their boat and, despite being on land, Bongani falls into the river and Scout manages to save him while the shark is tranquilized and taken back to the ocean. At the lodge, Roger and Cheryl attempt to have a giraffe moved to another sanctuary, and Tyler goes behind their backs and auctions the giraffe off to a circus attraction. The man who purchased the giraffe is given a refund and the shark expert, Pam, accepts the giraffe into their sanctuary. | |||||||
| 16 | 3 | "The Ritual" | Hlomla Dandala | Jonas Agin | September 27, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Bongani's father returns from his trucking business his family prepares for a Zulu celebration. Scout is offered to take part in it, but disapproves of the family's plan to sacrifice the goat on their farm, and sets it loose in the middle of the night, infuriating Bongani. Cheryl convinces Scout that killing the goat is just a part of life, and Scout returns the goat and makes amends with Bongani, now with a new respect for other cultures and religion. Bongani in return gives the goat to Scout and his father brings in another goat for the ceremony. At the lodge, Roger, C.B. and Tyler try to build new pens to make room for more animals, but Tyler just winds up annoying them with his constant criticisms for not following the guide book's directions. The men tell him to wait up at the house and finish the job without him, leaving Tyler feeling unneeded. When the plans to build the pens fall through, they realize Tyler was right and ask him for help, learning a big lesson in teamwork. | |||||||
| 17 | 4 | "Brushfire" | Kenneth Kaplan | Thomas W. Lynch & Lyle Weldon | October 26, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| Scout and Bongani go horseback riding for a picnic at Kahlundi Falls with some friends, which is cut short by an oncoming thunderstorm. Bongani tries to get everyone to return home, but Scout insists at staying and checking out the scenery when lightning strikes and sets off a brushfire that cuts them off from their friends. While Roger and Cheryl try to mount a rescue for them, Scout and Bongani come across a cheetah that guides them to the far side of a mountain on the opposite side from the fire, where they reunite with the others. At the lodge, Tyler tries to finish a school report to prove that he is just as responsible as Scout, but inadvertently lets the snakes in the clinic loose and they begin turning up all over the place. The snakes are all caught and Tyler is punished with cleaning the clinic. | |||||||
| 18 | 5 | "Potions" | Lamont Kingclip | Jessica Klein | November 29, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| 19 | 6 | "Live to Play" | Lamont Kingclip | Thomas W. Lynch | December 6, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| 20 | 7 | "Ghost Cat" | Kenneth Kaplan | George Geiger | December 13, 2003 | TBA | N/A |
| 21 | 8 | "Know It All" | Kenneth Kaplan | Say Laybourne | January 3, 2004 | TBA | N/A |
| 22 | 9 | "Contraband" | Costas Gavriel | George Geiger | January 10, 2004 | TBA | N/A |
| 23 | 10 | "Rumors" | Kenneth Kaplan | Jessica Klein | January 17, 2004 | TBA | N/A |
| 24 | 11 | "Diamonds" | Hlomla Dandala | George Geiger | January 24, 2004 | TBA | N/A |
| 25 | 12 | "My Big Fat Zulu Wedding" | Lamont Kingclip | Ron Oliver | January 31, 2004 | TBA | N/A |
| 26 | 13 | "Life Goes On" | Kenneth Kaplan | Thomas W. Lynch | February 7, 2004 | TBA | N/A |
External links
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