The Charlie Horse Music Pizza

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza is an American children's television show that was shown on PBS in the United States from January 5, 1998 to January 17, 1999, with reruns continuing to air through 2000. Re-runs again aired on PBJ until 2016. It is the short lived spin-off of Lamb Chop's Play-Along! and was hosted by Shari Lewis, whose strong belief in the benefits of music education for children led to the creation of the series. Just like Lamb Chop's Play-Along, The Charlie Horse Music Pizza was shot at the CBC Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Charlie Horse Music Pizza was Shari's final project.

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza
Genre	Family Entertainment
Written by	Colman deKay
Directed by	Niles Davenport Stan Jacobson
Presented by	Shari Lewis
Starring	Shari Lewis Lamb Chop (puppet) Charlie Horse Hush Puppy Dom DeLuise Wezley Morris Chancz Perry Chantal Strand
Opening theme	"Charlie Horse Music Pizza"
Ending theme	"Still Be Friends"
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	23 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Golden Books Family Entertainment KCET
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution (on behalf of DreamWorks Classics)
Release
Original network	PBS (1998–September 6, 1999) PBS Kids (September 6, 1999–2000)
Original release	January 5, 1998 (1998-01-05) – January 17, 1999 (1999-01-17)
Chronology
Related shows	Lamb Chop's Play-Along

The show takes place around a pizzeria on the beach. Alongside the original cast of Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and Lewis, Charlie Horse Music Pizza introduced five new characters. Take Out, a big anthropomorphized dim-witted orangutan who makes deliveries on roller skates (played by Chancz Perry); Fingers, a giant sarcastic purple raccoon that lives in the dumpster behind the pizzeria (played by Gordon Robertson); Cookie, the soft hearted opera loving cook (played by Dom DeLuise), Junior, a cool teenager who works at the pizzeria part time and plays the tuba for his high school marching band (played by Wezley Morris), and Holly, a young girl in a wheel chair (played by Chantal Strand).

When Lamb Chop's Play-Along! ended Shari and her husband Jeremy created The Charlie Horse Music Pizza to teach children about music after talking about what kids loved the most.[1] Because a third of elementary schools were cutting music class from their curriculum at the time Shari and Jeremy felt that they should introduce kids to music through the show.[2] After Shari was diagnosed with inoperable Uterine cancer, the show was put on hold on June 18, 1998. While she underwent chemotherapy at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. She died from viral pneumonia on August 2, 1998.[3] After her death, The Charlie Horse Music Pizza was canceled.[4] The last episode of The Charlie Horse Music Pizza aired on January 17, 1999.[5]