Peep and the Big Wide World

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Peep and the Big Wide World
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
Original release
NetworkTVOKids (Canada)
TLC (2004–08) and Discovery Kids (2004–10) (seasons 1-3) (U.S.)
PBS Kids Member Stations (seasons 4-5) (U.S.)
ReleaseApril 12, 2004 (2004-04-12) –
September 14, 2007 (2007-09-14)
ReleaseJanuary 4, 2010 (2010-01-04) –
October 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)

Peep and the Big Wide World (PATBWW) is an animated children's television series created by Danish-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 of the same name produced by the National Film Board of Canada,[4] which itself is based on the 1962 short film The Peep Show,[5] 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 in the United States, and on TVOKids in Canada. It was produced by WGBH Boston (through its kids division WGBH Kids) and 9 Story Media Group (formerly 9 Story Entertainment; in its debut production), 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. From April 1, 2007 through January 3, 2018, it was offered to public television stations via independent public television distributor American Public Television. Beginning January 1, 2018, the series was distributed by PBS Kids. U.S. broadcasts ended December 26, 2021.

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 Joan Cusack.[6]

Overview[edit]

Viewers follow Peep, Chirp, and Quack as they investigate and explore the world around them. Following the 9-minute animated episode, there is a 2-minute live-action segment which features children exploring and demonstrating the same topic presented in the episode. The animation consists of bright colors and simple shapes, which simulates and reflects a youthful art style.

Episodes[edit]

Some of the episode numbers are out of order the correct order can be found by using a mobile device and going to the Peep and the Big Wide World website and attempting to download the episode, it will state its proper number.

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 4, 2010 (2010-01-04)February 12, 2010 (2010-02-12)
55October 10, 2011 (2011-10-10)October 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)

Season 1 (2004)[edit]

Production codes are from the file names of the episodes on peepandthebigwideworld.com

Episode № Segment names Original airdate Prod code
Total Season First segment Second segment
1 1 Spring Thing Springy Thingy 12 Apr 2004 110
2 2 A Duck's Tale Quack's Tracks 13 Apr 2004 101
3 3 Quack and the Very Big Rock Shadow Play 14 Apr 2004 102
4 4 Current Events Quack Loses His Hat 15 Apr 2004 103
5 5 Night Light Sounds Like... 16 Apr 2004 104
6 6 The Windy Day Peep Feet 19 Apr 2004 105
7 7 Newton's Big Adventure Peep Crosses the Road 20 Apr 2004 106
8 8 Stormy Weather Peep in Rabbitland 21 Apr 2004 107
9 9 Quack's Stuck Stick Peep's Can 22 Apr 2004 108
10 10 Under Duck All Fall Down 23 Apr 2004 109
11 11 The Perils of Peep and Chirp Hoop Tricks 26 Apr 2004 111
12 12 Save It For Later The Red Ballmoon 27 Apr 2004 112
13 13 Chirp Builds a Nest Stuck Duck 28 Apr 2004 113
14 14 The Real Decoy Peep's Lost Leaf 29 Apr 2004 114
15 15 Birds of a Feather The Incredible Shrinking Duck 30 Apr 2004 115
16 16 Go West Young Peep A Delicate Balance 3 May 2004 116
17 17 The Fish Museum Peep's Night Out 4 May 2004 117
18 18 There's No Place Like Home Flipping Newton 5 May 2004 118
19 19 Chirp's Flight Program Mirror Mirror in the Dump 6 May 2004 119
20 20 Bridge the Gap Meeting Half-Way 7 May 2004 120
21 21 Peep Plants a Seed The Root Problem 10 May 2004 121
22 22 Hide and Go Peep A Peep of a Different Color 11 May 2004 122
23 23 That's a Cat Faster than a Duck 12 May 2004 123
24 24 Quack Hatches an Egg The Whatchamacallit 13 May 2004 124
25 25 Wandering Beaver Peep's New Friend 14 May 2004 125
26 26 The Trip to Green Island Give Me a Call 17 May 2004 126

Season 2 (2005-2006)[edit]

Production codes are from the file names of the episodes on peepandthebigwideworld.com

Episode № Segment names Original airdate Prod code
Total Season First segment Second segment
27 1 Finders Keepers Quack Quiets the Universe 2 May 2005 201
28 2 Peep's Moon Mission The Many Moons of Quack the Duck 3 May 2005 202
29 3 The Mystery of the Thing That Went and Came Back Peep's Color Quest 4 May 2005 203
30 4 Reflection Affection Peep Deep in the Big Muddy 5 May 2005 204
31 5 Chirp Sorts it Out (Sort Of) Hear Here! 6 May 2005 205
32 6 Dry Duck 9 May 2005 206
33 7 Snow Daze Flower Shower 10 May 2005 207
34 8 Who Stole the Big Wide World? M-U-D Spells Trouble 11 May 2005 208
35 9 Finding Time Smaller than a Peep 12 May 2005 209
36 10 Quack Quack One Duck Too Many 13 May 2005 210
37 11 Count Them Out Peep Prints 25 Sep 2006 212
38 12 Stick With Me Tree Feller 26 Sep 2006 211
39 13 A Daring Duck The Trouble With Bubbles 27 Sep 2006 213

Season 3 (2007)[edit]

Production codes are from the file names of the episodes on peepandthebigwideworld.com

Episode № Segment names Original airdate Prod code
Total Season First segment Second segment
40 1 The Sounds of Silence 16 Apr 2007 301
41 2 The Tooth, the Whole Tooth, and Nothing but the Tooth The Winter of Quack's Discontent 17 Apr 2007 302
42 3 Nosing Around The Last Straw 18 Apr 2007 303
43 4 The Disappearing Drink Door Tour 19 Apr 2007 304
44 5 In a Bind Star Light, Star Bright 20 Apr 2007 305
45 6 Big Bird Chirp Flies the Coop 10 Sep 2007 310
46 7 Bedtime Story The Deep Duck Woods 11 Sep 2007 306
47 8 I Spy a Spider Robin in the Bat Cave 12 Sep 2007 307
48 9 Marble Mover Fair Shares 13 Sep 2007 308
49 10 The Feats of Peep Quack Goes Nuts 14 Sep 2007 309

Season 4 (2010)[edit]

Production codes are from the file names of the episodes on peepandthebigwideworld.com

Episode № Segment names Original airdate Prod code
Total Season First segment Second segment
50 1 The Lurmies are Coming Quack's Square Deal 4 Jan 2010 406
51 2 An Inconvenient Tooth 8 Jan 2010 401
52 3 Bringing Spring Quack's Pond Party 25 Jan 2010 403
53 4 You Can Count on Bunnies Falling Feathers 29 Jan 2010 405
54 5 Trading Places The House of Sand and Frog 8 Feb 2010 402
55 6 Magic Duck Dancing Chirp Chirp Tweet Tweet Chirp 12 Feb 2010 404

Season 5 (2011)[edit]

Production codes are from the file names of the episodes on peepandthebigwideworld.com

Episode № Segment names Original airdate Prod code
Total Season First segment Second segment
56 1 Two's a Crowd 10 Oct 2011 501
57 2 The Road Not Taken 11 Oct 2011 502
58 3 Soap Opera Diva Duck 12 Oct 2011 503
59 4 Quack and the Amazing Sandy Magic Duckball 13 Oct 2011 504
60 5 Things That Go Peep in the Night Mud Muddle 14 Oct 2011 505

Characters[edit]

Main[edit]

  • Peep (Voiced by Scott Beaudin[7] 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[edit]

  • 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 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 kitten with black stripes who often tries to eat Peep, Chirp, and Quack. He is the sole antagonist.
  • Raccoon (Voiced by Jeff Lumby): A gobbo, male brown & black raccoon 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[edit]

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.[8]

Broadcast[edit]

United States[edit]

Peep and the Big Wide World was originally broadcast on TLC and Discovery Kids — the latter as part of the Ready Set Learn preschool block —, from April 12, 2004 to September 14, 2007. Reruns of the first three seasons continued 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 were broadcast exclusively on select local public television stations with episodes distributed by APT from January 4, 2010[9] to October 14, 2011, though second-runs of previous episodes began as early as April 1, 2007.[10] APT continued distributing reruns through December 2017, well after commercial networks dropped the program. A total of 60 episodes (120 segments) were broadcast.

On January 1, 2018, reruns of Peep and the Big Wide World began airing on the 24-hour PBS Kids channel, marking the first time the series aired nationally on PBS Kids. Despite being a production of PBS station WGBH, Peep and the Big Wide World was turned down by PBS in 2003 in favor of developing programming directed at "slightly older children".[11] (The series was geared toward preschool children ages 3–5; meanwhile, PBS eventually launched the PBS Kids Go! block in 2004 which was intended for children above the preschool level.) The broadcast of the series ended on December 26, 2021, when it was replaced with reruns of Dinosaur Train to the 7:30 a.m. weekend morning timeslot.[12]

APT and PBS Kids broadcasts of Peep and the Big Wide World were paired with a short episode from Pocoyo which aired immediately after each show from 2010 to 2021.

Media[edit]

Home video[edit]

WGBH Boston Video released the episodes of the first season on DVD 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.

PBS LearningMedia shorts[edit]

In 2017, WGBH released PEEP and the Big Wide World: Weather Factors, a media gallery in PBS LearningMedia's Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms project. Weather Factors contains 4 newer animated shorts: PEEP and the TOO Windy Day, PEEP and the Chilly Dam, PEEP and the Changing Sky, and PEEP and the Rainy, Snowy Day.[13]

References[edit]

  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. ^ "Peep and the Big Wide World". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  5. ^ "The Peep Show". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  6. ^ "Learn about teaching science and math to Preschoolers with PEEP | Peep". 2023-05-29. Archived from the original on 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  7. ^ "Peep and the Big Wide World Credits 2004". YouTube. 4 November 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2020.[dead YouTube link]
  8. ^ Opening video, with lyrics and credits on official page
  9. ^ "Entry not found in index season NOT FOUND". Archived from the original on 2015-09-10.
  10. ^ "PEEP FAQ". Archived from the original on 20 April 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  11. ^ Finucane, Martin (27 May 2003). "WGBH to Produce Commercial Show for Kids". Edwardsville Publishing Company. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  12. ^ "TV Schedules - AZPM". tv.azpm.org. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  13. ^ "PEEP and the Big Wide World: Weather Factors". PBS LearningMedia. Retrieved 2023-12-11.

External links[edit]