''Peep and the Big Wide World'' (''PATBWW'') is an animated children's television series created by

Danish-Canadian Danish Canadians (Danish language, Danish: ''Dansk-canadiere'') are Canadian citizens of Danes, Danish ancestry. According to the 2006 Census, there were 200,035 Canadians with Danish background, 17,650 of whom were born in Denmark. Canada becam ...

animator

Kaj Pindal Kaj Gøtzsche Pindal (December 1, 1927–June 28, 2019) was an animator and animation educator who worked at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) beginning in 1957, and created such works as the Academy Award-nominated '' What on Earth!'' (1967 ...

. It revolves around the lives of Peep, Chirp, and Quack, as viewers discover, investigate, and explore the world around them. The show was based on the 1988 short film of the same name produced by the National Film Board of Canada, which itself is based on the 1962 short film ''The Peep Show'', also produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The series premiered on April 12, 2004, on Discovery Kids and on

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an As ...

as part of their ''Ready Set Learn'' children's block, and on the same day on TVOKids and

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...

. 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 The Hub may refer to: Places * The Hub, Bronx, an area of the South Bronx, New York, known for its convergence of subway and bus lines * The Hub (Edinburgh), former church in Edinburgh that is now home to the Edinburgh International Festival * T ...

, and now,

Discovery Family Discovery Family is an American cable television channel co-owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Hasbro Entertainment. The channel was originally launched by Discovery Communications on October 7, 1996 as Discovery Kids, a spin-off of Discover ...

. Since 2004, 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 (alongside Pocoyo, which is seen after the program) is distributed by both

and APT. 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 well-known actress Joan Cusack.

Overview

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

Season 1 (2004)

Season 2 (2005-2006)

Season 3 (2007)

Season 4 (2010)

Season 5 (2011)

Characters

Main

* Peep (Voiced by Scott Beaudin 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

* 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 Megan Mullally (born November 12, 1958) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for playing Karen Walker on the NBC sitcom ''Will & Grace'' (1998–2006, 2017–2020), for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award no ...

): 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 Jayne Eastwood (born December 17, 1946), also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is best known for her film roles as Anna-Marie Biddlecoff in the comedy film ''Finders Keepers'' (1984), Judy the Wai ...

): 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 Kathleen Laskey, sometimes credited as Kathy Laskey, is a Canadian film and television actress."Second City's Laskey now every inch a leading lady". ''Toronto Star'', April 2, 1988. An alumna of The Second City's Toronto troupe, she is most common ...

): 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 Matthew Knight (born 1993/1994) is a former Canadian actor known for his roles in '' Queer as Folk'', as Ethan Morgan in ''My Babysitter's a Vampire'', and as Jake Kimble in ''The Grudge'' film series. Since then he has appeared in over a d ...

): A sly, male blue & black kitten who often tries to eat Peep, Chirp, and Quack. He is the sole antagonist. * Raccoon (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.

Broadcast

United States

''Peep and the Big Wide World'' was originally broadcast on

and Discovery Kids — the latter as part of the Ready Set Learn preschool block —, from April 12, 2004 to September 14, 2007, with reruns of the first three seasons continuing to air until October 8, 2010 when Discovery Kids discontinued the block to make way for the new network to launch known as

on October 10. The last two seasons were broadcast on

with episodes distributed exclusively by APT from January 4, 2010 to October 14, 2011, making the total of 60 episodes (120 segments), while also airing on a limited number of PBS stations first-run, with the rest of the selected PBS stations airing the seasons second-run from the rest of 2010 and 2011 respectively. During the existence of Ready Set Learn, the series was also acquired to selected PBS member stations with only episodes from season one. After the discontinuation of Ready Set Learn preschool block, PBS stations started to pick up the remaining episodes from seasons two and three by early 2011. On January 1, 2018, Peep and the Big Wide World was picked up on the 24-hour PBS Kids channel, marking the first time to air the series for PBS member stations, which never acquired the series since its original run in 2004. 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.

Media

Home video

WGBH Boston Video released the episodes of the first season on DVD and VHS 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 A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...

. In Canada,

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

released three DVDs in both English and French languages; ''Stick With Me'', ''Peep's Moon Mission'', and ''Flower Shower''.

References

External links