''Eureeka's Castle'' is an American children's television series created by Debby Beece and Judy Katschke. It originally aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

's Nick Jr. block from September 4, 1989 to November 10, 1991. The program featured various puppet characters who live in a giant's wind-up music box. The show was a joint development by

, animators Kit Laybourne and Eli Noyes of Noyes & Laybourne Enterprises, and the puppeteers at 3/Design Studio.

R. L. Stine Robert Lawrence Stine (; born October 8, 1943), sometimes known as Jovial Bob Stine and Eric Affabee, is an American novelist, short story writer, television producer, screenwriter, and executive editor. Stine has been referred to as the "St ...

developed the characters and was the

head writer A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits. In fictional comedy o ...

for the episodes.

Synopsis

The show follows various puppet characters including Eureeka, a sorceress-in-training. Eureeka and her friends live in a wind-up

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

music box owned by a friendly giant. Other characters include Magellan the

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

, twin moat dwellers Bogge and Quagmire, Batly the

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

, and Mr. Knack the handyman. There are also various appearing creatures such as mice, singing fish statues called the Fishtones, Magellan's pets Cooey and the Slurms, and Batly's pet

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

Webster. Halfway through the episode, an animated short based on a children's book was shown. Also featured were shorter animated and live-action short films and European imports such as ''Animal Fair'', ''

Roobarb ''Roobarb'' (also known as ''Roobarb and Custard'') is a British animated children's television series, created by Grange Calveley and originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon, written by Calveley and directed by Bob ...

'', ''

The Shoe People ''The Shoe People'' is an animated television series which was first broadcast in the UK in April 1987 on TV-am. It went on to be broadcast in 62 countries around the world. It was the first series from the West to be shown in the former Soviet ...

'', ''

Towser {{Infobox television , image = , caption = , alt_name = , genre = Animation , creator = Tony Ross , developer = , writer = Tony Ross , dire ...

'', '' James the Cat'', ''Le Piaf'', ''

Plonsters ''Plonsters'' is a children's television program produced by Anima Studio für Film & Grafik GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, and Bettina Matthaei for Egmont Imagination. Each episode is about 3 minutes and 30 seconds long and is produced using stop mo ...

'', ''Philipp,'' ''Bojan the Bear,'' ''Lilliput Put,'' '' Zeno shorts,'' and ''

Gran Gran may refer to: People *Grandmother, affectionately known as "gran" * Gran (name) Places * Gran, the historical German name for Esztergom, a city and the primatial metropolitan see of Hungary * Gran, Norway, a municipality in Innlandet coun ...

''. Musical guests also appeared on the show, performing either in one of Mr. Knack's postcards, or at the castle in person.

Characters

* Eureeka (performed and voiced by

Cheryl Blaylock Cheryl Blaylock (also known as ''Cheryl Blalock''; born 1953) is an American puppeteer who performed the title character on ''Eureeka's Castle'' from 1989 to 1991. Blaylock is originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Before she starred in the title r ...

) is the title character and protagonist. Eureeka is a friendly sorceress-in-training. Her spells are not successful most of the time, but she keeps trying until she gets it right. Aside from her magic, she usually helps solve her friends' problems. * Magellan (performed and voiced by Noel MacNeal) is a large green

with a tail that has a mind of its own. He does not always understand new concepts. Magellan tends to make great big sneezes that can shake the whole castle whenever he gets upset. He has a mother-son like relationship with Eureeka. According to Eureeka, Magellan will do anything to try and stay awake past bedtime. One talent that Magellan can do is blow bubbles from his mouth. ** Cooey (performed and voiced by Lynn Hippen) is Magellan's pet of indeterminate species. ** Slurms are Magellan's pet

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

hybrids. ** Blanketeers are living blue dots on Magellan's blanket. * Batly (performed and voiced by

Jim Kroupa Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim'' ...

) is an egotistical clumsy blue

who wears glasses due to being nearsighted. Despite being different in every way, he and Magellan are good friends. His flying usually ends with a crash landing prompting him to say "I meant to do that." Batly spends most of his time in the belfry and has a large bug collection. In a 2016 Reddit AMA, R.L. Stine said that Batly's face was modeled after his own son Matt. ** Webster (performed and voiced by Noel MacNeal) is Batly's intimidating pet

. ** Fred is Batly's lightning bug whom he sleeps with. * Bogge and Quagmire (performed and voiced by Brian Muehl and

Pam Arciero Pamela Arciero (born May 8, 1954) is an American puppeteer and voice-over artist. She has performed for ''Between the Lions'' and ''Sesame Street'', playing Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend Grundgetta in the latter. In addition to performance wor ...

) are the Moat Twins. They are two mischievous squabbling siblings who spend most of their time swimming in the polluted castle moat, eating peanut butter sandwiches, and playing in the basement. Bogge is orange while Quagmire is pink. They're never apart, unless there's a troubling situation. They tend to argue with each other, but work together when it comes to causing trouble. Bogge and Quagmire constantly try to steal Magellan's peanut butter sandwiches, but never succeed. They're capable of moving, talking, breathing, and playing on land or underwater with equal ease. Their favorite game is to challenge each other with tongue-twister statements, at which they are highly proficient. While they spend much of their time bickering, they quickly become bored and then saddened to the point of depression, if even temporarily separated from the other. * Mr. Knack (performed and voiced by Brian Muehl) is the castle's handyman and tinker. He uses many unconventional methods for fixing things around the castle. Mr. Knack also loves to barter when he sells some of his inventions that he has made from his pushcart. Mr. Knack always gets some postcards which he reads to the viewers. His first name is "Nick", giving him the name Nick Knack. * Sir Klank (performed and voiced by Jim Kroupa) is a blue mouse with a long gray beard who resides in a suit of armor. * Kate (performed and voiced by Lynn Hippen) is a pink mouse who frequently reports on what happens in the castle. * Emma (performed and voiced by Pam Arciero) is an orange mouse who loves to eat. * The Fishtones are a trio of singing fish in the form of a stone fountain who spray water when they're not singing. * The Giant (performed and voiced by Jim Kroupa) is a friendly full-bodied giant with a big nose and a long orange beard who owns the wind-up castle music box where the show takes place. Once per episode, he winds up the castle's music box key to introduce the episode's musical guest. The castle inhabitants are aware of his existence, and in rare incidents they attempt to summon his attention.

Puppeteers

Main

as Quagmire, Emma *

as Eureeka * Lynn Hippen as Cooey, Kate *

as Batly, Sir Klank, Giant * Noel MacNeal as Magellan, Webster * Brian Muehl as Bogge, Mr. Knack

Additional

* Rob Gardner *

John Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

* Joey Mazzarino

Production

''Eureeka's Castles ending credits state the show comes from an original concept by Debby Beece and Judy Katschke. In 1988, development of the show began by staff members at Nickelodeon and animator Eli Noyes and his partner Kit Laybourne, whose wife

Geraldine Laybourne Geraldine Laybourne (''née'' Bond; born May 19, 1947) is an American entrepreneur and former TV executive. She worked at Nickelodeon from 1980 until 1996, when she became the president of Disney-ABC Cable Networks (including Disney Channel). She ...

was the Head of Programming for Nickelodeon. "Jovial Bob Stine", best known for his children's horror novels written under the pen name

, was hired as the head writer to develop the concept, characters and episode scripts. The puppet design and construction for the characters were done at 3/Design Studio where the puppets were built by

, John Orberg, Kip Rathke and Matt Stoddart. Nickelodeon ordered 65 episodes of ''Eureeka's Castle'', and Beece called it "the most ambitious program for preschoolers since the premiere of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' 20 years ago"."Bullish outlook in cable-land" (page 43)
from Television/Radio Age The first episode of ''Eureeka's Castle'' premiered during Nickelodeon's Special Delivery block on August 27, 1989, before debuting on Nick Jr. on September 4. In May 1990, ''Eureeka's Castle'' was renewed for a 35-episode second season. From 1990 to 1991, Nickelodeon created 52 half-hour episodes of ''Eureeka's Castle'' entirely out of clips from the first two seasons for their participation in the

Cable in the Classroom Cable in the Classroom was an American division of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association that assisted the cable television industry in providing educational content to schools. The organization was founded in 1989. A Canadian organ ...

service. Some episodes did not include acquired shorts and musical guest segments, while others included some of them. The half-hour episodes were designed for international distribution and later replaced the original hour-long episodes in reruns starting in 1994. Production on ''Eureeka's Castle'' ended in 1991; some of the show's crew later worked on ''

Gullah Gullah Island ''Gullah Gullah Island'' is an American musical children's television series that was produced by and aired on the Nick Jr. programming block on the Nickelodeon network from October 24, 1994, to April 7, 1998. The show was hosted by Ron Daise - n ...

''.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1989)

Season 2 (1990–1991)

Season 3 (1990–1991)

Specials (1990–1991)

Broadcast

The series premiered on September 4, 1989 on Nick Jr. Reruns of the show continued airing on Nick Jr. until July 12, 1996, and again from November 16, 1998, to January 29, 1999, and on Noggin from February 2, 1999 to September 6, 2000.

Home video

Two ''Eureeka's Castle'' direct-to-video specials ("Sing Along with Eureeka" and "Wide Awake at Eureeka's Castle", both produced in 1990) and the "Christmas at Eureeka's Castle" special were released by Sony Wonder in 1995, and

Paramount Home Video Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global. The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...

in 1997. While some episodes were released on VHS, the series has not been released on DVD or Blu-ray. On April 21, 2021, 26 half-hour episodes of the show were added to Paramount+. This marks the first time the series had been legally available to watch in 19 years.

Awards

In 1990, ''Eureeka's Castle'' won an

Ace Award The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Amer ...

for best children's program.

References

External links

*
''Eureeka's Castle''
at

Paramount Plus Paramount+ is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Me ...

{{R. L. Stine 1989 American television series debuts 1991 American television series endings 1980s American children's television series 1990s American children's television series 1980s American music television series 1990s American music television series 1980s Nickelodeon original programming 1990s Nickelodeon original programming 1980s preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series American children's fantasy television series American children's musical television series American preschool education television series American television series with live action and animation American television shows featuring puppetry English-language television shows Nick Jr. original programming Television series about dragons Television series by CBS Studios R. L. Stine